[Mr. Meister]

Ok so I have a Kenmore Electric range that is about 6 years old.

I was canning some stuff w/ my pressure canner the other night w/ my larger sized canner that gets pretty close to the control knobs when I use the back right element (which I was doing).

Half way through the process, the elements would only stay on the highest amount heat regardless of which way I turned the knobs (besides off position).

Eventually, the oven shorted out and tripped the breaker.

I tried troubleshooting various things such as the connections where the elements plug into. This seemed to prevent them from shorting out as long as I kept the back burner out.

Which leads me to where I am as of now.

1.)If I try to turn on the breaker while the back element is in, it trips the breaker as soon as I switch it on.

2.) If I leave the back burner out, the breaker will stay on but the "Element On" indicator light stays on for the right side of the range, and the elements do actually get hot (actually I believe they heat up to the maximum level).

3.) If I take out the elements on the right side and try to use the elements on the left (although the indicator light for the left side does not light up), the elements do the same thing as the right side as far as heating up to the maximum level thus leaving the user w/ ZERO control of the heat level.

Possible causes... IDK where the control board for the heat levels is but if it is up near the control knobs I could see it getting overheated b/c of the pressure canner, but I have done this MANY times before w/ no problems.

Is 6 years old about the time when this stuff starts to happen? I am pretty handy as far as fixing stuff as long as I know what to fix, so any advice as to what I need to fix/replace is greatly appreciated. Thanks!