I have a Stoves 900CTH hob and it is giving an intermittent fault 7A. When the fault code is showing the hob beeps. Normally the hob can be turned on and works ok but after being switched off at the mains recently, the fault appeared immediately after switching on and it would not work for some time.

Any idea if there is an easy fix for this or does the PCB need to be replaced as Stoves suggest ?
Thanks

David, September 2008

what would happen if you increased that c17 Cap voltage by about 50%

Hans, February 2011

From Andy. Sorry to mislead, you DON'T turn hob upside down when removed from worktop! otherwise my answer stands

Andy, October 2010

Thank you ladies and gentlemen, changing capacitor C17 worked on my 900CTH hob with a 7A fault too. For those of you who like me are a little cack handed please note the following.

1) Once your hob is disconected and removed from its hole in your counter top, the trick is to remove the glass top from the gubbins underneath, NOT turn it upside down.

2) To achieve this only the screws on the edge of your hob need removing. On my model this is three at the back, two at each side edge, and only the two end ones on the front edge.

3) I know I'm a bit slow, but there are several capacitors on the printed cicuit board. C17 is the one with C17 actally printed on to the board next to it.

Ricky, October 2010

I had the same 7A fault with stoves 700CTH. Stoves wanted 250 quid to supply and fit new PCB (printed circuit board) Here is what I did, following advice posted on the web from others. Very simple.
Lift out hob from work top, turn upside down and remove all the screws from around the 4 sides.
Lift out the ceramic thing to expose all the works.
Take out the controller and disconnect the 13 spade connectors using fine nose pliers and labelling each wire 1-13, working from R-L as you go.
Look for capacitor C17 clearly marked on the circuit board. It needs changing for 1000uF16V 105C which you can buy on line from Maplins for 58p next day delivery. If like me you are not an electronics wizz and can't solder (the cap is surface mounted and you can damage the adjacent bits if over heated and the polarity must be correct) take the cap and pcb to someone who can.
Reassembly is very straightforward so long as you labelled all the wires!
It now works fine in my case.
So many people seem to have this 7A fault not only on Stoves appliances, but I believe others including Hotpoint who presumably use a similar or adapted PCB controller. Is this because 17C is rated too low? i.e a design fault?
I think people are being ripped off by Stoves wanting 150 quid for a new PCB for the sake of a simple fix with a 58p capacitor.
These hobs are very expensive and should last longer than (in my case) 4 years

Andy, October 2010

Me too

aprentice, October 2010

It was the capacitor in my case. I read this thread having started to get 7A error (5 year old hob) and cluelessness from Stoves. I detached the PCB and managed to get it fixed (got a friendly electronics whizz to remove old capacitor / put in a new one). If you remove the PCB make sure you properly label the wires you detach so you can put it together again!

TonyG, September 2010

Hi, this worked for me as well on a 900CTH. Has to be a design fault judging by the number of people with the same problem.

No idea what this capacitor does but a guess would be that it is the reset circuit for the processor. This is normally a simple CR circuit which holds the reset pin down so the processor resets on power up. Only in this case their design does not hold the pin down long enough hence increasing the capacitor from 220 to 1000 micro-farads increases the time constant so that the pin is held down long enough. The installed value probably works well initially but due to the heat on the hob the capacitor ages, capacitance decreases in value (a common issue with electrolytics) and low temperatures at start up exhibit lower capacitances hence the fault is, as reported, worse in cold conditions. So my additional advice would be to pick a replacement with a high temperature rating.

Eric, April 2010

the capacitor fix does work

martin, April 2009

I also get this code on my 700CTH, any one tried the cap idea?

Chris, January 2009

David,

Did changing the capacitor solve the problem? I have exactly the same error code on my 700CTH.

Thanks

Mark

mark, October 2008

hi you could try the fix for the 600 cth hob the 7A sounds like the software version on the 600 its 5B , It would be pointless ringing tech help at stoves as they are clueless as are the techies lol

flash, October 2008