I'm looking for the sort of thing I have on a worktop oven, knob which you rotate to turn the power on and it winds down on clockwork, giving you a maximum of 1 hour power. Ideally capable of switching 13A, but it would be easy enough to add a relay.
For reasons I won't bore you with, I'd rather not have anything electronic.
TIA
you need a dead microwave.
NT
newshound has brought this to us :
Bull Electrical always used to be good for these types of unusual things..
Their web site seems not to be well maintained now, numerous broken links.
Is this what you want, BUT made in HongKong and 2 pin.
Or this from B&Q................
Sounds like something they had in billiard halls for the lights.
I wonder if those pneumatic light switches used in the common areas of flats can be adjusted or modified for 1 hour delay.
That exact thing is avaavailable from catering equiequipment spares suppliers eg
Owain
Well maybe a bomber is reading this... Brian
A total of 5 products listed. Everything else is broken or 3rd party links. They used to be useful decades ago, though hardly respectable.
NT
Thanks, I really wanted something to be permanently wired in. Obviously, I could canibalise the Chinese one.
Thanks, link noted for future reference. Bit expensive though given that my little oven was only about £40. And it doesn't even come with a knob!
£30? looks like the one my £8 Argos steamer has.
They can be adjusted but at the longer end of the delay time are very sensitive to the adjustment screw. ie it'll change when fixed back to the wall box...
Can you get motor driven 1 hour plug in timers? They are normally
24hr. Grab the guts of one of those and rewire the motor to the switched side. Turn it so it switches on, it'll run until it switches off.In article , Tim+ writes
+1
Well their 24hr mechanical timers are s**te.
see if you can blag a skipped microwave.
FWIW you can buy a switch like that with a (rather poor) microwave attached from tescos for £35 IIRC
Vheaper to pop down to tescos and buy their microwave
Timer Relay, 0 ? 120 min, DPDT, 250 V ac - £20
Well spotted, thanks! I didn't think to look in there!
There are these which are pneumatic and factory-set, apparently go up to 90 mins:
They work OK. Though I'd say their advantages are more in the sense of having a plug that's reasonably obvious to use and can't be trivially defeated by the user, rather than the superiority of pneumatics over electronics.
(the site has a certain degree of greenwash too)
Theo
Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
Ask the community — no account required