Quick question about electric cooker?

kwatt

Generally speaking...

The advice from the appliance guys is that a built in oven or any cooker should be on a spur with a wall switch accessible to the owner.

The reason is that it can be isolated easily if you have a problem and you tend not to get any burning problems when they are hard wired.

Trying to get out an oven or cooker in the dark because you can't reset the RCD and you can't get to the plug behind it is not a fun task.

We always advise builders to do this and put in a proper 30A switched cooker supply as, if the appliance is swapped out later for something else that draws more power then you might have to rewire the circuit just to fit a new cooker, oven or hob.

Do they ever listen... or do they fit the cheapest option?

K.

fluffpot

You will not be able to plug in that oven. It needs it's own circuit and to be hard wired. You could look at your fuse board to see what the amps (A) rating of (hopefully) the circuit marked cooker. 30 or 32A will be sufficient as it's assumed that you won't be using all of the rings and oven at the same time.

If you don't have a separate circuit you will need to get one installed. This is a job for a registered electrician, not a handyman.

HTH

Fluff

ormus

Myser wrote: »

I meant a single hob ring 1/4. Unlikely to draw more than 3kW.

you cannot wire up a hob and then say to the end user, please only use one ring at a time.
you have to assume all 4 rings will be used together at some time, and wire it up accordingly.

fluffpot

Ormus - you'd be surprised. I've come across this at least twice where the landlord has wired a 13A plug to an electric hob and told the tenants to do just that!

Myser

ormus wrote: »

you cannot wire up a hob and then say to the end user, please only use one ring at a time.
you have to assume all 4 rings will be used together at some time, and wire it up accordingly.

The OP was desperate to use the oven/a hob to make their apple pie! I stated if they were careful and only used one hob or the oven at a time for a short period and follow the other precautions, it wouldn't be a problem.

This wasn't meant as general advice to others!

keystone

Seems to be a bit too much of this:




on this thread.

In simple terms as others have already stated at length but seems to be a source of an "I can argue that" scenario:

A cooker (which is by definition a free standing device) needs to be hardwired via a dedicated 30A circuit - anything less is unsafe.

A double oven with separate hob must be hardwired as above. Anything else is unsafe.

A separate electric hob may be powered via a 13A socket but most likely needs to be hardwired and in any event the MIs need to be consulted.

A separate gas hob may be powered from a 13A socket as all it needs volts for is the ignition circuit.

A single oven may be powered via a 13A socket but check the MIs.

The desireability to cook an apple pie is immaterial, buy one from Sainsbury's and stick it in the blasted microwave.

Cheers

Myser

keystone wrote: »

The desireability to cook an apple pie is immaterial, buy one from Sainsbury's and stick it in the blasted microwave.

If you've tried those microwavable ones, they just don't taste the same as a good home-cooked apple pie!

Plus, it may not cook too well anyway in a microwave that has been blasted!

keystone

Yes but its better than blowing the house up by doing something downright unsafe. Theres always one of those dreadfull McDs Apple Pies if you are that desperate.

Cheers

Myser

keystone wrote: »

Yes but its better than blowing the house up by doing something downright unsafe. Theres always one of those dreadfull McDs Apple Pies if you are that desperate.

Cheers

If they followed the precautions mentioned and not left it unattended, the house is unlikely to blow up!

Whenever I have no choice but to go to McD's (rarely) the Apple Pie is probably one of the only things I'll buy! Not brilliant but certainly better than some of the other c*ap they produce.

Careful_with_that_Axe

Oh dear, please don't argue when you've all been so helpful. I asked kind of a rookie question and you took me seriously and educated me; from not knowing whether a plug was OK to hardwiring, I've learned a lot. I like to understand how things work.

I checked fuse and it's a 32, so will get handyman to get the wire tomorrow so I know the right stuff has been bought. Will see if using the rings brings some of the rust off, but have bought a radiant ring restorer thingy from ebay quite cheaply so will get it all clean and sparkly.

I shall have an apple pie next week and toast you all with it - cream or custard?