Oven installation -- need informed advice

[oldvic]

Hi. Sorry to trouble everyone, but I'm desperately in need of informed advice.

We recently moved house. Our new place has a Diplomat (MFI) single oven that needs replacing. That oven is just plugged in to an ordinary twin 13-amp socket at the back of the adjacent kitchen unit. The other socket is used for the electric ignition on a gas hob.

My problem is that virtually all the possible replacement ovens are specified as needing hard-wiring.

The twin 13-amp socket was installed by MFI when they re-fitted the kitchen a few years back. It's fed from a pre-existing worktop-height cooker control unit that has both an on/off switch for the cooker and a separate 13 amp socket. That control unit is itself fed by a dedicated 32 amp circuit from the consumer unit.

My question is: how should the new cooker be hard-wired? Would it be OK to replace the existing twin 13-amp socket with a new cooker control unit, including a 13-amp socket for the hob ignition? That would mean having two cooker control units in series -- the original one from before the kitchen refit, and the new one. Is there any problem with that? And is there a better alternative? (All the existing cabling is buried away, and the run from the original cooker control unit to the twin 13-amp socket is about two metres and round a corner. So taking the new cooker cable all the way back to the original cooker control unit doesn't look like a feasible option. And we'd be left short of a 13-amp socket for the hob ignition.)

I've tried all sorts of web searches, but all the results have been less than helpful. Hence this post on this forum. Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

 

[polo1]

Hi, first advice is get a qualified spark to do the work - put your post code on here and I'm sure someone will assist. Second, the wiring to your DSS is unlikely to be suitable to take the load of your new appliance. Best solution is to rewire back to the main CCU and use this as your source and method of isolation.

Regards.

 

[ianbrookes]

what is the rating of the new oven ?
what size cable runs to the existing control unit ?
hob ignition should only be 3amp fuse

it could be possible (if the cable csa is large enough) to run a supply throuigh an isolator for the oven and come off that supply to a (new) fused spur for the ignition.

 

[telectrix]

need to check the cabling to the cooker isolator. if this is 6mm, then that's OK. it's then down to the cable to the sockets. for your new hard wired cooker, this will also need to be 6mm and if so, a cooker connection unit can be fitted in place of the socket. you would need to use a dual back box, and fit a 13A single socket for the ignition. but, as polo said, best to get a spark local to you to check this, do the necessary, and test to make sure it's all safe.

 

[trev]

There are a lot of ovens on the market which will plug in to the existing outlet. The general advice is that if the appliance is over 2 Kw then it should be on it's own dedicated circuit which as there is one already there you're good to go on that score (please note I've disregarded the outlet feeding the ignitor for the hob deliberately and that the foregoing is extremely general advice)
Another option would be to remove the 2 gang socket outlet fed by the cooker control unit and hard wire your new oven into this. This would mean you would have to plug in the ignitor to the socket on the CCU which could be unsightly, another probable downside is that hard wiring the new oven would almost certainly result in damage to existing tiles/splashbacks.
Post up your approximate location, I'd bet we will have a member near you who could come out and advise properly having looked at the job and your options.

 

[oldvic]

Hi everyone. Thanks for all the useful advice.

If my original post hadn't already been too long, I would have explained that I had no intention of installing the new oven myself. My thinking was to buy the oven from a well-known electrical retailing chain and pay extra for their installation service. But on this point about the wiring for the existing oven they were of no help whatever.

Anyway, your various posts have sorted me out. I'll forget about the retail chain's installation service and instead obtain the services of a local and properly qualified electrician.

Thanks again.

 

[trev]

Where are you Oldvic?
The retail chain's installation service will most likely cost a flippin fortune it's good you've decided to avoid them

 

[telectrix]

and probably wire it in wet string anyway

 

[oldvic]

Hi again. Since people have asked, I'm in central Hampshire, five miles south of Winchester. One of my new neighbours has already recommended a good local electrician, so I'll contact him tomorrow.

Thanks everyone.