Hey all, I have a 008 that I shipped from Texas to Germany, and I naturally had to change out the heating element to be compatible with the local "mains", British speak for the house voltage, (yet here I am in Germany).
I purchased a new heating element after talking to the Cookshack team and their advice was that was the item I needed to replace in the cooker to make it work. After ordering the part, it took less than a week to arrive, that's pretty darn good customer service, but Cookshack has always been excellent in that regard.
Because no Cookshack mechanic is near Schaurberg, Germany at this time, the job of replacing the module fell on my non-electrician shoulders (although my older brother is a master industrial electrician).
The job was easier than I expected, even though all of my air tools are in storage. You first simply remove the back cover by removing the six machine screws that hold it in place. You then carefully remove the insulation, and there is a lot of it, I was surprised. Still, carefully take out the insulated fiberglass panels to preserve them.
Once the insulation is out, you will notice a baffle over the heating element connections, this protects the connection from physical interference or water intrusion. You will have to pry this shield away, it is held with machine nuts and adhesive. A good tug should release it.
Remove 110 element. Two brass nuts hold it to the wall. First you'll need to remove the service to the element. Now it should fall away into the cooking chamber, ready to be replaced. Reverse this step to install 230v element. Replace shield after securing all connections.
From here, I needed to bring European electricity into the cooker, so the flat NEMA plug had to go. The best option? Buy a short (say 3 meter) extension cord with a local plug, but a cord that can handle the wattage. I found a 3 meter cord that was rated a 3500 watts for less than five bucks. I docked off the receptacle end and stripped the wires.
Lo-and-behold! The wire colors are different than NEMA standards! Not a big deal, hit Wikipedia, they have all the national standards. This cord had brown, blue and yellow/green. I found out that brown is Neutral, Blue is hot and yellow/green is earth (ground).
Now, carefully dock the old plug off and connect it to the appropriate plugs. I think it went hot+rheostat+heating element right side to heating element left side+neutral and ground to the chasis. There are two connections to the rheostat, but I can't remember exactly how they go right now without going downstairs and looking.
Ensure elecrtical connections are secure and failsafe. Carefully route connections as to not pull on heating element. Use cord stop to secure cord.
Now carefully replace insulation (remembering that the rheostat service is sandwiched between the two main layers of insulation. Replace cover.
So as far as I'm concerned, this Smokette is ready to go again. I've updated my personal property insurance, and I hope it works out.
Wish me luck! (I'm afraid to touch it when its plugged in, awww, c'mon, that's silly!)
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