Electric built in oven - is it safe to plug it in instead of hardwiring it?

coffeehound

Ah the oven has its own 32A circuit -- assuming that is the socket in your picture then that is ideal

47Revisited

coffeehound said:

Ah the oven has its own 32A circuit -- assuming that is the socket in your picture then that is ideal

Think that socket is on the ring circuit. Cooker has its own 32A circuit to cooker outlet.

frank_olaf

We want to get a new oven that just uses a normal plug (possibly the one on the right side of the picture) because it means we don't need to pay extra to have it installed. Also, because of the position of the pipe, I'm not sure if the installer could hook the new oven up to that socket.

macman

if it's under 3,000W, then technically you can plug it in, but don't be a cheapskate. The cost of a hard wired install is minimal, any competent handyman can do it-it's no more complex than sliding it in, securing it, and wiring a plug. You don't have to pay AO £100 to do it.
From the pic of the CU, you only have a single 32A ring main circuit for the whole property. You'd normally expect to have one for each floor (is it a house or flat?), plus one for the kitchen. So, if you put an oven drawing 2,850W on that, then it's probably going to trip every time you switch the kettle on, or even the TV. 
The circuit is wired and the socket in place, so I'd use it.

frank_olaf

We're in a house with two floors.
That was just half of the CU, here's the whole thing. 

bris

General rule of thumb is if its under 3kw it can be plugged in to the ring main.

The MCB in the consumer unit will protect the cable running to the  socket outlet
The 13 amp fuse in the plug will  protects the cable. running to the cooker.

You can ovewrthink it but thats the fact.  It's just another kettle, or toaster, or airfryer or whatever.

47Revisited

If you don't want the expense of a spark, as above just get a plug in from AO and use the socket. Cooker's not going to be on all day. Diversity and all that.

Ectophile

A lot of people here are fretting over nothing.  When I had my kitchen done, the new oven came with a fitted 13A plug.  It's plugged into a normal wall socket; there's nothing on the old cooker circuit any more.

The kitchen hasn't caught fire yet, even after several years.

A 13A socket is designed to deliver 13A or 3kW for a reasonable amount of time without overheating.  The oven only takes about 10 to 12 minutes to heat up, after which it switches on and off on the thermostat.

BikingBud

frank_olaf said:

The old oven is an electric one. I've attached a picture of the socket (but hard to see because there is a gas pipe in front of it )

I've also attached a picture of the fuse box. The one in the red rectangle is the one that tripped.

How does anybody that has any sense of competence or self respect put a gas pipe in front of an electrical face plate

Does the gas pipe go to a hob? Is it still required or can you get it chopped and capped?

Where does the cable going out of the LHS of the image go? Is that a 2 oven stack and you pulled the lower oven out?

I would suggest, given your concern and the absolute need for safety, speak with AO to see what they can do for your install:

"You’ll need to let us know if you’re switching from a gas oven to a new electric oven in the basket. If you are, then we’ll send one of our qualified Gas Safe engineers to take care of installation. Don’t worry, this won’t cost you a penny more."

It may be very difficult otherwise to get someone out for a relatively small job.

Grumpy_chap

I'm surprised that any oven is supplied with a 3-pin plug.  It will be much better wired into the 30A supply directly.

There is a recent thread where someone "appears" to have tripping issues with a cooker (I assume "cooker" means hob plus oven) using a 3-pin plug (though that has not been confirmed by the OP in that thread):
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6335351/mother-s-discussing-behaviour-by-currys#