We Will Eat Pizza Once More!

It's so very convenient to come home, pop a frozen pizza in it, and 15 minutes later begin eating said pizza.  But, a couple of weeks ago our pizza oven just up and died. This pizza oven is the third that I have known, and the second one that Laura and I have had since we've been married.

Yes, we eat a bunch of frozen pizza.  Whatever.

I mentioned the pizza oven to my Dad just before L & I left Mom & Dad's this past Sunday morning.  Dad mentioned that it might be the timer and that he wouldn't mind taking a look at it.

Huh, I'm my father's son, right?  I should possess a little bit of his "fix anything" gene!  Off to the basement with the pizza cooker I went.

I took out 6 exterior machine screws and tried to pull the cover off the unit.  No dice.  After a little tinkering I found that the bottom slides out.  Nice.  I'm in!  I also found that I only needed to remove five of those aforementioned screws as one was connected to the green wire inside for grounding purposes.  [Yes, I reconnected it.]

I followed the wires and discovered a red wire (hot) went into the timer and then a white came out attached to the heating element.  Okay.  Here's a closer look at what I found.  The white wire somehow had broken loose from the timer.  That would explain why the cooker doesn't heat up.  Bummer.

I'm not good at fixing broken plastic, but I can do wiring.  Cut the red, cut the white, and trim back the protective coating.  Easy.

I pulled out the wiring tool kit that Dad bought me way back in the day.  And I found myself a nice little coupler (red item in the picture).

 Insert white, insert red, crimp & crimp.  

I plugged in the oven for 30 seconds and it started to get warm.  Excellent!  I did a little de-greasing and cleaning of the oven and then back up the stairs to the kitchen I went with the pizza cooker in hand.

Laura MADE pizza the other night in the actual oven and there were a couple of pieces left over.  I popped them, plugged in the oven, and waited about five minutes. I needed to really test it to see if works!

Nom... nom... nom...  All is right in the world again!

The timer doesn't control the heating element any longer, but it still keeps time.  The new
"on/off" switch is the power cord.  Simple enough, as long as we remember to unplug after using.  No worries, we'll surely have to replace this oven before out minds start to go, and we'll surely buy one with a fully functional timer.