Cuisinart Combo Steam/Convection Oven (Part 3)

[kayb]

Damn. I'm about to join the general panic and buy a backup. I dearly love my CSO, and as someone said upthread, use it just about daily..

 

[ElsieD]

55 minutes ago, jer_vic said:

I'd be willing to bet those:

 

CSO-300N1C

CSO-300N1C - 1PKC

 

are exactly the same thing.  The 2nd one is being sold by a 3rd party seller on the BestBuy site (BestBuy marketplace), not BestBuy themselves.  Probably just the 3rd party seller tacking some extra coding onto the model number for use in their own system.

You are right it is BB Marketplace.  My husband just said he doesn't trust them.  Will not be stopping in.

[jer_vic]

1 hour ago, ElsieD said:

You are right it is BB Marketplace.  My husband just said he doesn't trust them.  Will not be stopping in.

 

Well, let's not be hasty.  It is the one sold by Best Buy themselves that is on sale for $199.99.

 

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/cuisinart-cuisinart-steam-convection-toaster-oven-0-6-cu-ft-brushed-stainless-cso-300nc/10406509.aspx?

[rotuts]

i can't imagine life w/o a spare CSO

 

snapped up at an excellent price.

[Anna N]

30 minutes ago, rotuts said:

i can't imagine life w/o a spare CSO

 

snapped up at an excellent price.

 I like living on the edge and at my stage of life living without a spare CSO is as edgy as it gets.🙂

[Kerry Beal]

1 minute ago, Anna N said:

 I like living on the edge and at my stage of life living without a spare CSO is as edgy as it gets.🙂

And besides - you know I have a few extra being used in different spots that I'd bring around if needed!

[Anna N]

8 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

And besides - you know I have a few extra being used in different spots that I'd bring around if needed!

Don’t take all the sport out of it.

[rotuts]

except then the CSO's wont be in those spots if being forced to move.

 

a CSO with wheels and one of those retractable handles baggage seems to have these days ?

 

 

[rotuts]

Ive thought about this

 

I think the middle one 

 

would work well with the CSO

 

199 USD or better CND 199.

 

you might take it everywhere with you !

 

the week in the Bahamas 

 

but better cooked fish 

 

etc ?

 

see ?

 

 

 

 

[Shelby]

Ok, so this is going to be kind of long, but maybe it will help some folks.

 

Strangely, this event happened on the same day that I got my back -up CSO.

 

A quick preface:  We have well water and no water softener so our water is quite mineral-y and whatever else is in there lol.  I only use water that I've filtered with my Brita pitcher to fill up my CSO's, but I'm sure some stuff gets through the filter and into my machines.

 

Anyway.

 

I decided Tuesday night to steam clean my oldest steam boy while I was cleaning my kitchen.  About 15 mins. into the 45 minute long steam clean it began beeping at me and telling me that the water reservoir was empty.  It wasn't, it was almost clear full.  Which means that it's time to decalcify the unit.  So, I dug out the instructions and proceeded to do that.  About 4 minutes into the decalcification process, it did the beeping thing again, telling me the reservoir was out of water, which it wasn't.  I started over...etc. etc.  but the steam boy wouldn't complete the process.  So, I turned to google which didn't tell me anything except that someone else had the same problem and went to one of those Fix Ya sites and posted about it.  The answer came back that if the decalcifying process was interrupted by the machine saying that it was out of water, that meant that the sensor that tells the machine that it needs water had failed and you needed to buy a whole new CSO because that part wasn't sold and/or replaceable.

 

Bummer.

 

I had a new CSO coming....but I have a special place in my heart for my first steam boy.  We have history together.  I can't just give up on him.  And, if I use my back-up, then I have to buy another back-up!

 

I wondered if, since I have such hard water, that something internally could be clogged and maybe cleaned and he would be back to his normal self again.  What did I have to lose?  I wasn't going to be messing with the heating elements which work fine.  If I couldn't fix the water problem, then Ronnie would inherit him and he would live in the man cave garage and be used for toast.

 

So, today I opened our steam boy up, cleaned a part and he's good as new!!!

 

Here is what I did:

 

Unplug the machine.

 

Remove the outer water reservoir and make sure the tray underneath is empty, too.  Also, making sure you do this over the sink, or you have a bowl to catch the water, unscrew the black cap located in the back of the machine and drain that water out from the internal water reservoir.

 

(this is the outer water reservoir, obviously lol)

 

 

 

It looks like this after you remove it

 

 

You're going to unscrew that silver face from the unit which also includes removing the handle that is underneath.

 

Once you get that removed, you will see this:

 

(as you can see, I didn't drain the internal  water reservoir by unscrewing the black cap on the back--that's the white container on the right.  Don't make that mistake.  If you don't, when you remove that thingy that looks like a tube with a slinky on it that connects the drain from the outer water reservoir to the inner one, you will pour water all over your kitchen floor.)

 

You can see just at a glance that there is gunk in that connecting tube.  I decided that might be the problem.

 

Closer look at how it's connected

 

 

I disconnected the side that is hooked to the black outer drain first.  I decided to gently blow into the tube (not hard at all because I didn't want to blow gunk into the internal white colored water reservoir).  Yep.  Very hard to blow.  Very full of gunk.

 

So I removed the whole thing

 

 

Right here is where I had to stop and clean up all the water that I stupidly didn't drain out.  Sigh.

 

More gunky pictures

 

 

I needed a small brush to get in there and scrub around.  I dug through my junky kitchen drawer and pounced on this:

 

I have no memory of buying this, but it worked perfect.

 

Yuck

 

 

I had thoughts of trying to get to the white internal water reservoir to see if I could clean the inside of that while I was there, but it looked a bit more challenging...and since I really thought that cleaning that tube was going to work, I didn't attempt.

 

I did insert a bendy straw into the white internal water reservoir and blow into it.  I didn't sense that there were any blockages.  Very easy to blow into.

 

 

So

 

After a thorough cleaning of that tube, I put our steam boy back together, crossed my fingers and pressed the steam clean button.  

 

He did great!

 

So, maybe this will help others save their beloved steam boys and girls

 

And, now, like @rotuts would say, I feel like it's close to time for a personal beverage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Okanagancook]

Thanks!  Good to know.

my back up arrived just now.

i will put it through a few paces later.

i guess I will then drain ALL the reservoirs and stash downstairs until it is required.

[Kim Shook]

1 hour ago, Shelby said:

Ok, so this is going to be kind of long, but maybe it will help some folks.

 

Strangely, this event happened on the same day that I got my back -up CSO.

 

A quick preface:  We have well water and no water softener so our water is quite mineral-y and whatever else is in there lol.  I only use water that I've filtered with my Brita pitcher to fill up my CSO's, but I'm sure some stuff gets through the filter and into my machines.

 

Anyway.

 

I decided Tuesday night to steam clean my oldest steam boy while I was cleaning my kitchen.  About 15 mins. into the 45 minute long steam clean it began beeping at me and telling me that the water reservoir was empty.  It wasn't, it was almost clear full.  Which means that it's time to decalcify the unit.  So, I dug out the instructions and proceeded to do that.  About 4 minutes into the decalcification process, it did the beeping thing again, telling me the reservoir was out of water, which it wasn't.  I started over...etc. etc.  but the steam boy wouldn't complete the process.  So, I turned to google which didn't tell me anything except that someone else had the same problem and went to one of those Fix Ya sites and posted about it.  The answer came back that if the decalcifying process was interrupted by the machine saying that it was out of water, that meant that the sensor that tells the machine that it needs water had failed and you needed to buy a whole new CSO because that part wasn't sold and/or replaceable.

 

Bummer.

 

I had a new CSO coming....but I have a special place in my heart for my first steam boy.  We have history together.  I can't just give up on him.  And, if I use my back-up, then I have to buy another back-up!

 

I wondered if, since I have such hard water, that something internally could be clogged and maybe cleaned and he would be back to his normal self again.  What did I have to lose?  I wasn't going to be messing with the heating elements which work fine.  If I couldn't fix the water problem, then Ronnie would inherit him and he would live in the man cave garage and be used for toast.

 

So, today I opened our steam boy up, cleaned a part and he's good as new!!!

 

Here is what I did:

 

Unplug the machine.

 

Remove the outer water reservoir and make sure the tray underneath is empty, too.  Also, making sure you do this over the sink, or you have a bowl to catch the water, unscrew the black cap located in the back of the machine and drain that water out from the internal water reservoir.

 

(this is the outer water reservoir, obviously lol)

 

 

 

It looks like this after you remove it

 

 

You're going to unscrew that silver face from the unit which also includes removing the handle that is underneath.

 

Once you get that removed, you will see this:

 

(as you can see, I didn't drain the internal  water reservoir by unscrewing the black cap on the back--that's the white container on the right.  Don't make that mistake.  If you don't, when you remove that thingy that looks like a tube with a slinky on it that connects the drain from the outer water reservoir to the inner one, you will pour water all over your kitchen floor.)

 

You can see just at a glance that there is gunk in that connecting tube.  I decided that might be the problem.

 

Closer look at how it's connected

 

 

I disconnected the side that is hooked to the black outer drain first.  I decided to gently blow into the tube (not hard at all because I didn't want to blow gunk into the internal white colored water reservoir).  Yep.  Very hard to blow.  Very full of gunk.

 

So I removed the whole thing

 

 

Right here is where I had to stop and clean up all the water that I stupidly didn't drain out.  Sigh.

 

More gunky pictures

 

 

I needed a small brush to get in there and scrub around.  I dug through my junky kitchen drawer and pounced on this:

 

I have no memory of buying this, but it worked perfect.

 

Yuck

 

 

I had thoughts of trying to get to the white internal water reservoir to see if I could clean the inside of that while I was there, but it looked a bit more challenging...and since I really thought that cleaning that tube was going to work, I didn't attempt.

 

I did insert a bendy straw into the white internal water reservoir and blow into it.  I didn't sense that there were any blockages.  Very easy to blow into.

 

 

So

 

After a thorough cleaning of that tube, I put our steam boy back together, crossed my fingers and pressed the steam clean button.  

 

He did great!

 

So, maybe this will help others save their beloved steam boys and girls

 

And, now, like @rotuts would say, I feel like it's close to time for a personal beverage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You are my hero.  

[ElsieD]

And, now, like @rotuts would say, I feel like it's close to time for a personal beverage.

 

Have two - one on me!  Great job you did fixing that.

[ElsieD]

@Shelby  how old was the CSO you fixed?

[kayb]

I'd buy you a drink for that one, girl. I'm saving this post, because I know mine will get there. We have good, quite soft, city water, but -- I should probably be buying distilled at the grocery for this and the Keurig.

 

You haven't had occasion to clean a Keurig, have you?

 

[Shelby]

26 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

@Shelby  how old was the CSO you fixed?

I think I got it in 2015????

21 minutes ago, kayb said:

I'd buy you a drink for that one, girl. I'm saving this post, because I know mine will get there. We have good, quite soft, city water, but -- I should probably be buying distilled at the grocery for this and the Keurig.

 

You haven't had occasion to clean a Keurig, have you?

 

Thanks LOL!

 

Ronnie has done a Keurig--lots of valves, and frankly, not worth it.....I didn't document the process.  I bought a new one.

[FauxPas]

@Shelby, you are a ⭐!  And you deserve a ⭐!

 

Good job, girl! And I hope your steam boy will continue to steam along for some time.   🙂

[Shelby]

24 minutes ago, FauxPas said:

@Shelby, you are a ⭐!  And you deserve a ⭐!

 

Good job, girl! And I hope your steam boy will continue to steam along for some time.   🙂

 

Awww thanks, I appreciate all of you guys.

 

I've been helped online so much from someone that posted a pictorial  etc. on fixing appliances.  I hope this pays it forward a bit.

 

AND my beloved steam boy is with me and a happy camper  

[lemniscate]

@Shelby You are officially the Unofficial CSO Field Support Engineer.  

Edited March 15, 2019 by lemniscate (log)

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, kayb said:

 

You haven't had occasion to clean a Keurig, have you?

 

Vinegar and thumps. 

[FauxPas]

5 minutes ago, Anna N said:

Vinegar and thumps. 

 

Or @kayb, sometimes the needle piercer or whatever it is needs to be cleaned. Insert a paper clip to remove any errant coffee grounds or whatever. Like this:

 

 

[kayb]

Mine's good right now. I do run vinegar through it about once a month.

 

[Ann_T]

Okay,  I just bit the bullet and ordered another CSO.

Bought from Best Buy Canada.  Which is who I bought my first one from.  Free delivery  and should be here by Friday.

$199.99.  plus taxes.     Less than I paid for my first one. 

 

I believe  that the CSO-300N1  and the CSO-300N1C are the same models, but the one with the C is sold in Canada.

 

 

 

[Ann_T]

On 3/14/2019 at 5:50 PM, kayb said:

Mine's good right now. I do run vinegar through it about once a month.

 

@kayb, do you run it through on the steam clean?

[kayb]

@Ann_T, I was referring to my Keurig. Haven't done it with the CSO. I'd say steam clean would be the best bet, then empty the reservoir, then run steam clean again maybe twice with fresh water.