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irrelevant name

Hi iv just fitted a cooker hob to a newly fitted kitchen, the junction box for the hob and oven was already there and the cooker switch too, in other words it was all there and ready to go it just needed a heat resistant flex for the hob, however when i lifted the panel over the terminals to connect the cable. It had the CPC terminal, the neutral, and the set of phase terminals with the links in place joining them. The problem is that between the first phase terminal and the second the link was missing. At the time I thought it was maybe meant to be like that when being installed directly to a normal single phase cooker switch, so I inserted the phase secured everything back in place and tested the hob it appeared to be operating correctly, anyway later after the hob had been re inserted into the worktop I was looking at the operating instructions book and the diagram showed a link between all of the phase terminals including the one I used. Anyway as I'm a plumber not a sparky I asked one of my friends that is a partly qualified sparky and he said it needs all the links in place and he didn't think it would work without them and wasn't sure if there could be a problem with having one missing even though it appeared to be working anyway. So my question is that basically, is that link essential and needed to be replaced or will the hob work fine as it Is. I haven't finished the plumbing work in that property so il be returning to do that anyway so if necessary i can rectify the link issue if it needs to be.

Cheers any advice would be appreciated
 
Welcome to the forum, as your not an Electrician I will get admin' to assign a DIY status under your name, this allows members to tailor there answers to suit.

May I also ask as your a Plumber, are you just doing a direct swap for the cooker/hob or are you under taking other electrical work?
 
Electrician versus Plumber will now proceed, for those of a nervous disposition please be aware, flashing lights and bad language may be present, please ensure your Children are not allowed to view this post.
 
If the manufacturer's instructions for this particular model show that all links are required, then just fit them. Then you don't have to worry about it. May be best to give the manufacturer or distributor a call and get them to put one in the post.
 
Welcome to the forum, as your not an Electrician I will get admin' to assign a DIY status under your name, this allows members to tailor there answers to suit.

May I also ask as your a Plumber, are you just doing a direct swap for the cooker/hob or are you under taking other electrical work?

Hi cheers for your response,
in answer to your question yer it's pretty much just a like for like swap with the hob I didn't install the oven, the supposed kitchen fitter hooked the oven up but he's already proved he was completely incompetent as I received a call saying I needed to "go to this property to plumb in the sink and drill a hole for the dishwasher waste pipe and possibly the washing machine waste and that everything else was done and everything I needed was there" this turned out to be total bull, there wasn't so much as a flexible hose for the sink there let alone anything else I needed, the kitchen units had all been fitted without any adjustments made to existing pipework or wiring so the d**k that fitted the kitchen literally just fitted it on top of everything I needed access to and nothing had been connected other then the oven and the extractor (both with just bog standard 2.5mm twin &earth) nothing had been piped up the dishwasher had literally just been plugged into a normal single socket outlet dangling off a cable under the undersink cupboard not attached to anything or protected from water just hidden behind the plinth and the washing machine hadn't been plugged into anything or plumbed in nor was it anywhere near a socket so as I'm sure you can imagine it was just a complete nightmare I turned up to and the customer was quite disappointed that I was just a plumber and not a magician plumber capable of installing first fix pipework and wiring after the second fix had been done. But yer anyway other then the issue with the hob, the only other electrical work I was meant to be doing for them was just running a spur of the ring main to allow them to use the washing machine which I don't really have a problem with, that's fairly straight forward (although I was going to test all the circuits that cowboy kitchen fitter has been anywhere near especially the oven and extractor and do something about the dangerous arrangement with the dishwasher power connection hidden behind the plinth) but other then that it's just the issue with the hob that I was unsure about.
Cheers
 
But yer anyway other then the issue with the hob, the only other electrical work I was meant to be doing for them was just running a spur of the ring main to allow them to use the washing machine which I don't really have a problem with, that's fairly straight forward (although I was going to test all the circuits that cowboy kitchen fitter has been anywhere near especially the oven and extractor

What tests are you planning on doing?
 
Hi other then the oven and the extractor (both with just bog standard 2.5mm twin &earth)

But yer anyway other then the issue with the hob, the only other electrical work I was meant to be doing for them was just running a spur of the ring main to allow them to use the washing machine which I don't really have a problem with, that's fairly straight forward (

rs

What's wrong with connecting an oven via 2.5mm T&E?

Are you qualified, registered and insured to carry out electrical work? Do you have the necessary test equipment to carry out the required tests and issue a certificate for installing said spur on the ring final?
 
What's wrong with connecting an oven via 2.5mm T&E?

Are you qualified, registered and insured to carry out electrical work? Do you have the necessary test equipment to carry out the required tests and issue a certificate for installing said spur on the ring final?

When i was in college they taught us to use a heat resistant flex for cooker and hob installations and for a hob to use 6mm cable if it will fit but if not 4mm but there was a calculation to work it out exactly although I can't remember it I just asked a friend who's a sparky and he said the 4mm would be fine for the hob and the 2.5mm heat resistant would do for the oven but what the kitchen fitter has used is not heat resistant and as for the testing of the existing work I was taught to atleast use the basic testing procedures: continuity, polarity, continuity of CPC and insulation resistance and as far as fitting a spur goes I'm a plumber I have to fit spurs for various parts of my job (boilers, circ. Pumps immersion heaters etc.) And yes I do have the correct equipment to test circuits and insure they are safe and the basic common sense it takes to do visual inspections of the existing wiring and insure all the terminals are safely and correctly secured. As far as the certification of the work goes the customer isn't asking for any and if they do suddenly decide they want that then il get a sparky I know to come and inspect and test the work but it's very unlikely theyl want that. Iv done these other little jobs for them to help them out and save them some money but I'm not an idiot Im not prepared to ignore dangerous work another tradesman has done even when there is an easy way to shed any responsibility and do one.
 
Make and model please

The make and model is a matrix MHC001 . I left the instruction book with the owner not that it contained any useful information anyway I jus wrote those details down in my note book that and that it was a 5.8 Kw
 
When i was in college they taught us to use a heat resistant flex for cooker and hob installations and for a hob to use 6mm cable if it will fit but if not 4mm but there was a calculation to work it out exactly although I can't remember it I just asked a friend who's a sparky and he said the 4mm would be fine for the hob and the 2.5mm heat resistant would do for the oven but what the kitchen fitter has used is not heat resistant and as for the testing of the existing work I was taught to atleast use the basic testing procedures: continuity, polarity, continuity of CPC and insulation resistance and as far as fitting a spur goes I'm a plumber I have to fit spurs /QUOTE]

Well I prefer to work to the regulations which permit the use of T&E for the connection of cookers.
That is a ridiculous way to size a cable, using the biggest which fits!
Do you fit ferrules to the ends of the flex? Or do you just put an unprotected fine stranded conductor into screw terminals?
That's a start to testing, but without an earth fault loop impedance test how on earth are you going to know whether there is an earth there at all or if the fuse/mcb will operate? There's no point having a nice continuous CPC if it's not actually connected to earth.

You don't have to fit spurs,
 
Do you fit ferrules to the ends of the flex? ,

Now, there is an interesting point.
With alot of oven and hobs they have cage clamp arrangements, so a ferrules is not needed, in fact sometimes I have found them more awkward in this situation and only use them on screw terminal normally.
 
Now, there is an interesting point.
With alot of oven and hobs they have cage clamp arrangements, so a ferrules is not needed, in fact sometimes I have found them more awkward in this situation and only use them on screw terminal normally.

Unless there is proof that the terminal is designed for fine stranded conductors then you shouldn't assume that it is suitable.
Even though it's pretty damned obvious from looking at it as to whether or not it needs ferrules
 

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