Kenwood Chef problem.

[mark]

I don't normally go near it but yesterday I did and broke it.

I was using the liquidiser attachment. The speed control knob has a feature that if you turn it a little to the left it goes at max speed. This is sprung loaded so returns (normally) to 'off'. Only it didn't , I turned it to the left and it went past the stop and refuses to turn back to the corrrect position.

I've tried, with reasonable force to pull this knob off, thinking it might be similar to a cooker knob but failed.

I'm getting a lot of grief so if anyone can offer any advice with regards fixing the problem, I would be grateful.

mark

[Bernard Peek]

Large box of chocolates and a bunch of flowers would seem to be the obvious first step.

[The Natural Philosopher]

you fail to say what model, but our very old one which I successfully repaired is a very simple beast. The knob actually in ours works a cam that seems to compress a blob of what I take to be variable resistance material

You can get the things more or less apart by removing the base.

There are a lot of online help topics as well. I diagnosed mine as blown capacitors which indeed was the case.

It is 35 years old, maybe more. and spares are still available. so there is no excuse for you at least opening it up.

Tale photos though as you dont want to forget how to reassemble.

[Dave Liquorice]

But kept hidden until the problem is owned up to or discovered, otherwise suspicions will be aroused.

[Fredxx]

Mine's even simpler, I have a centrifugal switch where the knob via a cam compresses a spring increasing contact time (with feedback) to make it go faster.

[Skipweasel]

Cor - we had one like that in the 60s. IIRC it's still going strong and my sister's got it. The bang-bang speed control was very noisy.

[GB]

It doesn't pull off IIRC. Prise out the central part of the knob, the label bit saying kenwood, and there's a spring clip or something like that holding it on. Yours may be different ofc, as ours is just over 30 years old.

[Bernard Peek]

From the original posting I gathered that the excrement had already reached the air impeller. So some sort of remedial action seemed called for. Chocolates and flowers fix lots of problems but the more serious ones may also require the application of new Manolo Blahniks.

[Chris J Dixon]

I think mine is of similar vintage. IIRC, when they brought out the first "electronic" version, they didn't really make it much more sophisticated, simply inserted a triac (or something similar) so that the contact didn't switch the load directly.

Chris

[The Natural Philosopher]

I think ours is the 'first triac' type and as far as I can tell, the dial squashes a black rubbery blob, that controls the input to that triac. I.e. they have made a variable pot out of this black blob and a cam that squeezes it.

I can confirm that removing the knob center allows access to a circlip (IIRC : possibly a screw) that lets you remove the knob, but I decided to leave ours in place, as it appeared to be fully functional.

But really, these are a fair delight to fix, being built before the days on unserviceable PCBs and chips.

[mark]

OP writing:. The machine is a modern one which I bought online. It is still in warranty but I don't want it 'gone away' for weeks if it is something within the realms of my capability (limited!). It does feel as though the dial pushes against a rubbery blob.

mark

[a.ben.campbell]

My knob had been turned too far on my KM010 Chef Titanium. I managed to get mine apart and correct the positioning. Took a few snaps as it was difficult to work out how to start!

[Brian Gaff]

2011? The glue should be dry by now, time to test if it works..:-) Brian

[The Natural Philosopher]

Well that kenwood got its new parts and is still AFAIK working fine.