Falcon [Hob controls locked]what it means

This is the controls corner of the Falcon induction books, and it is worth knowing because a locked hob presents as a broken one. It is not Falcon-only material: the Rangemaster Toledo+ 110 book publishes the same passage in the same words, because it is the shared range cooker module. It sits here because the Rangemaster pages on this site are built from the built-in hob guides, which do not carry it. The lock is engaged by a gesture rather than a button: simultaneously turn the two left-hand hob controls counter-clockwise and hold them until the symbol appears in the centre of the hob control display. The same action releases it. One condition is published in bold: the child lock can only be activated when all the cooking zones are switched off, so if the gesture does nothing, check that every zone is at 0 first.

Two published details save a lot of worry here. The first is that the A symbol will flash while the hob is locking, and Falcon say plainly that this is normal — A is otherwise the automatic heat-up indicator, so seeing it appear during an operation that has nothing to do with heating looks exactly like a fault. The second is more useful than it sounds: locking the hob will not affect the oven, which can still be used. Turn that round and it becomes a diagnostic. If the hob is unresponsive but the oven works perfectly, the child lock is a strong candidate. If nothing on the cooker responds at all, the lock cannot be the explanation and the question is about the supply instead. The Falcon 900S troubleshooting list makes the same point from the other end, adding the child lock to its checks for a cooker that will not switch on, alongside asking whether the house wiring has blown a fuse or tripped an RCD and whether the hob has been correctly connected to the mains.

There is one more published behaviour that gets reported as a fault on a brand-new cooker, and all three range cooker books give it the same figure: it is normal for the hob control display to flash for about two seconds during first power setting. Two seconds of flashing when you first set a level is the control doing its checks, not a warning. Finally, it is worth having the display legend to hand, because most of what looks like a code on this hob is not one. The published symbols are the pan detector, H for residual heat, A for automatic heat-up, the child lock symbol, L1 and L2 for the low temperature settings, and P for power boost. The pan detector symbol is the one most often mistaken for an error: it means no pan, or a pan too small for the zone, and no heat is being generated. Put a pan of the right size on and it clears; leave the zone empty and it switches itself off after ten minutes. L1 and L2 are worth recognising too. They are deliberate low settings with published temperatures, L1 holding about 40 °C for melting butter or chocolate and L2 about 90 °C for keeping something at a simmer once it has been brought to the boil, and either runs for a maximum of two hours before the hob switches off automatically. A pan on L1 that never boils is doing what it was told.

1. 1

   Try the oven first. Falcon publish that locking the hob does not affect the oven, so an oven that works points at the lock rather than the supply.

2. 2

   With every zone at 0, turn the two left-hand hob controls counter-clockwise at the same time and hold them until the symbol in the centre of the hob display changes.

3. 3

   Expect the A symbol to flash while you do it. That is published behaviour and not a sign that something has gone wrong.

4. 4

   If nothing on the cooker responds, check the house fuse or RCD and the cooker switch on the wall before going any further.

5. 5

   If a level you have just set makes the display flash briefly, leave it. About two seconds of flashing at first power setting is published as normal.

6. 6

   Compare what you can see against the legend — pan detector, H, A, child lock, L1 and L2, and P — before treating any character as a code. The pan symbol wants a pan, not an engineer.