I fixed a couple of items recently for the Campbell River Museum. The most interesting and unusual one was their popcorn maker, apparently a popular device for the young visitors (and some older ones). This is a Nostalgia brand unit. The machine was described as having a stirring motor that wasn’t working, but inspection revealed that the problem was that a solid state thermal fuse inside the heating pot had failed.
Quick resistance check showed that the pot AC input was an open circuit. Disassembly and resistance check showed the solid state thermal fuse to be the culprit, a 240V, 10A, 240C spec device. I had an exact replacement in my parts bins, so crimped that into place (no soldering! this is inside a hot device that makes edible stuff!) and re-assembled. Tested with some popping corn per the instructions. It works! A fun, quick repair.
I have a vp215 that isn’t completely getting all the air out of the bag now. I spoke to AVY…