Classic Hifi Care

I've been using the fluorescent light on the '49 Hotpoint range at the cottage--first had to spray some WD-40 in the push switch to free it up. It worked fine for quite a while but now the switch is on strike and no amount of spray stuff will make it work.

To start the light, you would push the switch in and hold it a bit before releasing.

Is this a standard SPST on-off push switch, or does it have some sort of momentary-on feature to allow the fluorescent tube to light?

Any idea where to look for a replacement?

Chris Campbell

I remember ours was just a on/off because I remember the click when it got pushed,don't remember the model ... I guess they could have made models with momentary switches to kick start the ballast but then how would you shut it off

This one, you push in, pause, release to turn it on. For off, just push and release.

Chris Campbell

The switch is from 49?.... darn American junk, only lasted 74 years we still use a classic 2 slice Sunbeam T-95 chrome toaster that my father gave my mother for mother's day in 55? ... nothing made today can toast a better piece of bread ...

Elton, is your Sunbeam the one that self-lowers? I have two of them but neither work nor I have not attempted to repair them yet. I'm guessing they can be repaired?

Bill

I have a radiant control toaster. They can get out of adjustment and not work, since their mechanism is somewhat of a balancing act. I had to adjust mine to the point it would work, than taper it back a bit. There are several tutorials on Youtube that show how it's done.

William wrote: ↑Mon Sep 05, 2022 12:11 pm Elton, is your Sunbeam the one that self-lowers? I have two of them but neither work nor I have not attempted to repair them yet. I'm guessing they can be repaired?

Bill

Bill, yes it self lowers , these use a set of points like a car and they can get tarnished , pull off the adjuster knob then remove the plastic bottom which will reveal the screws that take the cover off... and file the points then see if the thing will self lower... mine needs to be cleaned again as it takes a couple drops of the bread to make it take the bread ... but one feature I like is the door on the bottom so it is easy to clean out the droppings ...my kids claim it will be one thing they fight over after we are gone...
P.S. look for them on e-bay... they are still popular and selling for good $$$$$

Thanks, Rex and Elton, I will check things out and see what I can do.

Bill

The 3-wire switch you have is a substitute for adding one of those little aluminum cans, called a starter, that screws into a push-twist base, normally at one end of the lamp strip, partly recessed. My 36" Hardwick gas range has a 30" lamp and uses a trigger switch as well.

Most residential (smaller) fluorescent lamps are "trigger start". Circuits typically are in a big loop across line and the switch, two-wire ballast, filaments at each end of the same lamp, which has the "starter" inserted between them. The starter gets hot, opens and stays open somehow, until power is switched off.

When you push it on, it completes the circuit so the filaments glow just enough to heat up for when you release the switch to light the lamp, ballast takes over when switch contacts between the filament ends are opened.

I hadn't dragged the range out to inspect it. Did that a decade ago to replace the lights behind pushbuttons. So there's a momentary-on wire that's energized when the switch is held in? Any idea of they are available from McMaster-Carr, etc.?

The other option is to remove & disassemble the switch.

Chris Campbell

TC Chris wrote: ↑Fri Sep 09, 2022 1:37 am I hadn't dragged the range out to inspect it. Did that a decade ago to replace the lights behind pushbuttons. So there's a momentary-on wire that's energized when the switch is held in? Any idea of they are available from McMaster-Carr, etc.?

The other option is to remove & disassemble the switch.

Chris Campbell

Show a picture Chris, you can probably fix it but make sure its clean and refilled (to prevent arcs) with some automotive connector grease. I have fixed the pull-on RCA volume knob switches this way, that original lube was a contributor to the fail.

That tiny, odd-shaped rocker switch on my Hardwick is probably unobtanium.