Cooker switch light flickering red

TheJackah

Our cooker mains switch is flickering with a red light (see picture), even when the switch is off. 

Does anyone know why this might be? 

grumbler

TheJackah said:

Our cooker mains switch is flickering with a red light (see picture), ...

Does anyone know why this might be? 

That's what small neon bulbs do for a long time before dying eventually.

even when the switch is off.

There has to be no light at all if the switch is off.

victor2

I'm not an electrician, but that doesn't look like a cooker switch to me. Maybe the neon indicator is on its way out, or it has a dodgy connection to live. Presumably the cooker still works when the switch is on and doesn't when it is off?

knightstyle

It is an old neon light and they do that sometimes, nothing to worry about.

coffeehound

Did the light used to stay off when the switch was off?

Ectophile

If the light stays on even if the switch is off, then somebody wired the switch the wrong way round.  A switch with a neon will have "in" and "out" terminals for the mains wires.  Get them the wrong way round, and the light won't go off.

Other than the light then being useless, it's a relatively harmless mistake.  Whoever wired my shower made the same mistake.  I've never bothered to fix it.

fenwick458

neon lights in switches & sockets don't always last very long.
for that reason, I'll never choose to fit switches & sockets with neons unless somebody specifically asks for them they seem rather pointless and old fashioned
if the flickering light is bugging you, it's probably an easy fix to just slacken the front plate and pull the little wires out that go to the neon(with the power off obviously)