2006 Frigidaire Smoke Show!

[thatwasherguy]

Hi everyone! Hope you’re all well. Today, the 2006 Frigidaire range had its first major breakdown in a long time. We were trying to bake some chicken when the Electronic control started beeping. Initially, I thought that it was the timer going off, until I noticed that it was beeping in a more rapid rhythm than it does for the timer. When I looked at the display, F10 was flashing. I had just enough time to process this when smoke began pouring from the bottom of the control panel! Needless to say, I ran to the garage and turned off the breaker to it. Once it cooled down, I pulled it out and took the back cover off, and was greeted by this:

 

[thatwasherguy]

Here’s a better view of the carnage.

One of the resistors (R-41) decided that it was time for it to fly, and cooked several other things when it got hot. Needless to say, that board is toast (literally!).

 

[thatwasherguy]

It’s back, just in time for the holidays!

I wasn’t about to let an old friend die that easily, so I got online and found out that my local appliance parts store had a board in stock, so I picked it up, and installed it. I just got through baking a pizza, and everything is working as it should. This new board definitely has some different qualities than the old one. The relays are from a different manufacturer, so they sound different when they actuate. The LED’s are also brighter, and the beeper horn has a slightly different pitch to it. Has anyone else noticed differences like these when replacing a control board?

Thanks,
Thatwasherguy.

 

[phillymatt53]

Looks like yet another case of "too much of vulnerable electronics" compromising an appliance.
The original problem might have been poor soldering of parts, substandard parts, who knows?
It's the way things are made today......

 

[william8]

It’s back, just in time for the holidays!

I wasn’t about to let an old friend die that easily, so I got online and found out that my local appliance parts store had a board in stock, so I picked it up, and installed it. I just got through baking a pizza, and everything is working as it should. This new board definitely has some different qualities than the old one. The relays are from a different manufacturer, so they sound different when they actuate. The LED’s are also brighter, and the beeper horn has a slightly different pitch to it. Has anyone else noticed differences like these when replacing a control board?

Thanks,
Thatwasherguy.

Parts suppliers come and go, different relays 19+ years later isn't surprising to me.
Seems the original was fairly reliable. Why someone would blame that on the way things are made "today" is rather absurd.
Hope you get another 19+ years. I'm sure the board was far less than a new range.

How much was the replacement board?

 

[Mueller Climatrol]

Here’s a better view of the carnage.

One of the resistors (R-41) decided that it was time for it to fly, and cooked several other things when it got hot. Needless to say, that board is toast (literally!).

Wonder how far the shorting / burning would have gone if you did not cut the power supply? I can't see a Fuse anywhere on the pictures of the board that should burn out before it got to the point it did in your pictures. Did I miss seeing a fuse? Glad it was a quick fix for you! Looks like a nice stove.

 

[phillymatt53]

Question:
Where is the oven heat exhaust vent located?, if it has one.
My Tappan gas range's vent port is at the bottom center of the control panel.

The reason I am asking is because electronics cannot withstand or last if exposed to severe heat, particularly capacitors and semiconductors.

 

[william8]

Question:
Where is the oven heat exhaust vent located?, if it has one.
My Tappan gas range's vent port is at the bottom center of the control panel.

The reason I am asking is because electronics cannot withstand or last if exposed to severe heat, particularly capacitors and semiconductors.

Well this board did last for almost 20 years. Seems it's designed just fine.

 

[vacerator]

I think age and power surges and spikes also play a part in the longevity of boards and power supplies.

 

[thatwasherguy]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

Looks like yet another case of "too much of vulnerable electronics" compromising an appliance.
The original problem might have been poor soldering of parts, substandard parts, who knows?
It's the way things are made today......

I agree, I’m not a huge fan of electronics on stuff like this either, but I feel like this one held up better than most on the market today would. At least this one doesn’t have that resin stuff on it so you can’t service it.

Parts suppliers come and go, different relays 19+ years later isn't surprising to me.
Seems the original was fairly reliable. Why someone would blame that on the way things are made "today" is rather absurd.
Hope you get another 19+ years. I'm sure the board was far less than a new range.

How much was the replacement board?

I agree, I was honestly surprised by how long that board lasted, especially since the original one failed only four years in, albeit in a far less spectacular manner. Considering that the oven gets used about once a day on average, 15 years doesn’t seem too bad for an electronic control. The replacement board was $265, and a comparable Frigidaire range from new was at least $640.

Wonder how far the shorting / burning would have gone if you did not cut the power supply? I can't see a Fuse anywhere on the pictures of the board that should burn out before it got to the point it did in your pictures. Did I miss seeing a fuse? Glad it was a quick fix for you! Looks like a nice stove.

I’m betting that it would have gone until it dead shorted and caused the 50 amp breaker to trip. I didn’t see a fuse anywhere on the board, but I also didn’t take apart the clamshell casing (it’s actually two circuit boards in one). I’ll do that when I get home today. I’m glad it was a quick fix too. In its day, I believe that this stove was just a step below top of the line, based on the research I’ve done. It’s got some scratches on the top, but overall, it’s still in very good condition considering how much it gets used. At this point, it’s almost like a member of the family, and junking it would feel like betrayal to me. It’s one of the very few “modern” appliances that I feel that way about.

Question:
Where is the oven heat exhaust vent located?, if it has one.
My Tappan gas range's vent port is at the bottom center of the control panel.

The reason I am asking is because electronics cannot withstand or last if exposed to severe heat, particularly capacitors and semiconductors.

The vent on this one is under the left two knobs, away from the electronics. That center burner in the back is the warming zone, so it doesn’t get very hot (we almost never use it anyway). I’ve heard that board failures are particularly prevalent on models with the board at the front of the oven by the door, so the heat and moisture driving their failure would make sense.

 

[phillymatt53]

My Tappan "Series 110" gas range is now 32 years old and still fine.
The only electronics in it is the clock timer and the electronic spark ignition.
The less there's electronics, the more reliable something is.

 

[vacerator]

The oven vent on my GE dual fuel slide in front control range is between the door and the left side console bezel face. There are two fans in the back to cool the electronics which are under glass. It's a 2007 model Profile. No trouble with it yet other than vacuum cleaning the fans and oiling. We bake a lot from November to January.

 

[thatwasherguy]

My Tappan "Series 110" gas range is now 32 years old and still fine.
The only electronics in it is the clock timer and the electronic spark ignition.
The less there's electronics, the more reliable something is.

My 1984 G.E. Mark 27 falls into that category of dead simple. All it has electronic are the heating elements, mechanical oven selector switch, mechanical oven thermostat, infinite switches for the surface elements, neon pilot lights, and the oven light bulb and its associated switch. This one doesn’t even have a clock. I got it after it was removed during a remodel last year, and all it needed after 40 years was a new plastic insert for one of the pilot lights, and a new infinite switches on one of the burners.

The oven vent on my GE dual fuel slide in front control range is between the door and the left side console bezel face. There are two fans in the back to cool the electronics which are under glass. It's a 2007 model Profile. No trouble with it yet other than vacuum cleaning the fans and oiling. We bake a lot from November to January.

That sounds like the setup on our 2022 Frigidaire wall oven. It has a fan that draws a draft on the inside of the cabinet to keep the temperature down. I had previously assumed that this was to keep the cabinet from getting too hot, but it would also make sense that it would be cooling the electronics at the same time.

 

[gelaundry4ever]

Hi everyone! Hope you’re all well. Today, the 2006 Frigidaire range had its first major breakdown in a long time. We were trying to bake some chicken when the Electronic control started beeping. Initially, I thought that it was the timer going off, until I noticed that it was beeping in a more rapid rhythm than it does for the timer. When I looked at the display, F10 was flashing. I had just enough time to process this when smoke began pouring from the bottom of the control panel! Needless to say, I ran to the garage and turned off the breaker to it. Once it cooled down, I pulled it out and took the back cover off, and was greeted by this:

What the heck?

 

[combo52]

2006 Frigidaire electric range ERC failure ( electronic range control )

This type of failure happens occasionally on heavily used ERC‘s, mainly on electric ranges, you’ve got 12 to 15 A of current going through a couple of those wires and the board to control the power to the Bake-N-Broil heating element, etc.

This failure occurred because of a bad connection that failed overtime or possibly a bad relay on the board.

This type of board usually does not go up in flames. It’s made of flame retarded, plastic and other materials. It would’ve likely just burned itself out in a little bit of time and stopped heating.

A Nearly 20 year-old rage that used every day is going to have some sort of failure, even if you had had an electro, mechanical thermostat and selector switch plenty of those burned up. We replaced them all the time on older style ranges.

The orange and red wire in the lower right corner of the board in your picture. Look like the terminals may be damaged if they’re the least bit heat discolored those terminals should be replaced, do so by replacing with a piece of 10 or 12 gauge wire with a new high temperature terminal, if one of these two wire terminals fails, it may take out another board, it would also be safer if the range was on a 40 amp dual breaker instead of a 50, 50 is just too much and they never really trip unless things really get wild.

John L

 

[phillymatt53]

The idiotic thing about high-current appliances is........ controlling them from some printed circuit board.
Printed circuit boards are just that.... printed "wiring", with components, relays, etc., connected via paper thin copper "traces".
Even if printed traces are made wide enough, they are still paper-thin, and prone to overheating if subjected to high currents passing through them.
They certainly are not comparable to say, a 12 gauge copper wire.
The same thing can happen to relay contacts, with the additional pitting of contacts due to the spark generated when they open up.
Over time, this then causes the contacts to not securely make a solid connection, adding to overheating.
Components handling high currents, like relays, are soldered to those traces, and solder is also prone to failure, because overheating happens, softening the solder.
And those spade lug connectors are a poor choice, particularly if they are made of thin metal, and not gripping tightly.
All the above issues contribute to increasing resistances to the flow of electricity - thus overheating and failures.


You've got heavy amperage to control, ten, twenty amps, etc., and to reply on such a vunerable string of components is a crap shoot, indeed a "weak spot" in the reliability department.

My one air conditioner used cheap chinese spade lugs to connect the compressor, and failed after years of handling the high current.
I took care of that crap and went to tough, tight, quality spade lugs.

 

[circlew]

My 1953 Westinghouse range evidently had a defective thermostat from the beginning. My mom said it wouldn't heat when set to 325. Company was coming for dinner one day, and she was baking a ham. Preheated oven, then set at temp, and put ham in. When she went back to check on it, the oven had cooled off. She adjusted the control a little, and it heated up. Dinner was a little late, but ham turned out fine. The thermostat never did get replaced, and the range was used for over 50 years without major issues. We just remembered not to set it at 325. The clock got noisy after about 20 years, so it was disconnected. We never used the automatic oven timer anyway.

 

[phillymatt53]

My 1953 Westinghouse range evidently had a defective thermostat from the beginning. My mom said it wouldn't heat when set to 325. Company was coming for dinner one day, and she was baking a ham. Preheated oven, then set at temp, and put ham in. When she went back to check on it, the oven had cooled off. She adjusted the control a little, and it heated up. Dinner was a little late, but ham turned out fine. The thermostat never did get replaced, and the range was used for over 50 years without major issues. We just remembered not to set it at 325. The clock got noisy after about 20 years, so it was disconnected. We never used the automatic oven timer anyway.

My 1993 Tappan range has a red LED digital clock/timer.
It can be set up to 2 hours on the timer mode then a beeping buzzer sounds.
about 2005 the timer buzzer kept buzzing, even though the thing was not set, and in clock mode.
So I pulled the circuit board out and disabled the little beeper speaker.
I never used it, or tried to find out the problem, the clock is all I may glance at.
Besides, if I want to time something, I keep a Taylor wind-up kitchen timer on top of the panel.

 

[davidrysk]

I have to question any 2000s-early 2010s devices with capacitors, due to the extremely widespread capacitor plague situation. Bad capacitors can lead to all sorts of downstream problems, including relay/contactor failure since capacitors are generally part of snubber circuits meant to suppress arcing on the contacts.

Capacitors also fail on much older devices, but this is usually due to age. Though some, such as the infamous "RIFA" metallized paper EMI suppression capacitor, was manufactured with a type of resin that allowed moisture intrusion, leading to explosive — and very, very smelly — failure.

 

[phillymatt53]

I have to question any 2000s-early 2010s devices with capacitors, due to the extremely widespread capacitor plague situation. Bad capacitors can lead to all sorts of downstream problems, including relay/contactor failure since capacitors are generally part of snubber circuits meant to suppress arcing on the contacts.

Capacitors also fail on much older devices, but this is usually due to age. Though some, such as the infamous "RIFA" metallized paper EMI suppression capacitor, was manufactured with a type of resin that allowed moisture intrusion, leading to explosive — and very, very smelly — failure.

That bad-caps plague was born in the early 2000's, and effected a wide variety of products and services.
Mostly computers, monitors, but showing up in home entertainment products and even military and NASA equipment.
It was due to a stolen formula used in Electrolytic capacitors which didn't have a certain chemical element that controlled the hydrogen buildup, causing them burst, short, leak, and fail.
I was replacing tons of them for years in customer products at the shop.
TV's, stereos, radios, you name it.