Shades of Grey

We have a little problem with our cooker. It is gas on the top with two ovens, one a combi grill and the other fan assisted.

A couple of weeks ago, the fan oven continued to heat after being turned off. It produced a cloud of smoke burning off the grease on the oven walls and I imagine the fan didn’t like it too much, either. We turned it off at the wall and after it had cooled down and then it seemed to be fine after checking it out.

This weekend, though, it went dodgy again. My spam Fritters were rather overcooked and I twigged that the oven was way too hot. There is something doo-lally with the thermostat, although it does go off with the timer function.

Today, I took the back access panel off to see if I could disconnect the coil and still use the rest of the cooker. Surprisingly, the answer was no- there are three feeds from the incoming bus bar but losing the oven also loses the electronics and the piezo igniter (the hob is gas). I have to say how flimsy I thought the innards were and the wiring thickness looked barely adequate for the harsh environment encountered inside.

We have now booked a Hotpoint Engineer, although it isn’t cheap. There is a five year parts guarantee but they charge £35 to visit and labour is a further £55. (I exaggerate slightly, there is a penny change from both of these prices). We will get them to fix the wobbly knob while they are here, it wasn’t worth worrying about it before.

The bear is called Paddy the Chef and it is David’s. He had a trip to the Build-A-Bear store and helped stuff it himself. (Well, he got to keep his foot on the blower pedal).