Well, have gone crosseyed and had to quit.

So far have found one likely prospect, which will require some "getting creative" as my stepbrother in Rome would say.

http://www.alliedelec.com/honeywell-v7- ... aQodIScHvA

There is also a seller on ebay selling a lot of 20. Shipping from Allied would probably be $5 minimum, so maybe get a group buy together. Mailing individual units would probably be less than a buck.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/V7-1C17E9-HONEY ... 1215033409

There may be more, but for some reason things like full dimensions are closely guarded secrets...

pafcio0 wrote:Recently, I had to replace fried switch in Caravel. This one worked fine:
http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/microswitches/0320506/

Just realized that it is rated at 6A, which is fine for 240V but not 120V. I'll poke around on that site to see if they have it in a higher amperage rating.

And just to toss another spanner in the works, there may be a problem using modern snapswitch microswitches with the Caravel. It seems they require more force to activate than the Caravel's system generates. So it seems that it would be unwise to purchase in bulk before actually testing the new one.

The fun continues...

I am following this thread closely - I think I'll pre-emptively replace the switch on my Caravel v1.2 if a suitable replacement can be found.

I'll do some searching on Mouser/Digikey/Newark/etc. and see what I can find, too.

Do we know, for a fact, that the original 120V Caravels had a different microswitch in them - one that was rated for higher current? I know that we won't be able to buy the original switches, but I'm still curious.

Sean

Therein lies the rub. There are absolutely no markings on my switch. No manufacturer, model, specs, etc. So no way to know the rating. I do know that a 220V 9A switch will fry on 120V. If doing a search, I discovered that some catalog listings will indicate the force needed to activate it, so will now go back and look for the ones with the lightest spec. In terms of physical size, the most important spec is the width(11.45mm/.45".

I found another candidate - http://www.ebay.com/itm/311162037498?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT
My thinking being that there may be enough leverage to overcome the resistance of the switch mech. It does seem to be meant as a limiting switch, which is basically what we re after.

A 550watt appliance will pull about 4.5 amps at 120v so the 6 amp switch should be ok.

This is what a 6A 250V switch looks like after running on 120V after awhile.

The Faemina pulls around 9 amps on high. The Caravel pulls half of that.

Thanks, will keep that in mind. Is that 9A on 120V or 240, with or without both elements going? With electrical, I like to leave lots of headroom.

I've had a 220v Caravel 1.0 running w/110v element for 4 years with no problems, pulling 2 shots every day. Did the switches get less robust over various iterations? Maybe Francesco would have some 'salvage' ones from early models?

EDIT: realized we're talking about a switch for a VAM, which had the most robust build.