I like to make my own pizzas. I don't particularly like white bread bases, so a few years ago I took to making my own wholemeal pizza base. I use a Kenwood BM250 bread maker I bought about 10 years ago, on it's dough setting to make the dough, roll it out and bake the pizza. Excellent.
Well I'd set the machine going, and it was whirring away in the kitchen whilst I was working in the workshop. *CLUNK* and the house power tripped. The mains monitor text me! I went to investigate. The RCD had tripped, indicating an earth fault somewhere, and refused to reset. I unplugged the bread maker, and it reset... and I was stuck with some half mixed dough...
After ordering domino's... I decided to take a look...
First thing of note was the damaged mains cable ...Tsk tsk! I should have noticed this before...
Much unscrewing followed, and the mains cable was replaced. Although requiring replacement, the cable's inner insulation was intact, and not the source of the problem...
Here you can see the motor drive for the stirrer thing, and the control PCB. I performed an insulation test on the motor at 1KV, and all was well....
The heater element inside the oven compartment, however, showed very poor insulation of just 10 Kilohms when cold. No good at all.
The element is removed. There's a small screw and a nut holding one end in....
... and a screw and nut holding this ceramic saddle clamp arrangement on the other.
A replacement element was found inexpensively on eBay (£6.39 delivered) and put the problem right. Another saved from landfill, and £70 cheaper than a new machine.
and if you want to try a healthier wholemeal pizza dough ... here's my recipe!
230ml Water
380g of wholemeal bread flour
~30ml Olive Oil ( a good glug! )
1 packet of bread machine yeast.
Some Italian herbs and spices!
Enjoy!
Hi Doz, After removing the 8 + 4 screws on the top of the machine, I was unable to pull the control panel and stainless steel plate off. Can you please share how you did it ? I wish to remove the heater element to test its resistance.
ReplyDeleteRemove the white plastic control panel part first. There are some plastic tags, which just need a gentle tweak to get to pop off. You can get to the element connector without removing the steel bit.
DeleteHi Andy. Great blog! I think I have the exact same problem as you. Thought it was the cable - it looks exactly like yours - due to the cable exiting the bottom of the machine and being kinked with almost zero strain relief. Thought this had to be what was tripping the power. But like yours, the cable is actually intact, despite needing a replacement.
ReplyDeleteMy question is, how do I test insulation on the element? Is it just a matter of disconnecting it, and measuring resistance across it's positive and negative terminals? And what resistance should I see if it is is good/bad? Then I'll know whether to order myself a new one or not...
Cheers, Pete
Hi Pete. Measure between one of it's terminals and earth (the metalwork)... whether this will show up on a normal multimeter is debatable... If you get much less than a 1M Ohm, replace it. I used a high voltage megga insulation tester at 500V to measure it's resistance. Do you know a tame electrician that could lend you one?
DeleteThanks Doz. Didn't show on either of my multimeters, and I couldn't get hold of an insulation tester, so I took the gamble and ordered a new element anyway. Replaced it, and success! I can now make bread.
ReplyDeleteAppreciate your help and keep up the blog, it's brilliant.
Pete
Brilliant! Another saved from landfill!
Delete