Turning off the indicator beep is the standard way to make a toaster oven no longer ding. However, with some models, you may have to remove the piezo buzzer, pad the circuit board beeper or disable the mechanical bell.
True to its form, toaster ovens ding, and many models beep multiple times when the timer stops for specific modes. However, the jingle, beep, or bell may be too loud for comfort, especially in offices and at home during odd hours.
I have a teenager with anxiety who occasionally needs food at 2 am. Our Cuisinart Digital Convection Toaster Oven was always a problem until I researched ways to disable the alarming sound.
If you’ve been thinking of exactly how to stop the pestering dining noise of the toaster oven, you’re not alone. In the rest of this article, I’ll walk you through step-by-step procedures of four different approaches because, despite many apparent similarities, a specific remedy may not work for everyone.
Learn the appropriate method to ensure your toaster oven won’t ding anymore.
Turn Off the Indicator Beep
Some toaster ovens have a feature enabling users to turn off the indicator beep or ding.
This is the simplest solution. However, many brands of toaster ovens, especially older models, may need this feature.
Check your oven’s instruction booklet or owner’s manual and look for anything related to the indicator beep. If there is an option to turn it off, follow the manual’s instructions.
Consider the Cuisinart Digital Convection Toaster Oven CTO-1300 PCC. According to its instruction and recipe, you can regulate the ding or beep by following these steps:
Step 1: Plug the oven into the power outlet.
Step 2: Press the Toast and Bagel keys simultaneously.
Step 3: Keep both keys pressed for around 5 seconds.
Step 4: The indicator beep will be deactivated.
Step 5: Repeat the same process to reactivate the ding.
This deactivation is not permanent. The default ding or indicator beep will be reset or restored if you unplug the Cuisinart toaster oven. So, you do not need the fifth step above when restoring the ding; just unplug the toaster oven.
Unfortunately, this turnkey solution does not apply to many toaster ovens, including Cuisinart.
For instance, Cuisinart does not mention any such feature in its manual for the Brick Oven Premier BRK-300, which is no longer in production. Similarly, the Cuisinart Custom Classic TOB-40 manual does not have the indicator beep turn-off instruction.
Therefore, you must check the owner’s manual for the relevant setting and instructions. If you are lucky, your model may have a turnkey solution. Otherwise, consider the following options.
Remove the Piezo Buzzer
Modern toaster ovens use a beeper or buzzer to produce the ding sound. Generally, this beeper is a piezo buzzer, but some models may have a magnetic one. Regardless of the type, you will find this buzzer mounted on the circuit board of your toaster oven.
Thus, you can access the circuit board and remove the magnetic or piezo buzzer.
The specific steps for taking apart a toaster oven depend on the brand and model. But several fundamental parts are likely to be similar. Refer to the owner’s manual and rely on your visual inspection as you dismantle the unit.
Here is the standard way of disassembling a toaster oven to access its circuit board:
- Step 1: Unplug the toaster oven and allow it to cool: The capacitors in a toaster oven usually do not hold much electric charge after you unplug the appliance. However, the wait time will also discharge the capacitors as a precaution.
- Step 2: Use pliers to pull the control knobs on the front panel. If it is a digital panel with buttons, look for the screws for this section. Removing these parts first is typically necessary for most toaster oven brands and models.
- Step 3: Check the screws on the prominent cowling covering the entire toaster oven on the sides, bottom, and rear. Get an appropriate screwdriver to remove all the screws on the housing’s feet, bottom panel, sides, and rear.
- Step 4: After removing all the screws, you can slide the cowling towards the rear, allowing you to remove the door panel. The door panel is usually integrated with the front cowling. Look for the screws and remove them. You may need to uninstall a hinge or spring of the door.
- Step 5: Hold the front door and panel as you unscrew this cowling. The section may drop as you remove the last fastened screw, spring, or hinge. Remove the front cowling, and you will gain access to the control board.
- Step 6: The control board is behind the knobs or buttons you removed in the second step. Disconnect the wire harnesses from the sockets if you need to pull out the control board from the chassis. In some models, you can see the buzzer without removing the panel.
- Step 7: The piezo buzzer is a plastic cylindrical component with a hole atop it. The buzzer should be unmistakable due to its distinct shape compared to the control board’s capacitors, resistors, or other elements. Also, the plastic enclosure of the buzzer is usually black.
- Step 8: Use needle-nose pliers to remove the piezo buzzer. Some piezo and magnetic buzzers sport a cap at the top with a hole at the center. You can remove this cap, too.
- Step 9: The buzzer has a piezoelectric element, a thin silver or gold-colored disc. Remove this disc, and the buzzer won’t ding. A magnetic buzzer has a disc. Remove this disc from the buzzer.
- Step 10: After removing the disc, you can restore the magnetic or piezo buzzer cap. If the buzzer has no lid, use the pliers to remove the cylindrical fixture from the control board. Twist and wiggle the buzzer with the pliers until it comes off the solder.
Depending on the toaster oven model and brand, you may need to tweak these steps, be it Black and Decker, Breville, Cuisinart, Hamilton Beach, Panasonic, or Rival.
Pad the Circuit Board Beeper
Unlike removing the magnetic or piezo buzzer from the control board, which is a permanent remedy, padding or dampening the buzzer on the circuit board is a temporary fix. It won’t stop the ding sound but will make it less audible.
You can apply duct tape to cover the hole in the buzzer’s cylindrical enclosure. However, covering the hole or using other materials to dampen the loudness may not be equally effective for everyone.
Thus, weigh your options and test what works best for your toaster oven.
Disable the Mechanical Bell
Some toaster ovens have a mechanical bell integrated into the timer switch. However, the bells do not have a ferromagnetic or piezoelectric disc inside.
Instead, the timer switch has springs, gears, and levers. And the attached bell has a tiny metal strip inside it. As the timer stops after the preset duration, the switch opens the circuit, and the small metal strip strikes the bell, making a noise.
Disabling the bell is the only way to make such a toaster oven not ding anymore. You need to take the timer switch off and manually separate the bell from the unit.
Do not tamper with the switch or its gears, springs, and levers on the circuit. Instead, work only on the tiny metal strip inside the bell casing.
Here’s a video of a toaster oven timer switch with the tiny metal strip in the bell at ~3:20:
If you can break, deform, or disable the tiny metal strip, it will not strike the bell, and the toaster oven won’t ding.
However, exercise caution so as not to damage the timer switch. For example, remove the part from the unit if your toaster oven has a removable bell on the timer switch.
How Do I Turn Off the Bell on My Black and Decker Toaster Oven?
The process for turning off the bell on a Black and Decker toaster oven depends on your specific model. But generally, you can make the settings by navigating to Settings (Options) > Audible alert (or any option similar, depending on your model) > Turn off or adjust to the lowest level. Then press the “settings” button to save changes.
If the option to disable the bell isn’t in the setting, then you can tinker with the actual bell to deactivate the bell function.
Step 1: Take out enough screws to allow the front panel to pull out about half an inch on the top edge.
Step 2: When you look inside, you will see a bell on the back of the timer knob switch. Then
Step 3: Drive a 3” screw from the top between the bell and the switch so it’s snug.
Step 4: Ensure the screw doesn’t intercept other electrical contacts for the other switches/knobs.
Step 5: When the timer is done, it will only make a self-satisfied click.
Put the screws back, and that’s it. You can now heat your baked foods without alerting everyone at home.
How Do I Get My Cuisinart Toaster to Stop Beeping?
To turn the indicator beep OFF on your Cuisinart toaster, follow these steps:
Step 1: Plug in the oven
Step 2: Press both [TOAST] and [BAGEL] keys and hold for 5 seconds.
That’s it. You can repeat the above process to turn the indicator beep back ON. If you unplug the oven, it also resets to ON.
If you use a Cuisinart toaster oven, you can check page 6 of the instruction booklet – under the “Indicator Beep Setting” section – for more information about stopping the appliance from beeping.
If your oven won’t stop beeping, that’s a different case and needs a different troubleshooting approach.
Key Takeaways
To make your toaster oven not ding, check your manual and try any of the following:
- First, turn the indicator beep/ or ding off per the manual.
- Next, remove the piezo buzzer entirely or its disc (electrodes).
- Third, pad the circuit board beeper to dampen the loudness.
- Finally, disable the tiny metal strip in the bell casing of the timer switch.
Avoid drilling holes in the chassis, panels, and cowlings or tampering with anything on the control board except the buzzer. If your toaster oven has a timer switch and bell, work only on the latter’s metal strip, not the former’s gears or springs.
Many timers are designed to be closed. So an attempt to tinker with them is a risk. Instead of trying to disable the striker, pad the bell so it’s not loud. That’d be better than nothing.
With these steps, you can make your toaster oven not ding anymore and then heat up sandwiches without letting everyone in the house know lunch is ready.
