Repair Tefal induction hob

[ajh]

I bought a single hob portable induction cooker a few years ago and didn't get on with the few power settings it offered.

Six months ago I took to use it for frying as it was a lot quicker than my ceramic hob. Then I discovered it was good for my pressure cooker and when the kettle failed it was just as good for bringing water to the boil.

Thus it was getting regular use until today when it would not power up, I checked the 3pin socket and plug and that was fine and as there was no life or error messages it must be the hob that is faulty.

Tefal offer a repair service but for a sixty quid (£84 now) appliance I cannot see it being worth a professional having a look.

Has anyone had any success with DIY induction cooker repairs?

[me9]

I'm sure my Tefal cost less than that!

Mine failed (not a Tefal) and was replaced by a Tefal.

Eventually I opened teh old one and discovered teh fault was an open circuit heat fuse located in the centre of the element. Replacd that at a cost of <£1 and now I have a spare induction hob.

[Brian Gaff]

Still not quite sure how this helped his kettle. The induction hobs need to have a ferrous metal container on them to work. As an aside, I notice you can now get 1 and two unit ones that speak as well for reasonable prices from Cobalt Systems. I doubt if they make the hob bit but it is good to have spoken confirmation of what you are doing. Brian

[SteveW]

It is as quick to boil water in a pan on an induction hob as in a kettle, so the kettle is simply not missed.

I do still use a kettle to make tea/coffee, but heat water from cold on the hob when cooking - with the previous, non-induction, hob, we always used to boil water in the kettle first and then put it in the pan for cooking, as the kettle was quicker. The induction hob, on boost, can hit around 4.5kW!

[ajh]

Thanks for that, I suspect much the same as there is no life in it, so shall find my security bits and open it up.

[ajh]

Precisely

[Tim Lamb]

Our Quooker supplies hot water for saving induction hob cooking times as well as making tea and coffee.

[Rod Speed]

Does it tell you how much water is in it ?

If not I don't need to be told anything else, the on off switch is obvious by feel and its obvious when its heating by sound and when its turned itself off when its hot enough.

[ajh]

You are just trying to make me jealous; it is still on my wish list. In the meanwhile I boil water in kettles to do washing up as the hot water takes 40seconds to run hot in the kitchen.

[ajh]

I have opened it up and there only seem to be 3 thermistors in the middle of the element , embedded in dried out heat conducting paste which was stuck to the hob underside.

There is an open circuit 250V 12A fuse near the power cable inlet.

I wonder why that blew, we do have a high grid voltage here 247.7 currently.

[ajh]

I see now they are transistors of some sort, 2 with forward voltages of

1.6V and the other first reacts with 2.2V and then goes open circuit within half a second

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

Nothing to lose, replace it and see what happens when you switch it on?

[ajh]

True and I will do it but was just pondering why it may have blown.

[phister]

Overloaded, with the magnetic coupling material..?

[ajh]

I would be surprised if any of my pots could do that. Anyway I have de soldered the blown fuse and ordered some replacements from china, I suspect the fuse blowing was a symptom of a more serious fault but we shall see.