Symptom: Lower oven heat element overheated causing breakage and melting of element. Broken element shorted against oven floor causing smoke, cracking noise and potential for electrical fire. Turned off oven, opened circuit breaker switch (removing power), and removed food from oven.
Possible causes: thermostat failure; internal wiring problem; control failure; element simply failed due to poor manufacture or other causes.
It's never good to troubleshoot with parts, but as this was only $43, it's an inexpensive cost.
Repair: Removed broken elements pieces. Cleaned inside oven. Restored power to Range/Oven. Tested range top elements and clock (satisfactory). Turned off circuit breaker (no power). Removed cross tip screws holding failed element in place in back of oven wall and pulled connector wires from back oven wall. Removed oven wire disconnector terminals from failed element with needle nose pliers taking care to not break wires from terminals and not allowing wires to retract back into oven wall. Removed broken element. Examined wires and terminals for browning (overheating), cracks or breakage. Connected new element to terminal connectors taking care to connect in same order. Tightened connector terminals gently onto element male connections with pliers to ensure no looseness. Slid wires and element ends into oven wall with screw holes aligned and element seated in proper place on oven box floor. Reinstalled original retaining screws.
Tested: Restored power to oven at circuit breaker. Set to bake at 300 degrees. Observed element heat. Ensured thermostat cycled elements off at 300 temperature. Raised temperature to 400 degrees and ensured thermostat cycled off. Opened/closed door several times to observe and ensure element cycled on and off properly. All satisfactory.
Likely causes of failure: (1) Failed element was 15 month-old non-OEM part (purchased elsewhere) and was possibly an inadequate replacement part. (2) We had placed aluminum foil over lower rack to help keep oven floor clean. This may have caused the lower element area to overheat because the thermostat may have not adequately sensed the temperature between the foil and lower element and cycled the elements off at proper temperature before the lower element overheated.
Prevention: (1) Replaced element with OEM part from AppliancePartsPros.com (2) Removed aluminum foil from lower rack.
Current status: Baked one food item satisfactorily evening of repair date.