Tips from a professional kitchen fitter

[John Rumm]

Sort of!

A mate of mine was just investigating the failure of his electric oven, and in the process was able to reverse engineer some of the guidelines obviously used by the original kitchen fitters (house is relatively new).

For your enjoyment:

• Installing a built in oven: the oven casing has ventilation slots. There is no need whatsoever to install the unit into a ventilated housing. Indeed, experience shows that after nearly ten years' operation there is only localised scorching to the chipboard surface, and the house has never burned down.

• Wiring up a built in oven: if the oven has terminals for 1.5mm2 cable, it is straightforward to connect it to a 40 amp cooker supply. Simply take the 6mm2 cable from the cooker outlet and cut off a few strands so the wire will go into the screw terminals. Saves all the hassle and expense of putting a fcu. Don't worry that the wiring inside the oven is only 1.5mm2 ... you need never know it is there.

• Making the connection: make sure the earth wire is really short - just long enough to reach. This makes sure that in the event of a physical disturbance, the earth wire will pull out first, leaving the live and neutral in place so the oven carries on working. When you tighten the terminals, overtighten the earth terminal. This will strip the thread and help the earth wire to pull out cleanly.

• Built-in hob: these are heavy enough to stay put under their own weight. The clamps supplied are cosmetic; discard them. There is no need to use a gasket either. Just cut four lengths of foam draught-proof strip and attach one along each edge. Make sure you use the thinnest available strip, so it cannot touch the work top or do anything.

• Work top: no need to fix this down either. The weight of the hob, together with a bit of friction from the wall tiles will do the trick fine.

• As a finishing touch, put the two cables from the cooker connection unit one on top of each other instead of side by side. This will put a hair line crack into the cable clamp when you tighten it up, just about invisible until the next person comes along.

[Andy Wade]

Mind you, the internal wiring in a hob or free-standing cooker isn't usually any bigger. Manufacturers' instructions ought to specify a maximum fuse or MCB rating (or I^2*t figure) but I've never seen any that do.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember John Rumm saying something like:

• No need to bother about proper sockets, when a cheap and simple 4-way under the sink plinth will do to feed the dishwasher and washing machine.

[pete]

This seems to be SOP for all kitchen fitters. If the worktop is obviously loose, use a dollop of grout along the wall-edge to keep it stable until you've been paid.

[PeterC]

A neighbour has that sort of thing. Washing machine [small] tumble drier and 3kW kettle on a cheap 4-way that wass tucked in behihind the gas cooker! I told her about the possible consequences (and moved the strip to a cool location) but she didn't seem worried. Somehow the 13A fuse hasn't [yet] blown!

[Sidney Endon-Lee]

It does seem to be common practice. In my case, it wasn't a cheap four- way, but a bodged unfused spur from the ring, powering 1) Fridge/ Freezer 2) Washer/Dryer 3) Dishwasher 4) Sink Waste Disposal unit.

The last three of the above are now on their own, separate ring, with distances back to the CU approximately equal, rather than one leg being about 10 times the length of the other on the original.

Sid.

[Sidney Endon-Lee]

It does seem to be common practice. In my case, it wasn't a cheap four- way, but a bodged unfused spur from the ring, powering 1) Fridge/ Freezer 2) Washer/Dryer 3) Dishwasher 4) Sink Waste Disposal unit.

The last three of the above are now on their own, separate ring, with distances back to the CU approximately equal, rather than one leg being about 10 times the length of the other on the original.

Sid.

[js.b1]

Radial 4mm FTE can make things easier. Radial topology is flexible, removes the need for balancing, removes the need for sufficient wall space for 2-legs x N rings, but does add a need for "radial" label at the CU if your topology happens to have 2 cables at the CPD (otherwise it will appear a broken ring and trigger "teeth sucking not allowed crew").

You forgot ... ... crush the worktop against all cables, insulation resistance being relegated to that which can help fix the worktop; ... extend FTE 4mm radial in FTE 2.5mm (*) and wonder why the cable becomes truly rigidised PVC; ... earths are for wussies, leave loose as RCD at the head end.

(*) because they do not have any FTE 4.0mm on the van.

Ring? Ring! You should be so lucky, more often than not it is a broken ring and thus twin 32A radials in 2.5mm :-)

4-way strip socket... and people wonder why they went "all RCD"... we are doomed... it's not that they don't want nuke plants, it's not that they NIMBY, it is that a kitchen fitter might actually get anywhere near the thing and silicone it!

[ARWadsworth]

They can be tricky little buggers to blow those 13A fuses(*). Add a bit of diversity on these 3 appliances and I am not surprised that the fuse has not blown.

Adam

(*) I have seen an electric cooker plugged into a socket with 1.5T&E and a

13A fuse that took nearly 3 years to show blow the fuse

[PeterC]

Yup. She does tend to use the washer and drier separately. Even so, the kettle really should take care of it when something else is on.

[Tim Watts]

On Fri, 16 Apr 2010 12:51:36 +0100, PeterC wibbled:

Typical[1] fuse characteristic is 2x rated current takes around 1/2 hour to blow.

[1] Could look up the BS-wotsit plug top fuse curve, but I can't be ...

Anyway, as a kettle takes only a few minutes to boil, you can see how you can potentially get away with that forever (unless you keep boiling the kettle).

As the fuse curve is designed with the cable heating characteristic in mind, it's unlikely to do any damage, though the 13A plug the whole lot is hanging off is a law unto itself.

[martop]

Top Tips ! When a leak is found in the sink waste pipe do not bother trying to tighten it or replace the rubber seal, just fill it with car body filler, if you have enough car body filler left over, run a rough line of it around the bath, the bathroom sink, the shower and its even good for filling holes in walls.

When fitting an electric shower do not run the mains cable neatly behind the unit, instead drop it down from the ceiling above and into the top of the shower unit, leave enough cable to make a foot long drip loop next to the shower unit, you can paint the cable to match the colour of the tiles. The hole in the ceiling around the cable can be patched with car body filler.

Rewiring a house : If you should find a plastic pattress box buried in a wall do not remove it and fit a steel one, save time and re use it, if your using T & E instead of flex do not connect the earth wires of the T & E just leave them bare. Over strip the live core and assemble the switch / socket making sure the earth wire can touch the live wire if the switch / socket is used.

-- Mart.

[Owain]

As long as the top of the pipe remains below the plughole level, you

*can* run sink drains so they run uphill!

Owain

[Graham.]

Buget hotel in Glasgow, I won't mention the name but Lenny Henry stays there. Convayor-belt toster pludded into an extention reel mostly wound up and hot to the touch. I spoke to the matradee about it but he didn't seem concerned.

[Jim Backus]

Nothing that regular use of drain cleaner can't solve ;-)

I know of a waste pipe from a bathroom sink that has insufficient fall. Regular use of washing soda is necessary to prevent drips from the lever operated plug.

[Hugo Nebula]

It's there to provide a secondary trap surely?

[Owain]

'secondary' trap?

Owain

[John Rumm]

Yup, like an extra U bend - just a very long one! ;-)

[Tim Watts]

John Rumm wibbled on Monday 19 April 2010 14:00

Might take a few more bottles of Mr Muscle to clear it when it clags up too :)