Toaster oven HT

P

Protactical

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Aug 24, 2003
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I have an old toater oven that we still use for toast. Neither the timer, nor the heat adjust still work. We just pull the cord before the house goes up in flames.

I was wondering wat kind of device could be used to adjust the heat. Could a dimmer be used? I wouldn't be adding it inside the oven, but rather on the circuit. I have a pyrometer to keep track of heat, but I need something to control the heat. I guess a new, cheap toaster could be as little as 30 bucks. I was thinking though of getting one of those for the house if this old oven could be used in the shop. I would never leave it unattended, it's just a mater of getting something that works at all.
 
If you have a light dimmer that you don't mind loosing it may be worth a try. My guess is that the oven will pull to much current and the triac within the dimmer will short. Should that occur you will have lost your dimmer. Be sure to baby sit it for a long time while running it through the testing phase. Of course, you will use your oven thermometer all along.

RL
 
Once I had a wood stove that I heated my shop with. I got a fan to blow the air around the stove pipe so that I could get heat to the far end of the shop. But the fan went too fast so I thought I could just slow the fan down by connecting the switch to a light dimmer that I had left over.

Now for a while the dimmer "seemed" to work, the fan did slow down...'

But then the dimmer seemed to stop working and got too hot to handle.

I tossed it out and got a fan with a built-in Hi-Med-Low switch.

Im not sure what was the problem, but thats what happend....
 
Another note: If the triac does short you will have the same situation you have now; the oven will go to full scream. So watch it carefully.

RL
 
D, with motors it is different, depending on the type one needs some kind of controler to reduce speed, for istance with drills and such the controler sends out periodic bursts of full power, not reduced current which seems to stress out the motor.

I'm assuming a rheostat is the appropriate tool to control the heater, but that could be a false assumtion. I used to poke all over my electric stove, but now I have gas, and forget how that old thing worked.

It's not a big deal buying a new oven if that's what it takes, but if there is something simpler I'm all for it. Don't worry Rlinger, I'll be careful.
 
Yes. Please forgive. I wasn't wanting to appear to talk down. It is just that you never know who might have an understanding of how motor speed/light dimmers work and why they do. You are correct. They put out varying percentages of the voltage cycle depending of the gate current to the triac. This allows the load devise to be controlled while still supplying full voltage but at a reduced period in time.

RL
 
rlinger nice of you to take that tone, but I wasn't insulted or anything. This forum is full of the kind of topic that might end up boosting someone's home into a higher orbit than the Rutan's SpaceShipOne. I figured you were either being helpful, or careful, which is all good. :D
 
I am not really in to toaster oven electricity but your original post makes me wonder if the one you have is triac controlled since you say it is always full on. Sounds like a shorted triac. If it were mine and I had a motor speed control laying around I'd be tempted to try it. I really don't know if it would buck the input electronics of the oven or not (if the oven has electronics; I presume it does).

RL
 
It's a pretty basic unit, RL, it has a slider for toast darkness on one side, stacked over the on/off switch, that kicks when the thing is hot enough. Currently the switch does kick "off", but it doesn't actualy turn anything off, so when you hear it release, you just unplug it.

The other side of the front has a dial for oven temp, that would allow one to set the oven temp at a particular level, like 400 degrees. This would just stay on until you turn it off again. This doesn't apear to work at all.

I haven't actualy looked at the thing yet to see the "why" of what is broken, if there was something simple wrong with the oven dial side, that would be a great fix. It has been broken every which way for about 5 years. My wife usualy fixes any appliances that she cares about. She has a knack for it, so I have been assuming it's unfixable, but I guess I will check. It sure pumps out the heat.

I have both a leeson controler for a DC motor, and a speed controler for routers and such.
 
Well now, that gives us something. You say you can hear it click - or something - but it does not turn off. But that's on the toaster part of its function. Sounds like it is timing out okay. Doesn't really say anything about the thermocouple and its electronics since that would be used on the oven function and perhaps not at all on the toaster function. I don't know. :( It could still be a shorted triac. I just am not at all familiar with the insides of toaster ovens.

If you don't mind loosing the router control you could try it. A trip to Walmart may be the other next best fix. Sorry. I just don't know enough about them to be any better help.

RL
 
The thermocouple is a hand held unit I am planing to use to verify the temp, it isn't electronicaly integrated with the toaster.

The toaster is just a very good quality originaly, but extremely basic, regular toaster oven. Anyway, I may just go to walmart as mentioned. Anything I burn out would cost more than a new toaster. They have medium priced toaters and convection ovens these days that have electronic settings and thermocouples in them. They might be pretty slick to have.
 
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