Replace Bosch Oven Light - GGrrrr

[Andy Burns]

I removed the door, all the shelves, tried rubber gloves, tried work gloves with rubber grip-dots ... the only thing that worked was the bosch tool

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

No the loose particles might get into the food.

I assume you have gone around the edge with a thin knife to see if its hardened grot that is the problem? Seems odd for it to be a screw in type, most of the ones I've seen have some kind of latching device that pushes pulls or twists. Brian

[charles]

where it's located makes that an almost impossible project.

[Johnny B Good]

Even cheaper:-

[Johnny B Good]

That was my impression too. :-(

Yep! That too :(

It's a stainless sheet steel construction with a hole punched out and the edges formed into a single screw thread matching that of the glass cover. It minimises the area of contact with the glass in the hope of minimising the strength of the 'glue bond line' that forms over the years of utter neglect between actual lamp failures.

Reading this reminded me about the last time I was forced to remove these covers in order to replace a lamp some two or three years back. Thus reminded that the time to give them their annual (biennual?) routine extraction/clean up/insertion cycle was now probably way overdue, I decided to check the lamp fixtures in our Bosch double oven to see whether the great care I had taken to NOT over-tighten both covers _and_ lamps had actually done some good.

Whilst the covers _and_ the lamps seemed a bit tight initially, I _was_ able to extract them without much difficulty (at least to the extent of thoughts "There MUST be a special tool for this!" not springing to mind like the last time I did this job).

The main fan assisted oven which only gets used one or twice a year (Christmas time) was, as I expected, the easiest to check out (but still surprisingly tight to start with). That lamp is tucked away into the upper right hand back corner, suitably angled to illuminate the oven interior. I guess this helps minimise the inevitable build up of crud as well as make it a little easier to get a hand grip on the cover.

The upper toaster/oven, otoh, locates the lamp dead centre in its roof in amongst the toaster elements just like you described. This is the one that sees frequent and regular use so I was expecting this to prove a little harder to deal with. It was, but not enough to consider spending over a fiver on a "Use once every five years" lamp cover extraction aid.

The glass cover, unlike that of the main oven cover glass, was in a far from pristine state, so I landed up making a near futile attempt to clean off the brown varnish coating from the textured surface moulded into the glass (it really does need the use of a small wire brush to do this justice).

However, a 100% or so boost in light transmission justifies the ten minutes or so I'd spent on removing something like 50% or so of this light absorbent coating (especially as I'm using a 25W pygmy oven lamp rather than an over-priced Bosch 40W original - the main oven meanwhile, remains blessed with a full fat 40W replacement).

The cheaper 15W pygmy oven lamps will still fit the Bosch oven lamp holders so are worth having in the kitchen spares drawer as cheap 'get you by spare'. Even better if you can spot any of these in the 25W rating since the reduction in light output is far less than that of the more commonly available 15W lamps (but any amount of illumination is better than none at all).

The key to saving on the expense of a 'special extraction tool' in this case, would appear to be adding a reminder to every new kitchen calendar you buy, to check them over once a year (November seems as good a choice of month as any). And, of course, not forgetting to take great care to not over-tighten the covers or the lamps when re-fitting them. ;)

[Johnny B Good]

That idea did cross my mind until a check on ours, after 2 or 3 years of 'neglect', proved that the care I's taken in refitting the covers avoids the need for any such investment, especially if you check them annually.;)

However, for anyone else who feels that the use of such an extraction aid is the only way forward, there seems an even cheaper option to DIY such a tool when you don't have a 3D printer to hand. :->

If you don't already have your own stock of Polymorph, you can always order a 100g pack for under 6 quid delivered from a UK seller on Ebay (avoiding the slow boat from China delay).

For example:-

And, even cheaper!:-

I've known about this stuff for quite a few years now but never got round to buying any until just now - I've just added the 250g pack to my shopping trolley.

It's an option worth considering, especially with a double oven when you might be struggling with only one of the cover glasses and have the other one, literally, to hand for use as a mould.

More information on this useful material here:-

[Johnny B Good]

My own (and seemingly others') experience suggests Bosch may have designed the thin pressed out of stainless steel threaded plate glass cover holder to do exactly the opposite, ie tighten it up in response to such vibration and/or thermal cycling. :->

[Johnny B Good]

That reminds me of the joke:-

BOYFRIEND:- "I don't know what you're complaining about, this steak doesn't seem all that tough."

GIRLFRIEND:- "That's because I've just spent the last ten minutes chewing on it!"

Boom, boom! :->