Lincoln 1301 electric impinger. It heats to temp, but when it reaches the temp, it kicks out and cools down. Any ideas?

[ectofix]

Hey ryanreid1, after you left that switch bypassed and went on down the road, the real question is “does that unit operate as it was designed and manufactured to do when it left from the factory?”

 

As a technician, bypassing ANYTHING – even the main power switch – for the sake of circumventing a failure within the equipment – is NEVER a good thing – even if it’s merely to keep them up and running until you run across town to get the replacement part.  In doing so, you’ve physically and knowingly altered the equipment’s designed function by introducing components or conditions into it which were not part of the original design.  In doing so, what did you REALLY do?

 

You’ve assumed the liability of any future equipment failure.  At the very least, that innocent “bypass” of their issue may not lead to any further issues – At the most, it might…in a BIG way.  If there’s any chance that the equipment was the suspected cause of a fire and it had burned down the restaurant – or worse YET – caused a LOSS OF LIFE…and if there was ANY chance that it can be traced back to you in the investigation, you’re RUINED and could potentially incur the blame and be prosecuted.

 

I fully understand that, as a technician, you’re driven by your desire to solve problems and to be the hero, but we are NOT required to sacrifice our future by making decisions that don’t correlate with the manufacturer’s design.  In your innate desire to do GOOD for your customer, your modifications to equipment (which is what you’re doing when bypassing something) may ultimately do HARM.

 

We live in a litigious society.  I’m no lawyer and can’t speak their language.  But there are laws out there that can come get you or I which we’ve never confronted nor heard of as technicians.  Your employer should know these things and guide you, but unfortunately, most service managers aren’t entirely informed of this stuff themselves.  Neither are restaurant managers – until they’ve sought legal counseling and discovered otherwise.

 

What it comes down to is YOU making the best decisions which don’t place liability upon you or your company.

 

Manufacturers must design and build their equipment within the trade standards established by organizations such as ANSI, NFPA, AGA, NEC, NSF, ASTM,  ICC, CA – and their whole LOT of mind-boggling standards that you and I could NEVER know.  If we, as technicians, alter their equipment away from those standards, WE are culpable.  As they say, “ignorance of the law is no excuse”.

 

…and believe, there are lawyers that specialize specifically in pursuing such cases.

[ectofix]

Well, as I was writing what I did, badbozo2315 posted his own.  Although always good with words and with a talent for a more animated read…and from a time span of over the course of several years that Badbozo and I have collaborated and shared knowledge, that was probably his best and most lengthy response I’ve read (I’m usually the loquacious one).  That says allot about you, Ryan.

 

ryanreid1, I respect and appreciate your open and receptive responses.  I’ve certainly seen quite the opposite…from many other forum members at another site who often responded as if insulted by perceived criticism.  That’s not the intent here and I appreciate that you understand that.

 

We’ve all bypassed stuff, got ’em going and never looked back.  As a whole, no harm done and everyone was happy.  However, after some years doing things like that, I got re-trained by a new service manager with over thirty-five years in the business.  He really opened my eyes to the implications of such practices.  “Not bypassing safeties” was already a given – a policy pounded into our heads by our company.  However, this man stepped in as our new manager and really changed our outlook on things.  I did further study on such matters as I alluded to earlier, and with some inquiry of certain folks whose expertise was on those legal ramifications – and it really opened my eyes in realizing the things that I (and other techs) did in our daily jobs that could put us into some deep <expletive> if something went awry.

 

So, take that for what it’s worth…which could mean EVERYTHING.

[ryanreid1]

Hey guys, thanks for the replys. I totally agree with everything you’re saying. Just to clarify I’m not out all day by-passing Safety devices. In fact at the moment the air switch is the only one I’m comfortable with bypassing in certain instances. That being said, Easy solution: I’m now stocking one on my truck!!

I just always felt that the air switch was primarily used to kill the elements when the fingers got plugged. So as long as everything was clean I really had no worries leaving it.

Related story: I was explaining this thread to one of my mentors (who lives about 700 miles from me) and he said that about half of thesea ovens he comes across has the air switch by-passed; and about 1/2 of those are actually bad.

Seriously though guys, thank you for the professional responses. I’ve learned a lot from you guys over the years.

[scottmccall]

1 decent thing @ this trade is there’s usually a lot of duplication in any single kitchen.

Those 1300’s (in my exp) r usually at least stacked & many times will have multiple stacks offering the opportunity of swapping parts from 1 oven 2 the next in an effort 2 at least isolate which branch of which circuit is giving u a hard time if not indicating the exact part which is intermittently acting up based on whether the problem ‘travels’ or not.

Often times just swapping parts around will either indicate which component is compromised immediately as it may b so close 2 broke that it crumbles apart in u hands – or the swapping action ‘fixes’ the unit because u inadvertently cleaned/tightened a poor electrical connection or knocked some dust/grease out of a critical area…..

This way ‘something’ is can b accomplished without adequate truck stock, the customer gets 2 avoid buying excess parts by accident, u get the chance 2 PM the entire ignition system at the very least of not only the unit that is breaking but another 2 boot hopefully delaying future service calls. It makes it look like u care deeply & wanna do everything u can 2 help that customer out & allows u 2 look at both units at once increasing the chance of parts sales by uncovering worn parts that haven’t made themselves yet known 2 the customer.

One time 1 of those ovens had a couple of us flummoxed because we were only there when the unit was cool & didn’t wanna wait @ long enuf 2 c that the air cooling vents on the convection motor were plugged causing the motor 2 eventually overheat, shut down, open the air switch….