AGA [011] fault codewhat it means and how to fix it

This is the one AGA code family with a published meaning, and the publication is not the owner guide. It comes from the Aga eR7 Field Service Manual, the document AGA Rangemaster wrote for the engineers who work on the electric eR7, where the error table lists codes 010 to 014 for all zones as Full power time out and explains the term: a full power time out is a safety feature implemented to show the cooking zone is taking too long to reach its expected temperature. The eR7 has five zones, the boiling plate, the simmer plate and the roasting, baking and simmer ovens, and the five codes in the range cover them, so 011 is a time-out on one specific zone; which one is not stated in the text and this page does not guess.

What AGA do say is unusually candid for an error table. Full power time-out errors may be caused by the way the cooker is being operated, and the causes they list are heat-up time not allowed before use, doors left open, oversized pans, overly full pans, and a cold plain shelf left in the simmer oven while heating up. The action column reads customer education, check position of thermocouple, in that order. In other words, AGA’s own first assumption for 011 is that the cooker was asked to do something a heat-storage cooker cannot, such as boil a stockpot from cold with the lid up or heat an oven with the door propped, and the element ran flat out for longer than the control allows before the zone got where it was going.

AGA describe two classes of error without saying which class each code belongs to. A blocking error disables the zone, is reassessed periodically, and locks the zone if it is still present at the fourth assessment or recurs four times in twenty-four hours; a locking error locks the zone at the first detection. Either way a locked zone needs an engineer’s reset, which AGA say customers are not to be instructed in, and cycling the power does not clear it. The second cause is the sensor. Each zone has a duplex thermocouple attached to its element by a bracket, and AGA note that a thermocouple sitting out of position, or one that tests fine cold and drifts apart hot, reports a zone as slow when the element is doing its job. The service manual is the North American edition, for the 240 volt 60 hertz eR7; the control system is the same Tekelek board and TEK Vision software as the UK cooker, and that provenance is stated here rather than assumed away.

1. 1

   Write the code down exactly as shown, with anything displayed alongside it, before touching the controls. AGA ask for the code at the time the fault is reported, and the temporary log is cleared when an engineer resets the board.

2. 2

   Think back to what the zone was doing. A time-out in the first hour after switching on from cold, with a pan already on the plate or a door open, is the operating pattern AGA describe, not a component fault.

3. 3

   Take the pan off, close the doors, and remove the plain shelf from the simmer oven if it is in there. Then let the zone heat with nothing on it. AGA’s warm-up table in the owner guide gives how long each zone needs.

4. 4

   Use the zone normally once its indicator shows it is at temperature. If the code does not return, AGA’s own action for it, customer education, has been completed by you.

5. 5

   If 011 comes back on an empty zone with the doors shut, or the zone has stopped responding, ring AGA Service and read out the code. Recurring time-outs lock the zone, and the reset and the thermocouple check are the engineer’s.

   Do not try to reset the board yourself or open the cooker. AGA state in the service manual that customers should not be instructed on how to reset the PCB, and the owner guide says the appliance must only be maintained by a qualified engineer, an AGA engineer or an authorised distributor.