Dixons : Gas disconnection as part of electric cooker installation?

zackkilmer

hi

i'm thinking of buying an electric cooker from dixons , my gas one needs disconnected , website says they will disconnect the old appliance but when i phoned them they said it will be assessed on day of delivery so , if they cannot do it , i may be left with 2 cookers until i then arrange a corgi gas man to come around , and THEN i'll have to arrnge for appliance recycling ! has anyone had a similiar experience with dixons going from GAS to ELECTRIC ? Thanks

KimYeovil

There's a snowball's chance the Dixons van driver will be able (or, rather, be allowed) to do this. Don't waste time or emotional energy with false optimism - arrange for Dixons to only deliver the cooker.

You should prepare for the cost and time of an electrician and gas fitter to change the cookers over and the cost of recycling.

KimYeovil

And don't forget the cooker will have to be on its own circuit so if there is not already a cooker socket it may be non trivial - the installer can not just plug the cooker into the same socket/circuit the gas igniter was plugged in to!

Might get more knowledgeable reply over in the DIY http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=39 section.

markharding557

Provided the connectors are there already wiring a cooker up is no more difficult than a plug it is just 3 wires.
It is simple to disconnect the gas cooker but i am not sure it is legal to do it any more
A rag and bone man will be happy to take the cooker away
One more thing if you don't have the wiring already installed then you will have to pay for that as well

zackkilmer

hi there

thanks for taking the time to reply . Currently i think there is a "hot wire" box above cooker with a "cooker" and "socket" flip switch ( both off) and plugged into back of cooker . There is a gas main cable also . Its £45 for installation - apparently they connect it and level it and check fuse box etc and take away old appliance . I think i will pay for corgi gas man to come before and seal off old gas line. Its just that it seems that

1. I may not need this done thus unnecessary expense
2. I'm paying for "installation" which may only be plug into my hot wire box and switch on !

Plushchris

I would definately budget for a corgi/gas safe engineer to cap off the supply. DO NOT rely on the Dixons van driver to be able to do this.

A few years ago I was doing some agency work van driving for Comet, I turned up at the depot and they asked me how confident I was installing electric ovens, I said I had fitted my own and was fairly confident and was told "oh you'll be alright then, give us a ring if you have any problems", that was basically the extent of "training" I had! :eek:

Luckily for me (and the few peoples cookers I fitted that day) I'm pretty good with electrical work and have fitted my own cooker (as someone mentioned above, they are in general fairly easy to fit) and done some re-wiring work in my own place.

I wouldnt have touched a gas supply though! No way!

Premier_2

zackkilmer wrote: »

hi

i'm thinking of buying an electric cooker from dixons , my gas one needs disconnected , website says they will disconnect the old appliance but when i phoned them they said it will be assessed on day of delivery so , if they cannot do it , i may be left with 2 cookers until i then arrange a corgi gas man to come around , and THEN i'll have to arrnge for appliance recycling ! has anyone had a similiar experience with dixons going from GAS to ELECTRIC ? Thanks

How practical are you?

Unless you are totally useless, have a quick look at the current installation of the gas cooker. Most are installed via a bayonet gas connector and a 3 pin domestic plug.

You can remove both of these yourself.
There will probably be cries of it being dangerous, illegal etc, but the reality is that thousands of people used to do this themselves and didn't end up blowing themselves up or ending up in the clink.

The bayonet gas connector will, if correctly functioning, self seal as soon as the disconnection is made.

Or if you want to be safe & legal and spend £10 per second for a gas safe registered engineer to do it (as it literally is a 5 second job), go ahead before the new cooker is delivered.

If the current gas cooker is free standing, there should also be something (a stability chain) attached to stop it being knocked over.

With regards the new electric cooker, installation may be more difficult. Usually there is no wire from the socket and I doubt a dixons van driver will provide that. The wire required is very think and very stiff. If the wire needs to pass though conduit buried in the wall, that could be difficult enless someone has kindly left a piece of string in the conduit to help you pull the cable through.

Connection at the cooker end is a simple case of connecting 3 wires (live, neutral & earth).

Of course, if you don't feel competent to do any of this youreslf, get someone in who is ... but that doesn't necessarily mean a highly paid professional unless you don't know anyone else.

spiro

Following on from Premier, pull you existing gas cooked as far forward as possible and see if there is a bayonet connector. If there is you can disconnect the cooker a couple of hours before the new one arrives (this is what they are designed for). Having done that if you put a film of washing up liquid over the bayonet you can see if there is any gas escaping (believe it or not thats how most gas engineers do it). If there isn't a leak not problem. Not sure if you can buy a 'blank' plug to connect in place of the hose.

nick74

Premier wrote: »

How practical are you?

Unless you are totally useless, have a quick look at the current installation of the gas cooker. Most are installed via a bayonet gas connector and a 3 pin domestic plug.

You can remove both of these yourself.
There will probably be cries of it being dangerous, illegal etc, but the reality is that thousands of people used to do this themselves and didn't end up blowing themselves up or ending up in the clink.

The bayonet gas connector will, if correctly functioning, self seal as soon as the disconnection is made.

Yes, the very reason these bayonet type gas connectors were fitted on gas cookers in the first place is so that you don't need a Corgi/Gas Safe engineer to remove or swap a cooker!

ricky9

Basically if you can push up and twist the connected hose and it comes away from the fitting then this means you can disconnect it yourself. If you can't then it is best to get someone who is qualified to do it.

C_Mababejive

nick74 wrote: »

Yes, the very reason these bayonet type gas connectors were fitted on gas cookers in the first place is so that you don't need a Corgi/Gas Safe engineer to remove or swap a cooker!

They do sometimes let by when they are unplugged so a quick soapy water test on the outlet afterwards and observe for bubbles.