oven's thermostat bulb broke, replace all?

Of course, unless you have a $20,000 machine to reload the working liquid. If you broke a thermometer in half would you expect to buy a replacement half?

I don't understand, are we on the same page. The oven thermostat has a 4 foot, 1/16" copper wire, then, at the end of the wire is a foot long, 1/8" tube. It looks like a thermocouple. I was wondering if I could just replace that, just like a thermocouple on a gas regulator.

It's not a thermocouple or a copper wire. It's a copper capilary tube with a fluid filled bulb on the end. The fluid expands as the bulb is heated, pushing on a diaphragm which moves the switch contacts in the thermostat. If you damage the capilary tube you have to replace the whole assembly.

Understandable, thanks, for all your help.

I think the answer is yes, you have to replace the whole thing.

I had a similar experience with an oven controller and also found that no parts were sold, only complete assemblies. The part that broke on mine was the little ceramic thermal relay, and the repair shop told me that this was the part that always broke. That part alone should have cost only $10 to replace (and that part is identical on all pre solid state controllers) but I was still forced to buy the $70 assembly.

If you were patient and lucky you might find someone with a bad controller and a good thermostat bulb sub-assembly, but that's an extreme long shot.

----------------------------------------------- Jim Adney snipped-for-privacy@vwtype3.org Madison, WI 53711 USA

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We'll all be cooking with phasors before that happens.

Thanks, but I'm just going to have to buy the whole assembly, mine is going to cost me $100+ because, it's a 20 year old, Glenwood.

Hi...

If dollars are at all tight; you might want to look in your local for sale newsgroups, or buy and sell papers.

Seems that here at least, there are often people upgrading their appliances, and offering the old ones for very very little. Usually intending them for cottages.

Grab one for much much less than a 100 bucks, use the thermostat from it, and get a few more spare parts as a bonus.

Take care.

Ken

I see whole stoves for free on freecycle.org so why not keep one out of the dump? Maybe you can find a similar stove even?