what happened (stove element fire/welding)

ihmmy

So, making turkey soup, I was using our big burner on medium high. All of a sudden the burner caught fire. Took the big pot off, put it onto a pot holder, turned to go blow out the fire and then it was arcing, like turned white and when we (my fiance did this, I should say... fire scary) turned off the burner it completely stopped... we looked at the bottom of the element it looks like it started welding itself o_O Obviously we're replacing the element, but I was wondering if anyone had an idea as to why this happened

rfalias

The element most likely failed internally, causing a short.
It's basically a wire inside of some insulation coated with some kind of metal.

When a short occurs it will cause that sort of "welding" look.
Replace the element, don't turn it on again, obviously.

Also, you should be able to use a multimeter to test if it was a failure of the element.
Just remove it from the circuit before you do this of course. There are likely guides online somewhere.

Josiah_9

Just to chim in, I am an Appliance servicer and rfalias is correct. The new burner element should just snap in.

ihmmy

we have no multimeter thinger in the house, but I do plan on picking up a new element soon.

It was just... weird, and cool, but scary. Yay for it nearly definitely not being a bigger problem than replacing the element!