Fan oven repair - false economy?

[Adrian Brentnall]

HI Folks When we moved into this house (2006), it had a new Zanussi built-in fan oven.

A while ago the fan started playing up - and wouldn't start immediately, but only once the oven had heated up a little.

Now the dual / oven grill element in the top of the oven is developing a 'droop' - two sections of it are 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch below the others. This doesn't look good - and I'm guessing it'll eventually lead to failure.

Now here's the rub. Zanussi are showing the specific replacement grill element as 'obsolete' - and don't offer a replacement/substitute (thanks guys!) A UK supplier reckons that they have something that will fit - but I've got to slide the oven out and extract the existing element in order to photo / measure it - to make sure.

New equivalent oven is about £300

Spare element plus fan motor = £33.99 + £38.99 + £9.99 - plus half an hour or so of skinned knuckles, general swearing and pingfu**its to fit the parts.

But - SWMBO says 'Ah - but what's likely to fail _next_ on the oven - how long are they designed to last - wouldn't it be smarter to buy a new one?'

So, folks, what's the design life of a fairly simple fan oven - in your opinion / experience? Everything else on the oven currently works well, it's clean & tidy inside, and has been lightly used. Discuss!

Thanks Adrian

[David]

About 10 years could be a reasonable life for an oven - although many may last much longer.

If you have two separate items failing then your adviser may be correct.

You could wait until B&Q have one of their clear outs and perhaps pick up an oven at a budget price.

Cheers

Dave R

[ARW]

Is than another way of saying "I would like a new oven sweatheart?":-)

[Ash Burton]

You're lucky if the modern generation of ovens will last much more than

10 years.

I would say you are on borrowed time with this one, often once an element or fan goes, other things will start to fail too.

I'd start looking for a replacement soon.

--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: [e-mail] ---

[AnthonyL]

I've had ours for nearly 30yrs, electric + fan The door seals have gone and really needs a complete front door unit. Wife of course wants a new one but I reckon this will still outlive the cr@p that is churned out nowadays.

[tim.....]

I once viewed a house [1] where the owner was "boasting" that they had just had the built in microwave replaced at a cost of some 700 pounds!

I'd have turned the space into a shelf and bought a 39.99 table top replacement ;-)

tim

[1] FTAOD this was a property at the bottom run of the ladder for the location.

[David]

We paid an eye watering amount for a Bosch combination fan oven/microwave oven built in to the units to keep the work surfaces clear. Looks much like a double oven (has a single electric oven underneath in the unit).

An interesting compromise, which works well as a fan oven (decent size, not like most "combis") but has some hidden 'features'.

For instance it has a grill but you can't operate it with the door open because of the microwave safety cut out to prevent you microwaving with the door open.

There is no turntable to rotate the food whilst microwaving.

I am fascinated that it looks like a conventional oven, complete with oven shelves and metal walls, but is also a microwave. Once upon a time I thought that microwaves and metal didn't mix.

Cheers

Dave R

[tim.....]

This was in addition to a "normal" oven.

I would never have considered the property otherwise, as despite the fact that I rarely use a full oven and could live without it, I use a grill almost daily.

and several attempts at using a table top grill has found them to be very inadequate replacements for "oven" grills.

YMMV

tim

[Gordon Henderson]

Nearly 2 years back I bought the cheapest oven the local shop sold (£195, Beko) - this was for my little (hobbyish) baking business... For a year it was heated up to 250C 6 days a week to bake bread and after the first year the element wen't pop then after I replaced that the thermostat... They were cheap and easy enough to replace with spares directly from Beko... It's still going strong now, but I use it much less (bought bigger ovens!)

I think the element and thermostat were each about £15.

One thing I found was a site selling spares online - oh look, cheaper than Beko until I entered my model number into their site - when all parts I tried immediately jumped in proce by about a fiver, so watch out for that scam.

My thoughts about your Zanussi are that if you like the oven and think fitting new bits will be relatively easy, then go for it - this is a DIY group afterall ;-)

Gordon

[Andrew Gabriel]

We've had a couple of Smeg ovens in the family, and I think they both lasted about 7 years before the connectors on the internal wiring loom burned out (quite a spectacular bang from one of them, with dinner only half cooked). I repaired them by crimping the wires - one blew a different connector a year or two later. The case of the built-in one also overheats if the oven is up high, again possibly aided by connection to thermal trip going bad. Oh, and another thing - the oven lampholder is connected with the thread on live, which I discovered by getting a belt off the lamp when changing it.

There's also a Wickes own "Manor House" oven in the family which has been fault-free for 15 years of moderate use, although the previous owners left the paperwork showing the fan had to be replaced under warranty.

I know a couple of people who change the oven when it gets dirty.

[John Rumm]

Once the element and the fan are replaced, there's not much left... thermostat and lamp perhaps.

at least 10 years.

[DerbyBorn]

I am dreading replacing my built under oven as it hs the controls to one side which give is mire height for the oven cavity and the knobs don't get burnt by the grill. The split between the 2 doors matches the two deep drawer units each side - it is a 15 year old Electrolux.

>

[Adrian Brentnall]

Thanks Dave. I'm afraid I tend to think that 'domestic' appliances should las 'forever'... however unrealistic that might be.. I'm guessing that the fan may simply be gunged up - and the careful application of something lubricating might get it working again...? Question is - what to use to avoid roasting our potatoes in 'essence of WD40' ?

OK on B&Q - we're out here in the wilds of South-west Ireland - not particularly inclined to travel to the big cities of Cork or Dublin... in search of cookers.

A

[Adrian Brentnall]

I had an uncle who took his car into the garage to get a wiper blade replaced - and came home with a new car! My Aunt wasn't impressed.

If only once knew what might fail _after_ the fan / element had been replaced... and when....?

Tricky!

[Adrian Brentnall]

Who are you calling 'sweetheart' ?!

Actually - she's leaning towards a new oven - but both of us are undecided. I think the answer may be to whip the oven out of the carcass tomorrow and measure / photo the element. If a new element can't be obtained then the decision's made for us...

Can't help thinking that the fan's a simple fix as well - bit of heat-sensitive 'gunge' on / in the bearings....?? Could look at that at the same time.

Assuming that the droopy element will fail sooner or later, there's not much to lose by taking a look....

..,is there?

[Adrian Brentnall]

Hmm - you may be right. But - what else is likely to fail..? 'Stats, I suppose, possibly switches.

Can't help remembering what my kiln-building guru in the USA said "It's just a box that gets hot". My homebrew glass-fusing kiln goes to 900c - it shouldn't be _that_ difficult to fix a domestic oven - should it?

Pains me to throw away something that's 'nearly working' - but that's why the shed's so full of semi-defunct stuff!

[Adrian Brentnall]

A man after my own heart!

[Adrian Brentnall]

I'm thinking that it can't do any harm to take a look.... Wife's pointing out the hassle we had with the washing machine (of similar vintage) - when the 'expert' in the van simply listed about 5 items that could be the cause of the problem, and proposed selling us all of these on the ground that it might fix the fault. Bill would have come to more than the cost of a new machine....

..but I'd say that a washing-machine has more 'complexity' than a bog-standard oven, doesn't it..

The oven's been used fairly lightly. Breakfast toast 3 - 4 times per week, probably a cooked meal a couple of times a week, a couple of cakes per week, we don't do meat so no Sunday roasts...

It's in good condition, apart from the droopy grill element! Pains me to chuck it - I was brought up in the 'make do & mend' era...

[Adrian Brentnall]

That was my thinking....

Again - that's what I'd anticipate - but I could be living in the past!

[ARW]

Fixed the gfs oven twice but never managed to put a bun in it.