Creda Contour regulator access

[Mareng]

Creda Contour Cooker, radiant hobs, Spec : 48424
s/n 06 100 127
year about 1993
How does one access the regulators, I have removed all the screws from around the front panel , it has moved a bit , but I don’t want to damage it if there is something else to remove.
3 screws on the top with the hot plate carrier lifted.
2 screws underneath when you open the top oven door (one each end)
2 countersunk screws on the outside
Any that I have missed?
Is it just gunge holding it?

I have tested the ring and got about 30 ohms
Tested the supply and it is not steady either 230 or 0.1
Tested another regulator and got 230v right through the range as you should.

[electrofix]

cant find a pic of this one but a lot of slot in cookers from years ago mean taking the sides to gain access to the controls and its not easy even then

Dave

[Mareng]

Thanks for the reply. Its a stand alone twin oven with the radiant rings on the top.
I eventually got there, didn’t require the sides off but the ring carrier and the splash plate underneath.
Took the details of the controller and photo for wiring purposes when everything went back and noticed on of the black wires had fallen out the insulation sleeve. This would be where it would be bending all the time when the wife lifted ithe rings to clean.
None of the rings worked, then noticed that I had crossed two wires on the right hand rings.
This gave me one ring working. I checked the photos of the wiring and they all seemed correct after this, but still only one ring worked.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have touched it, at least I had 3 out of 4 rings, now I have 1 out of 4.
Yes it was a bit of a faff actually getting to the controllers. Could have been designed for easier access to failing part replacement.
Next job find why I lost two rings, electro is not my strong suit.

[electrofix]

i would check that black wire

often they feed the neutral via 1 wire so if it breaks you loose 2 rings. are the 2 new rings you have lost on the same side ?

Dave

[Mareng]

The ring with the failed controller was Left Front, the one left working after I touched it was Right Rear. So Left Rear, Right Front are not working either now. Must be something stupid I have done. As I say electro is not my strong point.
Today I checked for continuity from the plate terminals to the terminal block were the feed comes in (power off of course). And both blacks seemed to be ok, Earth fine, but yellow and blue disapeared to the regulator or linked to other terminals on the ovens one of which I got a resistance. Later on I tested for live on the plate terminals got zero, then later realised there was a micro switch for the glass top, which prevents power to the plates if the glass is down. As I had removed the glass the micro switch shut power off.
Why they couldn’t have made it so you took the front off back of the glass and knobs then 4 screws and you have access to the controllers, rather than remove the rings disturbing the feeds through the grommets.
Some of the wires up the back didn’t look too good but could have been cooking stains/gasses from the ovens.

We have decided that a new cooker is the order of the day, as this one is 30 years old (British made) so it doesn’t owe us anything. We need 20 out of the next one which will bring me to 90, by which I might not be here or in a home. Horrible thought.

We would like one with the same type of rings but they don’t make them any more, either a solid cast steel ( which tend to crack) and tend to be the cheaper unknown brands or these ceramic top type, which the wife didn’t really want, but they are the less of the two evils. Any colour as long as its black which will not look good in an all white kitchen. Woodpiles (of planed timber) come to mind.

Thanks for your help.

Mareng

[electrofix]

you could look at induction

you need to buy correct pans but far more energy efficient

solid rings are aweful take ages to heat up and cool down

Dave

[Mareng]

Most of our pans are non magnetic stainless with an alloy outer base so flat, all 30 years old so should be ok.
Our latest pan a Cuisinart is magnetic stainless ( must be cheap stainless if magnetic , but that range are not cheap compared to the rubbish teflon coated types or our main set) which the wife uses a lot which we will have to change. Don’t see the point in Teflon coated pans, that’s just poor cooking procedures.
I believe there are two types of ceramic top cookers, but will have to look into what’s available advantages and disadvantages.
The rings we have on the present are ideal, heat up quickly and ideal for simmering as well. I cannot see why they dropped those and went back to solid rings.
I think my Mothers first new cooker a Creda had solid rings , back in the early 1960’s, but the centres tended to crack. In those days you didn’t have much choice or much money.
In those days everything was made in England and said so on the label, now look at things, working life of 10 years perhaps and made in China to poor standards.
I don’t see how now that companies cannot find the staff , yet in the 50’s-late 70’s there were factories producing everything we need from imported raw materials and few women were working and yet nobody lived in debt unlike now with two working yet no industry to speak of.

​​​​

[electrofix]

most of it is down to cost. look at the price of appliances in real terms back then. how many weeks wages it took to pay for them

now customers demand cheap, the result is por quality good made where labour is cheap which will never be here

I remenber going into English Electric in Liverpool and they stocked spares for their cookers for 25 years. That was the life they designed for

Dave

[Mareng]

Dave, It didn’t matter what the wages were then or the prices, but people saved up for something instead of paying x{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} hp charge on everything, then they wonder why they have no money, its all spent before they have earned it.
My parents never lived on tick, my father was an electrician, my mother didn’t go out to work and when I started my apprenticeship which was 4 years (rather than two now) they got me to save up for my first made to measure suit and every suit afterwards was made to measure up till 20 years ago, now tailors on the high street are like unicorns.
I have never bought anything where I have had to pay interest, cash everytime, even all my cars, be they 2nd hand or new, apart from a mortgage which never lasted longer than 10 years. My salary was average, so it can be done. Trouble is people try and keep up with the Jones’s and live beyond their means, cannot wait and save, hence equity loans on their house to pay for their retirement.

​​​​​​Things are not any more expensive, but companies charge what they think the market will bear, this was quite obvious when wives started to have full time jobs as soon as they had the kids and only taking maternity leave. I have heard Infant teachers say some of the kids are not potty trained and cannot use a knife and fork correctly but eat with their hands.

No, Britain is going down the tubes I am afraid.

Its good to discuss, you are obviously of the older generation like myself, perhaps not as much. We have gone off topic a bit , but who cares.

All the best and thanks for trying to help, but not being an electrician but a Marine Engineer I haven’t done any electrical fault finding, despite running a 3MW 440v power generating system on a ship and an 18MW propulsion plant, we had Electrical Engineers that looked after everything electrical.

Regards,
David

[electrofix]

no probs

from the figures you gave above am only 2 years behind you.

All the best

Dave

[Author]

Posts