Random thoughts on my dead heat-minder burner on the Flair

[dalangdon]

I've been getting the Flair ready to come back into service, and am struggling with the dead heat-minder burner, and I have some questions:

Is the burner control (i.e. the thing that the knob is connected to) different than other burners, or is it just the sensor on the burner itself that makes this burner "different"?

I have a 4 burner control from a custom deluxe (thanks again, Greg!) that I would replace the whole mess with, but that's an awful lot of wiring for a country boy like me, and I don't want to go through all that drama if the burner itself (as well as the speed-heat burner) won't be able to cope with this change)

What is the best way to go about investigating the cause of a dead heat-minder? The speed heat was a breeze, once I found the ridiculously placed burner fuse. Hopefully, something similar is lurking, waiting for me to find it.

 

[toggleswitch]

I would love to learn myslef how an electric heat-minder works.

I have only seen the gas version. With the gas version the size of the flame is determined by the user, then the desired temp is set.

The gas cycles on and off to maintain that pre-set temp.
While the burner is beign used (know not on "off") there is a "standby" pilot light on the burner itself to ensure ignition with cycling.

Now how does the elecrtic one work?

 

[gansky1]

There were a couple different types of the Heat Minder. The one on my 1958 Frigidaire is a thermister, a bulb inside the pan-sensor tells the heat when to cycle - similar to many oven controls. Later, Frigidaire used an electric thermostat type sensor - probably found on the Flair because the cooktop moves and this would not be suitable for a thermister's copper tubing.

Dan, does the burner work at all? What are the symptoms? Element does not come on at all, element doesn't cycle on/off as set, etc.

 

[gansky1]

Post the model number if you have it handy, I'll pull out the Tech-Talk for it and we'll all learn something about range repair!

 

[dalangdon]

It's a RC1B-654-2

(or an approximation of that - the label is kind of hard to read. it might be a RCIB-654-2)and the heat-minder is dead. I could sit on it all day and read the phone book, and be no worse for the experience.

It just happened one day out of the blue. I fixed the speed heat, and the Heat-Minder gave out. It's always something.

The link takes you to a page from the owner's manual that has a brief explanation of the heat-minder.

http://danlangdon.com/images/flairburners.gif

 

[goatfarmer]

No burnt wires anywhere? Have you checked the burner itself with an ohm meter?

kennyGF

 

[dalangdon]

Ohm Meter?

That sounds way too complicated for a simple farm boy like me ;-)

Actually, my neighbor has all that stuff, and knows how to use it. Once we get the flair moved in, I'll have him check it.

 

[goatfarmer]

All it's going to do is check continuity,to make sure the burner itself is good,and not grounded,or burnt out internally.Pretty simple procedure.

kennyGF

 

[kenmore1978]

gas automatic burners

"I have only seen the gas version. With the gas version the size of the flame is determined by the user, then the desired temp is set.

The gas cycles on and off to maintain that pre-set temp. "

Didn't work that way on my Gaffers & Sattler range. There was a section on the dial where one set the height of the flame, then one set it to the temperature wanted. When the temperature was reached, the thermostat would not cycle, it would turn the flame down to a point where the set temp would be maintained.

 

[dalangdon]

update

OK, the flair is in and fired up. I was hoping that the heat-minder just would have repaired itself, or that I was remember it wrong, but it is indeed dead.

I didn't see any loose or burned out wiring. I did get an Ohm meter, and will test the continuity of the burner connections themselves. Anything else I should check while I am in there?