Would These Rockers Be Useful For Later On? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: Boris_yo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2012, 11:53:18 am
content: Hello and here are appliances which have rockers I question about:Old coffee maker and recently malfunctioned electric kettle. Can their rockers be proven to be useful later on? For example I have aquarium lighting that does not have On/Off switch and with one of the above potential rocker I thought of correcting this. Regards to electric kettles in general, I think somebody mentioned on this forum about them having delicate rockers, so I don't know if such rockers are safe to use, let alone worth keeping at all.Additionally, is there something else to take off of appliances before I trash them?

author: Rerouter
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2012, 12:00:35 pm
content: on electronic kettles they generally have something like a bimetalic strip balanced inside of them, so that when it reaches temperature it will flick itself off, on some this also acts as a spring and can be a bugger to remove, i would say avoid if possible,

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2012, 12:48:33 pm
content: The blender one can be reused, but the kettle one is just a plastic moulding that operates an arm that goes down to the base by the power inlet, where it pushes in a pin on the element, which contains the actual switch inside. You will find a bimetal strip by the handle that is operated by the steam when the water boils, and this provides the push to switch the kettle off when it boils. It is a small u shaped spring on the one side, it serves both as sensor and spring for the switch.

author: rollatorwieltje
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 07, 2012, 05:14:37 pm
content: I usually keep the power cords, always useful to have some at hand. The switch from the coffee maker is usable, but they tend to be cheap and nasty. Don't use them to switch on stuff that has a huge inrush current.

author: Boris_yo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 08, 2012, 09:24:56 am
content: Affirmative! But should I also keep kettle's charging stand just in case my another kettle's stand malfunction? Of course I realize this is not universal stand which will fit all kettles however.

author: Boris_yo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2012, 06:18:54 pm
content: Disassembled lower part of electric kettle today picture of which you can see on at the bottom of this post. The rocker is integrated and thus cannot be used with wire joined from each side because it's mainly big, fragile and doesn't have its own casing. Maybe I could do something with it though... but I prefer buying small and lighter rocker:Additionally I wanted to disassemble 15 year old coffee maker but could not find appropriate screwdriver and screwbit for this type of screw:

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2012, 06:28:34 pm
content: Security screw, you can buy a bit set to open them ( cheap 101 bit set for hex driver set normally has 4 different size ones) or brute force it out with either a sacrificial screwdriver where you file a slot in the head or use a small blade one to turn only half the head.

author: nanofrog
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2012, 01:24:10 am
content: Quote from: Boris_yo on October 21, 2012, 06:18:54 pmSpanner bit.AsSeanBmentioned, you can usually find these as part of a security bit set, and Chinese made sets can be had inexpensively.