My parents have been using their old electric stove for over three decades and it finally needed to be replaced. I hopped onto the internet and helped my mother order a new GE stove from Lowes to be delivered in a few days and life was good.
And it was, until my mother started cooking on her brand new stove only to find it kept on turning on and off at the higher temperature settings. She complained that the stove wasn’t working correctly and it was taking forever for her food to cook.
Table of Contents
What Is Sensi-Temp Technology
It turns out starting in 2018, UL regulation requires all new electric ranges with coil burners or elements to have temperature-limiting capabilities to reduce the risk of fires. GE and Hotpoint’s name for this feature is called Sensi-Temp technology.
How new Sensi-Temp burners work is they use a sensor to detect the temperature of the cookware. If the pot or pan gets too hot, the coil shuts off until the temperature drops to a safe level. This feature seems like a good idea for forgetful people who also leave their iron on all day.
The problem with Sensi-Temp stoves is many people hate the feature. GE states that for the burners to work correctly, the sensor needs to be clean and your pots and pans need to be completely flat so the sensor can contact the bottom. For some people, it meant replacing all their cookware and their stove still did not work normally.
How To Bypass The Sensi-Temp Technology
If you are tired of the Sensi-Temp coils and how they disrupt your cooking, there are two solutions:
1) You can replace the burner with traditional burners without the sensor, or
2) You can disable the sensor itself
People who contacted GE have been told there is no way to disable the Sensi-Temp safety feature by replacing the coils or disabling them.
This is not the case.
If you were to unplug the burner from the receptacle by lifting the end of the burner directly opposite from the receptacle up about an inch and pulling it straight out, you will see the Sensi-Temp burner uses two plugs like the older burners. The new burner elements do not send any signals back to the stoves to regulate the temperature. It is all done on the element itself.
How To Replace Sensi-Temp Coil Burners
For best results, you should replace the burners with ones with a similar number of turns, wattage, and size.
Our new GE stove (model #JBS160DMWW) had 6” coils with 4 turns (part #WB30X31058) that were 1250 watts / 240V, and 8” coils with 5 turns (part #WB30X31057) that were 2400 watts / 240V.
Our plugs were the loop type that are about 1 5/8” from the bracket on the burner. Measure yours to make sure you are buying ones that are similar in length to your originals. I tested a spare burner that had the flat plugs and the type of plug did not affect the burner plugging into the receptacle on our GE electric range.
We decided to replace the front two burners; one 6” and one 8” since they were the most commonly used ones in our household.
The best option for GE / Hotpoint compatible replacements is from Amazon for a coil burner set of 4 by Kitchen Basics for about $39. They are made in the USA, are UL/CSA approved, have the same wattage, but have an extra turn. This should be ok since a longer heating element means more resistance, less current at the receptacles, and better heat distribution for your cookware.
I went with a different set of 4 coil elements from Kitchen Basics with accompanying four spare ceramic high-temp terminal receptacle blocks for $40 (or the same set without the extra receptacle blocks) since the bigger 8” burner was 2100 watts. This is a little lower wattage than the originals, which hopefully will reduce the chances of the wiring or receptacles burning out.
The smaller 6” burner from Kitchen Basics is 1500 watts, which is slightly higher wattage, but I assume all the wiring in the stove is rated for up to 2400 watts.
These replacement coil elements from Kitchen Basics are listed as compatible with Whirlpool, KitchenAid, Maytag, Roper, and Kenmore electric ranges.
I took a chance they would also work for GE / Hotpoint stoves, and it turned out they did plug into the receptacles and heat up, but did not sit level. Comparing the new burners with the originals, the OEM GE ones had feet that were 3/8” high where they sat on the inner lip of the drip pans. This Kitchen Basics set had feet that were 1/2”.
Five minutes with an angle grinder (or a Dremel) to grind down a notch on two of the feet (at 10 and 2 o’clock if the connectors are considered 12 o’clock) for each burner fixed the problem.
How To Disable Sensi-Temp Burner Sensors
You can disable the temperature-sensing technology on the new burners by bypassing the sensor. The sensor is the round button at the center of the metal cap.
To bypass the sensor, you simply need to join two wires together by following these steps:
1) Looking down at the top of the burner, you will see there are small metal brackets that hold the cap on at the top of the three feet.
2) Using a pair of needle-nose pliers, bend two of these brackets to the side to remove the cap. If the plugs to the receptacle are at 12 o’clock on the burner, the two easiest pieces to bend are the feet located at 10 and 2 o’clock.
3) Once you lift off the cap you will see two wires that are connected to a couple of prongs on the underside of the sensor.
4) You need to join these two wires together, preferably using high-temperature porcelain or ceramic wire nuts. Another way would be to push the two prongs down toward each other until they touch. Beware of simply twisting the wires together since you do not want the bare wires coming in contact with the metal housing and causing a short.
5) Replace the cap and bend the brackets back to their original spot.
Congratulations, your burners will no longer turn off once the temperature gets too high.
Should You Disable Sensi-Temp or Replace the Burners
The reason I replaced the burners is because on some online discussions, people who had disabled the sensor mentioned that their burner elements eventually stopped working because the extra heat or current draw without the temperature limiter burned out the receptacles. One workaround mentioned was avoiding using the stove on the highest heat setting for too long.
Since my mother boils water often for tea and soups, swapping in a lower-wattage 8” burner might be the best course of action for the stove’s longevity. The set of Kitchen Basics burners w/ receptacles I purchased from Amazon cost only a few dollars more than a single universal replacement coil from Home Depot and it also came with extra receptacles for future replacements in case the originals go bad.
If you are a renter, swapping in a set of replacement coils lets you easily return the stove back to original when you move out.
Disabling the sensor makes sense if you want to avoid spending even more money after buying a brand new range.
Closing $ense
The new temperature-regulating Sensi-Temp stoves are a good idea that was poorly implemented. They are so bad some people are considering replacing their new stoves with used stoves that do not have the feature. If people were more careful, we wouldn’t need more government regulations to keep us safe from ourselves.
After putting in the modified replacement coil burners without the annoying nanny feature on my mother’s new stove, the stove has been performing like a traditional stove. It no longer cycles on and off during cooking and my mother is a lot happier with her purchase.
Be sure to get the GE-compatible replacement set if you do not want to do any modifying of your new burners. The fitment issue is more about compatibility with the drip pans.
Disable the safety feature on the new electric ranges at your own risk. I’m not responsible if you burn your pasta while trying to cook it!
Three-Year Update: It is now April 2024, almost 3.5 years since replacing the burners on the stove. The stove is still working great with zero issues. Nothing has melted or shorted out. The burners that I purchased are used daily and are still in good condition.
Do you have a stove with the new temperature-sensing technology? What are your experiences and do you have any tips or advice? If you bought a replacement set, let me know how it turned out.
These sensors are the most annoying and ridiculous things ever. I’ve cooked and canned on an electric stove for over 50 years and have never had a fire. Now I can’t even use my canner because the burner shuts itself off while I’m cooking. I called and complained to the company but got nowhere. Whoever came up with this idea is a total idiot.
My mother hated them too. Made cooking on the stove take much longer. They also interfered with frying foods too
Thank you for this information! In short, I have had all of the same problems and have been so frustrated I can’t say. My question is, have you actually tried to just connect the two wires together to bypass the sensor? I don’t have the money to buy new burners because I’m on disability and that doesn’t even cover my cost of living. Being that I’m on disability, I have nothing much to do other than to cook. I’m not a fancy cook, but I can’t stand listening to the Burner start ticking (“Tick, tick, tick-tick- Tick, tick) ARrrrgh!! … Anyway, with caretaking not to keep the heat I’m too high for too long of a period of time, do you know that this will actually work?
Yes, joining the two terminals or the wires will bypass the sensor. Bending the terminals together might be a better choice should you need to reverse the hack in the future. Feel free to come back and post an update
Just an FYI I did attempt to disable the wires in one of my six-inch burners and I twisted them together. When I turned on the burner there was a spark and a pop and now it doesn’t work at all. So this was not a good option for me.
Yes it worked for one month and then came the spark and stopped working
Twisting the wires together, or soldering them, is not a workable or safe solution. Join the two wires with a non-insulated crimp connector.
Thank you for the feedback! I didn’t know about those. I would have recommended wire nuts, but I didn’t think they’d hold up to the high temperatures. I’ll update the post with your advice and give you credit
This what i was thinking , i cant take this risk and create new issues for the land lord.
I bought a new G E stove in May but unknown to me I had no idea what the censor was all about. But soon found out when i went to make hard tack candy and when i turned down the burner it didn’t go down but instead the candy went out of the pan and all over the stove even by turning the burner down to almost off. Then when my husband was canning he found out what i was talking and complaining about as he had the same problem. I kept telling my family i am going out and get a new stove this summer. I complained enough that my son finally decided he would tear it apart to see how he could undo it. He told me i might have to buy new coils so i just type in looking for new coils when i ran across this page. THANK GOODNESS I AM NOT THE ONLY PERSON THAT GOT SUCKERED ON SOMETHING THAT IS A VERY BAD IDEA. i agree with the other people.
Thanks for letting me complain about the bad idea.
I am looking to buy a new stove and I don’t know what to do. I went to an appliance store today and the salesman told me I would have to buy a glass top stove if I want to do canning. I don’t want a glass top. I have heard a lot of negative about the glass top stove. These manufacturers need to listen to the people buying the products.
Glass top stoves do have their own pluses and minuses. I don’t can, so I can’t comment there. I do like that they are easier to keep clean. But I don’t like how they tend to look scratched up after a while, and also the possibility of breaking the glass top if something drops on it
It is 750 U.S. dollars (May 2021) to replace the glass top on a GE “smooth top” range. JUST THE GLASS. AND the glass is easy to break, scratch, and stains containing sugar will “SET” and be impossible to remove even after scraping with a razor blade. A customer care kit for smooth top stoves actually comes with a RAZOR blade. The heating surface takes a long time to first heat up or then cool down. We actually purchased and PAID FOR a GE JS630 smoothtop range in stainless steel from a store and then chickened out after reading the horrible critical reviews these stoves got. We still have our old stove. Gas is not an option for us so we are now looking at a NOS coil stoves or maybe an induction stove. Trouble is, so many of the traditional coil-top stoves have been discontinued or come with these horrible “Sensi-Temp” coils. It feel like we are backed into a corner having to choose from two awful choices.
Hi Bill… Did you consider buying the replacement coils from Amazon? I think that they are around $40. for all four. My daughter just surprised me with a new Moffat stove and also surprised me with burners that turn off in the middle of cooking. My frustration has almost reached the level where I will be placing an order to Amazon!
Just curious what you might have purchased, I’m in the same situation as you were in 2021. It’s helpful to learn that the coil sensors elements can be replaced, but the reviews on the ovens in these electric stoves haven’t been very good. Lots of bad review with the glass tops too. I may have to give up canning!
I have a ge glass top. Can not make peanut brittle. Comes out like taffy. Highest temp is 220. Any sugggestions?
Have you tried experimenting with making peanut brittle using the microwave instead? Here is a recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/9362/microwave-oven-peanut-brittle/
Don’t underestimate what can be done with a microwave. I’ve used one before to make cheesecake rather than an oven.
Microwave recipe for peanut brittle works great! Be careful of the hot bowl.
I hate the sensors! As stated by others it takes forever to cook! And now it’s like only one side of whatever I’m cooking actually cooks! I am constantly turning my skillet so my food will cook even! I will be replacing the eyes real soon!
I hate to say this, but the manufacturers don’t care what the consumer thinks. We are just supposed to take what they dish out and say nothing about it. Just like the government…..
Get a ga range, this new style is horrible. Who ever came up with it should be fired.
I definitely agree. I couldn’t live with these new burners, so l just had to replace them with the regular GE burners from Lowe’s. I also found with the ones they have on the new stoves that my nice stove covers for different holidays didn’t work. They stuck up above the stove, and didn’t set straight. I will be more careful when picking out a new stove from now on !! Those replacements are very expensive !!
My wife and I (married for 48 years) have always used electric coil ranges. Our current range is a glass top we bought mainly for the look and no coil instability/wobble. That was a mistake because the under glass heating elements turn On and Off repeatedly and is very frustrating when cooking. We had thought about getting a new coil model, searched online Big Box stores and discovered the new “safety” feature. Then I discovered this article and now we may buy a new coil unit and get new compatible “old” style burners. More expense, but if it works and we can cook as usual, we will be happy. A gas range is out of the question since our subdivision does not have natural gas lines and I don’t want a huge tank behind the house and the cost to run the connections. Thank you for providing this information.
Don’t buy a glass top, they are not good for canning, the combined weight of the pan will crack the top of stove. Also the stoves with the sensi (sensor) do not work good because they shut off. I tried to make jelly with mine and I could not keep a food roiling boil going, so it never set up right. You need a regular burner on your stove if they even sell them any more. Supposedly the sensors are to reduce the chance of fire and shut off if pans boil dry, they do not work. I hate mine.
NONSENSE!!! We have GE glass stove top and I have no trouble cooking large soups using a pressure cooker. Never ever had a problem and it now is over 15 years old.
That’s because the new regulation about having the temperature controls did not go into effect until 2018 (for new units manufactured that year and after) so your stove is old enough to be free from all the hassles these folks are talking about.
Pressure COOKING and Pressure CANNING are two different things! You CANNOT pressure CAN on a glasstop! TOO HEAVY!!
I’m 69 and live with other people in a collective setting. The other day I left a burner on for the first time in my life. I was happy to have it.
Roger I’m glad it worked for you
>I’m 69 and live with other people in a collective setting
You can just say you live in a nursing home, Roger.
I reckon he can call it what he likes, what’s the point of this comment? Unless you know Roger and you’re kidding around, in which case now I am the jerk.
I completely agree it’s next to impossible to use my water bath canner because it won’t keep at a consistent boil. I absolutely hate them.
Absolutely, my wife has the same problem when boiling water or trying to do canning. I wasted $500 on a piece of junk, really upset
I wasted 1700.00 on my piece of junk!!! I’ve had two GE drop in ranges that were excellent. This one is identical except for the POS burners!!!
AGREE !!!
LOL, I agree 100% with what you said. I have the same problem.
This was designed by someone that has never done any canning.
I agree first time using and hate it
OMG I do agree with you. It must have been an idiot who doesn’t know how to cook. I can’t fry anything properly because everything absorbs oil. It took me over 45 minutes to fry homemade my chicken tenders instead of the normal 15 or 20 and they still absorbed oil.
I totally agree! OMG! This is the most stupid idea anyone has ever had, I have had to throw out quit a bit of food.
I have one with the sensors and now one won’t work and yes they are a pain I would say don’t buy one lol
Making things more complicated means more things that will break. Sounds like a good time to replace it with a basic element.
This is a great article to get me stared on how to fix or replace the coils on the GE JCB530SM2SS range we just purchased. Like others here have commented, I, too, process vegetables from my garden and you can’t hot water bath on these burners because they keep turning on and off and I found it impossible to maintain a boil (or even get up to a boil). I have not yet tried to use my pressure canner but fear this new feature will interfere with the ability to maintain necessary pounds of pressure needed to safely preserve my food. In past, I have had no luck with processing on a glass top and natural gas is not an option for us in our rural location. Bottom line: this is a ridiculous feature that prevents the cook from controlling temperatures.
Agree, 100 percent.
Worst purchase I have ever made in my life!! And that includes several cars, one a Vauxhall, driven for less than 15000 miles over 10 years, by an elderly couple. The salesman’s tale. Only later I realized, that they must never have changed the oil.
A 2018 purchase, the drip pans have rusted holes, 2 of them. One burner doesn’t work, ie. Heat. It is just so hard to water-boil can. When I am boiling something, eg. eggs, and step away for a few minutes, the burner frequently shuts off, without cause or reason. Avoid this company. Even if you like the technology, for safety reasons, the implementation of the technology is poor, very, very poor.
I bought an AMANA range about 4 years ago and all of the drip pans are rusted through, only one burner works consistently, one switch is dead and one element was on when the switch and the light were OFF. It is a remarkably bad appliance. I was thinking of buying GE but have changed my mind. I think I will just eat raw from now on.
Amen to that i have one to and i was so tempted to throw stove out the door.
Just moved into an apartment that has these burners. Don’t even think about making popcorn the old fashion way. In a kettle. When you pick it up to shake up the kernels the frickin thing shuts down. Basically your left with 1/2 the kernels unpopped. Junk stove.
Stuart,
I burn the popcorn too. Happened 2 times.
Then I read this article.
So I think I’ll just replace one 8″ element so I can make my popcorn
the old way, and I won’t have to bitch about it.
No such thing as stir fry with the new burners. I replace two with traditional also and they work just fine!
Oh my goodness!! I couldn’t agree more! Being from the south I fry a lot and there is nothing more frustrating than trying to get your grease hot enough to fry at a stable temp to avoid having soggy fish and chicken and even French fries! This is NOT a stove for anyone who cooks regularly! Imagine me moving my pan from one burner to another to get the coils red! Frustrating!!!! I’m getting new coils today!
I haven’t dared to try to make french fries for many years!! Or stovetop popcorn, like I did with my Dad, and, much later with my kids.
I agree
Yes. What a stupid, stupid, stupid idea. Hopefully someone lost their job over this fu@k up. Spending money on new stove and then finding out this BS surprise is beyond maddening.
Yes, you are right. I just bought a GE range and it took 46 minutes to cook rice a roni that usually takes 20 min. I had to cook a pot of pinto beans on high because it would not get warm enough to cause it to simmer. The small burners get so hot that even on LOW it makes a pot of rice boil over. So guess I can’t cook anything that requires heat or anything that requires cooler temps. I called the store asking if I could have my old stove back. It was a mess but after this new one, the old one looks great.
Hi we ordered ours getting in march( jb256dmss)) even after found out these problematic sensor problem. I had glass top once, and unless they come up with Top has less scratch and burn mark issues,don’t want to go back. I am going to order old coil elements either from walmart.com or amazon. Looks like walmart has the one fit right onto my stove model . If it works ok. I will order rest of them and more for extra.
I’m with all of you dissatisfied with the new regulator burners! I CAN’T STAND MY NEW STOVE!!!!! I wasn’t even aware of the regulators until I started using it and found out the hard way! The oven is fine. I don’t do canning or make candy, but I just want to be able to cook a pot of pasta without it stopping dead in the water!!!!! Then I have to stand there and stir until it boils again. I wish I kept my old stove, as ratty as it looked, it worked right. Geez. It’s always the few idiots who ruin it for the majority. I think the technology for this can be MUCH IMPROVED if it’s so necessary to have it.
I agree. It took me 1.5 hrs. to boil a pot of noodles.
I have that same problem. I’ve bern canning for over 50 years never had a problem until now im going yo gas ftom here.
I totally agree with you! Absolutely Annoying (and also agree whoever invented this is AN IDIOT).
Lol…. Yes! I’m right there with you.
Totally agree. It’s so frustrating.
Absolutely TRUE. If you buy this stove, give up stovetop
water boiled canning.
I totally agree with you, dumbest thing, ever, maybe GE should try canning with the dumb burners UGH
I totally agree. I am going through the same thing. I can’t can on mine either. It took 40min. the other day to get a pot of water to a rolling boil. I don’t know what they were thinking when they invented this
i agree 100 percent
I was going to by a new electric coil range , but now reading about these Sensi-Coil ranges I’ll keep my bisque color 2007 GE range.
Agree – it pisses me me off so bad I refer to them as pieces of shit and get so angry I could put their face on a burner while on high for at least 5 seconds – I’m so glad I found this page on the net to avoid further speaking to the liars that GE uses to bullshit people and all of them are foreign to boot so you can’t understand them to make matters.
Typical IDIOTIC Gov’t over-reach. People don’t have sense enough to run a stove needs Gov’t to tell them how…Sheesh!
I totally agree. You can’t properly cook a steak.
What if your house catch’s fire and the insurance company won’t honour you policy because you bypassed the sensor or replaced the element with a regular one. Just asking.
Yes, you could run the risk of your insurance company not covering the damages if you modified your stove and your food caught on fire because you left it unattended while cooking. Modify your stove at your own risk. If you don’t want to take the chance, you can either replace the stove with a used one without the sensors or hire someone to convert your home over to a gas stove.
Personally, I prefer to not leave food cooking unattended and turning off the stove or turning down the heat if I need to step away from the kitchen.
Gas is the way to go, better control anyway.
Unless you have allergies or asthma. What works for one, doesn’t always work for the other.
When I cook, I am dedicated to the cooking process from start to finish because it’s “time to cook”. I do not leave cooking food on a burner unattended. Period. Even some of you who have kids that call for you, you tell them Mommy or Daddy has to pay attention to the cooking. People need to learn to be smart about cooking on a stove. You have to pay attention and stay there with it.
How can this be an issue for insurance? What if instead of one of these stoves you have a gas stove? Your choice of stove shouldn’t be an issue. If it is, it doesn’t make any real sense and is an awfully arbitrary consideration as far as your insurance would go. Get a more reasonable insurance company.
Eliminating a safety switch could surely void your insurance policy, if, the switch being tampered with, was the cause of the fire. If the fire started in the bathroom, then it wouldn’t really matter if you bypassed a safety sensor on your stove.
So you prefer to be mandated/regulated by the nanny state instead of taking full responsibility with freedom of choice and actions?
No offense, but that sounds like the type of person who needs the safely features and should probably eat in a restaurant and not ruin it for the rest of us cooks.
Was this designed by a freshman engineering student?
The radiant heat from the element trips the thermostat rather than pan temperature. I follow every guideline and it still cycles on and off while trying to boil water. I would have been fired if I proposed this design as a final product (I’m a Mechanical Engineer).
Yes, ours would cycle on and off even when nothing was sitting on the burner. I think the original idea was the temperature of the cookware was supposed to reduce heat to avoid tripping the sensor until the pot or pan got hot enough. This explains why they tell people they need cookware that is completely flat on the bottom so the sensor can make contact.
That’s what I told them at whirlpool. They should fire who ever came up with this hair brained idea.
Designed by the same morons who developed the new gasoline cans, and for the same reason. They think we’re too stupid to handle a stove that actually heats up and a gas can that MIGHT spill gas if you use it improperly.
We have a bad 6-inch burner on our GE 2019 stove, model JB258DM1WW. That’s unacceptable, and on top of that the GE sense temp unit sell for $71. I found a replacement on Amazon, part WB30M1 for $13.08, from Partsbroz. It installed without any need for altering the support legs, as described here. It’s 1350 watts, matching the original. Problem solved. As an aside, our new GE gas dryer motor went out after only 10 months, replaced under warranty. Thanks GE.
Yes, I’ve noticed the genuine replacement units with the sensi-temp from GE are pretty expensive to replace, which is another downside. The WB30M1 you found is GE compatible, so no need to modify the feet. The listing for ours did specifically mention not compatible with GE ranges, but I took a chance since I was looking for lower wattage ones, they came with spare receptacles, and they also cost less than the GE version at the time.
Bummer about the dryer, but at least it broke before the warranty was up. I don’t know about your household, but I can’t imagine you used the dryer that often in the 10 months. I always hear they don’t make things like they use to in the past, but there is always the possibility of things dying in the early stages of the lifecycle. I do recommend buying electronics with a credit card offering an extended warranty just in case.
Ha! That’s exactly what I was looking for. Found this site (thanks Money Sense!) but it wasn’t clear what I could use as a replacement element without the !!(*$&(*&@!!! sensor which goes off EVERY TIME WE DO PASTA!!! Will order both the 6″ & 8″. Many thanks for the specific part number and that it actually works.
As a follow up, I bought a set of 4 on Amazon, Kitchen Basics WB30M1 and they have the notches at 10 and 2. They fit fine. The Partsbroz item isn’t exactly level. I checked it with a gauge. However, all these elements are a bit wonky. Given the drawbacks (drip pans that look gross and can’t be cleaned), we should have bought a glass top electric.
Good to hear your new set of elements mostly worked for you. We have always covered our drip pans with aluminum foil to make them easier to clean. When they get too dirty, I remove the old foil and cover with a new layer.
Use foil on the drip pans. Just need to replace about every 2 weeks or so. Ezypzy.
Glad I found this website. I am not happy with the new government electric coil idiot system. My wife likes to can tomatoes so a newfangled glass top unit would not work for us. We’re getting a new GE electric range this month. When we were at the appliance center the salesman said we could buy a non sensor coil. For a extra $50.00 each. The salesman said most people were getting one or two for their stoves. So I’ll grab some needle nose pliers and fix our new stove. We never leave the stove top unattended when cooking.
Hi Rob, glad that you’ve found this post useful. That’s a pretty big markup for coils without the sensi-temp technology, but I guess people are paying for convenience and not needing to worry about whether new burners ordered off Amazon might fit their stove. Enjoy your new stove.
Thank you for the tips to disable the stupid sensi thing. How can you pan fry anything when the heat will shut off for a minute in the middle of cooking process! And then takes another minute or two to reach back to the desire temperature.
I am glad to find you post that slove my sensi-temp problem.
It makes good safety sense to protect over heating but this device just design poorly!
You can’t cook when the elment turn of half into your cooking and will take another minute or two to reheat!
Hi Patrick, thanks for your feedback. Yes, it might work better if the stove can maintain 450 F consistently rather than taking so long to come back on after it shuts off.
Thank you Mr. Money!
We moved into a rental which has this stupid new stove. As others have said, it’s nearly impossible to boil water in a pot, or the old style glass percolator coffee pot. This “bending of the wires” trick to bypass one burner is the method I’ll use which can then be restored to factory junk when we move out.
* And yes, when cooking anything on high setting, the stove is always attended.
Hello Mike, Thanks for your comment. Let us know how it works out after you’ve modified the stove.
Well I didn’t get too far into my fix. Using needle nose pliers, while bending the first retainer out of the way (not just the top pin, but the whole exposed end) it started to fracture the metal, so I returned it to its original position and quit right there.
Sorry to hear your attempt at the hack didn’t work out as planned. When I bent mine over, I did just the top pin with the nub that sticks out over the cap (where the pliers are pointed in the above photo). It does have to be bent almost 90 degrees to clear. I can imagine doing it too often or in the opposite direction in subsequent attempts could result in the metal weakening and the pin breaking off.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of one bent out of the way. In the last picture above, you can see the bracket with the pin bent over in the bottom right. Due to the perspective, it looks like it broke off, but mine didn’t break
Oh my gosh, I am so glad for this blog. I just got my new stove yesterday. I went through hell cooking my food. It took forever. I hate this sensi tempi technology. Whoever came up is an idiot and should never be allowed to design anything
Hello Jyoti, thanks for your feedback. Hope this post was able to solve your problem. I’m glad the sensing technology is easily defeated so those who hate the feature can go back to cooking normally.
You are my hero! We have been searching for a new stove. I can year round & was totally sad when we found out the way that stupid button worked. You’re my hero!
Hi Heather, glad that this post was able to help and you’re able to keep on canning year-round.
So frustrated at these ridiculous designs!
The glass tops are induction heat and so do not work well with cast iron, copper, and even some aluminum. Not to mention the mess it makes of the decorative glass tops to try to move pans as you do when cooking some food, (swirling, shaking, etc ) . All form, no real function. Does no one actually cook anymore?
Then the gas stoves with all sorts of indoor air pollution warnings.
And now these idiotic ‘sensi coils ‘ if you try to opt for non glass top electric. These actually that interfere with cooking. Whose bright idea was that?
Someone needs to let these manufacturers know. It seems stoves these days are not actually made for cooking. Perhaps they’re meant to look nice in the kitchen while we all go out to eat?
So unhappy.
I need a new stove, and there’s nothing out there that will work as it should.
Look on the bright side. At least the coil stoves on the market now use a sensor on the element. The elements are easily swapped out for ones without the sensor or re-wired. One day in the future, they could integrate the feature into the stove’s circuits and new purchasers will be out of luck.
I feel the exact same way. My appliances don’t match, and my glass stove top is ancient and doesn’t work well sometimes. After days of research, we’ve decided to try to nurse it along as long as we can.
Electric glass tops most of us have are NOT induction stoves. I just read on inductions. Those add high EMF Radiation and work by magnetization. People should not be confused about electric glass tops and induction glass tops.
Hi, thanks for this info! How do you find out the wattage and voltage of your particular coil burners?
Thanks!
Hi Sadie, you can find the wattage and voltage for your stove by finding the model number of the stove and googling that. You will usually end up with a bunch of sites selling the stove or replacement parts. It will be there somewhere. I found mine on geappliances.com. Good luck.
I am looking to buy a frigidaire would these normal elements work on that?
Hi Patricia, I imagine you should be able to replace the temperature sensing elements on a Frigidaire stove since they look pretty similar to the ones on our stove.
There are two different types of burners listed in this post – GE/Hotpoint and Whirlpool/KitchenAid/Maytag. Once you get the new stove, pull out one of the burners and measure the height of the feet to see which one is likely to fit. The GE/Hotpoint ones are 3/8″ tall where they sit on the inner ledge of the drip pan. The Whirlpool/KitchenAid/Maytag ones are 1/2″
If the new elements are able to be plugged into the receptacles, it should work. It would then be how they fit/sit on the drip pans.
The Sensi Temp burner is actually not something new. I have a 1962 GE Americana stove that boasted an 8″ Sensi Temp burner. But it works differently, is more complicated, and is actually useful. It was not a safety feature. You can choose the size of the coils that will heat (4″, 6″, 8″, or griddle) by pushing one of four different buttons. But then there is a separate thermostat dial that lets you set the temperature of the pan continuously from warm to 500 degrees. So the central sensor measures the temperature of the pan and somehow cycles the burner off and on to keep the pan set to the temperature you have set. So you can choose a variable size element and variable temperature on this one single burner. But I don’t know how the sensor communicates with the thermostat. (Question just either on and off or does it cause variable power to the element based on some resistance coming out of the sensor which is based on its temperature). My burner is now not heating properly (either not at all or minimally warm). I assume it is a broken sensor. I had to replace it once before when this happened. But the part is no longer made. Do you think shorting the two wires coming from the sensor will make the burner work (albeit at full power without the ability to adjust the temperature?) The 8″ element has three separate coils so 6 electrical contacts.
I don’t know about that specific burner, so I can’t say whether you should short the wires. If you could upload a picture of the burner and the plugs/prongs somewhere and post the link, maybe someone might be able to help.
Are “contacts” the same as what I call plugs or prongs as to what plugs into the stove? Last time it went bad, did you replace the sensor or did you replace the entire element? Do the burners on your 1962 GE stove use 4 plugs? I did some searching and found two different elements with 4 plugs on Amazon for vintage GE stoves. Maybe one of them will fit:
https://amzn.to/2PZE9fD
https://amzn.to/31MtmIy
The contacts are what you call plugs. They don’t push in to the connector like a modern element but instead are screwed to the wires and then covered by a ceramic connector. My particular element has 6 plugs because it is made up of 3 coils. I might be able to connect just 4 of the 6 wires to use a 4 plug element. The 4″ button on the stove sends current to the inside 4″ coil. The 6″ button sends current to inside coil and also to the middle coil (making it 6″). The 8″ button sends current to the inside coil, the middle coil and an outer coil making it an 8″ burner. The griddle button just sends power to the outer coil. The other three burners on the stove have 4 plugs whether they are 6″ or 8″ burners. But I’m not sure if the lack of a sensor (which has 2 additional wires going to the thermostat that controls the sensi temp burner) would prevent power from going to the plugs. The last two times I fixed this, I just replaced the sensor not the entire element. I assume the sensor has variable resistance depending on the temperature. And the variable resistance somehow controls the amount of power going to the coils.
Hello Rog, I did some looking into this.
People say if you are having issues with the heat, maybe the sensor or the responder went bad. Here is a post on how to test them:
https://www.doityourself.com/forum/electric-large-kitchen-home-appliances/477531-how-test-responder-ge-sensi-temp.html
There were a couple Sensi-Temp sensors back then with the following part numbers:
WB21X5054 – Has white leads – 10 ohms
WB21X5207 – Has yellow leads – 17.5 ohms
If it’s a bad sensor, everywhere I’ve read, those sensors have been discontinued for years, so they are hard to find. You can try checking eBay and see if one pops up.
The below site has a long thread about those old stoves. From the discussions there, you can ditch the sensor by replacing the responder with an infinite switch. Another person mentioned he had disconnected the sensor and connected the leads to the responder to bypass the sensor, which was what you were hoping to do.
https://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?51797
Good luck and hope you solve it. Lots of people love their vintage stoves. They don’t make them like they use to.
I am in the process of buying and stove as mine was in the home when I bought it 15 years ago. Initially I wanted a ceramic top as they look nicer and easier to clean, but since I use cast iron for my cooking it seems a little risky. Now from reading these posts not sure I’d still be able to fry foods in my cast iron without the burners turning off. Wish I had gas in this home.
The new temp sensor coils suck it took forever to cook something. I disabled the sensor like stated on here after it worked like it should. Thanks for the help.
You are welcome. Glad that it worked for you.
You are a lifesaver, I am from India and we cook chapati which requires constant heat and this new stove was a pain.
Could you suggest what would be a replacement coil for Amana Stoves.
The number on the coil is E63331 and it also has another number 0300509
Hello Indi,
Amana is owned by Whirlpool. Pull out one of the elements and measure the diameter of the coils, the length/height of the feet, and the distance from the metal bracket to the tip of the plug that goes into the receptacle. Then compare the measurements to those of the Kitchen Basics replacement burners on Amazon that I had bought and modified. Those are listed as a direct replacement for Whirlpool ranges.
Good luck.
It’s the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission that did this, not the individual manufacturers, they had no choice but follow this new regulation.
At least I’m not the only one that bought the cook stove version of the easy bake oven.An Amana/whirlpool No where in the info on my cook stove does it mention that these new stoves are next to useless. It will allow me to boil enough water for tea ( about 2 cups of water) but not enough water for 2 boxes of mac and cheese (12 cups water) i tried first moving back and forth between two burners,finally gave up and used my microwave to finish the pasta. They say the sensi-temp burners could cause cooking to take a little longer, more like a lot longer or even not at all. How many people are going to end up sick from under cooked food because the burners wont get hot enough to actually cook? I’ve got replacement burners ordered and going to check to see if this voids the warranty if so, I’m still within the grace period to cancel it and get the money back on the extended warranty thankfully.
These burners were designed for the same people that have to be told not to use a blow dryer in the shower.
We used our stove a couple of weeks ago to steam food. Giant pot with a couple of inches of water with the heat on high. I can’t imagine the sensi-temp burners being able to hold a fast boil long enough to get the job done at a reasonable time. Switching out the new type of burners for the older style was probably some of the best money we ever spent. The time saved waiting for food to cook is irreplaceable.
Has anyone bought traditional coils from an appliance parts store which only sells replacement parts? If so, were they extremely expensive?
I’ve seen them available and in stock at Home Depot and Lowes stores. They go for about $26-$30 each. If you can wait for shipping, you can get a set of 4 for about $40 on Amazon. The upside with stores is they are easier to return if they don’t work or fit.
South Korean Hyundai and Kia fire hazards every where on our roads ..they should give their buyers life time fire extinguishers ..
Are we really free ? Citizens in Europe have a world of choices for the cars they want to buy and drive . we in the US have 12 choices buying an auto …with prices that have doubled and some trippled in price since 2008.
My God our government resembles an authoritarian regime ! First it was washing machines and saving water controling how much water you use to wash .. forget saving water .. we want our clothes clean and rinse out the toxic detergents or we itch allday …what so they can sell us itch relief salve .. or send us to the doctor for
suspected allergies … and watch the newest commercials about some itching pill with cautions to call your doc if you have a heart attack or cry blood from you tear ducts … who has ever called a doctor for such nonsence ? Forgive me as I rant about this but I just found that they have messed with the coil top stove burners … Thanks for the good people we have in America we have a simple but costly fix for some when purchasing these new government regulated stoves we have bought with our hard earned money.
I have the same problem! I just purchased the stove 5/08/21. I was cooking on it Sunday turn the oven on waiting for it to beep …. nothing is working the oven or the burners and I can’t get through the service desk ? I don’t know what’s going on!!!
If nothing is turning on, the first thing I would check would be to flip the circuit breaker off and back on for the stove’s outlet.
I learn something every day… When I was a child my grand parents built a new house with a range top that had one burner with this temperature sensor system in it. Top of the line in 1958! Avocado! It never worked well either. Those who don’t learn history are bound to repeat it… Sigh…. I suppose we’ll all be law breakers someday. I have an unregistered generator so when the electric company can’t supply power I can make my own. It’ll probably pollute like crazy, but the AC will still work.
This is simply mind numbingly stupid.
Electric burner that ‘reduces’ temperature while trying to heat,
and yet there are still gas stoves.
(No, I don’t think we should stop selling gas stoves).
Gee, I wonder which one is more ‘dangerous’.
I am so glad I bought a new electric coil burner range in 2017!!! It’s having a problem now with a coil overheating. The more I turn it down the hotter it gets. I’ve switched out the coil element and its still not working right, so it must be something internal. The appliance store where I bought it is closed today…holiday, so I’ll make a service call tomorrow. The stove malfunctioning made me think about buying a new one, but not now after learning about the sensi-temp requirement. Life is hard enough and now our government made daily life even harder. Where I live we’ve had a couple of boil orders due to water main breaks/repairs. People with these new stoves can’t even boil water to comply with the boil order. That’s putting people at even more risk. I’m 72 years old and have heard and seen a lot of stupid stuff in my life, but this federal requirement of intentionally preventing a cooking appliance from cooking is the worst. I have leukemia and am also a caregiver for my 80 year old husband. I ration my energy throughout the day so that I am able to be in the kitchen and stand at our stove and cook for us. This stupid sensi-temp technology would impair my ability to cook and provide meals for my husband and myself. We are not alone. There are thousands upon thousands of people with illnesses and disabilities who see daily to their own and others needs. The federal government has no right to force any regulations upon me that inhibits my ability to take care of myself and my husband. I might just write my Congressman a letter!
Hi Linda,
The service technician should be able to fix the problem with your stove so don’t replace it yet! Sounds like it might be a bad infinite switch.
Thank you. I’m keeping my stove. I’ve not been completely happy with it due to wobbly coil elements. Years ago the coil burner would “latch” in and on my GE they do not. Another problem I’ve read about and have noticed over the decades is a decrease in the insulation in one stove generation to another. In my current stove I have only used the automatic oven clean cycle once a couple of months ago. I’ve heard that the cleaning cycle can ruin the internal parts bc of lack of insulation. I’m a believer; maybe that’s what damaged the infinite switch. I hope that’s the extent of the damage. Oh how I would love to have one of my old stoves back!
I feel like newer appliances are almost always lighter than the older ones. Just how things are these days. Maybe they are using less steel, trying to cut costs, or maybe the insulation like you said. Who knows.
I did some reading and it has been said that the automatic oven cleaning feature does have a chance of causing the stove to fail. It mostly has to do with the extra stress put on the parts when they are borderline and running the oven at max for a long time.
The burners on our newer GE stove do “latch in” to some extent. The drip pans have a slot directly opposite the receptacle for one of the legs on the burners to snap into. The other two legs sit on the ledge of the drip pan. If the wobbly elements bother you and your stove is like ours, see if the leg is in the slot completely. Then use aluminum foil to shim the others. Good luck!
Thank you! Your advice was a life saver! I wanted an electric cooktop in white with coil burners to replace my 50+ year-old cooktop that shorted out. Whirlpool’s WCC31430AW cooktop was the only option available. I am a fairly serious cook, and the sensi-temp burners seriously worried me. They are the law now; it is not Whirlpool’s fault that the cooktop has to have them. The sensi-temp burners turned out to be a complete disaster. Forget boiling water for pasta (and holding the rolling boil), forget stir-frying, forget just about anything requiring sustained, significant heat. I ordered a replacement set of burners from Amazon (~$45) and now my cooktop is as fully functional as my old one was and more efficient!
Hi CalifJ, glad to hear that replacing the burners worked for you. I hate that we have to spend more money on new burners after buying a new stove, but the time saved and aggravation avoided is worth the price.
I’m glad I found this webpage! Thank you for posting this! I bought my mom a new Whirlpool electric stove range just last month and she’s been frustrated since day one since she does a lot of cooking using a traditional wok (which requires high heat throughout the cooking), boiling water, and cooking soups. I’ve been trying to find resources in how to bypass this sensor, and my mom was desperately trying to find stoves in the market that doesn’t have the sensi-temp burners but with no luck. It’s very frustrating, especially for retirees like my mother who also enjoys being in the kitchen. Now, cooking is so much more stressful for us than an enjoyment.
Hi Kathy, thanks for the feedback. I hope the article solved your mom’s issues with the sensi-temp burners and she can get back to cooking with her wok and making soups like before.
I appreciate you creating this page. My folks are renting an apartment and the landlord bought a new GE with the sensi temp crap and they hate it. They can’t fry their foods on the stove anymore. So here I am about to tackle fixing it. As soon as I get it done I’ll post back what I did again thank you so much.
Great discussion. I think I understand both the technology and the problem. Some questions: Is the sensor in the middle of the burner spring loaded so it is assured of contacting the pot? If no, I claim poor design. If yes, can I just insert a thin ceramic disk between the sensor and the pot so the sensor always senses something cooler than the pot?
Hi Denden,
Yes, the sensor in the middle is spring loaded so it will contact the pot. Regarding your ceramic disk idea, nothing wrong with experimenting to see what might work. If you can find something that doesn’t get hotter than 450F, you should in theory be able to bypass the sensor.
For those who put all the blame for this on the government regulation, I claim the manufactures are not blameless: They could design a system which worked flawlessly–prevents fire risk but cooks fine. But price competition and the consumer’s attention to price and nothing else gets in the way.
I agree. Everything has a cost-benefit ratio. Manufacturers determined putting a sensor on the burner was the quickest and cheapest modification to get the job done.
Thanks for the information. Tried to blanche and put up corn today and was totally frustrated. I will be replacing these burners ASAP. Won’t have to listen to that annoying ringing when I tap a spoon on a saucepan!
Sounds like to me these burners are the modern version of the dinner bell!
Frustrated with Whirlpool electric hot cook top. My issue is that stupid sensor temp control
burners, they are useless POS. It cuts off while cooking ans it takes twice the time to cook.
My model # WCC31430AB3. I want to know if anyone has replaced these POS burners with traditional
one? If yes what brand and part number did you use. Is it working ok?
Please share
Thanks
Hi Bimal, if you don’t get a response from someone else, take a look at the set that I bought above with or without the receptacles. Those are listed as compatible with Whirlpool ranges. To see whether they might fit, pull out your current burners. Measure the diameter of coils, length and height of the feet, and distance from the tip of the plugs to the bracket. The set I got had feet that were 1/2″ tall. Then compare the measurements to the Kitchen Basics ones on Amazon.
Ok, Sensi-Temp is a failure, what is GE going to do? Will it take a class action law-suit or will everyone suffer for this ridiculous engineering debacle. Time will tell.
People keep commenting and blaming the manufacturer. They’re just complying with a new regulation, it’s not their choice to install these useless sensors. We all need to contact our government representatives to stop the madness. We can also all simply change out some or all the burners. It is a simple fix (keep the old ones in case you have to have service under warranty).
Hello do glad that I saw this ..i recently purchased the whirlpool stove with the coil top and have nothing but problems heating this up. We are people who cook and to get this things to heat up is a disaster. My model number is YWFC315S0JS0
The coil tops that you mentioned from Amazon will they be compatible ?
Hi Sachin, there is no way to know for sure if they are directly interchangeable since the correct part is the burners with the sensors. What you’ll want to do is take two of your original burners of each different size and measure the dimensions. You will want to measure:
Then compare them with the burner set that I bought, which is listed as being compatible for Whirlpool/KitchenAid/Maytag stoves. It’s not listed, but the height of the legs for these are 1/2″. If they are pretty close, you pretty much have to just cross your fingers and take a chance.
The fitment is more the question of whether they will fit your original drip pans. If they don’t quite fit, then it’s either new drip pans or taking a Dremel to them, which was what I did, but that makes them unreturnable.
Just had customer bring his heating element by and wanted to bypass the heating sensor. Basically it a high limit control sensor that opens circuit up shutting the voltage off, decreasing the heat. Once the sensor cools to pretermine temperature the contacts inside the sensor closes. This allow voltage to turn back on and element heats. It non variable sensor thus it will
Cycle on and off. Any time you disable a safety feature your asking for trouble that cause a fire if flammable material is set by the burner. The burner element has fixed resistance this will limit the current and be mfg specifications 1 the watt of energy produce 3.45 BTU. A wooden kitchen match put out 1.BTU. So you have a 1400watt heater element times 3.45BTU is like 8430 wood matches burning perspectively. I believe to have temp sense work properly is make sure spring tension, sensor is clean as well as the pan for better heat transfer. Make sure the sensor and bottom panel are level to one another. If pan is warped up in the center chances the element will not work. Happy cooking
Hi David, thank you for your insight on how the sensor functions.
The annoying bit to me is the spring loaded feature of the sensi temp technology. To disable that you have to also remove the metal bands on the inside that are connecting the top and bottom pieces. You shouldn’t have to change the wiring connections at that point. Just tuck them back in tight enough to not pop up.
Hello Just wanted to follow up from my earlier query about my whirlpool stove. Glad to let everyone know that the coils I ordered from Amazon worked perfectly well and today was the first day I cooked properly with no heating issues. The only slight modification I had to do was the bigger coils ends did not fit in will and so I had to grind down.the edges about 0.5 mm for it to fit properly.. Small fix for a big issue. Thanks once again for all your help in this matter. I really appreciate it
Hi Sanchin, thank you for the update. Glad to hear that you were able to get the new coils working with your new stove.
Hello…I currently have a GE Spectra Model jbp24 coil stove(older model and very basic) and several of the top elements didn’t seem to be working right so I had thought about getting a newer model and read about the new sensor on them and definitely decided no way for me. I looked at the glass top ones but I learnt that you are not to use cast iron skillets on them. I like to use my cast iron skillets some of the time depending what I’m making. So that lets that out and now I’m trying to find replacement coils for my stove. GE website has the 6 in but the 8 in is out of stock. Home depot has some coils that say they are for GE/Hotpoint and it looks like the plug is the same as my current coils. So I am headed to Home Depot tomorrow morning. I am finding out that if you are able to repair/replace parts on your older appliances it’s better than buying new ones. Love this site. Thanks for all the information.
Hi H. Ross, thanks for the feedback. Should swapping or replacing the coils not fix the problem of no heat, another common issue is the receptacles could be burned out. If you are handy, those can be easily checked and replaced too. Good luck.
We Just Had our oven door glass explode in to the kitchen floor. Its only a few years old. So I am shopping for a new stove, My wife will not have gas or glass cooktop. So Im looking for a new coil top that isn’t a Kenmore, GE, or Frigidaire as I have found they are the worst about the door shatter issue. So I ran into the temp limiting issue while checking reviews and I have something to add, especially for you canners out there. “Range Kleen” They make aftermarket upgraded coils for these stoves, We had just updated our coils this summer, and they make a special canning coil that is taller and stronger, it allows more air to circulate under the coil keeping the underparts cooler. I keep my canning coil in the cabinet till I need it. Simply swap it out with the regular one. So I was planning to upgrade the new coils anyway, this just gives me one more reason to do so. And for all you trying to joint the two wires under the sensor, Stop it. From an appliance repair mans perspective, solder can just remelt under the heat of cooking, so would a wire nut, and if you use an uninsulated crimp connector is a direct short to ground waiting to happen, and if you happen to have a bad ground in your home wiring, you might become the ground when you touch the stove again. BZZZT ouch. Just Friendly Advice. Good Luck
Hi Rick, thank you for your feedback regarding the wiring. As for the oven glass door, I once had a stove roll off a handtruck while trying to move it into a house, shattering the glass all over the walkway. I was able to go online to one of those appliance parts sites and purchased a new oven glass for about $65.
Thank you for this post! Did you just pull the coils out and replaced it with regular coils?
Yes, I replaced the sensi-temp coils with the old style coils without the sensor. The ones I ordered were for Whirlpool ranges instead of GE, so I had to modify them slightly. This could be avoided if you bought GE replacements instead. It’s been over a year since the modification, and the coils and stove are still working great.
Great! Thank You! Glad to hear that it’s been working well for a year for you. I found this at Home Depot, do you this this might work?
https://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-8-in-Hinged-Surface-Unit-for-GE-and-Hotpoint-Ranges-PM30X124G/202214656
Sure, give that one a shot. The upside about Home Depot and buying locally is that you can return it to the store within 90 days if it does not work or fit. The downside is higher prices than online.
I just received my new GE regular coil. The marking says 2350W the one that came with the stove is 2400W, is this going to be a problem? Did you have to change the receptacle, too?
You are fine! Better to be running lower wattage coils than higher. If you got a much higher wattage coil, you are more likely to burn out the wiring. Since the wattage is less, the coil doesn’t get as hot as the originals. The 50W difference would barely make a noticeable difference though.
No need to change the receptacle. Slot it in and if it gets hot and doesn’t turn on/off, you are good.
I BOUGHT A NEW ELECTRIC AMANA RANGE LAST YEAR & I HATE IT. TOLD MY HUSBAND I WANTED A NEW STOVE. WENT TO LOOK & THAT IS ALL THEY SELL NOW. THE MODEL #ACR2303MFW. CAN I GET NEW COILS FOR MY STOVE.
Hello Sharon, Amana stoves are made by Whirlpool. See my comment here about how you may be able to switch them out with the non-sensor ones.
My entire family is disgusted with the sensor. The burners shut off right in the middle of cooking….what are you supposed to do? Stop cooking? Wemade scrambled eggs it took nearly a half hour to scramble 9 eggs when normally it would be less than 5 minutes. Hate this featire.
It is a pain to fry anything using these stoves. I think I will have to buy an electric deep fryer just for this purpose. Nutty idea. Nanny state rules to create more frustration.
I have the same issue as everyone else. Trying to boil pasta is a royal pain in the you know what! I have been told by the GE service tech that the reason for the safety shutoff is because people would use the stove to heat their house and some caught fire. Hence the safety shutoff. Don’t know if it is true but that is what I was told.
I found out about the replacement burners from the service tech installing my new dishwasher. I have found several replacement burners but my biggest concern is whit the 6″ burner. It appears that it is 1250 watts (I am assuming this from the fact that the control is 1250 watts). All of the replacement burners I have come across are 1350 watts. I suspect that the extra 100 watts might not be a problem because of the way the control works. Anyway, I am going to give it a ry and see what happens.
Thanks for this post. It has been a God send!!
By the way, my burner elements were defective from the factory and they gave me new ones free of charge. A pot of water would just start to boil and then shut off. The tech that came out agreed they were bad. I still have the problem but at least they don’t turn off to quickly!
I want to make a correction to the article. The 6″ burner, GE WB30X31058 is a 1250 watt unit, NOT 1350 watts as stated in the article. I have the same element in my stove, which is a model JB258DM2WW, and I pulled the element out and the wattage is listed on the side of one of the mounting legs. I don’t think the 1350 watt element will cause any problems though. It only draws about 0.416 amps more current than the 1250 watt element. With the control (rheostat) set on High, the rheostat basically connects the element directly to the power. It is only when you set the control to something other than High does the rheostat really comes into play. So at lower settings, the element will draw less current and be well within the specs of the control (1250 watts per the GE replacement guide). The wiring SHOULD be able to carry the extra 0.416 amps of current. I couldn’t make out the wire size listed on the wires but it looked like either 12 or 10 AWG.
Regarding the 8″ element, it is a 2400 watt unit (per what is stamped on the mounting leg). The one listed in the suggested replacement is 2350 watts so there shouldn’t be any problem there since it is 50 watts lower so it will draw less current. The control unit for it is rated at 2500 watts (again per the GE replacement guide). I can’t for the life me understand why GE didn’t use the same control unit for both burners. My old stove was basically a 20 year older version of the new one I bought. I had to replace one of the control units and after going through several GE change orders, it turned out they called out the exact same replacement part number for both the 6″ and 8″ elements!! Go figure! The original control units where different between the 6″ and 8″ elements.
Remo, thank you for the feedback. I’ve corrected the article with the correct wattage of 1250 for the 6″. Maybe it was a typo or a mix-up when I was gathering the specs. I looked up the specs for our model stove and it does say 1250.
It’s been over a year since I replaced our burners with the modified 1500 watt for the 6″ and 2100 watt for the 8″ that I mentioned in the article. So far the stove is still working fine with the replacements. I’d imagine someone buying the recommended GE replacements with the 1350 watt and 2350 watt burners that are closer to the originals would have nothing to worry about.
Since the sensor needs to be in contact with the bottom of the pot or pan in order to get hot enough to turn off…I’m wondering if just removing the spring (there seems to be a spring embedded in there) so that the sensors no longer make contact would do the trick. Any thoughts from the peanut gallery?
Another idea is instead of removing the spring, you can experiment with finding a way so the sensor can’t touch the pot/pan such as using a pan with a concave bottom.
However, going from the product literature about the requirement of using flat cookware, I’m thinking they are using the pan to lower the temperature at the sensor. If you were to turn the stove on high without a pan on it, does the burner shut off still? It’s been over a year since I last tested, but I think I remember it still turning off with no pan on the burner.
Thanks. I did consider the concave approach, but I don’t want to replace my collection of pots and pans just to deal with this “feature.” I’m not sure how contact with the bottom of the pan would lower the temp at the sensor, though. I realize the heat from the coils would be dissipated from their point of contact to the point of contact with the sensor, but I still think the sensor would be hotter than if it weren’t touching. Never had physics in college, though, so who knows.
As far as I can tell, the coils don’t cycle off with no pan on. Stayed a bright orange for several minutes that way, at any rate.
In that case, I wish you success on whatever method you come up with to thwart the sensor. You can see the spring in the last photo above showing the underside of the sensor with the wires. Just throwing ideas out there, maybe you can experiment with using something like a nut or some washers as a spacer to keep the spring compressed while the pan maintains in contact with the burner? Come back and post what solution you come up with and whether it worked.
This has to be the stupidest thing I have ever encountered. Trying to cook bacon and it has taken 3 times longer than it should because the burner keeps shutting off.
I’d be upset too if I had to wait 3x as long before my bacon and breakfast was ready in the morning!
Will this be compatible with my stove? KITCHEN BASICS 101 SP22YA, Stove model number is GE JBS160DM3WW. Thanks!!
Are you looking to replace all 4 of the burners or only 2? If all 4, then no, because the SP22YA has one 8″ and three 6″. From what I can find for the JBS160DM3WW, it has two of each.
If you are only replacing two, then what you’ll want to do is take two of your original burners of each different size and measure the dimensions. You will want to measure:
Then compare the measurements to the SP22YA ones from Kitchen Basic. If those don’t match, try comparing these ones that I listed above.
Usually, the GE ones will have a cut-out at the end of the leg where it sits on the drip pan so the height of the leg is 3/8″.
Would be great if more people came back and updated which ones they bought, the model of their stove, and whether they worked. But until then, you can only measure and cross your fingers.
My question is whether you have to replace the plug-ins as well. The coils on my new whirlpool cooktop have basically the same measurements as the kitchen basic set on amazon, with the exception that mine have two metal “cuffs” around the coils and the coils themselves are different lengths going into the wire prongs (one is about 1/8″ shorter). But the prongs both end 1.5″ from the last cuff. If you try just plugging new coils into the existing receptacles, and they fit, are you ok? Or might they damage the cooktop overall… at $750, I’m frustrated, but I don’t want to ruin the thing!
When you say “cuffs”, are you talking about what I call the rectangular bracket that holds the two plugs (I think you call them prongs) in place that goes into the receptacle? The distance from the end of the plug to the bracket doesn’t matter too much as long they are pretty similar in length so the plugs can go into the receptacle.
Let’s say the bracket was 0.5″ from the end instead of 1.5″. If the bracket gets in the way and keeps the plugs from going into the receptacle, then it wouldn’t work. Between too close or too far, I would say farther away from the end would be preferred.
What are the plug-ins that you mention replacing? Is that the end of the plug that goes into the receptacle where you’ve got either loops or the flat blades? I tested both in my stove and both types worked. As long as it goes into the receptacle slots, the burners should heat. I actually think the flat ones might be better since there is more surface area. We had some older burners with the loops that someone tossed out, and they looked like they were about to break off from the electrical arcing from the poor connection within the receptacle.
As a disclaimer, I’m going to say modify your stove at your own risk since this is not a direct replacement part.
I have a Whirlpool stove with these sensors can I replace these coils? Do they have to be Whirlpool coils or are any burners compatible?
Hi Georgia,
Yes, you can replace the coils with ones without the sensors. They don’t have to be from Whirlpool. You can look for a set that is Whirlpool compatible, such as the set I had purchased above. Preferably, you would also buy a set with similar wattage (or lower) as your original ones.
Mr. Money Sense,
Thank you for this article! I appreciated how you gave multiple solutions.
What worked for me… I opted for your “buy replacement burners” option. Unfortunately your links to the GE type burners from Kitchen Basics are listed as no longer available. Albeit much more expen$ive, I found the following burners from Amazon work perfectly out of the box (bag) for a GE electric range JB256DMWW (30” with two 6” and two 8” burners):
GE WB30M1 Stove Burner Surface Element, 6 Inch https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003BNZ4ZE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_690284MG46XAZDTSE8J5?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
GE WB30M2 Genuine OEM 8″ Surface Element Coil for GE Electric Ranges https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003BNZ4Z4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ZHJJK84V66H8WQ0VVVNZ?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Hi Scott,
Thank you for the feedback on what models worked for you so others looking for a solution can know what to purchase.
Yes, genuine GE parts such as those you listed will always be much more expensive. Even then, I still believe the money is well-spent if they will solve the problem with poorly performing burners.
Those who are looking for third-party replacement parts to save money can likely find similar fitting ones that are listed as WB30M1 and WB30M2 compatible.
I don’t know whether the ones I recommended from Kitchen Basics will come back in stock or not. Maybe it’s a supply chain issue and they will be back eventually.
Mr. Money Sense,
Thank you for your kind reply. I see the GE version of the Kitchen Basic burners you link to are back in stock! Too late for me, but hopefully others can benefit.
Scott C.
PS. I don’t know where “EarthSense” came from in my original response. If you can edit it, please feel free to replace it with “Kitchen Basics”. Thank you.
My hubby and I REFUSED to buy a NEW STOVE to match our new microwave and refrigerator. We found out how the new “Sensi-Temp” burners have RUINED cooking. Nor are we interested in the new “glass-top” stoves which are prone to breakage and get blazing hot since the pan gets its heat THROUGH the glass-top. Glass top stoves are extremely expensive to get fixed, too. Just the glass top by itself is upwards of 700 dollars and does not include installation. We just kept our old stove. It has served us for 20 years and we expect it will serve 20 more. We bought spare parts to put away in case we need them.
I am in need of a new electric stove always had gas loved it! The house I live in now requires electric. I am grateful that I found this website and am thankful to all the posts with all this great information.
I always do a bunch of research before going out and making a big purchase…and from the looks of things with these new sensors this is going to be a really big purchase. UGH!!!… I am feeling the pain and frustration already…… no stove for weeks now…….. it died ….it was over 25 yrs old and now reading about this frustrating new gadget.????? Thoughts are stick with the barbecue grill the heck with a stove…..ha ha ha
I have a few questions since I am still learning about this new sensor temp coils…Is there anyway you can remove the button/ disk in the center completely??? Only using the coil with out the disk thing in the middle or will the coil not work????
Any suggestions on what make of stove to get?? I have a few ideas in mind but trying to get a stove on the spot right now is a major issue….with our counties state of affairs products are on major back order….stores are telling me weeks and months before the stove will show up and I have to pay for it and wait….
Barbecue grill is looking better all the time anyone know how to bake in one….????
Thanks
Hi Donna,
Regarding removing the button/sensor, you will be doing about the same thing when joining the two contacts together to bypass the sensor as mentioned in the article.
If you are having difficulty getting a new stove right now because of the supply chain problems, one thing you can consider is buying a used one off Facebook Marketplace. Another benefit of buying an older stove is you can avoid the sensor issue if the stove was made before 2018. Find a clean one, use it for a few years, and resell it when the supply issues get resolved should you decide you still want a new stove.
Thank you so much for this information. I was just given a GE stove with the sensi burners. I decided to do a wok meal for Mother’s day. Woops, that won’t work! The new burners are ordered! One question – Would using 1 sensi- burner and 3 non-sensi create any problems?
Hello Rhonda,
You should not have any problems using one sensi-burner and three non-sensi burners together. We have been using two non-sensi burners and two sensi burners on the stove for over a year and a half without issues.
I’m so glad I came across this. I was fixing to get rid of my stove. Now I’m just gonna order different stove eyes for it. Thanks
You are smart to do research on a new appliance before purchasing. Many people, including my parents and I, would assume a stove is a stove only to discover things don’t work the same as previously
The government passing a lot of laws about things they have no clue. I am curious how many of those people stood at a stove with these Sensi-temp burners? I don’t care what they say or show says it, these things are the worst! The centers on regular coils are about an inch & 1/2 apart & it helps to conduct heat. These things don’t. In fact, since I got this stove last fall, it has warped the bottom of my favorite cast iron skillet because everybody knows that if cast iron does not get even heat , it will warp. I did save the burners off my old stove & tried to see if they would work. They did! But I still am going to have to buy new burners for the ones that burned out on the old stove. It is really sad that GE will not accommodate people for regular burners replacement. Never again! If & when I have to buy another stove, I will buy an old used stove & have it worked on or I will go to gas.
Thank you so much for putting this article out. I was getting very frustrated with the silly sensors on the burners, but I used your link to find the right replacement burners and I feel like a cook again! The good old fashioned coils work just fine in my GE even though GE said they wouldn’t.
Carrie,
Good to hear you were able to get your stove working like how you wanted it. I would imagine company policy would not allow them to tell people how to thwart the new regulations for liability and legal reasons.
I just replaced all 4 annoying sensi coil burners on my new GE with regular burners and purchased the matching drip pans with them. Happy now!
Good to hear. Enjoy having a stove that actually cooks!
I have the same problem. Thank god I came across this article to fix this. I was shoked that many complain from the same problem! I live in an apartment .The previous range had a problem heating light stays on so I called them to fix it and the replace the whole thing. I feel it was the most unlucky days all time! now with the new GARPAGE all our food is ruined. Thanks to the guys sitting behind their office doing nothing but ruining our life with stupid ideas.
Amazing that this string is still going! I’m faced with the same problem, having just had the 13 year old range in our rental unit replaced with a G.E. model which, of course, has the nanny-tech you’ve all been kvetching about. My question is this…I lean toward replacing the sensi-temp burners with the old type coils, but don’t want to have to grind new notches to make them fit the existing drip pans. Would the new coils fit into a set of new traditionally configured drip pans without modification? Thanks
Hello DB,
I had to grind the notches since I bought the coils intended for a Whirlpool range when the stove was a GE.
Now whether you would have to do it for the ones you purchase, the answer is it depends. If you measure all the dimensions of your current coils and purchase a set of GE coils that matches those measurements, the chances of it fitting without modification is more likely. Here’s a comment about what to measure
Mr. GMS,
You are incredibly helpful! I just received the G.E. model JB258RTSS, which is a 30″ free-standing model with 5.3 cu ft oven. I’ll have to wait until tomorrow, but I’ll take those measurements and hope that leads to finding the right burner set. The burners on this G.E. model have loops on the plug-in end. I think I read somewhere in this long thread that it doesn’t matter whether the burner tips have loops or the small flat plates. Is that right?
Cheers, and thanks again!
Hello DB,
Correct, the plug end does not matter if it’s a loop or flat. When you look at the metal part of the receptacle where the coils plug into the stove, you will see two prongs that stick out. The plugs on the coil will go in, make contact with those two prongs and push them to the side. Those prongs will continue to have tension, keeping them in contact with the plugs, and that is how the coil gets power. As long as the plugs fit into the opening/slots of the plastic part of the receptacle, it will work.
For an example of what I’m talking about, you can check out this picture of stove receptacles on Amazon. Zoom in on the metal pieces in the first picture and look from the left side.
We purchased a GE Sensi Temp burner stove. I disabled one Sensi Temp burner so we could cook the way we want. The control for the element burnt out. Fortunately the Tech replaced it and the burner under warranty.
Sensi Temp is someone’s’ brain fart ! If we knew we couldn’t use our wok; nor keep a burner hot enough to boil pasta – etc. we would have never purchased this stove.
We will never buy a GE appliance again – sensi temp or not. We feel we were deceived, as we didn’t know this until the stove was delivered and installed.
It’s not just GE that has the Sensi Temp function. The other manufacturers do too due to regulation. Maybe GE’s sensor was implemented not as well?
How high was the wattage on the new replacement burner compared to the old ones? I was worried about my parents’ stove doing the same thing so I bought lower wattage burners. I think this post was originally written end of 2020. Their stove is still working almost 2 years later.
🤬A Dam shame… pay $12 for 6chicken wings then it takes an 1hr and 20mins to cook the dam things. Would’ve NEVER believed this was the problem but after hearing so many others complain, I guess its true. I think I’ll invest in a small bbq grill and start grilling out ON MY UPSTAIRS BALCONY, shouldn’t take that long.
Brand new stove thanks to my property management. The old 1 worked just fine. After a few months , I noticed every now and then ut seemed like the eye wasn’t getting hot or maybe a short, I would turn on the smaller eye eventho it was too small for the pan I was frying chicken in but seemed to be working better than the large eye. 10mins later same thing, so I’m moving back and fourth just to fry some dam chicken that should’ve already been done. Anyways trying to troubleshoot the problem and came across this forum. Glad I did. After ALL these years of people cooking on stoves I can’t believe someone actually thought this was a brilliant idea and would end homes catching on fire. Stupid mfs🤬, if anything more houses will catch on fire because people are trying to rig the dam thing just so it’ll work like a stove SUPPOSED to work. Thats the whole purpose of the settings, thats why they call them CONTROLS, why have a CONTROL that the user cant CONTROL. A DAM SHAME 🤬
I was doing the same thing. So frustrating!
This stove design is absolute crap. Brand new $850 stove and can’t cook a darn thing on it.
Thanks to this article I also changed out the burner coils with Home Depot’s Everbuilt 8 in. Heating element. The one I bought said it works on most brands except GE and Hotpoint. But then I also found Everbuilt made the same heating element for GE and Hotpoint. Weird thing is the one that say’s doesn’t work on GE ended up fitting really well but the one that says works for GE was too big in diameter and didn’t fit. Now I’m wondering if there a problem for me to use the “not fit for GE” Everbuilt coil element?
Another thing I noticed is using the Everbuilt coil element, the outside coils would turn red but the inner coil’s don’t turn red. It heats up and boils fine though. Is that a malfunctioning coil element? I’m worried the replacement coil element from Everbuilt isn’t the right one to use. If anyone could provide some feedback that would be really appreciated!
Explain furthur how to connect the 2 sensor wires together using a non-insulated connector. Joining the 2 wires together leaves you with one wire. When you re-connect this 2 into one wire, do you only re-connect to one of the sensors spade terminals, leaving one spade terminal unconnected?
Or is the splice connection to join the 2 wires made at a point before the connectors, so that 2 connectors are still available to re-connect to the 2 spade terminals?
Join the two wires that go to the sensor and bypass the sensor altogether. I would probably use high-temp ceramic wire nuts.
My wife is gonna kill me when she finds out how the burners work on the new stove we just ordered…
Whirlpool WFC315S0JS…
Can you share with me what replacement burners will work, that don’t have the sensor nonsense.
Hi Greg, check out this comment thread to see what you might be able to do regarding the burners on your stove.
In the article and in the comments two options for wiring the sensicoil wires together are offered:
high temperature ceramic
and
non insulated crimp connector.
Can anyone give me advice as to which to use?
I have replaced my burners but if I can get these to work they will fit better. I ended up ordering 4 different sets from Amazon, finally getting one that fit in all directions. I was worried that the ones it came with had a hook at the end and the others had a flat piece but that seems to not have mattered.
For better advice on which option to use, you may want to post the question to an electrical-related message board or subreddit.
Yes, the plug for the burners that go into the receptacles does not matter whether it is a loop or a flat end. As long as it makes contact, it will work.
Had my landlord buy a new GE range/oven few years ago.One small burner quit while ago, then recently had a scary short out happen with the other small burner where an arc flame 8 in high came up from burner just after turning on. Left indicator light on apparently frying switch. Replacement cost with sensors 140 ea burner+ 136 switch = 420 to fix a 600 stove. Ridiculous
This past August we replaced our 32-year old GE coil-burner electric range with a new GE one. Being the cheapskate I am I saved out the relatively new burners from out old range and I am glad I did. My wife was canning the other day and complained about the same on/off issue stated so many time above. I reached for one of the old 8″ burners and swapped out the sensi-temp unit. Instant success and appreciation from my wife. I can understand GE doing a CYA on the issue and denying convertibility of their stupid sensi-temp design.
What a joke this stove has been! I like to use my stove top percolator and it takes 25 minutes. Thank you for telling me about the generic coils. I thought they were defective and so was on here ordering the new sensi-temps when I came across your post. Saved a lot of money! Also going to use the dremel to gring down the arms. Thanks for taking the time to post.
Thank you for the feedback. I hope your new burners fixes your problem with the slow heating so you can have your coffee while you are still half asleep.
Thank you for the feedback. Hope your new burners save you a bunch of time when you’re cooking and boiling water.
Our old stove finally gave up the ghost and we had no choice but to replace it. The new stove came with sensi-temp coils. We can, make candy and frequently cook with a couple of different sizes of woks. The round bottom of a wok requires the use of a fire ring that provides support for the round bottom that is an essential part of wok cooking and will not work at all on these types of coils. We’ve decided that sensi-temp burners are racist by design because they only work with western style pots and pans. Even our copper kettles won’t work since they’re old enough that they’ve developed a domed bottom from constant use.
I was faced with trying to rework one kettle to get the bottom flat enough for the sensor to allow the burner to work. There was a new old style coil still in the package in my spare parts so I went online and found out that the coils were interchangeable. Problem solved! I’ll eventually replace all of those awful things as I get the chance.
One paragraph mentions getting the replacement burners with receptacles yet in another it mentions just the burners.
Do I need to get the burners with receptacles or not? Does anybody know thank you.
You only need the burners.
I only mentioned the receptacles in the article because that was the set I had purchased. You can save a few dollars getting the set without them.
It is actually against the law to change those burners or to alter them. This is your government at work, don’t shoot the messenger. If you buy a new stove that has these burners after a certain date, and you switch over to another burner and you end up with a grease fire you will probably be dropped by your insurance if you’re lucky. I work in the apartment community industry, and I’ve researched it because he’s burners are pain in the ass. But yes, this entire article is extremely bad advice. Don’t follow it. If you want the old style stove go on Craigslist and find one, but after a certain date the stoves that come with these burners, you need to replace them with these burners if they ever burn out.
Incorrect- the temp regulating feature is contained entirely within each burner. The feedback to the controls remains the same with a swapout of old style burners.
I purchased a GE when they first started putting the sensors in them not knowing what the new sensors would do. I ABSOLUTELY HATE THEM. After much research I bought new Calrod coils without the sensors. I don’t have problems with them cutting off now but the stove is not dependable. Sometimes it heats fast and sometimes slow. It’s on the blink now and it isn’t that old. I can’t take a chance with a stove that doesn’t work properly or with gas as far as that goes; I can’t smell so I am more afraid of fire with this stove so it is unplugged. I like to can food from the garden in the summer and I like to cook with cast iron, so the new glass tops are not a choice. It was hard enough just finding a coil stove, but now with the sensors it’s even worse. For canning and making candies, jellies, etc., a stove has to hold the temperature. So what am I supposed to do? I am looking for an old used stove. Almost tempted to try to find an old wood-burning stove. We have been using electric stoves without sensors for many years so why should we HAVE to have them now. Whoever came up with this idea sure didn’t doesn’t know much about cooking or do his research. Sorry to ramble on but I am just so frustrated I can’t stand it.
I so wish I had done more to save my 1987 Magic Chef before buying this #$@%&* GE/Hotpoint Sensi-Temp POS! It kept cycling down when I was trying to boil pasta last night (9 minutes of boiling water was all I wanted, is that too much to ask?) so no way I’ll be able to can on it. As for my cookware, it’s Le Creuset, and you can’t get much flatter or heavier than that! I think I’ll try replacing the burners since I’m not comfortable monkeying around with trying to disable the sensor, and that way I can always swap the sensi-temp burners back in if I need warranty service.
This constant nannyfication of appliances is ridiculous. I bought a refurbished washing machine rather than a new one simply because it doesn’t have a locking lid.
Thanks for posting this, Mr. Money Sense, you have saved my sanity!
Good luck with replacing the burners and I hope it solves the cycling on-and-off issue for you.
If you vote for a Nanny state, you’ll get a Nanny state. Nanny states impose these “features” on all kinds of products, often rendering them useless or impractical
I have a sensory stove and I DO NOT like it… I fry food and need grease to be at a certain temp. But the stove cuts off which messes up anything I attempt to fry.. it’s so annoying.. I’m going to try and take the sensors off.
Hi,
We HATE the sensi-temp sensors. Can’t boil water worth a damn, keeps shutting off. So our 8″ coils are 5 turn/2400 Watt, the 6″ ones are 1250 Watts (identical to the ones you mentioned). But the Amazon link you included shows the 8″ coils are 2350 Watts, the 6″ 1350 Watts.
Would these work of the wattage doesn’t match?
Hi Noel.
Looks like the 6″ ones are 100 watts higher than the originals. The risk with using higher-wattage burners is you could burn out the wiring. Assuming the stove uses the same gauge wiring for the smaller burner as the larger one, you should be ok. We haven’t had any problems using 6″ that are 1500 watts.
Disclaimer is I’m not an electrician, so you should consult a professional if you are concerned. But they will likely say that you should use the same burners that the stove initially came with.
Thanks for the swift response. So that said, would the 8″ ones work, since the wattage is lower? Or does the wattage have to be an exact match?
The 8″ ones will work. Lower wattage means the burner won’t get as hot as the originals. But 50 watts is negligible and you won’t notice it. Plus, you’ll still cook faster not having the sensi-temp feature.
I rent and the land lady replaced the old non-serviceable range with a new GE with sensi-temp. I guess it’s because I have been using induction hobs, but I am used to the stop and go of the heating element as it regulates heat. I timed my pasta which the instructions recommend 9 min. for al dente. Having done it on conventional eyes, 9 min. was just right. I got the same results from the induction eyes and the sensi-temp eyes. Even though in the latter two types the water stopped boiling in the middle of cooking. I think it may just be perception. By the way, in a house prior to the one we rent now there was a gas stove. 9 min. was also just right. I have noticed that the normal electric eye actually fluctuates in heat during the cooking cycle, too. It’s just that the water keeps boiling. Every type of eye seems to get the same result for me.
Every time I try to brown meat or fry bacon the stupid thing chooses to slow simmer. Takes a big toll on the outcome of a roast. Reheating eventually happens but the quality of the “sear” is forever lost.
GREAT ARTICLE 👍. I’m in need of a new stove and I’ve never had such a time. I do alot of canning and baking too but glasstops scratch and look terrible and coil burners no have sensors so this article is a great help. Its too bad they dont make stoves anymore worth a damn. I’ve been looking at dual fuel ranges and they cost alot more. Honestly I’m about ready to go search for an fashioned used stove. Government evidently so tyrannical that they’re trying to ruin The one thing we all like and that’s home cooked real FOOD from scratch.
I also have the GE model JBS160DMWW. Has anyone successfully replaced the coils on this particular stove without having to grind parts or make other changes in order for it to fit and work properly?
I have a new GE coil stove with the sensors. I was just canning and found out about the cutoff from the sensor. I noticed on the control panel the + and – controls and that if pressed together it will lock out the sensor. Finished pressure canning 12 pints in record time. The sensor stays locked out until you unlock it.
Not sure how many stoves have the lock-out feature but I am sure glad this one does.
Can you please tell me which model GE stove you purchased?
Thanks!
Mine has those. I am going to try it next time I use the stovetop. I suppose GE doesn’t tell you about that feature to get around the legal requirement of having it. I’ll let you guys know. If it does work I am going to spread the word 🙂
I purchased the Hotpoint with sensitemp in April. I’ve gotten so absolutely disgusted with the cycling on and off that I have stopped preparing some of our favorite meals . Grilled cheese ends up soggy and scrambled eggs take 20 minutes. A lot of prepared food is going in the trash. Pasta shouldn’t take 47 minutes
Hello this is a new stove that came in a brand new apartment it’s two years old, I’m soon to be 66 yrs old, I have cooked all my life on numerous stoves gas and electric and surface tops, I’ve never seen a stove like this in my life, I’ve always been a excellent cook but with this stove, I don’t know anymore it doesn’t cook like a traditional oven does ,the burner goes up and then it goes back down, it takes me forever to get my food cooked, I really do hate this over with a passion, if I didn’t love my apartment so much I would be willing to move out because of this stove,the worst stove ever,I WILL Not recommend it to none of my family or friends,fix it or ditch it.
I have a ge model jb256D m2ww. I checked the Amazon link suggested above for:
KITCHEN BASICS 101 WB30M1 WB30M2 Replacement Range Stove Top Surface Element Burner Kit for GE and Hotpoint, 4 Pack Includes 2 WB30M1 (6″) and 2 WB30M2 (8″), 2912, 340523, 243867, WB30M0001
But I can’t find if it will fit my model. There is no number on the page that lists my model number. Does anyone know how to correlate the model number of the stove with the part number of the new burners? I have also tried to find the information to correlate the two.
Also I want to make real sure these replacements are old-style burners vs the sensi temp.
You won’t find your model number listed because the actual replacement part is a burner with the Sensi-temp sensor.
Your best bet is to measure your old burners as detailed in this post and in the comments and cross your fingers that it will fit. If not, you can either modify to fit or return the part.
Same here. Hate them. Moved into a 55+ apartment. These sensi temp things are annoying. My pans don’t lay flat. I have burner covers and they won’t lay flat either. The temperature drops while frying which takes longer to cook. Beats those ugly looking cans that attach to your stove top vent that are supposed to spray fire retardant on your burners if there is a fire. I had those too in another 55+apartment. Give me a break. We got fire extinguishers to use if needed plus smoke alarms and sprinklers. 63 years old and never had any cooking fires. Younger generation is more careless what with drinking booze and smoking weed or taking drugs. I trust me more than them.
You think these sensi temp things are annoying. What about digital washers and dryers the owner buys for our apartments yet charges the tenant $150 a month for them. Crap I didn’t ask for them. I’d rather have ones from Sears like Kenmore. If I have to pay for them then they should be mine if I decide to move. We are looking at $1800 a year. I only do laundry once a week. They won’t remove them if I don’t want them.
Very frustrating and impossible to control the heat when making any dish. Try searing a steak in a cast iron or carbon steel pan only to have the darn thing shut off just when the perfect crust is forming or making a risotto or crepes. Enough complaining…so if I order the replacement burners from Amazon do I need to replace the terminal blocks as well or will the new burners work fine with the installed terminal blocks? Thanks!
Hello Dean,
The new burners will work fine with the existing terminal blocks. I only bought the set with the extra terminal blocks because they were only a couple dollars more. I figure I might have some spare parts handy in case they ever need to be replaced.
I hate it, was frying wings after landlord just purchased this replacement stove and it basically boiled them. As soon as it heats up it shuts down giving me anger issues 😂 glad there’s a way to disable them
GE appliance division sold out to China in 2016. Need I say more?
Feature really is a pain. Just ruined a bag of French fries, they just soaked in the oil, never got crispy. Having to start over, outside on our camp stove. Makes you just hate to buy any new appliance because you know it will not work as well as the old one.
Air fryer’s are another alternative to using your stove to make French fries. Not as much oil needed, and they come out crispy
I’ve had my GE Range for approximately 3 years, and for 3 years, if not for the investment, I would trash the range and find an old model without the sensor. I had a tech come out and replace the sensor burner with a new one. He said to keep the sensor clean and free of build up and this help. I’ve fine sandpaper routinely to clean the sensor (burner was cold or hot depending on when it was being used) still does not work. I’m at my wits end and am ready to try to bypass the sensor. My neighbor is a licensed electrician and appliance tech. I will consult him for guidance in determining the best way to bypass sensor. Based on earlier comments/experiences, I may have to re-educate the cooks int he house not to use the “high” setting on the range top burners. Thanks to everyone for advice/experiences
Hi RDP, let us know what your neighbor recommends.
It’s been over 3 years since I replaced my parents’ two burners with the older style. I’m happy to report the stove and the burners are still working fine. I personally don’t use the “high” setting, but just a notch down between the 8 and high and we haven’t had any problems so far.
Who in UL determined that cycling electric coils on and off while cooking was a good idea? By the time these coils reach proper temperature again the food gets cold. Don’t these people test their ideas before implementing them? I had a Kenmore stove that was a piece of junk with only 3 burners that worked so I purchased a new GE stove. Now I want my junk back!
Mmmkay, so to bypass I would not recommend, arcing, melting etc. is not good. What I do recommend is to look at the bottom of the sensor, there are many small circular holes on the bottom plate. That plate only has 3 small weld spots. Easy enough to ‘pop’ off or grind etc. Then if you can remove the sensor from the top plate- do NOT disconnect. I just cut most of the top plate with some almost trash wire cutters/hacksaw. Now push the sensor through where the bottom plate used to be as far down as you can, it goes a good distance inside the center hole of the drip pan. Now the sensor does not get so hot as fast if at all. Thermal tape the sensor up, you do not want oil etc. to leak down into the drip pan area and make contact with the sensor prongs/connectors. Aluminum foil where the top plate used to be for the sensor(seal it off to spillage getting on the wire ends that touch the burner, no oil fires now!), I cut the bottom of a soda can and stuck it in the prongs that held the top plate.
A better hack would be to remove the bottom plate, then bend the prongs to remove the top plate with the sensor. Unplug the sensor and use metal crimps on new insulated wiring as an extension, I.E. extending the wiring to the sensor so you can set it wherever you want under the range. You will need thermal tape for the crimps- you do NOT want them to contact the metal under the range. I did not do this extension idea since it was not needed for my needs.
Idea: cut off the bottom of a soda can. To the diameter of the top plate, put a couple notches for the 3 prongs(so you can push it down and rotate to ‘lock’ it in). Use a piece of broken ceramic plate from the dollar store in between the soda bottom and the sensor to dampen the heat exchange.