How does this oven work?

June 21, 2006 10:37 PM

This may sound like a dumb question, but seriously: how do I use my oven?

I've recently moved to a new place, which included a fairly old-looking oven with the console information apparently removed and no brand logo to be found. I'm left with a button to the left of the readout, 7 identical buttons in a row along the bottom, and a dial. All the range burners work just fine, but I cannot determine how to get the oven working.

If I press the right-most button, the dial allows me to set a baking temperature, but after a few seconds displaying "100" the display says "F5", which I presume to be some sort of error, and I must press the far left button (cancel?) to return to the clock. I can hear the oven turning on before it stops heating. Am I missing some important step, or is it simply broken?

The landlord cannot explain how to use it, which I find odd, because she lived here before us, but that is neither here nor there.

It's some manner of Sears-distributed oven, and I think it may be a Roper, but I'm not sure. The model number is 911.7338810 and serial number AC61065.

oven pic
console pic

posted by Durhey to home & garden (7 comments total)

Your oven is broken. See here. It doesn't list your model specifically, but it looks like f5 is pretty dang close to an industry standard code for a faulty electronic controller.
posted by ulotrichous at 11:06 PM on June 21, 2006

According to ulotrichous's page, the model number seems to confirm your suspicion that it's a Roper. In which case, F5 means either "Failed transistor" or "Replace door/latch switch". Either way, your landlord needs to call out the oven repairer. Easy, and not particularly expensive.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 12:30 AM on June 22, 2006

Make sure your landlords cover this completely or agree to take the cost off next month's rent, as a working oven is required by law in most states.
posted by sophist at 12:51 AM on June 22, 2006

That oven panel looked very familiar to me -- I realized there was one very like it in my boyfriend's basement, so I emailed him with a link to your picture of the controls, and here's the scoop. Yours isn't identical to his but this may help once the oven is fixed. He writes:

[My] model is Kenmore 278-3128810 manufactured for Sears Roebuck and Co.

The panel is different but the design looks similar.

Instead of 7 buttons on the bottom, button on left, and knob on right, there is a row of 3 with a row of 4 underneath, along with an oven light button on the left and knob on the right. The knob is labeled "set."

The buttons are labeled as follows:
Bake, Cancel, Broil,
Timer, Clock, Stop time, Oven Time.

In case functionality is the same:
To bake, press bake, knob in the temperature. To stop hit cancel. To set the timer, press timer, then knob to desired time.

Hope that helps!
posted by contessa at 9:12 AM on June 22, 2006

Wow, these are all great answers. Thanks so much! Bummer that it's broken, which I assumed was the case, but I'll be sure that the landlord gets it repaired. And when it is repaired, I'll know how it works.
posted by Durhey at 9:33 AM on June 22, 2006

Some more info just passed to me by my boyfriend about the oven:

I have occasionally had the -F5- error, also after hitting 100. When this happens, the lighting element and the gas don't seem synchronized. Usually, when that happens, it eventually works after multiple tries.

After a few seconds of reading "100", its lowest reading. It never "hits" 100, that is the lowest number that appears when the oven is cold.
posted by contessa at 9:54 AM on June 22, 2006

Thanks, Contessa. I'll try doing it a few times in a row, though so far I've had no luck.
posted by Durhey at 11:17 AM on June 22, 2006