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July 1, 2022

Fixing a Popcorn Machine for the Campbell River Museum

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 5:35 am

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.

Heating pot. Just remove the 3 machine screws on the perimeter to disassemble.

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.

partial disassembly
mid surgery, thermal fuse removed (it normally is located insulated within in the metal tab above where the yellow-green wire is attached to the case.

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