No Power To Cooker, Cannot See A Fuse

barrowc

When we had an old-fashioned standalone cooker that stopped working, we spent hours dismantling it to try and find the fault. Turns out it had a knob below the clock that controlled a timer function. If that knob was turned to '0', the whole cooker stopped working. It must have been moved accidentally and as soon as we turned the knob to a different position, the cooker started working again

It was like the cooker on the left in the picture below:

paulmapp8306

Had to jump in here.

As a long time served electronics Technician - and also qualified in Electrics (though not practicing at present - as Im in electronics, even if some involve high power systems) - I would say STAY WELL CLEAR of them neon drivers. About as safe as using a toaster in a bath.

im constantly surprised why they are still legal to sell in this country.

yangptangkipperbang

Steve_the_fitter wrote: »

A cooker switch doesnt have a fuse built into it much like a normal socket

Some of the so-called "information" being posted here is not only incorrect - it is downright dangerous !!!!!

The ONLY safe way to check for presence of a voltage is with a meter and even then you MUST know what you are doing.

As for the comment about a "wet finger" - that beggars belief.................

keystone

yangptangkipperbang wrote: »

As for the comment about a "wet finger" - that beggars belief.................

Something tells me that was a joke but clearly it was misplaced.

I too agree that neon testers are a waste of space and should be banished to the outer darkness.

Cheers

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Why not get an independent appliance repair guy out? He can pronounce death for less, usually - otherwise you could buy a new one, get it installed and then realise that a) the old one was fine b) you still need a sparks.

sillygoose

southcoastrgi wrote: »

they are not dangerious if they are working correctly however if the capacitor seperating you finger from the live power goes wrong you will have 240v shooting up your arm

erm.. its not a capacitor, that would be deadly! Its a very high value, high voltage carbon resistor that limits the current under any condition to micro amp totally safe levels. Some of the better ones use more than one resistor in series to be ultra sure.

These testers are perfectly safe as long as they are not used in a physically damaged condition such as using it as a chisel.

paulmapp8306

Still would never use one. Resistors can fail, even high value carbo nones - and theres no other protection from the mains.

Those using multiple resistors are not too bad but htat would be a minimum requirement for me - and even then a short around the resisters wouldnt be impossible.

Just much much much safer to use a meter. If you dont know how to use a meter you shouldnt be going anywhere near the mains supply anyway.

DevCoder

Agreed that the best place for neon testers are in the bin, any that happen to fall my way get used as connector strip drivers only.

An insulated double prong multimeter is cheap and as mentioned before if you dont know how to use one then you shouldn't be messing with an electrical supply that will bite you on the !!! if you make a mistake.

yangptangkipperbang

keystone wrote: »

Something tells me that was a joke but clearly it was misplaced.

You know that and I know that - but unfortunately there are many people who wouldn't know that and might think that a quick touch with a wet finger was quite safe :eek:

Steve_the_fitter

id just like to say that testing electrics with a wet finger really isnt the way to do it. You are wasting time by wetting your finger. Its much safer and faster to go straight in with your tongue after a nice cuppa