Buy New Cooker Or Repair Old One ?

rosekitten

I have a Hotpoint cooker that is around
seven years old and have found it to be
perfect for all my cooking.I am thinking
about either replacing it or perhaps having
it repaired.

I have looked around and nothing seems as good
as my own cooker.Everything is still working fine
the ceramic hob ,grill and main oven
except the smaller top oven no longer works so I
know that this would need to be fixed,I reckon
its the element thats packed in,probably because it
was mainly that oven we used.the handles on the
the front of the cooker fell off a few years
ago so it would be nice to get them replaced

how realistic do you think it would be to
have the oven fixed and new handles put on the
front of the oven doors.does anyone still do oven
repairs as I dont really want to tackle this myself

the nodel is a

Hotpoint EW81 halogen hob double oven

would be grateful for any advice regarding this
thanks

.

jimmo

I have had a Hotpoint BD31 double oven for about 8 years. It is obviously not the same as yours but the element in my main oven failed a couple of years ago.
I got a replacement from a local electrical spares and repair shop. From memory it was less than £20.
Because I wasn’t familiar with the machine it took me a couple of hours to work out how to get the old element out but once I had done that it took less than 10 minutes to fit the new element and put it all back together.

Also, the door handles had worked themselves loose. It was only 2 screws on each handle but I had to strip the doors down but that was only 4 screws each.
If you don’t want to do it yourself a good repair man will do the job in a fraction of the time I took and the elements are “off the shelf” so it really shouldn’t cost a fortune.

Enterprise_1701C

If you're happy with an oven it is worth repairing it. My Neff lasted me 20 years before I replaced it, even then it was still working - just not as well as it had done. I should imagine the repairs could double the life of your oven.

rosekitten

jimmo wrote: »

I have had a Hotpoint BD31 double oven for about 8 years. It is obviously not the same as yours but the element in my main oven failed a couple of years ago.
I got a replacement from a local electrical spares and repair shop. From memory it was less than £20.
Because I wasn’t familiar with the machine it took me a couple of hours to work out how to get the old element out but once I had done that it took less than 10 minutes to fit the new element and put it all back together.

Also, the door handles had worked themselves loose. It was only 2 screws on each handle but I had to strip the doors down but that was only 4 screws each.
If you don’t want to do it yourself a good repair man will do the job in a fraction of the time I took and the elements are “off the shelf” so it really shouldn’t cost a fortune.

thanks for your reply I am lucky because
the four plates work fine and like you I
would probably have a go at replacing
elements myself,but the element for the
oven has us stumped because we cant`
see where it is and how it fits in so I think
the oven may have to be repaired by a
proffessional.Both ovens are fan assisted
and the fan is still working fine in both ovens
the top oven when its on only heats up to quite
a low temp,not hot enough to bake anything in.

I would like to have the smaller oven working
again as its so much cheaper to use that the
main larger oven.

Our oven door handles came loose long ago like
yours but all the screws are still in place
to hold it in but its like the olastic from the
handles has enlarged and the holes to screw
the handle to the cooker are now too large
we thought if we could get a different type
they might stay on longer.My sister in law
has the same oven as me but hers is a built
in version and the handles from hers have
fallen off in exactly the same way.

rosekitten

Jane_Blackford wrote: »

If you're happy with an oven it is worth repairing it. My Neff lasted me 20 years before I replaced it, even then it was still working - just not as well as it had done. I should imagine the repairs could double the life of your oven.

thanks for replying we have been looking
at ovens and to get one that does everything
ours does with the same features etc its looking
like something in the region £1000 +
When I bought this it was £800 shop price
in the likes of Comet etc and after much bartering
we ended up getting this for £421 so it was a real
bargain at the time and as this still works as good
as when we first bought it,its definatly worth
hanging onto.

My DH is a baker by trade and he finds it a really
good reliable oven in terms of results,to keep him
content I know we are going to have to find something
similar and thats not going to be cheap.
So if I can keep this one we would be more than happy
as I find it so easy to use.

It will definatly be tears before bed time if we dont get
good results for his bread making,I dont think the use
of my breadmaker will impress him much as an alternative
in the event of us accidently buying a below par oven.


.

jimmo

Just in case it’s any use to you, the element in my main oven is accessed by removing the back panel in the oven itself. Unscrew the light cover and take out 2 screws either side.
2 small bolts hold the element in place and the 2 power wires seem to disappear through a hole in the back wall. Pull the wires through gently and there are spade connections which are easily pulled apart.
I spent so much time because it is built in and I took the whole thing out and went in from the back. That way the fan is in the way.
If your handles are similar to mine the screws that hold the handles actually screw into a brass ring with milled edges in the handle. The rubber washers had perished in mine and that allowed the brass rings to pull out of the handles. I caught it just in time and was able to push the brass rings back in and put in some new rubber washers.
It sounds like your have gone past that stage but I see that new handles are £27.47 here http://www.hotpoint-spares.co.uk/cookers-ovens-c-1528.html?zenid=ittm6n4fef87revbuktmhcij34

rosekitten

thanks for your help on ours its the
smaller top oven that has packed in.
We were wondering where the element
for the oven was as we cant seem to
find it.but did wonder about pulling it out
and seeing if it was accessable from the back.

Did you notice at all when yours was out
if its the same to do the smaller oven ?

Ours is a free standing model and luckily when
I got the electrician to fit the cooker I made
sure he connected it on an extra long mains
flex so if we ever had to pull it out we could
do easily,its proved useful because a couple
of times we have dropped things down the
back and have been able to retrieve things
as well as do the odd clean up of the floor
its stood on.

Very useful help regarding fixing the main oven
if ours ever goes we would definatly feel
confident enough to tackle a repair on it.

The handles on ours are not too good and we
were thinking of seeing if it were possibel to find
other handles ,a different type perhaps that
may prove more long lasting.


many thanks

rosekitten

jimmo wrote: »

I think I’ve got it now.
My top oven doubles up as a grill and oven and the handbook says it is a conventional oven (not a fan oven). It hadn’t really dawned on me before but a fan does actually come on when you switch on the oven.
When it is used as an oven it actually uses 2 elements, one is the grill element on the roof of the oven (but that doesn’t get warm enough to glow) and the other is actually under the floor of the top oven.
There is definitely no access to that from inside the oven and whilst I didn’t really notice when I had the oven out the only possible access is around the back.
Looking at the “top oven elements” on that website I gave the link for before, yours and mine look remarkably similar so they are probably in similar places.
Knowing where it is I think it should be pretty easy to find.
Good luck!

thanks for the heads up on the top oven ours is
the same when used as an oven the fan comes on
and I am so glad I have read your reply because my
DH was about to unscrew the panels that the shelves
sit on as he thought the elements might be in there
your reply makes duch sense because we have noticed
that when we put on the oven the fan is still going, it
does get warm but not enough to cook in.I had thought
myself that the element for it was underneath but could not
see any way to get to it.we will definatly be looking in the back
to see whats there up to now we have not had this pulled out.


by the way thanks for your post regarding
the handles we now have one back in place and
could not put the other one back as one of the
little screws is missing.But both doors have had a
good clean whilst in bits and its amazing how new
it now looks.

I have it in mind to replace the glass ceramic hob
plate as well but dont know if there is anywhere that
sells them.Its 54cm (21 inches) deep by 60cm (23 inches)
wide and looks to be a standard size.

.