Chosen Solution
My kettle keeps going off and on when it’s plugged. How to find out which part needs a repair or replace?
It is well known that metal contacts carrying very low currents will oxidize or build up resistance. I believe this is what happens to the temperature sensor contacts in the base of the Breville kettle. I cleaned the Base contacts and bingo, no more problems for several months. Repeat, clean & fixed again. We now habitually rotate the jug on its base every time we use it and have no more problems. NB unplug the base before doing anything to it, some contacts are live at 240v.
If it works via heat sensor, then maybe the sensor is broken. If it works via a fixed time, then maybe it does not heat fast enough. If it has some sort of bimetal timer, then it might be maladjusted. Faulty buttons, a faulty on-off switch might randomly turn the device on or off. Especially if they are capacitive touch switches (the kind you just have to lightly touch not mechanically pushing anything), I have seen poorly designed circuits that picked up electronic noise in close proximity (from an air-conditioning unit or power tools).
OK, here it goes. I hope you still have the little machine and haven’t thrown it out yet. I will describe my issue first to see if it resembles yours. Issue: Breville Smart Kettle malfunctions, turns on and off randomly, buttons won’t work, after being plugged in the “Start/Cancel” button lights up and then turns off and none of the buttons function. When left plugged in it randomly beeps, turns itself on and off. Works when it wants to. Basically, the kettle is possessed. Possible solution: I tried this yesterday morning and the machine worked the entired day until today (24 hours). Then it stopped working again and was able to get it to work using the same technique. I don’t remember the exact sequence because I was just messing around with it (BTW, I took it apart about a week ago, checked all the components and for lose wires but everything seemed fine (not an electrician either)). Sequence: I unplugged the little monster, I placed my finger on the “Start/Cancel” button and plugged it back in. I held my finger on the button without moving it for about 10 seconds or so and then its light started flashing on and off. Ok, what happens after this is more blurry. I believe I then did the same thing with the “keep warm” button, I don’t remember if I was still holding the Start/Cancel or not (but it was still flashing), but I also held my finger or pressed on the keep warm button for a few seconds and it started flashing too. I figured I must be onto something because how would the little monster know to flash like this? I lifted the kettle which had about 1/3 of water in it (for added weight) and noticed the first 5 buttons started flashing. After 3 seconds or so, I rested the kettle back again. I think I did this twice. The second time I rested the kettle, my recollection is that the buttons turned off automatically, either this or I pressed the Start/Cancelled button and then the first 5 buttons turned off. At this point the sequence was complete. I then proceeded to heat up some water to check if it worked and it did. The buttons are still working properly now (about 10 hours later). So it seems that this might have “reset” the machine somehow which is odd because the manual does not have a reset sequence. Anyway, hope this helps.
