Connecting cookers

Steve Walker snipped-for-privacy@walker-family.me.uk> wrote in news:qsenss$bs9$1@dont- email.me:

Pins could corrode due to not being removed and re-inserted. leading to high resistance.

Cookers often are connected using a plug and socket in commercial kitchens. However it adds additional cost to the installation, while also being bulky and fugly in a domestic situation.

Interesting suggestion. By way of comparison, domestic gas stoves are 'plugged in' as it were, not permanently plumbed in, so yes, why not electric ones. Might save a lot of hassle when getting a new electric cooker delivered and installed, or just moving house.

Chris Hogg snipped-for-privacy@privacy.net posted

The same goes for immersion heaters. No doubt the stock reply is "safety", but that may not be the real reason.

Yes, it would save the expense of getting an electrician to connect it. I expect that is the real reason it isn't done, much the same as gas cookers being supplied without a hose despite the universality of bayonet connections.

SteveW

I would think it's because it would make the cooker stand away from the wall by at least another 10 cm or so, depending on how much you be happy to bend the cable at a right angle close to the plug.You could more than half that distance if the socket was such that the plug entered it parallel to the wall. That would save some space and the sharp bend in the cable. But does such a socket exist?

And EN 60309 "ceeform" / "commando" sockets aren't shuttered, which is considered undesirable (at best, if not prohibited) in domestic installations.

Owain

Though you can get sockets with an interlocked switch to prevent fingerpoken.

There are 'Commando' sockets which have a power interlock. I've never seen them for sale and the ones I have seen have been 16A ones but I suspect 32A ones are available. You insert the plug an twist to turn on the power. You certainly need to press a button to remove the plug.

The Caravan and Motorhome club has them on most of their hook up posts on sites in the UK. I've never seen them elsewhere, even on sites in the UK. They often catch out first time users who think the service point isn't working or they can't remove their plug when leaving.

I'm sure I've seen this done. The answer is probably cheapness. Brian

That can and has happened to hard wired ones, in my case the wire used was aluminium and the connection to the cooker cable was where the corrosion occurred and caused heating. I guess the connector was brass. I'm not up in what sort of reaction that might set up, but surely we could find plugs and sockets that are plated? Brian

That implies that nobody has bothered to define a proper standard for a plug and socket that is shuttered and low profile.

Brian

Extra costs both in materials and labour.

How often to you change your cooker to make this worthwhile?

But many people do take them out for cleaning behind them and in narrow kitchens, you could really do with taking it right out of the kitchen and out of the way while you do.

SteveW

Really?

Yes!

I've never heard of such a thing.

Bill

If your kitchen is so tight for space I'd say you'd have problems making any 40 amp connector accessible.

Especially if they are built in :-)

One just has to squeeze into the two foot square space the cooker is going to occupy.