Need an oven with a plug that doesn't need hardwiring?

benjus

IME most electric ovens can run off a 13A socket - it's electric hobs that require a higher power connection.

As for the plug, when I bought a stand-alone dual-fuel cooker in the past I'm pretty sure it came with a plug. I suspect built-in ovens don't come with plugs as many people would need to thread the cable through a hole somewhere so would just cut the plug off and fit their own anyway.

squeekswhenwalking

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

Wiring a 13A plug is not neurosurgery and it's not notifiable work. Anyone can do it.

You'd be surprised how many badly fitted or incorrectly wired plugs I've come across .
Fan ovens usually use less power and are usually less than 3000w so designed to run off plug top or fused connection unit. Conventional ovens are typically 5000w so exceed 13amp. Hobs are 1500 to 2500 watt per ring on average

casper_g

What oven have you bought, OP? Maybe the instructions are written assuming you will want to use a fused connection unit but it would actually run fine off a 13A plug and socket? Probably unlikely, but could be worth checking before you send it back!

prowla

dj1471 wrote: »

You certainly can but it's always better to hard-wire if possible.

You need to find one which says it can run off a 13A supply or with a wattage of less than 2900W. Some retailers give you an easy way to search for these (e.g. AO.com) while some don't give that information at all. But be warned that a lot of ovens still don't come with a plug even if they can run off one, so you'll need someone competent to fit one.

Why is it better to hard-wire?

prowla

benjus wrote: »

IME most electric ovens can run off a 13A socket - it's electric hobs that require a higher power connection.

As for the plug, when I bought a stand-alone duel-fuel cooker in the past I'm pretty sure it came with a plug. I suspect built-in ovens don't come with plugs as many people would need to thread the cable through a hole somewhere so would just cut the plug off and fit their own anyway.

Did those duel fuel cookers have a fight?

benjus

prowla wrote: »

Did those duel fuel cookers have a fight?

Dammit... knew I'd get caught out sooner or later... I've certainly made that joke at others' expense.

Buzby

prowla wrote: »

Why is it better to hard-wire?

Because every point of contact is a potential failure. Plugs overhead and melt, terminals corrode and break - I have seen olugs that only require 10a become blackened accidents waiting to happen.

Hard wiring is by far more reliable and secure, and lets face it - once installed is there for life.

almeria1

We bought our last oven from John Lewis. Good selection and the van delivered and I just picked it up put in place and plugged it in. You will have no problem finding a suitable oven.

namecheck

andrewthomas2008 wrote: »

Hi all.

My oven has broken down and I've tried to order a new one but when it arrived it needed hardwiring directly to the fusebox with its own isolation switch.

My old oven just required to be plugged in to the socket underneath, I was wondering whether its still possible to buy an oven that I can plugged in or else I'd have to pay an electrician to install this new isolation switch.

Much thanks to any answers provided!!!!!

It's not that easy now to buy ovens supplied with a plug, but a friend bought an Indesit built-in one (don't know the model number offhand). It's fairly basic but it was cheap and she felt the quality was quite good for the price. She seems very happy with it.

prowla

Buzby wrote: »

Because every point of contact is a potential failure. Plugs overhead and melt, terminals corrode and break - I have seen olugs that only require 10a become blackened accidents waiting to happen.

Hard wiring is by far more reliable and secure, and lets face it - once installed is there for life.

13A plugs are rated at 13A (and of course is really over-specced, as opposed to exactly 13A), so 10A is well within spec.

Hard-wired connections are also via terminals, which can equally corrode and break. Sockets have switches and lights, which are made to the same spec as the other components (I'd probably say that switches are probably the weakest link.)

Do you see many failed plugs? There are probably 50-100x more plugs in a house than hard-wired connections, so statistics would suggest that even at the same MTBF it would be 50-100x more likely that it was a plug which failed.

I would have thought that one contributing factor to failure would be the amount of operations performed on the plug; I'd suggest that that number would be very low for white goods.