Electric Cooker Ring Failed After 15 Months

steamship10

I purchased a Bush electric cooker from Currys back in September 2023. It's has four ceramic hobs and a twin oven. I use the main oven 2-3 times a week, for about 10-15 minutes each time. Of the four hobs, I primarily use just one, the smallest one at the back. That gets used up to 3 times per week, and that is for around 5 minutes each time. This is more a case of 'heating' food as opposed to 'cooking' food.

Things were fine until last week when I noticed after a couple of minutes that the food I was heating seemed to be cooling down. I lifted the pan slightly to see if the element was active, and it wasn't. The next day, I checked each of the four elements by switching them on full to see if they lit up. All but the small one worked.

The cooker came with a 12 month warranty. Before I contact the seller, or maybe the manufacturer, I'd like to know if the Consumer Rights Act 2015 will help. Although it has a 12 month warranty, which has now expired, can I claim that the goods are not fit for purpose in that they should last a reasonably length of time, and 15 months of light use is Not a reasonable length of time. For reference, the cooker cost £300, which is a lot of money for me, and from an online search, the new element costs around £40, which will then need fitting.

Aylesbury_Duck

steamship10 said:

I purchased a Bush electric cooker from Currys back in September 2023. It's has four ceramic hobs and a twin oven. I use the main oven 2-3 times a week, for about 10-15 minutes each time. Of the four hobs, I primarily use just one, the smallest one at the back. That gets used up to 3 times per week, and that is for around 5 minutes each time. This is more a case of 'heating' food as opposed to 'cooking' food.

Things were fine until last week when I noticed after a couple of minutes that the food I was heating seemed to be cooling down. I lifted the pan slightly to see if the element was active, and it wasn't. The next day, I checked each of the four elements by switching them on full to see if they lit up. All but the small one worked.

The cooker came with a 12 month warranty. Before I contact the seller, or maybe the manufacturer, I'd like to know if the Consumer Rights Act 2015 will help. Although it has a 12 month warranty, which has now expired, can I claim that the goods are not fit for purpose in that they should last a reasonably length of time, and 15 months of light use is Not a reasonable length of time. For reference, the cooker cost £300, which is a lot of money for me, and from an online search, the new element costs around £40, which will then need fitting.

First step is to speak to Currys, making sure they know you wish to exercise your consumer rights.  Don't let them fob you off by saying the warranty's expired, that's irrelevant.   They may ask you to contact Bush to have it inspected (probably at your cost) or for you to get an independent inspection done (again, at your cost) to confirm the fault and likely cause.  A local white goods repair person will suffice.  If the report shows premature failure that's not down to misuse or fair wear and tear, Currys must repair the cooker, replace it, or partially refund you.  Plus refund the cost of the report.  A partial refund might work for you - you'd get some money back and just use the other rings or use the money to get the broken one repaired.  My guess is that supply and fitting the new element will cost around £100-150 depending where you live.

DullGreyGuy

Your rights are with the retailer not the manufacturer so if you are outside the warranty period they're the ones to talk to. Technically they can require you to provide a report on the cause of the failure but some just send their own people or tell you to get the manufacturer to inspect it. 

If you have to get your own report then the cost of the report is recoverable if it supports your argument that its faulty and 15 months isnt a reasonable lifespan. 

It's up to the retailer if they repair, replace or refund. For the later they can reduce the refund to reflect the 15 months of use you got out of it before it became faulty. 

steamship10

Thanks for the responses. Two things to note since then:

1. I made a mistake with the seller (Argos, not Currys), but they all sing from the same hymn sheet.
2. I spent over an hour speaking to five people on three different phone numbers, being passed from pillar to post, with no one willing to do anything. In the end, I was told to send an email to customer services to register a complaint.

This morning, I received a phone call from Argos which lasted over 25 minutes. What it boiled down to was that anything on the cooker that is required to have it function as such, is classed as a 'wear and tear' item, and as such, I don't have a leg to stand on. I was even told that I would be 'lucky' if the elements lasted six years!

As mentioned in the previous comments, I essentially have to pay to have someone prove that the faulty part has an inherent fault in it. Then and only then will Argos repair it. If the person can't determine that it had an inherent fault, then I'm out of pocket for that inspection, and still have to get it repaired at my expense.

I did state to him that I would be investigating this further with CAB, but from how he responded, I think I'm going to get the same response from them. So much for Consumer Rights, where the consumer has to prove the manufacturer is at fault.

I may as well source a replacement element and fit it myself, as since it's out of warranty and everything seems to be classed as a 'wear and tear' item, nothing else is going to be covered by the Consumer Rights Act.

Ergates

steamship10 said:

The cooker came with a 12 month warranty. Before I contact the seller, or maybe the manufacturer, I'd like to know if the Consumer Rights Act 2015 will help. Although it has a 12 month warranty, which has now expired, can I claim that the goods are not fit for purpose in that they should last a reasonably length of time, and 15 months of light use is Not a reasonable length of time. For reference, the cooker cost £300, which is a lot of money for me, and from an online search, the new element costs around £40, which will then need fitting.

You can claim that the goods are not of satisfactory quality regards to durability.

steamship10 said:

What it boiled down to was that anything on the cooker that is required to have it function as such, is classed as a 'wear and tear' item, and as such, I don't have a leg to stand on.

Yeah....no, that is nonsense.  They can't just absolve themselves like that.  Cooker heating elements aren't a consumable item, they're not lightbulbs!

steamship10 said:

I was even told that I would be 'lucky' if the elements lasted six years!

This prompts the obvious question of "Why are knowingly selling such poor quality goods?"

steamship10 said:

As mentioned in the previous comments, I essentially have to pay to have someone prove that the faulty part has an inherent fault in it. Then and only then will Argos repair it. If the person can't determine that it had an inherent fault, then I'm out of pocket for that inspection, and still have to get it repaired at my expense.

The person inspecting the cooker doesn't have to *prove* it was an inherent fault - it just has be a report from a qualified person that says it it.  So they can conclude "A cooker element shouldn't fail after 15 months when there is no sign of the customer abusing it" and that should suffice.

born_again

TBH. Give it looks like sub £30 for a replacement ring. Might as well see if a local white goods repairer can not simply replace it.

Alderbank

Ergates said:

steamship10 said:

What it boiled down to was that anything on the cooker that is required to have it function as such, is classed as a 'wear and tear' item, and as such, I don't have a leg to stand on.

Yeah....no, that is nonsense.  They can't just absolve themselves like that.  Cooker heating elements aren't a consumable item, they're not lightbulbs!

An incandescent lightbulb contains a coiled filament of resistance wire. When powered it heats up and expands. Over time the heating and cooling cycle induces stresses in the resistance wire which cause it to fail. It's a consumable item.

A ceramic hob element contains a coiled filament of resistance wire. When powered it heats up and expands. Over time the heating and cooling cycle induces stresses in the resistance wire which cause it to fail. It's a consumable item.

The OP said they used that single hob burner exclusively, they never used the other three. I think if they had shared the use equally over all the hobs they would all still be working now. 5 years is a reasonable life.

Domestic appliance spare parts dealers sell lots of cooker elements, probably their fastest moving lines.
Because they are consumables, elements are designed to be easy to remove and replace. I've never owned one (and wouldn't want to) but I have replaced one for my neighbours. It's a 15 minute job.
https://www.cookerspareparts.com/news/post/how-to-replace-a-ceramic-hob-element#:~:text=Your%20new%20element%20will%20not,coil%20of%20the%20element%20ends.

Ergates

Alderbank said:

The OP said they used that single hob burner exclusively, they never used the other three. I think if they had shared the use equally over all the hobs they would all still be working now. 5 years is a reasonable life.

OP says they use it 3 times a week for 5 minutes at a time.  Even if it's double that, 30 minutes a week for 15 months is 32.5 hours.   Even with the planned obsolescence built into incandescent lightbulbs, they lasted 30 times that, (and cost far less).

Alderbank

It's not the time. It's the thermal cycling that kills them.

You might switch a light on once a day. The thermostat in a hob could switch it on and off 100 times in 5 minutes.

Ergates

Alderbank said:

It's not the time. It's the thermal cycling that kills them.

You might switch a light on once a day. The thermostat in a hob could switch it on and off 100 times in 5 minutes.

But that is a known factor when the heating elements are designed, and they should be made to withstand that.  "We made our hobs in such a way that they burn out the heating elements very quiclky" isn't much of an excuse.

Also, given the switching is controlled by a component of the hob itself, (and, as such, out of the control of the user) it *is* the time.  The longer the hob is used, the more cycling it'll go through.

The point remains:  What the OP describes is *very* light use of a hob.  None of the components should have worn out in that time frame with that amount of use.

DullGreyGuy

Ergates said:

Alderbank said:

It's not the time. It's the thermal cycling that kills them.

You might switch a light on once a day. The thermostat in a hob could switch it on and off 100 times in 5 minutes.

But that is a known factor when the heating elements are designed, and they should be made to withstand that.  "We made our hobs in such a way that they burn out the heating elements very quiclky" isn't much of an excuse.

Items are made to a price, OP says they spent £300 on it with a ceramic top. It is the absolute most budget ones out there... there are a handful of solid plates that are cheaper and thats it. Durability has to consider the price, you wouldn't expect the cheapest one available to be as durable as a mid range model. Most the ceramic cookers for sale are more than double what the OP paid.

Making something last a long time is only one of the considerations in design, others are making replacement parts cheap and easy to fit which appears to be the case here. You've much greater cause for complaint when something that inevitably will fail over time is irreplaceable, like the other thread here recently of the Dyson Hair straighteners (that cost more than this cooker) who's rechargeable battery cannot be replaced.