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Fix Your Electric Kettle

Wednesday, December 28, 2011 Posted by Glenn 1 comments

Fixing Your Kettle Tutorial
by: Glenn Posadas
DISCLAIMER: I'm not an electrician, but I think, I can be. :) I am not an electrical engineer, but I am a computer engineering student and therefore I've finished my DC Circuits 1 course and currently taking AC Circuits 2 course. :)

Electricity travels through the element inside the kettle, but resistance to the flow of electricity causes heat. The heat is then conducted into the water. When the water reaches boiling point, the steam heats up a 'Bimetallic Strip' which is made up of two different strips of metal, which bends because one of the metals expands faster than the other. This breaks the circuit, and the electricity doesn't get through the element until the bimetallic strip has cooled down.

Our Electric Kettle one day suddenly stopped working. So I took some guts to fix it.
There are different reasons why your kettle doesn't work.

Maybe:

1. First, I think your kettle was made in China. LOL. Yeah seriously, sometimes, appliances from China have a shorter lifetime than those from Japan :)
2. Switch. Maybe the switch is broken
3. The kettle's circuit, maybe the wires have been corroded by the rust. (This happened in my kettle)
4. Wires maybe disconnected
5. OTHERS xD

LET's GET STARTED (Note: This applies to case # 3 and #4)

NOTE: CLICK THE PICTURE IF YOU WANT TO ENLARGE. YOU CAN USE YOUR ARROW KEYS TO NAVIGATE.

FIRST STEP:
Obviously, we need to get rid off the water in our kettle, well its up to you if you want to get wet. xD. And unplug the kettle from your power source.

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You can drink the water if you think you're wasting it. :P

SECOND STEP:
Of course, you'll be needing a screw driver:

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Now, we will aim to check the circuit or wiring of our kettle itself. IT can be found under your kettle.

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Remove all the screws


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THIRD STEP:
Check for the corroded wires.

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well, in my case, there was merely one corroded wire. :)

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LAST STEP:
Remove the corroded wires and clean it. RUST IS NOT A CONDUCTOR, therefore it is an INSULATOR. Meaning, it doesn't not allow the current to pass. :) Or you can simply replace such wires if you want to. and then plug your kettle right away!


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WOO!!! Thank God its working now! :) Now we can make coffees! ^_^
-glenn

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