GE Spectra (electric stove)

GE Spectra (electric stove)

I have a slightly used GE Spectra -- 2 years old. I have only toasted toast in this oven -- I use the cooktop occassionally. An entire coil started on fire while I was toasting toast. The entire coil completely burned out. The fire department had to come. This is virtually a NEW stove.

I had to extinguish it with a fire extinguisher -- and the stove is ruined, as far as I'm concerned. I do not trust it for any further use. I would recommend anyone who owns a Spectra be very, very wary of the coils.

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I had the same thing happen to me this evening. Oven is about 8 years old. I turned the oven onto preheat. When I opened the oven to put the food in there was a spark. The fire continued to move around the element, like a welders' arc. About 3 inches fell off but it continued to burn... about 10 - 12 inches burned before it stopped. I question the safety of the stove if I get it fixed. Won't be able to get resolution for a couple days, Saturday evening after Service Center hours... wonder if we will have a oven for Christmas!

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Same issue with my JBP78 model. The element did not stop burning like a sparkler until I flipped the breaker off.

I called the GE consumer line and got a case number as a safety issue. The person scheduled a service call no charge. The service guy showed up today and told me that it was not unusual for the elements to burn out like that. He said they may break off a stop burning or burn until it gets to where it connects in the back of the oven and stop. He did not seem concerned and I paid him for the replacement part.

I checked my manual and it said nothing about the element burning out like that. I would like to see some kind of notice to the consumer so they are prepared if it should happen.

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Same thing happened to my oven: Model GE JBP78 freestanding range, purchased in 2000. It looks fairly common from what I have seen on the web.

When I noticed light coming from the oven I saw that one small area of the baking coil/element (coil was fairly clean) started to spark/arc and there was a very bright small flame. The flame then started travelling along the coil. I got the extinguisher ready and shut off the oven. But the flame didn't stop, it travelled another few inches as I wondered how that was possible. It wasn't just a flame, it was sparking. Next I turned off the breaker and it went out immediately. Interesting. The whole process was only about a minute, but, when I inspected the coil I realized it must of been going on for longer before I noticed: The coil was broken in two places. Didn't call the FD since it seems under control after cutting power.

Found the replacement part for this particular model repairclinic.com. A few other websites have it as well. Make sure you are getting the right heating element for the exact model number. One thing about GE, for my model, there is a zero in the model number which none of the websites (or GE) use anymore. My full model number: JBP78A0B2AA. (By the way, for this model, model & serial numbers can be found on the left inside the botom drawer of the oven.) Part was $50. Couple screws replace it. Pretty simple.

GE said there was no recall on this particular model, and I made a complaint. My two issues were:

1. The element was fairly clean and only 8 years old. (Maybe that's ancient with today's applicances...)

2. The element kept burning even when the oven was off, only turning the breaker off stopped it. It seems dangerous even though the oven has a firewall (and perhaps other safety mechanisms that I don't know of).

There are a lot of posts about this of late on the Internet. Interesting that more posts appear right after Thanksgiving.

Safety: I see a lot of posts with people stating that they put flour on the fire. VERY BAD!!! Let's spread the word now... Flour is flammable, not only that, it can explode if there is a lot of it. Baking soda is the right stuff for small fires (supposedly even electrical ones), but regardless, you really need a decent fire extinguisher in the kitchen. Not the cheap plastic ones. Get a real extinguisher from a fire prevention company and have it checked every year (They tag the extinguisher to show that it passed).

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I have a GE spectra also, about 2 yrs old. Every burner has literally fallen apart, as they are very cheap. The burner INSIDE the oven, on the base of it, caught on fire for no reason and broke! I had to replace that. I have had to replace 2 burners, and the third one when I went to replace it, discovered that the connection WAS MELTED!! I wondered why I had been getting shocks for a while, I thought it was just static/metal, etc, but now I see that it is the burner connection. As a result, I have only had use of 3 burners (instead of the 4 i paid for!) for a while now.. Tonight, I just tried to turn on the only large burner left, and wondered why the food didnt get hot.. well, the burner won't turn on now! THis is the worst oven I have ever had. I won't trust GE again because this is a definite fire hazard.

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Yesterday, we had the same issue- area seemed to be burning brighter than the majority of the coil- then, it started sparking and caught fire. We turned off the oven, and extinguished with a fire extinguisher

Today- went to use my oven and it will not heat- is "lukewarm" at best.

Is GE going to fix this?!

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We have a GE Spectra JBP66 about 9 years old. My wife happened to be up a 1:00 am. She was not cooking and the stove was off. She heard a sparking noice and saw flames coming from back of the stove. All the dials were off. The upper element (broiler) was on. She went to the circuit breaker and turned it off. This stopped the sparking and the fire stopped. Thank the Lord she was up. I tried contacting GE but they are closed today (Sunday). From the string of comments this is a very dangerous product.

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This just happened to me also. I turned on the oven to pre-heat, put cookies in when heated. I had noticed a brighter red area (less than 1 inch area on element) and was concerned. The oven was clean, nothing on the element. Within a couple of mins after preheat, I checked and saw a bright light inside. the element was burning with a white flame, and sparking/arcing. I turned off the unit, and the flame continued to travel through the element. I was worried what would happen when it reached the end. Being electrical, I wasn't sure what to do, but realised I needed to cut the power at the fusebox. That put it out. I will be calling GE because this looks like it happens alot...

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My Spectra JBP26 is just shy of 7 years old and I've never had a problem with it. About a month ago I was broiling salmon and heard a popping noise and saw a small flame, thought it was oil on the coil from the fish cooking ... wrong ... it happened again so I shut off the oven. Luckily that stopped it.

I had to finish my salmon in the microwave ... yuck ... was afraid to use the stove top at that point.

Does anyone know if there is a recall? I haven't been able to find anything.

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same thing happened to me as everyone else is describing. any recalls? GE planning on doing anything about this?

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Last night same thing. I turned on the broiler and while in the kitchen noticed a very bright light emitting from the oven. I looked inside and the broiler coil was on fire. It looked like a sparkler on the 4th of July. The flame burned itself around the coil like a sparkler would and turning it off did not help whatsoever.

The oven is 6 years old but not overly used. I've never heard of such a thing. I've had ovens that were decades old and still worked.

Can it be repaired? I don't even think I want to repair it. Are these coils sold by GE only or is this problem everywhere?

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Just had the same thing (element burnout) happen to us tonight. Fortunately, the breaker tripped before the entire range could catch fire. glass top units still work but the oven heating element is burned in half.

Is there a recall on these? If not, should be.

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I too have a GE Spectra oven and experienced very similiar problems as aforementioned. I was baking at 375 degrees and noticed a very bright white light and intially thought it was food on the coil. After removing the food, turning off the oven, using water and baking soda to distinguish the coil, it did not work. My husband called the fire department and after unplugging the unit, the light faded and cooled. It was very obvious the coil had "burned" due to an electrical problem. Thankfully it did not lead to a kitchen fire!

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The same thing just happened to me tonight. It looked just as you described it and would not go out until I unplugged the unit. This is dangerous and I saw where others have had the same issues. Has anyone reported to GE and with any luck for a possible recall here? Please let me know. Thanks

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My wife turned on our GE Spectra oven to warm up for cooking dinner, and about 1 minute after turning on, she noticed a bright light coming from the window. We opened the door, and the lower element was on fire, like a welders arc. It was popping, snapping and even when I turned OFF the oven it kept sparking and popping. I had to kill the breaker and got a spray bottle to spray water on the point just before the arcing to kill the heat. Very dangerous. If I wasn't here, I don't know what my wife and 2 kids would have done, or how bad this could have gotten. I have never seen an oven do this before.

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I also have a GE Spectra electric freestanding range. It's either a JBP10, JBP26 or JBP30 (not sure) It's about 3 years old. About 1 year ago, the back right coil started popping and snapping, so I stopped using it. This week, the coil inside the oven caught on fire (electrical fire, not a fire due to food on the coil). Even when we shut off the stove, the fire and sparks did not shut off. Had to use fire entinguisher and shut off the breaker to get the fire & sparks to stop.

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I was warming up my Spectra oven to bake cookies last night (375) and looked down and also found the heating coil on fire. The fire looked like a candle at the end. Each part the fire touched broke and crumbled to the ranch floor. I pulled flour on it trying to put it out and that just burned though. This stove was about 3 yrs old and under very light use. I use the over, maybe once a month for short amounts of time. The only way to get the fire out was to unplug the stove. Very Dangerous!