By Ross Youngblood
I recently learned why my high-end Fisher Paykel double oven was reduced 50 percent before I purchased it for my kitchen remodel from a local Lowes home improvement sale in 2008.
I installed it myself, finally, in April 2010. It worked wonderfully for months, and then I used the self-cleaning feature. Turns out my unit was manufactured in 2005, and designed by monkeys.
The monkeys designed several one-time-only thermal limiter switches that require replacement (service call) when blown. These are in series with the 240VAC heating element power.
Another team of monkeys designed the control code that the oven’s microcontroller uses when the self-cleaning feature is used. These monkeys made sure that the temperature and duration of heat was enough to blow all the thermal sensors after the self-cleaning cycle.
A Google search confirms that many users have experienced a lack of heating the day after self cleaning (aka self destruct).
The fix is a new circuit for the thermal limiter and a new CPU controller that changes the self-cleaning cycle, $260 for parts and $160 labor. I’ve had the oven in service six months, but it was purchased two years ago and is out of warranty.
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