If your Kitchen Mama can opener isn’t working anymore, it may simply be that battery need changing. Four AA are used in the model. Even seemingly brand-new alkalines eventually lose there oomph.
If batteries is weak, the motor will stutter or fail completely. Open the battery compartment, remove the old batteries, and insert some fresh ones. In many cases, this solve the problem right than. Before you dig deeper into device, try this easy fix.
Testing The Motor Components
So you replace the batteries and push the button. Gears fails to engage, nothing happens. You think to yourself “that’s got to be all that’s wrong. I just replaced the batteries.”
So you pop it open and take a look at what’s going on in there. It’s plastic. The plastic housing come off in an instant. It simply snaps together. Inside you find motor with small plastic gears.
So you break them down inside to see what’s wrong. Everything appear to be in good shape mechanically. The gears is there and look clean. So it must be something electrical. Either power isn’t getting to the motor or the motor are dead. Time to narrow down the culprits.
Now you put down your gears and go to work on the motor. Take out a battery holder with bare leads, toss in four AA batteries and connect them straight into the motor wires. If it spins by itself then you know the motor is good.
First you connect the red wire to one of the terminals on the motor. Then you touch the black wire to the other terminal on the motor with the alligator clip. Instantly, the motor whirrs to life and it spins smoothly without hesitation. Something’s not dead; therefore, it has to be upstream from the spinning portion of the motor.
Next suspect in line is the on/off switch located between the motor and the batteries. No current will flow without this part of circuit. So you push the button and feel for stiffness, but it does click off and on. Now you’re wondering if there might be loose contacts inside creating your problem.
It’s a waiting game, as it takes some patience. So now you put everything back together again. The drive shaft must be lined up just right with gears so they don’t slip and jam. The plastic teeth has to be in alignment and then you snap on the shell. And once more, you slide in the batteries and push that big red button. Again, nothing.
After opening it again, you find the metal springs are now dull and gray with oxidation; this corrosion have built up on the battery contacts through months of use. Without this connection, electricity can’t reach the circuit board. So you grab a cloth, wipe off the oxidation and get a much better connection as result of cleaning the contacts.
So you remove the batteries and check to see if perhaps one or more of them are dead; sometimes that happens. Insert the batteries again but this time ensure that they seats properly in their own slots. Again (polarity is important). Plus should be facing plus and minus should be facing minus. Close the lid and push the button once more. No dice? Okay then, it’s probably the switch.
Maybe it’s because the internal wiring going to the button are broken. Or maybe the contacts within the plastic housing is wearing down. Without a multimeter, it’s difficult to track down precisely where the circuit is breaking down.
It’s hard to justify buying a new one. The part is just tired and worn out, you reckon. Soldering skills? Not handy, but you’d of need those for a replacement of the whole switch.
Turns out, your decision is to use it manually for the time being (or upgrade at some point). The process of figuring out how to troubleshoot the problem also teaches you how the device works. Next time you come across another broken one, you know that the motor is good. It is actualy good enough for what you need it for today.
