The inner door is mounted on the same hinges as the main outer door but can swing free. It is held in place by a small metal piece bonded to the upper far end of the door which then weakly clamps to a magnet on the outer door, allowing easy separation and removal for cleaning.
Unfortunately, this small metal piece tends to unbond from the glass and fall off, leaving the inner door swinging freely. After several new inner doors, I eventually found that Plumba high temperature silicone sealer (a red colour) which can handle 300 degrees centigrade was just the thing the stick this metal piece back onto the glass inner door.
As for poor closing, the oven door hinges have a small roller in them which tend to seize after a long time of use. I have simply replaced them with new but I think they are becoming difficult to source now. I may have to experiment with lubricants but am wary due to risk of fire and food tainting.
My own oven door handle fractured about 3 months ago, but fortunately I had sourced a new one several years ago for just such an eventuality.
Don't forget to renew the silicone rubber oven door seals periodically to avoid heat loss, and reduce the effect of escaping heat on hinges, handles etc.
Oh yes, and the timer buzzer finally died last night! A £2 component - very aggravating. Time to get my soldering iron out!
I must say, it's been a very nice oven but the running costs in terms of replacement bits inc. hinges, seals, fluorescent lamps for the main panel, inner oven doors etc. has been quite high over the years. The most annoying thing is when a saucepan with a wet bottom sucks up a non-secured ceramic hob disc right off the cooker, which then unstucks and smashes on the floor. Very expensive and has happened at least three times - and those thumbnuts for securing the discs keep losing their threads. In fact the last replacement discs came without any thread at all - and of course now you just can't get them.
And the hob autospark ignition system sometimes works, mostly doesn't. Must be a dodgy connection somewhere. Something to do on the long winter evenings!
Marc Rice
March 2008