SMEV oven hard to light

[commodor47]

Is there anyway for you to access the spade connectors behind the control knob? Your problem sounds similar to the no-light water heater situation encountered by several members - including me. In my case the spade connectors for the interrupt switch (the one you hold down until the the thermocouple has reached temperature) were slightly oxidized. One remedy is to carefully remove the thermocouple wires, clean the spade connectors and the wire connector, apply a thin coat of dielectric grease and re-attach the wires. Usually removing those two wires and re-attaching them is enough to fix the problem - until they oxidize again - hence the dielectric grease recommendation.

Dick

[Brittany Dogs]

There are four copper lines going into the main oven temperature control knob mechanism. They are: main gas supply in, regulated gas flow output to the burner, oven temperature sensor (thinner tube) and lastly, the thermocoupler copper line, a thinner tube, from the thermocoupler hovering over the oven burner. There are no electrical lines on this oven control knob mechanism.

Again, the make of my oven is SMEV which is not a common oven in the TrailManor units, at least not on past units.

The burner is started by a sparker probe and is activated by a momentary rocker switch and is tied into an "AND" momentary switch when the oven door is fully open.

I suspect either the thermocouple burner end went bad or the copper line connection, much like a coax connection, is not good at the control valve temperature knob mechanism.

The main problem making troubleshooting and repair a problem is that this oven is built by using (what seems like) a hundred pop rivets. Very few screws and none of the screws allow me to disassemble this oven to reach into the control knobs assembly.

[Brittany Dogs]

I thought I put an update to this problem but maybe it got lost in the recent crash on this forum.

I removed the oven in Fall when I winterized the TrailManor. The plan was to work on it over the winter.

Sure enough, it was the thermocouple end that goes into the gas valve control, opposite the flame end. The soldered on center contact broke off and the thermocouple was no longer energizing the fail safe electromagnet. I actually was able to do a repair of the electrical end and the system works as good as new. The thermocouple assembly was somewhat unique with metric threads and the tube length was 850mm long. So just going to Home Depot and buying a replacement was no going to happen. I needed an OEM genuine replacement.

As a back up to my repair, I wanted to buy a spare replacement thermocouple. After an exhaustive web search, the only availability were two places in the UK and another place in the "down-under" country of Australia. That is a story in itself. Keep in mind that the SMEV brand oven is made in Italy. Dometic bought SMEV but they were of no help whatsoever.

The first place I contacted in the UK would not ship to the states. The place in Australia said the same thing, no shipments to the US. Third time a charm, I was able to contact the other RV joint in the UK who was willing to ship to the U.S.

I know you might think I am crazy to buy a spare especially after you hear the price. The exact replacement thermocouple plus VAT, plus shipping and customs ran me $129.

Yes, I love baking stuff in my oven that much . Mostly, I want stuff to work when I need them to work.

I also replaced all of those metal rivets that held the side panels on the oven with stainless steel screws. The oven was built like a tank with about a dozen rivets per side. And those metal rivets are so fun to drill out too!!