I have now successfully replaced both the fluorescent tube and the starter on my mother's Creda Europa Solar Plus double oven/grill and it now lights up with a much brighter light than it had done for many years with what was no doubt a slowly deteriorating and increasingly flickering tube. The tube was black at both ends for the first inch or so when I took out it out of the oven.
Replacement of the fluorescent tube is accomplished exactly as per Andy's instructions but there is no need at all to pull out the whole oven unit and take off the top (something which only a professional kitchen fitter is likely to be up to, especially given the weight of this double oven and grill unit) to change the starter. Instead to change the starter all you need to do after removing the glass panel around the three circular control dials using Andy's instructions is to undo the three screws that secure the timer/clock unit and then gently lift this out and to the left at which point you can then easily turn and remove and replace the starter.
Replacing the tube and starter in this unit is something you will normally only need to do once every say 5 to 17 years depending on the level of use (this oven was only used at the weekends for the first 14 years of its life so hence why the original tube lasted 17 years) so in my view it would be absolutely crazy to skimp by not replacing the starter at the same time as the tube as it will have usually suffered a lot of stress once your tube became defective and it then continually tried to get it to illuminate unsuccessfully. In my case I have now replaced the standard basic starter with a more expensive electronic unit costing 2 pounds compared to 50p for a basic starter (this was from wholesale electrical supplier GFE Electrics in Slough in September 2009 and no doubt Messrs Homebase or B&Q will charge you rather more for both items) as the more carefully measured start up current from the electronic starter should impose less stress on the tube, thus leading to a hopefully even longer period before the tube next has to be replaced. This is of course even more important for any full time mums with 6 kids who are using their Europa Solar Plus morning, noon and night.
Finally this is just to note that the replacement tube you need to get is an 8W 12inch F8W35 tube with General Electric part number 37756 (on the new tube I fitted), although the dead tube in the unit was made by Sylvania and merely says WHITE F8W/W. The original starter in the unit was an FSU 4-65W 200/250V unit but as far as I know there is only one type of starter used with most domestic fluorescent tubes (as opposed to compact fluorescent lamps for lightshades etc where the starter is inside of and part of the bulb) and the main decision to make is therefore whether you buy a basic old style transistor model or a fancy electronic model with its own brain to calculate the precise charge required to start the tube that it is connected to.
Although this is now a 17 year old oven it is very well built and still has pretty current features in terms of the fluorescent clock, self cleaning fan oven and fast start grill element and I don't see why it won't make 30 years old unless some future owner of this house decides to replace it purely for fashion reasons.
Finally for any of you who are DIY phobics I just want to assure you that this is really a very simple task to complete and that all the screws and the timer buttons come off very easily indeed and that lifting out the glass panel around the dials is also a doddle. There really should be no problem for most people who can wire a plug in accomplishing this task, although whatever you do make sure to turn off the cooker at the wall isolation point or failing that at the fuse box (if there isn't a wall isolation switch) before you begin the replacement process.
Julian, September 2009
