My Krups Krapped out!

April 17, 2008 5:57 PM

My trusty Krups coffee excretor gave up the ghost, but would be easily repairable if ONLY I could find a source for the blown thermal fuse. Any idea where I could find one, AskMeFi?

I have two Krups coffee makers (a model 453 and "spare" model 314) that each contain a safety-critical, non-end-user-maintainable, thermal circuit breaker.

The 453 spontaneously died, and not from overheating, but just a random component failure.

Troubleshooting it, I discovered the blown thermal breaker, and I temporarily fixed it by scavenging the spare breaker from the Model 314.

Doing a little on-line research, I discover that there are other folks out there with the same problem. I decided to solve it by finding a source.

I have abjectly failed to locate a suitable alternative. Krups directed me to a service center, smallapplicance.com, which told me to send them the unit, and they would contact me with repair recommendations. Not wanting to spend $10 shipping to find out that the unit was unserviceable, I declined and they told me that the information that I sought about the breaker was unavailable. Stonewalled!

Later, Krups' customer service rep told me that that they had "changed frequency" and the unit was no longer serviceable. At that point, I knew that further discussion would be of little value.

The thing is, I really like this coffee maker. I am anything but cheap, but I also hate dropping very useful hardware into the landfill when I don't need to. I am in the process of getting one from an ebay auction for a similar Krups unit that I can cannibalize, but I'd really like a few of these, but more than that, I hate it when I can't prevail over simple technology failures.

Thus, I'm trying to locate a replacement thermal fuse.

The fuse I have is pictured here.

It has the following nomenclature imprinted in its metal frame:

Tf 318 C (Tf is the fuse temp, presumably 318 degrees C)

29 OE (which could mean OEM.... ?)

155431028 N (Krups part number or vendor part number?)

CSA, VDE, UL (the usual suspects in safety ratings)

(-) (looks like omega with a dash in it. Manufacturer logo?)

So here are my questions... does anybody know where I can get some of these? Anybody work for Krups who can look up the part? Anyone know where I can find a stud-mounted, nominally 300 degree C thermal fuse in this size? Failing that, something in the ballpark that can handle 10 Amps. (I've looked at various manufacturer's web sites, Digikey, Mouser, etc.) Knowing the manufacturer would be the most direct route.

This will not change the world, but it will surely qualify you as a world class nerd if you can give me a decent lead! I will bow in humble adoration and sacrifice a goat in your honor. Your name will be revered here in rapidly thawing Vermont! Is that a deal or what?

Any leads gratefully accepted.

posted by FauxScot to technology (11 comments total)

You must love that coffee maker.

Here's another Krups center, located in Maryland ... closest one I could find besides the NY place: http://www.watersappliance.com/

But they'll probably run you through the same runaround as the other place.

I also did a search for small appliance service centers in VT: google maps.

Good luck.
posted by jabberjaw at 7:24 PM on April 17, 2008

You could try Espresso Parts Northwest. They tend to be more commercially oriented, but I've gotten similar replacement parts from them for a non-professional espresso machine and maybe they have something that would help you.
posted by bink at 7:39 PM on April 17, 2008

Can you get a closer photo of the part? Someone might be able to recognize the part manufacturer's logo.

318 C seems awfully hot for a coffee maker.
posted by hattifattener at 7:54 PM on April 17, 2008

I've seen thermal fuses on the $10 junky drippers which look more like power diodes or some other "inline" discrete component -- maybe one of those would do if you could find a source for those?

Or what about some solder? As in, literally, a piece of wire solder; Google says that melts 90 - 450C, so you might come close if you choose carefully. 318C does sound pretty hot, but I guess this just helps prevent forest fires and maybe isn't super-critical. You'd need to watch out for heating due to current flow, though.
posted by so at 8:42 PM on April 17, 2008

212 is the temp water boils at - The pot would only reach a steady 318 if the water boiled off and stopped carrying heat away as steam. Has this happened recently?

If I were in South Bend, I'd go to Bell Parts Supply and hand the dead one over the counter, which would probably get me an answer in fifteen minutes - They might offer me a generic replacement ( like this one) if it would fit.
posted by Orb2069 at 8:56 PM on April 17, 2008

Why not just bypass the fuse, keep the coffee maker unplugged when you aren't using it, and keep an eye on it when you are using it so as to make sure you don't burn the house down?
posted by Etaoin Shrdlu at 9:14 PM on April 17, 2008

Orb2069 — no, 212 Fahrenheit is the boiling point of water. 318 Celsius is quite hot. I guess it depends on exactly where in the coffee maker the fuse is, whether 318C is a reasonable temperature for it to be cutting out at.

The Flickr photo actually looks less like a thermal fuse to me and more like a thermostat. Are you really sure it's a thermal fuse? And that its temperature is 318C?
posted by hattifattener at 9:59 PM on April 17, 2008

(While trying to satisfy my curiosity on this point I ran across this company; you might try giving them a call.)
posted by hattifattener at 10:13 PM on April 17, 2008

Looks like a self-resetting thermal breaker, though 318°C seems a bit high even for boil-dry protection. The code "Tf 318 C" actually looks like the style of codes used to rate the ceramic part of the assembly, but that's normally moulded into the ceramic itself.

Seconding taking it to a local small appliance repair shop and asking them - or, at a pinch, grabbing one with an equivalent mount rated @ 140°C ~ 180°C (I just checked a couple of similar cutouts salvaged from old kettles in my junkbox, and that's what they're rated at).
posted by Pinback at 2:13 AM on April 18, 2008

Great ideas and thanks.

I agree that 318C is a high number, but this isn't a thermostat... that function is performed in this device with a diode junction that senses the air close to the heating element and feeds that back to the controller, which has a relay to gate power to the heating element. The thermal fuse is a failsafe, and the high temperature can be reached. It's an 1100 Watt heating element. ( I was skeptical too... that's over 600 degrees, F. ) It's only going to get there in a catastrophic failure scenario.

My interim solution was, in fact, to buy a clunker and scrap it for its fuse. I am betting a dollar to a donut that Krups uses the same part on all similar pots, so I found one for $0.99 on eBay and I'm sure that it has the same part. (The one I bought has a carafe that will fix a friend's unit, of the same model and which recently suffered a broken carafe. Win Win!)

Still, that's a hack, not an elegant fix. An elegant fix would be a source for the original part.

(I love the solder idea, too. Not sure I'd bet the house on it, but a non-eutectic alloy may be damned close to 600 degrees.) Very creative.

Also, FWIW, this IS a decent machine. It has the proper power levels to heat the water to the right temp in the proper interval, 12-cup capacity, programmable off time, programmable hold temperature, programmable carafe pre-heat, timer. It is an excellent design, functionally. Plus, I am not fashion driven and really do hate to clog the landfill with hardware having high residual utility.

@hattifattener... it does look like a thermostat, but the unblown one is unambiguous. There is a fisible substance in a cavity that is missing in the one in my pix.

Anyone recognize the symbol (-) like an omega with a dash in it? It doesn't look like any regulatory outfit (UL, CSA, VDE). I think it might be a logo for the manufacturer, but I have never seen it.

Thanks for the answers and suggestions! The goat is getting nervous.
posted by FauxScot at 4:09 AM on April 18, 2008

My coffee roaster died because it had a similar thermal protection fuse.

I got a lot of obfuscation & run-around from my manufacturer as well.

I eventually took the fuse to a bricks-and-mortar electronic components store and they were able to locate an exact replacement in less than 5 minutes.

Took the fuse home, used the included silver crimp-fittings to wire it into the circuit (don't solder - the soldering iron will blow the fuse) and the roaster was back in working order in no time. (until I blew the fuse _again_)

Take the blown component to en electronic component "warehouse" store.
posted by Crosius at 12:21 PM on April 18, 2008