Beeping airfryer

Have a 2 year old 2-tray Lakeland airfryer. Nary a problem.

However yesterday when cooking a couple of things (burgers & chips) for

removing trays, and power cycling did seem to briefly stop this. But then it started again.

It didn't seem to stop the cooking (looking at the smart meter which happens to be on the same counter).

Is this anything anyone has experienced ?

It does seem to have some sort of memory, so I've had it unplugged since then.

I have no experience with air fryers, but does it have any filters that might be blocked?

Any idea why these things have very complicated user interfaces, similar to a video recorder remote control of the 90s?

Simply two controls, one rotary for temperature, one rotary for time, and start and stop buttons should be sufficient.

But this Tower thing majors on 20 different icons and places major doubt on what preset is really suitable for what we are putting in, with what heating profile?

It's real tempting to take this to bits and make some modifications....

It sounds like it is one which has both manual and preset modes- the latter ( usually) being selected by buttons ( real or ‘soft’).

I’ve noticed one of the buttons on our original one has become intermittent. I can’t see how to get in to the case to look at it and, fortunately, we can work around it.

My theory is, due to the position, heat ( and possibly moisture) from the ‘basket’ have caused a problem - the switch is on the lower part of the control panel, just above the drawer.

It is almost certainly a capitative type switch ( the panel is flat / rigid) and heat / moisture has either crept in or damaged / contaminated the PCB. A ‘dry joint’ is another option.

Yes, I agree absolutely! Microwaves suffer from the same stupidity.

We have an air fryer that has a 'manual' setting which approximates to sanity. Wierdly all the other 'bread', 'meat', 'chips' etc. are actually just the same as the 'manual' setting, the only difference between them is that they start at different times and temperatures.

Because rotary controls go wrong in the heat?

I have one from Lidl. It has four "buttons" well really touch sensitive points.

• "Up", "Down"
• "Time/Temp" -> so you can set either with the up& down "start/pause"

plus a large display approximately 2" tall. Only issue is display only shows time or temp, but does alternate between the two without needing to press the toggle button.

Na. Probably jusy one chip...

Dave

On the simplest oven there is no need for start and stop buttons. pushing the basket into the the oven or pulling it out provides a start/stop function.

A perfect case of "Keep It Simple, Stupid". I purchased a totally mechanical, electrical oven for £20 from Asda/George. It didn't work properly and was replaced with the £27 electronic / bells-and-whistled version. That definitely didn't work.

I've still got both - I worked out that the simple oven only stopped when asked to cook for 4 minutes or less. I've been using it on that basis ever since. The "electronic" oven is fixed but is just gathering dust.

The KISS principle in action.

and 60.000 lines of code

As do many appliances, e.g dishwashers and washing machines. They cater for the gullible idiots of this world, who think it's necessary to wash dishes for three hours or denims separately from cottons. I use a single programme (time/temp/rinses) for almost all clothes, and a short wash for dishes. Following the mfrs suggestions must either mean you use a lot of electricity, or you have a lot of clothes or dishes so that you can save up the 'dirties' until you have a full load.

To a point. While air fryers are probably too complicated for what they're trying to do, things like washing machines and dishwashers tend to have some decent reasoning behind their many options. For example:

I find that to get a quicker wash for cottons on the washing machine requires something like 'mixed load'. Which uses far too little water for cottons, and spins at a lower speed than I'd like. it also baffles the programmer, which keeps adjusting and extending the programme as (I suspect) it's expecting a lighter load after a rinse. So 'Cottons' it is for (mainly) cottons.

And as a matter of fact, the eco setting on my Bosch dishwasher does take over

I thought that, until I measured the power my dishwasher used on short wash, and an eco wash which takes about three hours... ... the ECO wash uses about half the electricity of a 1 hour wash, as measured at the socket by a smart plug. The smart plug measures real power not VA so I believe its accurate...

Dave

We tend to run ours in the 00.30 - 05.30 slot where Octopus charge us a lot less per unit, too.

In message snipped-for-privacy@candehope.me.uk>, at 19:00:02 on Mon, 6 Jan 2025, charles snipped-for-privacy@candehope.me.uk> remarked:

I'd like to do that, but they refuse to fix my smart meter, so I can't use any fancy tariffs. Bastards.

Bigclive takes apart a clockwork airfryer

Refuse?

How hard have your pursued this? Octopus are very keen on smart meters but are limited by the crappy tech. I’m currently awaiting a visit from the DCC (instigated by Octopus) to find out why my smart meter doesn’t work.

Tim

I'm going to ramp this up. I've put in numerous requests for them to come fix the meter, although they might do better to replace with a more modern one. Usually they say "you've already asked us this, go away". One time I did get as far as an appointment page, but there were no slots available at all.

Definitely persevere. Polite persistence via “X” is the key. I’m on my 4th meter now but have always had a pretty cordial relationship with Octopus and they actually phoned me tonight half an hour after I emailed them to explain that they could get another engineer/fitter out to me this Friday to see if he can either get my meter communicating or replace it with a cellular data one. (I’m in Scotland).

Tim

Perhaps you should ask on your personal chat forum ulm if you can sue for damages from a non-working smart meter?