The main fan oven on our Belling Farmhouse 930 range stopped

The fan is not working now, but I do not know if it went out at the same time, my wife was in the kitchen and I was out on business. She was cooking, the oven was on but I am not sure if the fan was on- it only used to start up some time after the oven had been switched on. What she observed was a power failure, she checked the consumer unit and found that the RCD had tripped and everything on that set of circuits had gone out, and when reset it, everything worked except the oven and its fan.

If the main control board has been damaged, why is it that only this one oven has been impacted?

Where is this board and how do I get to it? Pulling the oven out of the old kitchen range it is located in is going to be a pig, so if that can be avoided I would be grateful. I have loads of tools so can probably get to this board once I know how to.

Thanks. But the other oven and grill are working okay, and the timer clock and even the fan oven's red light, it is just tyh fqn oven heater plus fan that have failed.

I have to go off now, can be pick this up again tomorrow? Sorry to have break the conversation off.

Okay but how do I get to this board? I feel I need to see it and maybe test it if that is possible before I try ordering a replacement.

Michael and George, this is confusing me! As I wrote yesterday, I had to go off in the early afternoon. But now I am back in action, though knackered by a late night. I must get this cooker working as soon as possible.

Michael, so far you have suggested that it must be the control board, and said there was no point in opening up the range to look, just to order the part, but I don't like doing in case it is not the board. In passing you mentioned that the control was associated with the clock, which is useful knowledge, but I then need to get at the clock but do not know how to get at it. I am reluctant to start taking the cooker apart trying to find a way of getting to the back of the clock, though I can see some screws under the front panel which might get me there.

George has added some useful advice, implying that I should get at the board and test it - of course testing does not mean trouble shooting the board, just checking whether power is getting through to the oven and fan. George also suggest that the controller might have automatically switched to Auto; now I have been hit by that before, many years ago in a rented house in Peterlee, but this cooker does not seem to work like that, there is a rotary switch which can select the timing mode, it was set to Manual - in the past when power in the house has failed, there has not been any reversion to Auto, so it cannot be that.

If I could get access to a workshop manual about the cooker, I could probably work through this on my own, but so far I have not been able to find that on line though maybe you guys could guide me to that, or better still send me it - the cooker is a Belling Farmhouse 930, my installation manual is dated 6/11/00 so that tells you how old the cooker is. Getting access to a manual will have made connecting to justanswer.co.uk really worthwhile.

Having you both on line is confusing, but for the moment lets keep both of you engaged to see if you could send me, or direct me to, a technical workshop manual for the beast. Meanwhile I will keep browsing to find a workshop manual.

Thanks.

I still feel I am on my own, I am working out how to access the control panel, to take out the screws below the panel and then expecting to be able to lift the panel up and out, maybe having to rotate it around the upper edge of the panel. I will just have to see, and then trace the wiring to see how far the mains power gets.

There is a several weeks delivery lead time on the part you suggest, what if once installed it still does not work?

I think there is no point in continuing this discussion, I will do the rating next time round, and I am sorry it wont be good.

Michael,

at the moment all I need is some guidance on how to get to see and assess the time/controller, I have asked several times for that help but you got stuck on insisting that your diagnosis is right, and on being negative about George. What George did was show me that he was thinking about the problem, I don't hold it against him that he did not already know the controls on the Farmhouse 930. Now he does!

Maybe you are right in your diagnosis, but I want to proceed a little more cautiously. I have just had to pause while I cooked a pizza for my son in the second small oven, but now that has been done, I am getting back to my investigation. If the control panel does not do what I am expecting, I will be back for more, assuming you are still in the game.

best wishes, Pat

Hi Andrew, and Michael and George,

the same problem remains, getting to the wiring to see what is going on there. I have now unscrewed the front control panel from the main case and it moves up and down a bit, but seems to be attached to the hob top with the hot-plates. I cannot shift it more than a fraction of an inch, it could just be stuck with gunge since it has not be touched or serviced, or anything in the 14 or so years that it has been installed. However there could be some fastening that needs to removed, and that is where I am hoping you can help me.

As an alternative way of getting at the wiring I have started removing the sides and back in the oven, hoping that that will enable me to check out some of the wiring - I have found the thermostat sensor, but must work on a reluctant screw to get the side wall out.

I am going to replace the light bulb while I am at it, that went a long time ago.

I do hope that you can help in these rather mundane issues, if you have done one of these recently you will know that answer. I could send photos if that would help - it seems that I could insert a picture.

I have now cleared the oven, and can see a spot on the heating element where the smooth heating element has "exploded" and looks like a picture of a broken heating element that I saw on some web-site. So maybe that is it! But there was no access to any wires from the oven side, so I have now taken off the back panel and revealed the wires, but will have to cut a cable tie or two to get full access to the heater element, to isolate it and measure continuity.

So Andrew, you are right I am now only 20 odd minutes way from knowing whether that heater element is the villain, and taking it out if it is. If not, then I would still have to face lifting that panel plus hob up to expose the timeswitch and controller - it seems to have some fastening in the centre that I have not yet located, a job for tomorrow if I need to. The whole thing might have only taken half an hour had I known exactly how to open up the range, but that is what your experience is all about.

I have reinstated the cooker for use for cooking supper, my turn to cook. so that is where I am now going.

Pat

Thanks George, that is really good of you. I had not known that Glen (I have one two of their fan heaters), Dimplex (the heating fans in my bathroom carry this brand) and Belling were al the same. It is unfortunate that they do not have any maintenance manual, but we will just have to live with that.

And thank you or thinking about the connection between the heater and the fan - the way the oven operated was that the fan only came on around 5 or 10 minutes after switching on the oven, as if the fan was in some way connected via the thermostat.

I will update you on progress later this morning, after I have cleaned up more of the grunge around the cooker, and then opened up the back fully and checked for open circuits and short circuits. My cheap multimeter should help me crack it.

Thanks. I have been into the back, disconnected the heating element, and found that it is definitely open circuit. But getting it out has proved really difficult, and it looks as if I am going to have to remove the whole fan plus heater assembly.

Meanwhile those replacement part numbers are useful. I will keep you updated.