Lamona oven problems continues

My Lamona oven continues to give me grief. After replacing the Inner Door Glass which seems to continually self-destruct, I went to heat up my dinner and now my oven doesn’t heat up! A quick search on the internet reveals a likely suspect for my newest problem, it seems it’s not so uncommon to have to replace the Oven Element. Or, at least, this does seem to be the most likely cause according to us DIY’ers who would rather fix than replace.

Apparently, a lot of Oven Elements can be replaced without removing the oven itself, most but not all. As yet I am not sure if mine is one of these ovens. Also, some suggest a good way to know if the element is faulty is that the Oven Lamp will come on but there will be no heat from the oven. It seems this is the best and cheapest place to begin as this is what my oven is doing and without wanting to spend money on expensive engineers, this will be my first step on my next oven repair.

Hygena Cooker Hood PCB

The other day someone asked me ‘Why won’t my cooker hood work?’, apparently it just died without warning. I of course had to ask what brand of cooker hood they had and was told that it was a Hygena model cooker hood. A little investigation led me to finding out that there are various types of Hygena PCB’s or printed circuit boards as we call them. Further investigation reveals that there seems to be a very common Hygena Printed Circuit Board that likes to act up, leaving us with no fan to suck up our cooking odours and leaving us in a fog of fried bacon. Luckily this was still available to buy as a lot of these cooker hoods are now very hard to acquire parts which seems is the norm with most MFI type appliances which no longer exist.

The particular PCB in question which was for model number APP2420 also fitted 11 other models as well. Also, a little bit of DIY know-how was required to fit this unit as soldering of wires was also required. Also, if you are doing this yourself please don’t forget to isolate the power supply!

After fitting the new PCB the cooker hood was back up and fully functional at a far reduced cost to what a new appliance would have been. A simple and relatively low cost fix for anyone who is a DIY person and would rather repair than replace.

 

Cooker Hood Carbon Filters & Grease Filters

Cooker hood carbon filters are a great solution for reducing the cooking smells in your kitchen. The suck up the odours from your hob and then air passes through the carbon granules and out the other side with your cooking smells neutralised.

Cooker hood carbon filters come in various shapes and sizes for many different brand cooker hoods such as Ignis, AEG, Beko and Electrolux just to mention a few. They vary from being round like the Whirlpool Cooker Hood Carbon Filter D034 to square ones supplied as a pack of 2 for Cooker hoods like the Ariston model AGS. These are very high quality products and should always be used here possible but can sometimes be a bit on the pricey side.
Cooker Hood Universal Carbon Filter

Another excellent solution for those of us who have older cooker hoods is the Universal Cooker Hood Carbon Filter, these can be used in any cooker hood that recirculates air and that the dimensions are suitable for, you just need to get your tape measure and check before ordering. They can be simply cut of folded to fit and if it is not quite big enough for your cooker hood, just insert 2 of them. Also, these can be purchased as a set containing a Carbon Filter and Grease Filter for those of us who also require both of these items. Likewise, if you just require a Cooker Hood Grease Filter then this can also be purchased separately, just remember to check your dimensions to make sure this will be suitable for you. These are a low cost and effective replacement and suit most cooker hoods.

To keep your cooker hood in perfect working order make sure to replace these items regularly as dirty filters will lead to cooker hood that is simply not working correctly and is invariably useless at doing what it was designed for.

Lamona Inner Oven Door Glass Exploading

Lamona Inner Oven Door Glass

It’s now been a few months since following up on the ever present problem of the spontaneously exploding Lamona Inner Oven Door Glass. There are quite a few of us who are the unlucky ones where half way through your Sunday roast cooking there is a sudden explosion in your oven, only to find that along with your roast chicken and potatoes that you have about a million pieces of glass that have also peppered your favourite meal. Feeling frustrated doesn’t really sum up how most people feel.

I’ve searched the web and it seems that it is mostly a select range of Lamona ovens where this happens. I’ve noticed through my research that this particular door glass is fitted to various different brand cookers like Beko, Belling, Diplomat, Flavel and so on. From reading your comments though it seems that Lamona ovens are the ones that are mostly affected. One has to wonder why? Were these the only ovens where the door glass if fitted by what appears to be 2 screws (one ether side) which seems to be the butt of the problem and are all the other ones OK?

It’s also been suggested that cleaning the inner door removes a heat resistant coating. Surely this can’t be true? A heat resistant coating that you can clean off seems like an absurd excuse for a self-exploding door glass. Also, I am sure that all of us who never cleaned the glass and then it also exploded would disagree that this is the answer to the question.

Also, there are other various models of Lamona ovens which have a Lamona Inner Door Glass like model numbers HJA3212, HJA3220 and HJA3320 which seem to be exempt for suddenly self-destructing, of course this particular door glass is specific to these models only and seem to only need replacing when the wife gets a little over enthusiastic with the cleaning and drops it.

I look forward to reading what you all have to say, please keep the comments coming as we are all interested.

Lamona Oven Inner Door Glass

Fridge Water Dispenser Tank

Fridge Water Dispenser Tank

Fridges with water dispensers have been around for decades now. While very common in the US (a typical American style fridge-freezer would have water and ice dispenser) it remained a luxury in most British households for years. Recently however we noticed a growing popularity towards fridges with inbuilt water dispensers.

Water Dispenser Tank

Fridge Water Dispenser Tank

We all like the flavor of fresh cool water without any metallic or chlorine taste which is why most of us have water filter jug on our fridge door bottle shelf. Fortunately for us fridges with in built water dispenser tanks became more affordable in recent years. In fact brands like Beko offer various fridges with water dispenser tanks at no extra cost.

Fridge Water Filter

Unfortunately for us cool water is not the only thing we expect from our fridge. A metallic taste and oily film on the top our favorite cup of tea is something we really don’t like to taste or see. The solution to that problem is a fridge water filter. Bear in mind that not all the fridges with inbuilt water dispensers will have a water filter.

Water Filter. Is it for me?

It is most definitely worth investing in a fridge with an inbuilt water dispenser and water filter. In my opinion there is nothing better than constant supply of fresh drinking water. If you are a big fan of fresh water or use it on regular basis (like when you go to gym or jog regularly) this may save you a lot of money and hassle. Think of all the bottled water that you would normally buy and the money you would save by taking your own fresh water with you, not to mention doing your bit to save the environment as well.

Water Dispenser Tank maintenance

Should your fridge water dispenser tank get damaged don’t worry. There is no need to replace the whole fridge. The water tank can usually be easily replaced. It’s normally an easy and very straightforward process. As an example have a look at the Beko Fridge Water Dispenser Tank.

So whether you are an athlete or just a fan of a glass of cool water, a fridge that has a water dispenser tank will be the right choice for you.

Lamona (Howden) Freezer Flap

We all get used to our freezers and go about our lives without thinking much of the days when a freezer was a luxury not a necessity. We only realise how important it is when it fails.

I had a look into most common problems occurring with our freezers and without any surprise to me it is freezer baskets, flaps and covers that are being treated poorly and fail quite often. Unfortunately at the top of the list are freezer flaps and freezer covers. These get damaged quite often and it is not uncommon for an engineer to see duct tape holding broken pieces and cracked flaps together inside your fridge or freezer.

Why do the freezer flaps and covers break?

It’s our fault. We try to squeeze too many items inside the drawers and our children seem to love to swing off them. At first it looks like we succeeded fitting all our food inside, however what we don’t realise is that food expands as soon as it starts to freeze. Ice crystals are slightly larger than the water which they were built from, therefore the frozen food will take much more room (especially those foods rich of water such as meat, fish and vegetables). Unfortunately these natural forces are gigantic. Freezing water can easily damage such strong materials like asphalt, pipes or concrete, therefore a plastic freezer flap will stand no chance with this force of nature and simply break.

Smashing a freezer door onto freezer flap or cover is second most common reason for flaps to break. We live our lives in hurry and often forget to close the freezer flap or leave freezer basket pulled out slightly. When the door smashes the flap or cover it simply breaks.

Freezer flap or cover?

A typical freezer will have both: flap and covers

• Top (fast freeze) flap. In most cases this is a fixed compartment with drop down or lift up flap.
• Freezer draw cover. The cover that is fixed to the front of the freezer drawer. This usually can be found on lower freezer baskets.

All freezer flaps and covers come in variety of sizes with different fitting pins so it is very important to look for one specific for your freezer model. It is not uncommon that two different freezer flaps will look alike however the dimensions and fittings will be different. Please bear in mind that flaps and covers although look very similar have different fittings. Your freezer most likely will have one flap (on the top) and one or many draw covers.

Lamona (Howden) Freezer Flaps

If you have Lamona fridge freezer you will need to check your model number in order to find correct flap or cover. Typical Lamona model number begins with HJA followed by 4 digit code. Please make sure you take model number from the appliance itself not the corresponding manual as these are often printed for several models. Few examples below:

• Lamona HJA6014 freezer flap (top)
• Lamona HJA6014 freezer draw cover (bottom drawers)

Fridge Door Hinge

So what is a fridge door hinge?

A door hinge is a type of bearing that connects two objects together typically allowing only a limited angle of rotation. In the case of a fridge or freezer door hinge it is usually a metal hinge that allows the door to swing from right to left and vice versa.

A typical fridge hinge is generally made of durable metal as it will have to carry the full weight of the door not to mention all the goods that we frequently stack in the fridge door such as milk, juice and jam jars etc. Some fridges will also have an inbuilt water tank and dispenser in the door. The total weight of the door can reach up to 20kg!  That’s quite a lot providing that is only usually held there by two (upper and lower) hinges.

Left or Right Hinge? Upper or Lower Hinge?

A typical fridge or fridge freezer will have two hinges: Upper and Lower. Most doors can swing in either direction, therefore the upper hinge will become lower hinge and vice versa if you change the swing direction. Similarly a hinge can be right or left depending on the door swing. The diagram below explains the hinge naming convention.

Type A

Upper left hinge fits in either the upper position, if your door is hinged on the left, or the lower position, if your door is hinged on the right.

Type B

Upper right hinge fits in either the upper position, if your door is hinged on the right, or the lower position, if your door is hinged on the left.

Fridge Door Hinge Fitting

Lamona Oven Glass Explodes

I have written about the exploding inner oven glass for Lamona ovens many times before. This is quick follow up on my enquiry in to the matter:

Recently Howdens (supplier of Lamona appliances) started to tell affected customers that the reason behind the breaking glass is the way the customer treats the oven. Apparently cleaning the oven with some heavy-duty cleaners may remove the heatproof layer from the inner door glass – at least that’s what Howdens has been telling some of its customers.

I didn’t buy that and continued with my private investigation. I have managed to gather following facts.

The facts:

• The inner oven glass we talk about is manufactured by Beko and fits around 160 oven models of various makes: Beko, Belling, Flavel, Lamona and others.
• The same glass fits only 11* models of Lamona (Howden) models.  That’s about 6.8% of all ovens that the glass has been fitted to.
• From the survey conducted amongst customers whom ordered replacement inner glasses approximately 98% where those who had Lamona ovens (we have asked for a model number and 98% of them begun with HJA, which is Lamona code).

Quick summary:

It seems that the very same glass explodes in only 6.8% of these particular ovens. In other words: mere 6.8% of ovens are responsible of 98% of accidents. Coincidence? Not a chance.

The fault:

It seems like it’s easier (definitely cheaper) to blame customers for a glass that explodes spontaneously rather than take the full responsibility for the faulty design. But which one is it? I guess the right question to ask is what causes 98% of accidents in mere 6.8% ovens. Why other makes are not affected?

The simplest answer is the design of the oven itself.

The Devil is in the Design:

Oven Glass Fittings

Lamona (Howden) 11* models.

Inner door glass is fitted by two screws on each side. The problem with this fitting has been described in here>>

Beko  106* models.

Inner door glass is hold by a frame and locked by locking mechanism on upper side of the door.

It seems that different fitting used by Beko solves the problem of exploding oven glass.

My advice:

Should you need to replace your oven glass (guess you are one of unlucky Lamona Howden customers) please contact manufacturer first. If your oven is less than 12 months old you should be able to get free replacement under your warranty. Don’t let them tell you that it’s your fault. We have heard from many customers whom complained that Howdens would try to blame you for the fault. Let them know that you are aware of this common problem and they probably will eventually replace the glass for you for free.

Unfortunately if your oven is more than 12 months old you will have to take care of replacing glass by yourself. Please take a special care when fitting the glass in particular not to screw the glass to tight as it may contribute to future glass failure.

*known as of the time of publishing this article.

Lamona (Howden) Grill Pan

A grill pan is a type of oven pan (usually with a raised wire grill grid), used for cooking under the grill element of the cooker.  Grill pans come in variety of shapes and sizes and are not an integrated part of the oven (this means that original part can easily be replaced or subsidised by compatible or universal part).

Above we present the standard Lamona Grill Pan to fit the following Lamona cookers: HJA3240, HJA3400, HJA3700, HJA4610, HJA3242, HJA3650, HJA4600, HJA4620, HJA3300, HJA3660

It is a standard metal tray that measures approximately: 395mm x 340mm. The grill pan does not come with the grid and handle, as these are listed as separate parts. In order to gather the complete assembly you will need following items:

Grill Pan

Grill Pan Grid

Grill Pan Handle

For those who would rather not spend a small fortune in order to replace whole set I would recommend a universal grill pan assembly. This product consists of pan, wire grid and a handle. Approximate measurements are 380mm x 280mm so it will easily fit Lamona and various other brands ovens. It’s an effective and most definitely cheaper way of replacing the Grill Pan.

Universal Grill Pan Assembly

Shattered Lamona Oven Glass

I have written about the oven glass for Lamona and Beko cookers that explodes spontaneously before. Here is a brief reminder of the problem:

In a late 2010 it came to my attention that a significant number of oven glasses for Lamona (Howden) and Beko cookers have been replaced by customers. Sales of that particular spare part increased sharply towards the end of 2010 and through 2011. I have conducted a survey amongst customers as well as looked into the design of the oven door glass itself.

Two major things stand out:

• unusual fitting of the oven glass itself (it’s attached by a single screw on each of the sides);
• and secondly the vast majority of customers said that they cleaned the oven glass just before the glass shattered;

Many of the engineers I have talked to focused on the first point: the attachment of the glass. It seemed like there was a major design flaw: The screws that hold the glass on each side must put an enormous amount of pressure on the glass during the cooking cycle (thermal expanding and shrinking).  The manufacturer rejected that as the reason and claimed that design of the oven was not at the source of the countless oven inner glass explosions.

A recent follow up on the case and statements taken from customers who have replaced oven glass and complained to the manufacturer suggest that the problem rests in the heat-proof-layer of the glass and that its being removed (or damaged) when cleaning the oven. This would be in line with the survey I have conducted amongst people who were affected by the problem, as a majority of them did mention that oven glass was cleaned just prior the incident. It seems like the manufacture’s answer to the problem may be to leave your oven door dirty…?