Frigidaire Compact 30 repair saga, continued...

[sudsmaster]

I started this discussion over in the Radiantube thread, but figured it would be better to start a new one.

I got the replacement infinite control for the malfunctioning 8" burner this afternoon. I soon set to installing it. Being a compact appliance, a drop-in 30" range, this process is probably more difficult than on a full size range. There's a certain order that must be followed to access the wiring and front controls, and woe unto he who ignores it. Complicating matters is that the sealing of the front control panel against spillovers from the range is inadequate, so most of the screws were rusting in place and needed to be replaced once they were coaxed out of their spots.

The replacement control looked fine, so I set about installing it toot suite. After about an hour I finally got it in place, and restored power to the range. To my dismay, the action of the control was anything but smooth. There are the expected detents at Simmer, Hi, and Off. But in between is a scratch catching kind of action that bespeaks poor workmanship. Still, the function seems to be ok. It has a bit of a different profile than the stock remaining control on the rear 8" burner, with the Med Hi and Lo Hi on the new control being significantly hotter than that of the older stock control. I suppose it's ok as long as I remember that the two big burners act a bit differently at the mid-range settings.

I must have taken the control panel apart about four times getting everything back into place. I might disassemble it one more time to make sure that the replacment stainless screws I used (I had to cut them to size) are not the cause of the jerky control movement.

Sure, enough, it was the screws. I didn't have to completely disassemble the front panel to remove them, though. I cut them down some more and they took most (but not all) of the roughness out of the new control. Not quite as smooth as the original, but good enough to go.

 

[philr]

Good to know it was just the screws. Did that cause the burner to be hotter on each setting too? I have replaced a 8" burner switch with a new white switch in one of my ranges and it works fine, it doesn't feel different from the old Proctor / King-Seeley infinite switches. 

 

What's the model of your Compact 30? Does it have 4 regular burners? Mine has a Heat-Minder (with a hydraulic thermostat) and a Speed-Heat so the 4 burners do act differently. You have to be careful with spillovers on these ranges as they could affect the burner switches and the thermostat(s) too.

 

 

[sudsmaster]

Well, yes, the replacement control is white, not black like the original King-Seely. It's certainly possible that the too-long screws are the cause of slightly rougher operation now. Oh well. I could always get another switch (as a backup) and see if that is smoother out of the box. But perhaps with use the roughness of the replacement control will abate. I haven't tested the control since I backed out the screws and shortened them. That's a thought.

Yes, there's little protection for the controls in the case of a major spillover.

The model I have is an RBE-533. It's white porcelain except for the brushed stainless control panel. It has the "Cookmaster" clock control pod at the left rear. Unfortunately the clock no longer works. But it still allows manual oven operation. Haven't quite figured out how to remove the clock module.

 

[philr]

That's either an early model (1962-63) or if it's self-cleaning, it's a 1975 model. 

 

In 1962-63 the letter "E" was used to designate the period of production, in 1975, the "E" meant it was self-cleaning and there was no letter to show the period of production. So the 1962/63 and 1975 models were quite different but they had the exact same model number!

 

Mine is a RBE-539N from 1969 but then, the "E" already meant "Electri-Clean" and the "N" was the period of production (1968-72). 

 

This picture shows the 1975 models, including the rare "Touch-N-Cook" version. The mechanical cookmaster/clocks in the 1975 and newer models are less durable than the older ones.

[this post was last edited: 12/6/2013-12:05]

 

[sudsmaster]

Well, yes, it's a self-cleaning model, so it must be a 1987 version.

The original aluminum burner drip trays were not with the range when I bought the home. I've made do with black porcelain coated steel drip trays since then, but it would be nice to have the aluminum ones. I've found a source for the 6" ones, but can't find any 8" ones. Do you know of a source?

 

[philr]

A source for drip trays

Unfortunately I don't have (even for the porcelain ones). 

 

[sudsmaster]

I think I found the porcelain ones at a home improvement store some years ago. I think they were labeled "universal" or for GE, but they fit the Frigidaire fairly well, just a bit more shallow than I understand the aluminum ones are. I've avoided the chrome plated steel ones - seems like they tend to rust out very quickly.

 

[sudsmaster]

Oops, meant to say it's probably 1975 version. It's identical to the photo on the right, the RBE-533. No Sensatemp control on the burners. Which is fine, one less thing to go wrong ;-).

I retested the profile on the new control, and it remains as before. Pretty much the same as on Hi and Simmer, but the new control burner is about one full setting hotter than the original, on Lo through Med Hi. That is, the new control set on Lo is an equivalent rate of boiling as the old control set on Med Lo. Med Lo on the old control, equivalent to Lo on the new control. And so on. Now it might be a difference in elements - I replaced the burner on the spot that the new control serves, some time back to see if that would fix the lack of heat on anything less than the Hi settings. It didn't fix it, but the newer element may be packing more punch than the older one.

In any case, as long as I remember that the older control burner heats a bit less on the intermediate settings than the new control burner, I'll be ok. I think I rarely if ever used the older control burner, anyway, since it sits in the rear corner of the range next to an overhead cabinet.

Unfortunately all this repair comes a bit late for me to try out my new Mirro pressure canner... the garden output of beans, squash, and tomatoes has come and gone. As have the peaches. But I suppose I could finally test it out to make sure I'm familiar with its operation for next season. I prefer using the Compact 30 for canning in the summer, because it sits in an enclosed patio kitchen that won't add the heat and aromas to the main house.

Which reminds me. Time to season the pork shoulder and get the Hamilton Beach Stay 'N Go programmable slow cooker with temperature probe and periwinkle delete going.

 

[maytagbear]

Is it a HANDPAINTED

Periwinkle delete?

Love and laughter!

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[sudsmaster]

Hand Painted Periwinkle Delete?

Only maybe if a little latex paint shot over from the adjacent sink where I washed many a paint brush whilst rebuilding my carport roof. I just spent about an hour cleaning up that sink... lots of white latex splashed all around. Goof-Off and a hard plastic spatula took care of most of that.

The HB slow cooker is clad in medium quality stainless. It's the one with the clamps on either side, so one could conceivably cook something for hours, lock down the lid, and transport it to some gathering, plug it in again, put it on warm until it's served. It would be quite heavy if full, though.

I mainly use it to cook pork shoulder roasts. The slow cooking works well to tenderize an otherwise tough cut. I've also found the bone-in roasts give the best results. Boneless, not as flavorful.

Anyway, I threw in the periwinkle remark in honor of Laundress as Hyacinth. There's that fine line between being fully descriptive and being a touch on the smug side, isn't there? ;-)

 

[sudsmaster]

Well, here's the Hamilton-Beach "Stay 'N Go" programmable slow cooker with the temperature probe, hard at work roasting a big chunk of pork (bone-in shoulder). The bits on top are some Kirkland Organic Herb mixture. I also added liberal amounts of pre-made "Hot Indian Curry", which hails from Malaysia. The photo below is back-lit by the under-counter light in the patio kitchen, and is at about the seven hour mark on the low heat setting. As you can see, it's reached an internal temperature of 144F. The target final temp before it switches automatically over to Warm, is 175F.

 

[sudsmaster]

And here's a shot with the flash engaged:

 

[sudsmaster]

All the slow cooking is taking place just to the right of the GM Frigidaire Compact 30 range. Here's some photos of that:

 

[sudsmaster]

Minus burner covers...

 

[sudsmaster]

Oven shot...

I've never used it, so that dirt on door is at least 17 years old. Maybe 33 years old. But I did recently (and for the first time) test the oven, and it heated to within 10 degrees of the 350 setting I chose, according to both bi-metal and mercury oven thermometers.

Might be about time to test the self cleaning feature as well...

 

[danemodsandy]

Suds:

If you're talking about an automatic burner on a Frigidaire, the Frigidaire name for the feature was "Heat Minder." "Sensi-Temp" was GE's term for their automatic burner.

 

[sudsmaster]

OK, Meat-Minder. I had a heads up on that today when I looked at Unimatic's latest Ephemera entry, which was all about minding heat.



Hey, I decided to finish off the pork roast effort with a nice gravy made up on the adjacent Compact 30's newly restored burner.

First I strained the sliced onions I put in the bottom of the cooker, and separated the fat from the broth. By the way, the onions came out just about perfect, and would be a good garnish for a meal.

Second, I sliced off the remaining fat tissue from the underside of the roast, and rendered that on the Compact 30. It gave almost as much fat as I got from the broth.

I combined and strained the two fat collections, and after cleaning the cracklings from the pan, proceeded to make my version of a roux. Let the fat cool a bit, and then gradually mixed in an equal amount of flour. I used white bread flour because I have LOTS of that. Gradually I brought the heat up and kept stirring until the raw taste of the flour was gone. Then I started mixing in broth until the the mixture started to thin out a bit. When I tasted it, it tasted like a very fine meat pie crust. I figure that's a good thing for a roux.

I then put half of it (what I call a roux) into a container for refrigeration, and then added more broth to the other half in the pan, stirring constantly, and letting it just simmer, until it thinned to the point where it could be poured out of a gravy boat. It darkened slightly but I wasn't interested in getting it brown... just tasty. And tasty it was. It didn't really need much salt, but I like things salty so I added a pinch. It still had a bit of that meat pie crust taste and it was great over some sliced roast pork.

YUM!

[disclaimer: if the recipe I devised doesn't meet any known definition of a roux, please cut me some slack. I've never seen a roux, let alone watched one being made. But it works for me!]

Here's a shot of the pork gravy-from-roux:

 

[sudsmaster]

The rest of the "roux"... which according to the Joy of Cooking can be used in many other dishes, besides just gravy.

 

[sudsmaster]

And here is the finished roast, minus its bottom layer of fat and a few slices for a ravenous cook: