Tried that oven door hinge repair trick from a YouTube guy and got a nasty surprise

So I watched this guy showing how to fix a loose oven door hinge on a GE slide-in range by just bending the bracket a tiny bit with pliers. I tried it on a customer's unit in Phoenix last Tuesday, and the hinge snapped clean off after I barely put any pressure on it. The bracket was way more brittle than it looked in the video, probably from years of heat cycles. Ended up having to order a whole new hinge assembly that cost me $45 and the customer was without her oven for an extra two days. Now I'm wondering if those old hinges are just ticking time bombs or if I just got unlucky with that particular model. Has anyone else had a hinge crack on them doing that bend trick?

4 comments

4 Comments

ericcraig1d ago

Broke a GE hinge on a 2014 model last spring. Same exact thing - the bracket snapped right at the bend point. I started spraying the hinges with PB Blaster the night before and letting them soak. Also heat the bracket with a heat gun for about 60 seconds before touching it. The heat cycles make that metal brittle over time. The prep work saved me on the last three jobs. Never had another snap since.

jana76921h ago

Oh man, same exact thing happened to me with a Whirlpool a couple years back. That bracket snapped like a toothpick right where it bends. Now I swear by that PB Blaster soak too, I spray it on the night before and wrap it in a rag so it doesn't drip everywhere. The heat gun trick is key though, I do about 45 seconds with mine and it makes a world of difference. That prep work is the only reason I haven't had to buy a whole new hinge assembly since. Have not had one snap on me since I started doing that routine.

maxl9322h ago

Yeah, I gotta disagree on the heat gun thing. You're basically adding more heat to metal that's already been cooked brittle for years. I think that's just asking for it to crack faster. Prep work is smart, but the real fix is just replacing the damn hinge instead of bending it and hoping for the best.

elliot_roberts21h ago

See it completely different on the heat gun thing. That extra heat is just shocking already stressed metal and making it worse, not better. I had a GE hinge from a 2012 model crack on me doing the exact same prep routine someone mentioned. The heat cycles from years of baking already turned that bracket into glass basically. The real trick is to not bend them at all, just replace the hinge right off the bat. It costs more up front but you save yourself the headache of a callback and an angry customer.