Kenwood Food Processor A532 - Magic Smoke

[tmcw]

My Mums food processor made a couple of loud bangs and emitted quite a bit of magic smoke a week or so ago. I took it apart to have a look, and as you can see on the attached photos, one of the capacitors on the circuit board blew open.

There is another capacitor on the board, but it's slightly narrower than the one that blew open. The still intact one is about 5mm thickness, whereas the one that blew is 7 or 8mm thick, so they're probably not the same part.

Can anyone tell me what I need to look for as a replacement? Is it a special type of capacitor?

Also, is it likely it blew because of another problem, or age-related? And if age-related, I should probably replace the other one too.

The unit is probably 30-35 years old, and other than a bit of discolouration of the plastic, still works ok, and yes, it does still work with that blown component, though I only ran it for a few seconds. The bowl plastics still look good with no cracks or breaks on them either, so it would be nice to see if I can revive it.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Kenwood Food Processor A532 - Magic Smoke

Required viewing: EEVblog #1183 - RIFA Madness (Schaffner Repair)

It is a common failure, you just need to replace them with X2 capacitors with the same ratings, in this case minimum 250VAC and 100nF (0.1uF)
I actually buy Rifa even as replacements, others may want to stay clear, it is just personal opinion.
Elfa has them: https://www.elfa.se/en/x2-capacitor-...9t0/p/11040241

[tmcw]

Re: Kenwood Food Processor A532 - Magic Smoke

Thanks for the link, interesting viewing, I'd never come across this type of capacitor before, and I see the problem of them is rife in electronics of similar vintage, in lots of stuff from BBC Micros to Yamaha keyboards.

I did have a search around after viewing that, and actually found a site that used to sell a replacement circuit board for the food processor, and from the picture they still have on the page, I can see that the cap that blew open on ours is a 0.15uF X2, not sure if 0.15 vs 0.10 would make much of a difference, but probably best to go with the same value.

https://www.4kenwood.co.uk/obsolete-....pl?pid=661131

A little further searching and I found some sellers on etsy and ebay selling repair kits for this generation of food processor, with the 2 caps, a resistor and a triac.

https://www.etsy.com/nz/listing/5862...p400-processor

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/152615176709

I probably have the resistor, and will have a rummage around the parts boards for the caps and triac. It's good to know that the food processor might have a bit more life left in it, if I can work out how the springs under the selection buttons are supposed to be arranged. I was taking the whole unit apart to give it a good clean, and 5 or 6 small springs popped out all over the place when I got in there.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Kenwood Food Processor A532 - Magic Smoke

Hooray for another Rifa!

Apparently all the equipment with Rifas made in the 1980s are about ready to blow up. I've got a few that I should change out but too lazy to. Namely my Tektronix scopes use them and they're about ready to blow too I'd think.

As there are people who are willing to use Rifas and it seems only the 1980s Rifas blow up, perhaps they got their act together after Kemet took over...

[seanc]

Re: Kenwood Food Processor A532 - Magic Smoke

I bought a Kenwood Chef 901 a few years ago for a whopping £17 - fully working. I'd read something before I bought it that referenced the Rifa capacitors were a ticking timebomb. I found a repair kit including replacement caps and triac's on eBay. Replaced those for preventative maintenance and it continues to work a treat. Mum's old 901 still exists somewhere with original caps!

[tmcw]

Re: Kenwood Food Processor A532 - Magic Smoke

I hope you're going to change the caps on your Mums 901.

My Mum has the older A701, still going strong. I wonder if there are any caps in there ready to go bang?

Parts for these old Kenwoods are going for mad money.