Learn how your appliance is supposed to operate so you can determine if it is malfunctioning.
While no longer very popular in North America users with Euro-style solid cast iron surface element ranges love them and want to keep them going for as long as they can. This type of element was slow to heat but once hot maintained a steady temperature that made cooking delicate items much easier.
These elements are similar to their coil element counterparts in that they are a resistance wire suspended in insulating material surrounded by a hard metal alloy only their alloy is cast iron which provides even heat distribution.
A feature of these elements not found on regular coil elements is a built in safety device. If the element were to overheat, like have a pot left unattended, an internal thermal protector would trip cutting the element down to half power. Once tripped the element would have to be left to totally cool before the safety limiter would reset allowing the element to heat normally again. If that protector failed to reset or just failed outright, the element would have to be replaced.
Lastly, these elements needed to be polished regularly to maintain their matte black finish. This polish made by Collo was called Electrol.
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