No spare parts...

[Cliphead]

Built in obsolescence, fail just out of warranty or availability of spares.

No idea what the answer is unless you want to replace kit every x months / years.

[shaunbhoy]

I see Roy 'Chubby' Brown and his sidekick Bernard Manning are on form today....

And your Village is still wondering when its idiot is going to return home.

[darmstadt]

And your Village is still wondering when its idiot is going to return home.

I see you're still in yours...

[WTFH]

No spare parts...

Go on, let's see a picture.

It's all re-assembled now. Might take it apart at the weekend to view the offending article.

[WTFH]

Built in obsolescence, fail just out of warranty or availability of spares.

No idea what the answer is unless you want to replace kit every x months / years.

New solution proposed last night, which requires a bit of background.
When we bought the house it had an old oil-fired Rayburn in it. The Rayburn runs off two wicks, so once you light it, you don't turn it off again for several months. Great in winter, it heats the kitchen while drinking oil. If it was left on all year our energy bill would be sky high and the house would be very hot in the summer. It also takes about 4 hours to warm up when you first light it, and any time you want to cook at high temps, it takes a couple of hours to warm up. Temperature control is done by varying the flow of oil.
Our first summer in this house we discovered that the house was too hot and the oil was costing a fortune, so we turned the Rayburn off and bought an electric cooker.

Solution proposed last night... Don't buy a new electric cooker, instead trade in the Rayburn (which is about 300kg of cast iron and worth a bit as scrap metal) and buy a new, more efficient one that uses oil mist, rather than wicks. It can be turned on and off any time, heats up quicker and burns less oil.
This solution was proposed by the Neighbours, and The Wife (tm) liked it. She forgot the caveat of "always ask the bill payer's permission".
Trading in an old Rayburn will get you up to £1k off a new one. The new one is about £6k.

[NotAllThere]

The PCB could be fixed, it depends what component on it has blown. If it's the main chip - then you're screwed unless you know how to program it. If it's a couple of resistors, for example, replace them.

My father-in-law trained under Chinese electrical engineers in a prison camp in Vietnam in the 1960's. Due to lack of parts, he became adept at electronic workarounds. He's kept up with modern technology and I've seen him fix stuff that looked totally dead.

[xoggoth]

The PCB could be fixed

Was a time I used to repair things myself, trouble is, components are now so small, it's too hard. Managed to fix my ZX81 but gave up with the Psion 3.

[RSoles]

Was a time I used to repair things myself, trouble is, components are now so small, it's too hard.

I have the same problem, but it's my eyesight rather than the components.
Now, is that brown, black, red or is it brown, black, orange?

I was hoping the scorch marks mapped to simple components on the other side of the pcb; my money would be on the 'power' side of those relays.

Then the problem is why did they fry? replacing them might simply fry the replacements.
Sometimes better to replace the cooker. Especially when you factor in the time you spend....
Then there's the insurance problem if it burns down your house....

[northernladyuk]

You could always invite darmstadt round to take a look. He may not be able to fix it, but at least it would get you over the "no spare parts" hurdle.

He could invite you round, and then there'd be no food left in the house to cook, so it wouldn't matter.

[d000hg]

Are there not places who salvage old appliances for usable, sellable parts? i.e. junkyards for appliances? Did you try eBay, etc?

Someone must have the same appliance who is getting rid of it, it's a daft situation.