Parse email. Self-repair of a modern electric stove. Slow heating and shutdown until boiling

Almost all household electrical appliances have in their design such a detail as an electrical plug. It is necessary to connect the device to an electrical outlet. There are many different types and types of this electrical product, they differ in design, purpose, power, material from which they are made, etc. But the electric plug is also the weak link of the household appliance. Very often, it is this part of the home appliance that is the breakdown. In this article, we will talk with you about how to disassemble and change the electrical plug yourself.
Replacing a burned-out one is not difficult; you can do it yourself without resorting to the services of an electrician. But let's get it right.

How to determine that the fork is to blame?

If you see a burnt or charred body of the product, then the reason is in it!
If an electrical appliance stops working for no apparent reason, then the first thing to do is to check the plug for serviceability.

The fork is collapsible. We unwind it and look at the contacts - they can either unscrew or burn out.
The fork is non-separable. We unscrew the cover on the body of the electrical appliance, where the wire from the plug enters. We turn on the device, take a voltmeter or multimeter and check for voltage on the two contacts coming from the plug. If there is no voltage, then either the wire or the electrical plug is to blame.

Disassembly of the electrical plug

As soon as we have determined that the plug is the culprit of the breakdown of the appliance, it must be replaced. And before you make a replacement, you need to disassemble it.

For this operation, you will need the following tool: a flat screwdriver and a Phillips screwdriver (they should be with small stings), a knife, pliers, wire cutters (side cutters).

Collapsible fork. We unscrew the screw or screws connecting the parts of the product case. Different plugs have screws for different screwdrivers - flat, Phillips or the letter "P". Under the latter option, you will have to make a screwdriver yourself by cutting through the middle of a flat screwdriver with a file or a grinder.

We unscrew the wires from the contacts. Here you may also need either a Phillips or flat screwdriver. If the contacts are badly burned or even charred, then we bite off the wire with wire cutters.

The three-phase plug is disassembled according to the same principle - we unscrew the screw connecting the cover and the body, and then disconnect the wires from the contacts.

Replacing the electrical plug with a new one

We find out that it is the electric plug that is to blame for the breakdown of a household electrical appliance.
Let's start with the replacement of an electrical product.

If the failed plug is not disassembled, i.e. cast, then it must simply be cut off from the wire with wire cutters or side cutters.

If the plug can be disassembled, then we do it. After disassembling the plug, we inspect the cores: if they are even a little burnt, then we cut them to good insulation.

After that, we first clean the insulation of the entire wire or cable for about a distance of 4-5 cm. Then we clean the insulation of the cores at a distance of 1.5-2 cm from the ends of the wire. This procedure is performed using a sharp knife and wire cutters. Then, with the help of pliers, we tightly twist each core of the wire so that it does not “shake”. We leave 1 cm of the core, and bite off the rest.

We pass the wire into the hole on the body of the new plug and fix it in a special clamp. Wires with blue and brown insulation (these colors are most often available) are connected to the pins of the plug, and the green-yellow wire is a grounding conductor. If there is no grounding contact on the plug, then this wire can be carefully bitten off.

Now we fix the wire with a plastic jumper, while it is important to press the insulation, and not the core itself.

We put on the outer casing of the plug and fix it with a screw. The appliance with a new plug is ready for use!

Today, the popularity of household appliances powered by electricity is constantly growing, but minor breakdowns sometimes occur during operation. An electric stove is present in every modern kitchen - it is the heart of this room. When the kitchen assistant fails, many home craftsmen are wondering if it is possible to repair the electric stove with their own hands?

Firstly, a home master who decides to repair an electric stove on his own must at least understand electrical appliances, know the elementary basics of electrical engineering and safety rules when carrying out this type of work. Secondly, you need confidence that you can perform such a complex repair, and most importantly, find and fix it. Thirdly, you need to prepare special tool.

When dismantling electric stoves, you will need screwdrivers for various purposes: under a cross or a slot, with different thicknesses, the so-called sting experts. You will definitely need keys - open-end and cap, pliers, wire cutters. For internal work in the body of the product, a soldering iron, side cutters, insulating tape and, of course, a special device for measuring voltage and resistance are useful.

The photo shows only an approximate set of necessary tools - during operation, the range of tools used tends to expand significantly.

The design and main components of the electric stove

The electric stove looks very impressive - it is a complex household appliance, but quite simple, and all the main working elements are in a special heat-resistant housing which is made of stainless steel.

The principle of operation is similar to all electrical household appliances: the current, passing through the heating elements (heater), heats them up to a predetermined temperature. The stove has several burners on the hob, and their number varies: at least two, and the standard is 4 pcs. For example, the Dream 15M budget electric stove has only two burners and a small oven, while the product of Belarusian engineers Hephaestus has a standard set of burners and a large oven.

The structure of the burners quite varied. The classics are burners on an enameled hob with a heating element inside, modern ones are solid ceramic surfaces with various types of heaters built into them. Consider the main types of burners.

Old domestic options are completed with products cast iron, they heat up slowly and also cool down, creating a steam effect in the kitchen, but they are resistant to moisture and high temperatures.
Tubular spirals - they are made from a hollow tube, when heated, such devices not only give off heat, but also promote the circulation of warm air inside their case, which significantly increases the efficiency of their work. These products are very difficult to repair yourself.

ceramic

Halogen devices- these are special burners with a similar emitter, which are installed in different places on the hob. A stove with such burners provides fast heating, in a second, and low power consumption, so they are the most economical, but only professional craftsmen can do repairs.

All models of modern stoves for transmitting current to the burners use power wire special section, in addition, they are connected to regulators and thermostats, providing their protection against overheating.

In different models, the heating level is controlled in different ways: by manually changing the cooking mode or by special timers and signaling devices that control.

Common faults

During the operation of electric stoves, users may encounter such typical malfunctions.

Sometimes when you turn on the product appears burning smell- it is necessary to turn off the stove and inspect the burners, on which the remnants of burnt food could remain, which are easily removed. When there is a smell of burnt plastic or rubber, then you need to call the master.
The heating element does not heat up- this is the fault of the burner or the connecting wires, but first you need to check the controls, maybe the contact has come off there.
Impossible set the optimum temperature heating the burner - it is necessary to repair the switch.
The burner does not heat up- if you have a spiral inside, then it often breaks due to overheating or moisture ingress. In this case, repairing the electric stove is very easy - replace the spiral, that's the whole repair.
- it is necessary to ring the heating elements, 100% it is their fault, replacement is required, because they are not repaired.

Modern electric stoves on heating elements quite often use a cascade-type burner heating thermostat.

power regulator

Sometimes there is a breakdown of such a regulator, which can be found an identical replacement. Experienced masters advise to install triac type such a device, you just need to take it with a margin of power and current strength. In some models, it is installed on the same board along with the heatsink. When the burner of the stove is working at maximum, and the heating adjustment cannot be changed, this indicates that it was the regulator that failed for an unknown reason - it urgently needs to be replaced.

Each user must understand that modern household appliances are crammed with electronics, each model has its own manufacturing and control nuance, different from others - mechanical or electronic. Extraneous interference without special knowledge and skills can adversely affect the delicate filling of electric stoves.

If you have a simple stove with burners on an enameled hob, then you can repair it on your own, after watching the video:

We analyze the principle of operation of a simple circuit

So let's move on. With the load, work and power, we kind of sorted it out in the last article. Well, now, my dear crooked friends, in this article we will read the diagrams and analyze them using past articles.

From the bulldozer, I drew a diagram. Its function is to control a 40 watt lamp with 5 volts. Let's look at it in more detail.

This circuit is hardly suitable for microcontrollers, since the MK leg will not drag the current that the relay eats.

Looking for power sources

The first question we need to ask ourselves is: What is the circuit powered by and where does it get its power from? How many power sources does it have? As you can see here, the circuit has two different power supplies with +5 volts and +24 volts.

We deal with each radio element in the circuit

We recall the purpose of each radio element that occurs in the circuit. We are trying to understand why the developer drew it here.

Terminal block

Here we drive or cling either or another piece of the scheme. In our case, we drive +5 Volts to the upper terminal block, and the lower one, therefore, zero. The same and +24 Volts. We drive +24 Volts to the upper terminal block, and the lower one is also zero.

Chassis grounding.

In principle, calling this icon the earth seems to be possible, but not desirable. In the diagrams, this is how the potential of zero volts is indicated. All voltages in the circuit are counted and measured from it.

How does it act on electricity? When it is in the open position, no current flows through it. When it is in the closed position, the electric current begins to flow freely through it.

Diode .

It allows electricity to flow in only one direction, and blocks the flow of electricity in the other direction. Why it is needed in the diagram, I will explain below.

Electromagnetic relay coil.

If an electric current is applied to it, it will create a magnetic field. And if it smells like a magnet, then all sorts of pieces of iron will rush to the coil. There are key contacts 1-2 on the piece of iron, and they will close together. You can read more about the principle of operation of an electromagnetic relay in this article.

Bulb

We apply voltage to it - the light is on. Everything is elementary and simple.

Basically, diagrams are read from left to right, unless, of course, the developer knows at least a little about the rules for designing diagrams. The diagrams also work from left to right. That is, on the left we drive a signal, and on the right we remove it.

Predicting the direction of the electric current

While the key S is turned off, the circuit is inoperative:

But what happens if we close the key S? Remember the main rule of electric current: current flows from a higher potential to a lower one, or popularly, from plus to minus. Therefore, after closing the key, our circuit will look like this:

An electric current will run through the coil, it will attract contacts 1-2, which in turn will close and cause an electric current in the +24 Volt circuit. As a result, the lamp will light up. If you know what a diode is, you will surely understand that no electric current will flow through it, since it only passes in one direction, and now the current direction for it is the opposite.

So, what is the diode for in this circuit?

Do not forget the property of inductance, which says: when the key is opened, a self-induction emf is formed in the coil, which maintains initial current and can reach very high values.. What's with the inductance? In the circuit, the inductor icon is nowhere to be found ... but there is a relay coil, which is just an inductance. What will happen if we sharply fold the key S to its original position? The magnetic field of the coil is immediately converted into an EMF of self-induction, which will tend to maintain an electric current in the circuit. And in order to put this electric current that has arisen somewhere, we just have a diode in the circuit ;-). That is, when turned off, the picture will be like this:

It turns out a closed loop relay coil ---> diode, in which the self-induction EMF is attenuated and converted into heat on the diode.

Now let's assume that we do not have a diode in the circuit. When the key is opened, the picture would be like this:

A small spark would slip between the contacts of the key (highlighted with a blue circle), since the self-induction EMF is trying with all its might support current in the circuit. This spark negatively affects the contacts of the key, as carbon deposits remain on them, which wears them out over time. But that's not the worst part yet. Since the self-induction EMF can be very large in amplitude, this also negatively affects the radio elements that can go BEFORE the relay coil.

This impulse can easily pierce semiconductors and harm them up to a complete failure of functioning. Currently, diodes are already built into the relay itself, but not yet in all instances. So don't forget to call the relay coil for the embedded diode.

I think now everyone understands how the circuit should work. In this circuit, we looked at how voltage behaves. But electric current is not only voltage. If you have not forgotten, electric current is characterized by such parameters as directivity, voltage and current strength. Also, do not forget about such concepts as power allocated to the load and load resistance. Yes, all this must be taken into account.

We calculate the current strength and power

When considering circuits, we do not need to calculate the current strength, power, and so on, to the nearest penny. It is enough to understand approximately what current strength will be in this circuit, what power will be released on this radio element, and so on.

So, let's go over the current strength in each branch of the circuit already when the key S is turned on.

Let's look at the diode first. Since in this case there is a plus on the cathode of the diode, therefore, it will be locked. That is, at the moment, the current through it will be some microamperes. You could say almost nothing. That is, it does not affect the included circuit in any way. But as I wrote above, it is needed in order to dampen the jump in the self-induction EMF when the circuit is turned off.

relay coil. Already more interesting. The relay coil is a solenoid. What is a solenoid? This is a wire wound on a cylindrical frame. And our wire has some kind of resistance, therefore, we can say in this case the relay coil is a resistor. Therefore, the current strength in the coil circuit will depend on how thick the wire is wound and what the wire is made of. In order not to measure every time, there is a plate that I stole from my fellow competitor from the article electromagnetic relay:

Since we have a 5 volt relay coil, it turns out that the current through the coil will be about 72 milliamps, and the power consumption will be 360 milliwatts. What do these numbers actually tell us? Yes, that a 5 volt power supply should at least deliver more than 360 milliwatts to the load. Well, we figured out the relay coil, and at the same time with a 5 volt power source.

Next, relay contacts 1-2. What current will flow through them? Our lamp is 40 watts. Therefore: P=IU, I=P/U=40/24=1.67 Amps. Basically normal current. If you got any abnormal current, for example, more than 100 amperes, then you should be on your guard. Also, do not forget about the power supply of 24 volts, so that this power supply can output more than 40 watts of power without straining.

Summary

Schemes are read from left to right (there are rare exceptions).

Determine where the circuit has power.

We recall the value of each radio element.

We look at the direction of electric current in the circuit.

We look at what should happen in the circuit if power is applied to it.

We calculate approximately the current strength in the circuits and the power allocated to the radio elements in order to make sure that the circuit will really work and there are no anomalous parameters in it.

With a strong desire, you can run the circuit through the simulator, for example, through the modern Every Circuit, and look at various parameters of interest to us.

Providing detailed instructions with video tutorials. Today I would like to pay more attention to the procedure for disassembling and assembling a water heating tank of 10-80 liters, because. There are several design options that differ from each other. The relevance of the issue lies in the fact that if it is incorrect to remove the heating element or electronic elements, you can break them, which, of course, is undesirable. Next, we will tell you how to disassemble a water heater with various types of mounting heating elements from manufacturers such as Termex, Ariston, Goreniya, etc.

Central nut 55

If you need to dismantle a water heating tank, in which the heating element is fixed at the bottom with a large hex nut, as in the photo below, you can do everything quickly.

First of all, disconnect the boiler from the mains and water supply. Before unscrewing the flexible hoses, do not forget to shut off the cold water supply. After disconnecting, you need to drain the water from the water tank, which can be easily done using this video instruction:

Proper water drainage

When the water is drained, you need to disassemble the bottom cover of the water heater housing, which is usually fastened with 2 self-tapping screws. Under the cover you will find this large nut and the thermostat, which also needs to be removed by disconnecting the terminals that fit it. Now that you have free access to the nut, take a gas wrench No. 2 or a hub wrench for 55, both can be seen in the photo:

It is necessary to unscrew the heating element of the water heater for self-repair counterclockwise. To make it more convenient to completely disassemble the storage boiler with your own hands, remove it from the wall and turn it upside down. When the nut is unscrewed, carefully remove the heating element by shaking it slightly from side to side.

Since after draining the water from the tank, a small part of it may remain inside, it is recommended to place a bucket under the boiler during disassembly so that the remnants flow into it, and not onto the floor. And another tip - if the scale interferes with the removal of the heating element, use a solid non-metallic object to try to slightly clean the hole and the heating element itself.

Oval flange

If you have a newer water heater, then its design will be different. The heating element in this case can be removed by unscrewing the clamping bar. The peculiarity of disassembling the case of such a model is that in no case should the boiler be disassembled by turning it upside down, as the “unfortunate master” shows in this video:

You can't do that!

You can see for yourself that after disassembly, the heating element fell into the tank, which is enameled so that the tank does not rust from the inside. Of course, when metal hits metal, both the heating element and the internal coating of the water heater can be damaged, which cannot be repaired on your own.

Based on this, in order to disassemble the storage water heater with an oval flange, it is necessary to do everything without removing the boiler. The assembly of the product is carried out in the reverse order.

Bolts around

A fairly popular design, which is found in heaters of the Termex, Ariston, Polaris and Burning brands, is the fastening of the heating element flange with bolts in a circle. These bolts can be 4, 5 or 6, depending on the model.

In order to disassemble an electric boiler of this type, it is necessary, as in previous cases, to turn off the mains power and drain the water. After that, it is better to unscrew the check valve, which may interfere. One of the frequent difficulties that arise when completely disassembling a water heater with your own hands can be finding the screws that fix the plastic cover. If you cannot find the attachment points, tear off the stickers on this cover. Sometimes manufacturers hide the caps of self-tapping screws under the "nameplate".

When you dismantle the thermostat and all interfering wires, you can begin to unscrew the bolts on the water heater. They are best unscrewed with a socket wrench of the appropriate size.

How to remove all parts for cleaning or repair?

By the way, Ariston in some of his storage boilers of this design does not use bolts, but rather nuts that are screwed onto the studs, as shown in the photo above.

In more expensive models of water heaters, when completely disassembled, you can see a bunch of wires and 2 heating elements installed next to each other. You can disassemble such a device by analogy with the previous instructions, however, we recommend that you take a picture of the correct connection of all wires before disconnecting them, so as not to get confused later and quickly assemble the tank.

A device with a dry heater can be disassembled in exactly the same way, so you should not have any questions about how to proceed.

That's all I wanted to tell you about how to disassemble a Termex, Ariston or Polaris water heater. We hope that the disassembly procedure was clear to you. If you have any questions, ask them in our

Household appliances for cooking are widely used by mankind and the leader of them, perhaps, is the electric kettle. But the service life of any electrical appliance is not eternal and there comes a moment when you turn on the electric kettle, but the water does not heat up.

An electric kettle is one of the simplest household electrical appliances, and in many cases it is quite easy to repair it with your own hands, even if you do not have electrical engineering skills.

The principle of operation and the electrical circuit of the electric kettle

To repair an electric kettle, you need to know how it works. This is easy to do electrically. Although there are many models of kettles, they are all assembled according to the same electrical circuit, regardless of their appearance and capacity. There are some differences in the schemes, for example, the presence of a timer, but the basis of the scheme is still preserved.

The electric kettle works as follows. Through an electric plug, the mains voltage is supplied with a flexible cord to the XP1 contacts of the stand, on which the electric kettle is installed when water is heated. At the base of the kettle there are reciprocal contacts, which, when placed on the stand, are connected to the contacts on the stand.

Next, the current passes through the thermal switch S1, which is turned on using the button on the kettle and turns off automatically when the water boils. The thermal protection switch S2 is not directly involved in the operation, it is always on and only works if the body overheats, if the kettle is turned on without water. From the switches, voltage is supplied to the outputs of the tubular electric heater, in short - TEN. The HL lamp serves to indicate the on state.

The device of the nodes of the electric kettle

If the voltage of an electrical appliance is different from 220 V, for example, a 12 V car electric kettle, then you can calculate the current consumption using an online calculator.

Attention! When repairing an electric kettle and any other household electrical appliances included in the household network, extreme caution should be exercised. Touching an unprotected part of the human body to live wires and live parts can cause serious damage to health, up to cardiac arrest. Don't forget to unplug the kettle!

How to disassemble an electric kettle

To accurately determine the cause and eliminate the malfunction, it is necessary to remove the cover from the bottom of the kettle. When removing the cover, you may encounter some difficulties.

Usually the bottom cover is screwed to the base of the electric kettle with slotted screws for a Phillips screwdriver. Sometimes the heads of the self-tapping screws are recessed into the cover and closed with decorative caps, which must be removed with a sharp object to be able to unscrew the screws.

Some manufacturers, in order to complicate the possibility of self-repairing the electric kettle, install all or one of the screws with a slot under the shaft of a two-pronged fork screwdriver, which is called Spanne, as in this photograph. A Spanne type screwdriver is rarely available from home craftsmen. In the absence of such a screwdriver, you can unscrew the self-tapping screw using side cutters or tweezers.

If it is not possible to unscrew the screw in this way, then with your own hands you need to make a special screwdriver from a screwdriver with a flat sting, making a selection in the middle of it for the slot profile using a needle file.

When repairing, it sometimes happens that a plastic screw cannot be unscrewed. In this case, you can try to move the screw from its place in the direction of twisting. If it wobbles, it will unscrew easily.

If the self-tapping screw cannot be unscrewed in this way, then you need to heat it with a soldering iron by attaching a sting to the head. The plastic from the heat around the threads of the self-tapping screw will soften, and it will easily unscrew. The stand of the electric kettle is also disassembled using the same technology.

In some models of electric kettles, after unscrewing the screws, the cover can be easily removed. But more often it is additionally fixed around the entire perimeter with latches. There are models in which the lid is held only by latches.

The upper part of the photograph shows a lid with a latch, and the lower part shows the base of the kettle with a square hole into which the latch goes when the lid is in place. On the right side of the base, one of the latches of the kettle handle got into the frame.

To release the latches, you have to carefully insert the flat tip of the screwdriver into different places where the cover and the body meet in search of the location of the latch.

When it was possible to remove one of the latches from the hole, the screwdriver is left in this place and the second screwdriver is looking for the next latch located nearby. When a couple of latches are released, the rest are no longer clamped, and the cover can be easily removed. Often removing the cover from the base is more difficult than fixing the problem.

The electric kettle does not heat water, the indicator light is on

By this behavior, it is easiest to determine the malfunction. As can be seen from the electrical diagram, the indicator light or backlight is connected directly to the terminals put on the terminals of the heating element. Therefore, if the light is on, and the kettle does not heat the water, then the cause of the malfunction lies in the poor contact of the terminals with the terminals of the heating element or the breakage of the spiral inside it.

Restoring contact in the slip-on terminals

After removing the lid from the base of the kettle and inspecting the connecting contacts, the cause of the breakdown became obvious. One of the contacts of the heating element was burned, and the terminal practically hung in the air.

On the second output of the heating element, the terminal was also in poor condition, all turned black along with the contact. It's amazing how an electric kettle could heat water before.

The terminal was all burned out, and its further use was impossible. The contact on the output of the heating element, although partially burned, did not require springy properties from it, and the remaining part after stripping will completely provide good contact.

There was no new terminal available and I had to use a used terminal. If there is nowhere to get a new terminal, then you can use the terminal from the stand, with which the ground wire (yellow-green wire) is connected. In the vast majority of apartments, the electrical wiring does not have a grounding conductor, and the removal of this terminal will not affect the operation of the kettle.

Before using the old terminal, it must be freed from the wires pressed into it. To do this, you need to clamp the terminal as in the photo with small pliers and a faceted awl, pressing and rotating it, push the antennae apart. The remaining wires will fall out and the terminal will be ready for reuse.

In the photo on the left you can see two wires that were pressed into the terminal. The supply voltage is supplied through a thick stranded wire, and through a thin single-core wire it is supplied to a neon light bulb or a water illumination system. These wires must be pushed into the terminal shank and crimped with pliers, after which the terminal will be ready for connection to the heating element.

At the next step, you need to polish the contact on the output of the heating element on both sides with fine sandpaper to a shine. After that, it remains to put the terminal on this contact, and reliable electrical contact will be provided.

After removing the terminal from the second contact, it turned out that both the terminal itself and the contact on the heating element were in good condition, only covered with oxide. After removing the black coating from the contact with sandpaper, it became like new. Before putting on the terminal for better contact, it was slightly squeezed with round-nose pliers. To remove oxides from the internal contact surfaces of the terminal, it must be put on and removed several times on the flat contact of the heating element.

On this repair can be considered completed. It remains, without installing the bottom cover in place, pour water into the kettle to the minimum mark and check its performance. If the kettle did not begin to heat the water, then most likely the spiral of the heating element is broken, but there may be other reasons. In order to continue further troubleshooting, you must first check the health of the heating element. It is impossible to replace the heating element in an electric kettle, since it is welded to its base. This kettle is beyond repair.

Repair of welded contacts

A glass electric kettle of the Polaris PWK 1719CGL model with a backlight was repaired, in which, when turned on, the indicator was on, but the water did not heat up. Such a malfunction indicated a violation of the contact at the connection point of the heating element leads.

The bottom cover was easily removed after unscrewing the three screws. I liked the build quality. The assumption was confirmed, in this model, the connection to the electrical circuit was made not in the traditional way using the captive terminals, but by spot welding of a flat brass wire directly with the output of the heating element, one of which moved away. Obviously, due to a violation of technology, the conductor was poorly welded.

A slight mechanical impact by hand on the second flat wire also led to its falling off. The flat conductors were connected to the electric circuit of the kettle with the help of captive terminals. They were removed and the wires were brought under the terminals of the heating element from below, as shown in the photo.

For reliable contact of the flat conductors with the leads, they were pressed with screws using metal strips. The strips were taken from the Soviet power plug (they pressed the power wire) and the socket. When installing the slats, make sure that they do not touch the metal body of the kettle.

Checking the electric kettle showed its excellent work. Boiled water was beautifully illuminated with blue light thanks to the LED backlight. I liked the design of the kettle, as well as the build quality. It is a pity that the welding of wires with the leads of the heating element turned out to be of poor quality. After the described repair, the electric kettle has been working flawlessly for several years.

The electric kettle does not heat water, the power indicator does not light up

Like any other electrical appliance, the electric kettle is connected to the mains using a C6 type electrical plug, and the first thing to do if the kettle does not heat water is to make sure that the plug is working and there is voltage in the socket. You can check the outlet by connecting any electrical appliance to it, for example, a table lamp.

Repair of the contact group of the electric kettle with a stand

Since voltage is supplied to the electric kettle through the stand by touching its contacts with the contacts of the current collector, it is necessary to check the contact pairs for burning by external inspection. A sign of contact failure in the contact pair appears at an early stage, and manifests itself in the need to rotate the kettle on the stand in order for it to start heating water. To prevent more serious consequences, it is necessary to immediately clean the contacts from carbon deposits.

To check, you need to turn the kettle over and inspect the condition of the contact rings. In the photo of this kettle, the inner ring on the left side is oxidized and burned out by a few millimeters. To restore the contact surface, it is enough to clean it to a shine with sandpaper. The ring contact became bad due to insufficient pressure and oxidation of the contact located in the stand.

Flat contact plates in the contact node of the stand are fastened with screws or hooks. To remove a plate fixed with hooks, you must first remove the plastic insert with a screwdriver, and then, having picked up the hook with an awl, remove the plate.

After removing the cover from the stand and removing the contact plate, from which the current was supplied to the burnt ring, it became obvious that the end of the plate was bent, and the contact area was badly burned. The contact plate itself, although it darkened a little from heating, did not lose its springy properties. After restoring the shape of the plate and sanding the surface of the contact pad with sandpaper, the plate was installed in its original place.

After installing the contact plate, before screwing the bottom onto the stand, attach it to the bottom of the kettle and make sure that the contact plate moves a couple of millimeters, the contact fits in the center and does not cling to the walls of the stand. If everything is so, then you can screw the bottom to the stand and test the kettle after repair by boiling water in it.

But not always so lucky. There are contacts that are burned to such an extent that stripping and straightening the plate no longer helps and you have to replace part of the plate with a new one. The photo on the left shows a contact that burned almost to the ground. To replace it, you need to cut off the plate with contact to the first bend, clean the surface of the remaining plate to a shine with sandpaper and tin it with solder.

If there is an old electric kettle and the contacts in the stand are in good condition, then you can use them for repairs. A new replacement plate can also be taken from any powerful relay, such as a RPU. There are relays even with silver contacts.

A plate of the required length is bitten off from the relay, bent and tinned with solder. Next, the prepared contact plate is pressed against the pre-tinned stand plate, and the assembly is heated with a soldering iron. As a result, the contact element of the stand becomes no worse than a new one.

After installing the contacts in the stand, it is necessary, as after the previous repair, to check the accuracy of their positioning and freedom of movement. The photo shows a stand in which both contacts were replaced by soldering.

Kettle switch button repair

Another malfunction of electric kettles that I had to meet was a failure in the handle of the power control button.

The switch may not work due to the failure of the switching mechanism or the breakage of the key, which happened to the kettle that came to me for repair.

An autopsy showed that one of the axes, with which the key is fixed in the pen body, broke off. As you can see in the photo, the left axle is missing. At first glance, it seems that it is impossible to repair a key, but if you think about it, you can often find a way to restore a broken plastic part.

For repair, a curly brace shown in the photograph was bent from a copper wire with a diameter of 2 mm. The bracket can be made from aluminum wire and even from a nail. The diameter is selected based on the diameter of the axle seat in the kettle handle.

After the plastic hardened, the key was installed in the handle. The test showed that the button began to work no worse than before the breakdown. With daily use, the electric kettle has been working flawlessly for more than a year.

Kettle switch repair

The switch in an electric kettle is placed on the handle or at the base. The switch may not work due to burnt contacts, oxidation of the bimetallic disk (when water boils, water vapor enters it and the disk may rust over time), weakening of the flat spring, or wear of plastic parts.

The photo shows the electric kettle switch removed from the handle. It is small in size and works exactly the same way as any wall switch. The only difference is that it is able to automatically turn off when water boils.

By the way, the switch is a complete independent product and can be used for emergency shutdown of any electrical appliance when the temperature in the controlled area reaches more than 100°C.

Two stable positions of the switch are provided by a flat, curved spring. In the photo on the left, the kettle switch is in the upper off position. In the right picture in the lower position, when the electric kettle is turned on in the water heating mode. The switch slider is connected to the contacts and thus, when moving from one stable state to another, it closes or opens the contacts, thus turning the kettle on or off.

If the switch key is not fixed, then the flat spring is to blame. It may lose elasticity or pop out. To restore the circuit breaker, it is enough to remove the flat spring and slightly increase the radius of its arc (straighten it).

A bimetallic disc is installed at the bottom of the switch. When heated from steam, the tongue of the disk moves up, through the pusher it presses on the engine and it moves to the upper stable position, opens the contacts, thereby turning off the power supply to the heating element.

Another malfunction that occurs in electric kettles is the burnout of the contacts in the switch. Contacts can be placed directly next to the power key or away from it. In this case, the connection of the key with the contacts is carried out using plastic rods.

In the photo on the left, thermal protection contacts, they practically do not work and are always in perfect condition. On the right is the switch contacts, which open frequently and therefore always burn out. To clean them, you need to attach a strip of sandpaper to a narrow tool, for example, to a flat screwdriver blade and remove carbon deposits with reciprocating movements. You can also use a file.

In the handles of some models of electric kettles, closed-type switches are installed and it must be disassembled to clean the contacts.

To disassemble, you need to unscrew one screw and remove the switch from the handle. Next, drown two small latches that are located on the sides of the switch and pull the part with the contacts out of the case by the wires. Contacts will become available, and all that remains is to clean them in the manner described above. When disassembling, you should not lose a small pusher that connects the bimetallic plate with the moving part. Without it, the kettle will not turn off.

How to fix a water leak from an electric kettle

When repairing electric kettles, I had to deal with their leakage in the following places:

at the junction of the measuring window with the body (repair is not advisable, since sealing the crack with any adhesive composition gives a short effect);
from a crack in a plastic case (cannot be repaired at home);
at the junction of the metal bottom-disk with the flask of the kettle.

Therefore, when buying a new electric kettle, instead of a broken one due to a cracked body, I purchased a kettle with a glass flask. I hoped that the electric kettle would never give a fatal leak, since the glass case, with careful handling, is almost eternal, and the leak that occurred at the junction of the glass with a metal base can be successfully eliminated.

After several years of operation of a glass electric kettle, water began to appear on its contact pad after boiling water, which also dripped from the bottom. After each boil, the puddle of water on the platform became larger, and drops from the bottom of the kettle dripped more and more often. I had to get it repaired.

To determine the location of the water leak, it was necessary, by unscrewing two screws in the upper part of the handle and three screws holding the lower part, to disassemble the electric kettle.

After disconnecting the bottom, to continue the repair, it remains only to remove the cap terminals from the contacts of the heating element and the overheating protection system. To avoid problems during assembly, before removing the terminals, you should remember or draw which of the terminals, which of the contacts was put on.

The glass flask was sealed to the bottom with silicone sealant. Upon careful inspection of the joint, it was found that at the plant, as a result of a violation of the gluing technology, air bubbles formed in several places in the silicone seam. Over time, water began to flow through one of them.

At first I wanted to seal with silicone only the water leaks, but there was no certainty that the leak would not appear in a new place. Therefore, it was decided to detach the glass flask from the bottom, and glue them again.

Using a knife blade, the silicone was cut to the maximum possible depth, both along the inner seam and from the outside. After that, the glass flask was separated from the bottom with little effort.

Next, the remnants of the old silicone were completely removed from the mating surfaces with a knife, and then the glued surfaces were degreased with a solvent (acetone or alcohol is suitable). If there is no solvent at hand, then you can wash the surfaces with hot water and baking soda or laundry soap, and be sure to dry before gluing. In addition, the surface of the metal bottom was polished to a shine with sandpaper.

The bottom of the kettle is made of stainless steel, which was checked with a neodymium magnet - it was not attracted to the bottom. But to my surprise, in the place where there was a leak, a hole appeared, shown in the photograph. How a hole could form in stainless steel remains a mystery to me, perhaps this is a factory defect.

The hole was formed in the lower part of the pairing of the glass bulb and the bottom, and when glued together, it would be closed with a sealant. But I decided everything, using an electric soldering iron, close the hole with soft solder.

The choice of sealant for gluing

The surfaces of the parts of the electric kettle are prepared for gluing and it is time to choose a sealant, which must be harmless to the human body, withstand temperatures up to +180 ° C and be elastic. Silicone sealants fully comply with the requirements.

The best of them is the RTV 118 Q food grade silicone adhesive sealant from the American manufacturer, which can withstand temperatures up to +260°C. But the price of an 82 ml tube of this sealant is comparable to the cost of a new electric kettle.

There is a silicone sealant of the Russian manufacturer VGO-1 on the market, which is also intended for sealing the joints of pipes for hot and cold water supply, which can withstand temperatures up to + 260 ° C. It is packaged in tubes of 300 ml, but it is also expensive and costs like half the price of a teapot. To seal the electric kettle, you need no more than 20 ml of silicone, so it is economically feasible to purchase a VGO-1 tube if you plan to use it for other work.

When choosing a silicone sealant, a reasonable question arose. Do manufacturers of electric kettles, and they are all made in China regardless of the brand, use expensive food grade silicone? The answer is obvious, they use the cheapest sealant for sealing. Therefore, I came to the conclusion that the simplest silicone sealant, in which there are no additives, is quite suitable. After several boilings of water, even if there are contraindicated substances in the sealant, they will all dissolve in water and the silicone will become safe for the human body.

At hand there was a universal construction silicone sealant Soudal, which I decided to use. There are no additives in its composition and the sealant withstands temperatures up to +180 ° C, which is quite enough for the heat resistance of the joint.

Gluing parts of an electric kettle

It remains to take the most crucial step - fill the bottom groove around the entire circumference with silicone sealant and insert a glass flask into it. Before applying the sealant, the surfaces must be degreased with alcohol or a solvent.

The bottom area mating with the glass flask was large, so after applying the sealant strip, I had to smear it with a screwdriver blade.

The glass flask was inserted into the bottom groove. Excess silicone squeezed out by the flask was removed with a rag soaked in soapy water. Then the seams, to give a beautiful look, are aligned with a finger dipped in soapy water. The picture shows the result of the work.

Checking the tightness of the connection of the kettle parts

Bulk silicone typically hardens at room temperature at a rate of 2 mm per day. Taking into account the fact that the depth of the seam in the glued electric kettle was about 10 mm, I had to set it aside for a week, and only after that carry out tests.

For testing, the electric kettle was connected to the mains disassembled, directly, without a protection and control system. To do this, terminals were put on the ends of the cord with a plug, which were then put on directly on the contacts of the heating element. The kettle has been placed in the working position, water has been poured into it and then the plug has been inserted into the socket. It is unacceptable to leave the electric kettle with such a switching scheme unattended.

According to the scheme, all Soviet electric kettles were previously connected directly and you had to wait until the water boiled and turn them off manually by removing the plug from the outlet.

A few minutes later the water boiled. There were no traces of water leaks, silicone sealant reliably sealed the junction of the parts. To prevent accidental harmful impurities from entering the water from the silicone seam, after assembling the kettle, three portions of water were boiled in it with its complete replacement.

Attention! It is unacceptable to pour cold water into any heated electric kettle, immediately after completely draining the boiled water from it. Due to thermal shock, microcracks may occur in the body of the kettle, from which water will begin to flow over time.

I note that this glass teapot, after the repair described above, has been serving flawlessly for more than three years. I didn't even have to clean the contacts.

How to clean an electric kettle from rust

Over time, due to rusty metal water pipes, despite the transparency of the water flowing from the tap and even its subsequent filtration, rust deposits form on the inner surface of the electric kettle. Many do not like it, and obviously it does not bring health benefits.

The easiest and safest rust remover is citric acid, which is available at any grocery store.

To remove rust, you need to fill at least half the electric kettle with water and pour one sachet of citric acid into it.

Next, turn on the kettle and bring the water to a boil. Rust marks can be removed from the top edges and lid with a brush dipped in boiling water. Water turns brown after boiling. If there are several kettles in the house, then water can be poured into each of them and boiled again.

After boiling, let the kettle cool, drain the rusty water and rinse with clean water. As you can see in the photo, the electric kettle began to look like new, citric acid completely dissolved the rust.

As you can see, repairing an electric kettle with your own hands is not at all difficult, and if desired, any home master can do it.

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