How to Fix a Broken Toaster
To begin, please understand completely that you are working with an appliance that runs on electricity, and that electricity can kill you. Do not work on your appliance while the plug is in the wall. Do not work on your appliance around water. Do not drink beverages while working on your appliance. Do click here to read more about electrical safety.
After reading about electrical safety, and while understanding that replacement toasters are reasonably priced, the next thing that you do is to get out your magnifying glass and call that toll-free customer service phone number on the bottom of most new-era toasters to hear what they say about your problem.
Important Information: Never work on your toaster when it is plugged into the wall. Never plug your toaster into the wall without the outside covering shell on it. If you open your toaster and find a circuit board inside, do not try home repairs; call a service.
General Cleaning: Your toaster is a heating device for food. Food debris accumulating inside of your toaster is normally the cause of problems. Your toaster has a trap-door on the bottom that should be opened and cleaned often. How: Unplug. Pull the trap-door open with your fingers. Shake all debris out of your appliance over a trash can.
How Toasters Work: Think about your big oven for a minute. Pop-up appliances act almost like an oven. Turn a toaster on by plugging it in. Set the heating temperature by turning the side-knob between, “light” and “dark”. Load food through the toaster top-slots. A timer is set to tell you when food is done by pushing the toaster side-lever down.
Electricity is carried from your wall through the toaster-cord and into the appliance. Once inside, a switch at the end of the cord area, tells the electricity to heat-up your cooking elements. This switch is called a thermostat.
A thermostat tells the toaster how long to allow electricity to cook your food, and how hot to make the heating element while cooking. Next, a solenoid switch turns off the electricity heating the element, and unlocks the spring to allow your toast to pop-up.
When you push the side-lever down, inside of the toaster a lever is locked into place until the thermostathas finished its heating cycle telling the solenoid to release the lever. When the solenoid releases the lever, your food pops-up.
Common Problems: Toasters are not made with repairs in mind; they are made to discard when broken. After that problem, concerns are normally a malfunction of thermostat, solenoid, side-bar unit, heating element, pop-up latch, or cord.
Cover Removal: Inside of your toaster, the working parts are mounted on a framework called a chassis. To get to your chassis, you need to take the pretty outside cover off of your toaster. How: Unplug. Turn toaster bottom up. Unscrew anything holding the outside onto the inside. Pull knob-covers straight out to get them off.
Ideas: If you can find a thrift store same-model toaster that is working with an ugly cover, you can put that working chassis assembly into your broken toaster. If your knobs will not come off easily, look for screws. If you use pliers, wrap in rag to prevent scratching.
Inside Cleaning: After you have your outside cover off, you will want to clean all tiny food debris off of the inside parts. Food particles can stop your thermostat, solenoid, heating elements, pop-up lock and lever, or electricity supply channels from working correctly. How: Use a soft (dry) paintbrush, and canned air to remove all food debris.
Ideas: You may have just fixed your problem. Put everything completely back together and try your toaster. If you do not have canned air, a blow dryer set on cold works.
Thermostat: When toast is not cooking enough, or over cooking you will want to reset the inside heat control. How: Inside, behind your outside light-dark knob, you will find a thermostat calibration device. This can be a wheel, knob, or a screw that you turn slightly (or slide) to change heat settings. All models look different.
Idea: On some toasters the calibration device can be reached through the bottom trap-door.
Side-Lever Malfunction: Inside of your toaster, you will see how the side-lever works. After cleaning away all food debris (explained above) this unit should move smoothly. You may add a very tiny bit of appliance approved lubricant to the rod if needed. Gently bend the latch back into place at the bottom if it does not catch.
Solenoid: If your solenoid is held on inside by rivets, get a new toaster. To test a solenoid to see if it is working, use a multimeter tool. If the solenoid is faulty and not riveted down, it is easy to put a new one in the same way that the old one comes out.
Idea: Take your old solenoid to the hardware store, and ask the clerk for a new one. They will find the right part quickly for you.
Heating Elements: If your heating elements have gone out, you will need to find a complete working same-model chassis unit to replace with, or buy a new toaster.
Vintage Chrome Toasters: Vintage chrome toasters are desirable today. Always open and inspect the inside working parts of any vintage chrome toaster that you plan on using, before buying it from the antique store. A shiny chrome outside can not tell you if the inside is rusted or a fire hazard.
Black & Decker Brands: Newer toasters in the Black & Decker brand name seem to have a lot of problems. You can read about these problems, and how others handled their problems online at: Consumer Affairs.
