Fixed B&D toaster

[James Sweet]

Cheap late model Black & Decker toaster got more and more reluctant to stay
down. I finally opened it up tonight and found the mechanism consists of an
electromagnet controlled by an electronic timer. Bread crumbs had collected
on top of the electromagnet and were creating a sufficient gap to prevent it
from holding the mechanism down. Cleaned it out, put it back together and
it's working well again. One out of the four screws holding the cover on was
some weird security screw, but small needle nose pliars made quick work of
that.

 

[Arfa Daily]

Cheap late model Black & Decker toaster got more and more reluctant to
stay down. I finally opened it up tonight and found the mechanism consists
of an electromagnet controlled by an electronic timer. Bread crumbs had
collected on top of the electromagnet and were creating a sufficient gap
to prevent it from holding the mechanism down. Cleaned it out, put it back
together and it's working well again. One out of the four screws holding
the cover on was some weird security screw, but small needle nose pliars
made quick work of that.

I've got one with a similar mech. Works brilliantly compared to the old
purely mechanical system, except for one small detail. The designer cleverly
omitted to put on an over-ride button ! So, if what you are toasting starts
to scorch before the damn thing decides it's cooked, the only way to get it
to stop and pop your toast up, is to either flick the wall switch off, or
pull the plug !!

Arfa

 

[Sam Goldwasser]

Cheap late model Black & Decker toaster got more and more reluctant to stay
down. I finally opened it up tonight and found the mechanism consists of an
electromagnet controlled by an electronic timer. Bread crumbs had collected
on top of the electromagnet and were creating a sufficient gap to prevent it
from holding the mechanism down. Cleaned it out, put it back together and
it's working well again. One out of the four screws holding the cover on was
some weird security screw, but small needle nose pliars made quick work of
that.

Don't you just love those easy ones?

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[Sam Goldwasser]

I've got one with a similar mech. Works brilliantly compared to the old
purely mechanical system, except for one small detail. The designer cleverly
omitted to put on an over-ride button ! So, if what you are toasting starts
to scorch before the damn thing decides it's cooked, the only way to get it
to stop and pop your toast up, is to either flick the wall switch off, or
pull the plug !!

No way to push the lever up? At least the Toastmaster has that!

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above is
ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included in the
subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the FAQs.

 

[Arfa Daily]

What brand and model? At the minimum, you should be able to manually
pull up the handle! Would it even be legal to have a toaster that
couldn't be shut down without unplugging it?

It's actually a Philips, which I agree, you would have thought better of ...

If I'm absolutely honest Andy, you *can* get the lever back up, but it takes
considerable force to do so, such that it feels that you ought not to be
doing that way for fear of breaking something. Also, because this is a
mechanically 'slow' way of doing it, with the elements still energised,
there is a good old flash visible through the slot, when it does release. In
contrast, we have two 4-slice toasters at our cafe, which also use an
electromagnetic locking system, but have a cancel button. Simple and much
more effective than the Philips effort.

Arfa

 

[Allodoxaphobia]

On Sat, 12 Apr 2008 18:48:33 GMT, Arfa Daily wrote:

8<............

In contrast, we have two 4-slice toasters at our cafe, which also use
an electromagnetic locking system, but have a cancel button. Simple
and much more effective than the Philips effort.

However, in making the mass market model for the Great Unwashed, if you
can eliminate a switch - the attendant wiring - and the resulting
assembly complexity -- and you save 50 cents per model....
Now, then, if you sell 10,000,000 of them .....................

 

[James Sweet]

The original poster didn't say which B&D toaster he owned, but it was
likely
a GE toaster oven. This (and similar) models have two ways of
cancelling --
you either flip up the "push to toast" switch, or you open the door.

No, it's not a toaster oven, just an ordinary 2 slice toaster. I didn't post
the model number because I was too lazy to go find it, I'm sure many models
work similarly. There's a cancel button, as well as the lever can be forced
up without too much effort, but that's irrelevant to the original problem.

 

[James Sweet]

Good for you James!
Where I live people would just throw it out.

I just bought the stupid thing a couple months ago, it still looked like new
so I opened it up. I usually take a crack at fixing anything, so long as it
isn't total junk.

 

[D-unit]

Cheap late model Black & Decker toaster got more and more reluctant to stay
down. I finally opened it up tonight and found the mechanism consists of an
electromagnet controlled by an electronic timer. Bread crumbs had collected
on top of the electromagnet and were creating a sufficient gap to prevent it
from holding the mechanism down. Cleaned it out, put it back together and
it's working well again. One out of the four screws holding the cover on was
some weird security screw, but small needle nose pliars made quick work of
that.

I have the same problem with mine.

I'll check it out.

Thanks,

db

 

[James Sweet]

I have the same problem with mine.

I'll check it out.

Thanks,

db

The handle is a real pain in the butt to get back on, keep at it and you'll
figure it out.