My wife was using the oven and she shouted "emergency, oven fire" as i was half asleep in the reclining chair (I will be 86 in Oct.) As I dashed, well not quite, into the kitchen mentioning the fire extinguisher, she exclaimed "no, electrical fire, throw the circuit breaker"....which I very promptly did and the fire was no more; just a lot of bad odor.
Removing the severed 32 year old bake oven element was somewhat delayed due to corrosion of the element mounting screws and electrical connectors. We put a stool to support the oven door while I contorted myself to reach to the rear of the oven to hook the element up.
We ordered a replacement element using the range model number as there are no identifying data on the element itself. The very courteous person at the parts supply house was able to verify what we needed and the part #WP308180 arrived overnight, helping my gourmet cook get back to cooking.
The replacement unit fit exactly in place and after electrical attachment and the two mounting screw, all was fine. The circuit breaker was in the off position while all of this work was being performed.
I did notice that the new element is of smaller diameter than the original and the two legs that hold the element level to the mounting screws are not welded in place and were in fact loosely mounted. It is clear that corners have been cut to reduce the cost of replacement parts and appliance manufacture, making us loath to replace our robust 32 year old, made in the U.S. range with a new one with a cheapened build.
When we powered up the oven we found that the actual measured temperature in the oven would fluctuate to + or - about 50 F as the controlling thermostat would turn the element off and on again. It would seem to me that more accurate cooking and a reduction in electrical consumption (measured 18 amps on, and very little when it switched off) would be achieved if the thermostat controlled the voltage to the element rather than just turning it off and on across a 100 degree spread. I can only guess what the cost of such a system would be, and one day I expect to explore this further to satisfy my engineering curiosity!