On 2007-07-24 19:18:12 +0200, John Hudak said:

Per von Zweigbergk wrote:
My rice cooker just failed.

It's given me many years of service, but now a component seems to have
suffered some kind of mechanical faliure. It's a rather standard model
with the typical Warm/Cook modes. The model, specifically is a Tanin
TR-2002A. (You won't find anything Googling for it, except maybe, in a
few days this Usenet post. :-)) Relevant data: AC 220 V, ~ 50 Hz 620 W.

The component was connected in series with one of the AC power inputs,
and measuring over the poles gives me 0 Ohm of resistance.

Could somebody please help me to identify the type of this component? I
suspect it may be a thermal fuse, but I'm not at all sure about the
values required. Then again, it might be something completely
different, and I'm not really sure about it.

A close-up image of the component can be found at
http://www.pvz.pp.se/stuff/riskokarkomponent.jpg (59.2 kB). The actual
size of the component is approximately 15 millimeters from end to end.

This looks like it is a crimp connection from the heating element to
the screw terminals of the 120/220 VAC input. Failures of this type
are common in resistive heating elements. The high current that passes
through the point of failure causes local heating (due to bends, local
impurities,etc.) which eventually, over many uses, causes a break.

Nope. That's not it.

There's a wire from the terminals of the 220 VAC input, going to a
screw terminal, passing through this component, and then going into the
rest of the appliance via a wire from another screw terminal. The
connection to the heating element is intact, however, the actual
component in the picture seems to be broken.