Cooker Questions

Grabs39

Afternoon all.  Our current gas cooker is fairly pathetic and doesn’t cook anything unless it’s on 9 and even then things take a long time.  I’d much prefer an electric fan oven.

It’s also far too small, and at 55cm wide there’s not much choice to fit the gap.  Unfortunately we can’t justify a new kitchen at the moment to add a proper sized gap.  I can’t remove or make smaller the unit on the left or the cooker would be under the switches.

I keep wondering if I could remove the unit on the right.  This would make the gap 95cm, so would fit a 900mm cooker nicely.  Something  like this would be perfect.  https://ao.com/product/kdvf90x-beko-dual-fuel-range-cooker-stainless-steel-50402-16.aspx

However I have two questions.  Am I correct in thinking this would need to be on its own ring direct to the consumer unit (and so would need new wiring from the kitchen to the meter cupboard).  Also is it a fire risk to have a cooker in a corner?  It’s tiled around.  I know there would be issues with pan handles when using the two burners on the right.

Ectophile

It will need a dedicated cooker circuit (not actually a ring, but a radial).

You might already have one.  Check your consumer unit (fuse box) for a circuit marked "cooker".

grumbler

"Electrical Connection     5.2 KW     Fuse Rating     25 amps"

I am no expert in regulations, but generally, any usual ring with 32A MCB will do the job. but if you use both ovens any extra powerful appliance, e.g. a kettle, will overload the circuit and trip the MCB.

FreeBear

Grabs39 said: Also is it a fire risk to have a cooker in a corner?  It’s tiled around.  I know there would be issues with pan handles when using the two burners on the right.

The manufacturers will specify  minimum distance to any walls or cabinets. This is usually something like 300mm. With gas, this is in part to do with the fire risk. A bigger issue is one of safety - You do not want to be reaching across a flame to grab a pan on the rear burner.

One option is to find a replacement unit for the right hand side. A 300mm base unit would give you that extra 50mm for a 600mm wide cooker. The units don't look that old, so finding a spare shouldn't be too difficult.

fenwick458

that oven would need it's own circuit yes. the regs advise that you connect cookers, ovens and hobs with a rated power exceeding 2kw to their own dedicated radial circuit.
I'm not aware of any rules or regs that say you can't put the appliance in the corner either, but it seems like a bad design if you ask me. try putting a large non combustible object ontop of the worktop to the right of your cooker now and see how you get on with it for a few weeks. if you think it's fine, go for it, but I have a feeling you'll change your mind.
I think a compromise would be to make the opening 600mm, just buy a smaller cupboard for the right hand side. then you would have more choice of cookers

Grabs39

Ectophile said:

It will need a dedicated cooker circuit (not actually a ring, but a radial).

You might already have one.  Check your consumer unit (fuse box) for a circuit marked "cooker".

Thanks, sadly there isn't one there now.

grumbler said:

"Electrical Connection     5.2 KW     Fuse Rating     25 amps"

I am no expert in regulations, but generally, any usual ring with 32A MCB will do the job. but if you use both ovens any extra powerful appliance, e.g. a kettle, will overload the circuit and trip the MCB.

That's pretty much how it is now - the cooker is wired in with a 13A fused switch on the kitchen ring, but of course as it's gas it barely uses any electric; just the light, clock and ignition.

FreeBear said:

Grabs39 said: Also is it a fire risk to have a cooker in a corner?  It’s tiled around.  I know there would be issues with pan handles when using the two burners on the right.

The manufacturers will specify  minimum distance to any walls or cabinets. This is usually something like 300mm. With gas, this is in part to do with the fire risk. A bigger issue is one of safety - You do not want to be reaching across a flame to grab a pan on the rear burner.

One option is to find a replacement unit for the right hand side. A 300mm base unit would give you that extra 50mm for a 600mm wide cooker. The units don't look that old, so finding a spare shouldn't be too difficult.

fenwick458 said:

that oven would need it's own circuit yes. the regs advise that you connect cookers, ovens and hobs with a rated power exceeding 2kw to their own dedicated radial circuit.
I'm not aware of any rules or regs that say you can't put the appliance in the corner either, but it seems like a bad design if you ask me. try putting a large non combustible object ontop of the worktop to the right of your cooker now and see how you get on with it for a few weeks. if you think it's fine, go for it, but I have a feeling you'll change your mind.
I think a compromise would be to make the opening 600mm, just buy a smaller cupboard for the right hand side. then you would have more choice of cookers

Thanks.  I suppose a 600 cooker with top and bottom oven will be a world of difference from the current 550 with bottom oven only (top is just a grill).  I think our units have been discontinued - not that the unit is the issue, just the door.  But happily enough our Uitility Room has one solitary 300mm unit!  I can swap that with the 400 in the corner of the kitchen!

Annoyingly the kitchen isn't very well designed - it's quite big but the units aren't in quite the right places.  More than enough space for a range (which I've always wanted) but not the way it's laid out now.