Simmerstat (energy regulator)

[John.G]

I have a Belling Kensington Model 444447107 Electric Cooker which was installed in 2008.
Two of the “plates” are used predominantly. I have to replace the simmerstats on these two
regularly at 2 year intervals, each. I was a bit curious as to the failure cause as they always fail in the full power mode, ie no switching. I took the cover off one of the failed stats and found the cause. The bi metal strip has a thumbnail sized heating element attached which is anchored at one end and is live (via P1) when the plate is switched on, the other end is in contact with the end of a steel strip attached to the stat cover which completes the circuit (when cold) and the heating element heats up and causes the bi metal strip to flex and open the main contacts and also moves the heating element to move away from contact with the metal strip in the cover. (The heating element has ~~ 10 to 11K ohm resistance, around 5 watts) The failure is caused due to the continuous switching which eventually wears away the point of contact of the heating element with the sharp end of the steel strip in the cover and breaks the heating element circuit path.
Now this is only to be expected because of the constant switching but the time interval between failures seems quite short to me. I had a Creda Cavalier for over 20 years and I never had to replace a simmerstat during this time.
The simmerstat ( Enery regulator) in the Belling is used I would think in quite a number of other cooker models, I just wonder if anyone has noticed any short life problems with their simmerstats.
The simmerstat is a Invesys MP-V01-SVC or a Energy Regulator 082590800.

How did the older type of regulators work as they seemed to last for ever?.

[electrofix]

older regulators work on the same principle but were just made better

Dave

[John.G]

Thanks Dave, I can see why these ones don’t last too long due to the sharp point contact making and breaking rather than having a “real” set of contacts but I am surprised that I don’t see more complaints, replacing one simmerstat per year is high maintenance, my cooker is only used for two people.

[electrofix]

got a cooker here that was bought by my dad as reconditioned in 1970. granted i dont use it much anymore as i use 2 induction rings but never had an element or a simmerstat go
mind you those days they saw the life of a cooker at 25 years

And its a Belling

Dave

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