bruceb's Profile

Like Bill L , I would recommend removing the electronics (as scary as that seems) and cleaning the housing. Replace the wall cord (1920s vintage equipment used cotton as an insulator). If the heating coils break as you remove them, they probably will, an appliance supply house will have NiChrome wire by the foot that you can stretch the coils and replace the heating elements. If you are not comfortable doing this kind of work yourself, look for a hacker-space locally or pay an appliance repairman to make sure the unit is safe. As old as it is, it will not have modern UL safety devices installed and fire or electrocution is not the way to be made aware of any defects after the extended storage.
Looks like a fun project.

BruceB

RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) is a serious problem with some difficult fixes, I am a RF technician and you would be amazed at the things inside a radio that are affected by it's own interference.
Many of the "Touch Panel" appliances work by using the fact that our bodies are good antennas. I know I am dating myself, but if you had a "transistor" AM radio as a kid, you may remember that some stations would not come in unless you were holding the radio in your hand. Your body was the long antenna and you were using capacitive inductance to the antenna inside the case of the radio. The touch panels often have small antennas just under the glass and register the higher amount of RF noise as an input. Walking by with a cordless phone, cell phone or as above living in a high RF environment will often cause those controls to malfunction. I imagine the fix for the OP's control was to put "chokes" on most of the wiring and reduce the sensitivity of the controls.
If you suspect that kind of problem $150.00 is kind of steep but usually less than repeated service calls:
http://www.grove-ent.com/zap185.html
This device may help convince the service guy to check his data sheets and find the proper fix.

BruceB