Dodgy Electrician?

Hi all,

I have recently had a new kitchen fitted. The supplier of the kitchen sub-contracted out the fitting, plumbing, and electrics to three different people. In order to wire up the extractor above the hob, the electrician took a feed from a local socket, ran it to where the extractor 'chimney' would be, and fitted a normal white plug socket. He then plugged the extractor in, and fitted the 'chimney' to the extractor.

Now, to me this seems a little bit dangerous. Won't there be heat/moisture being sucked through the extractor and out the chimney, therefore close to the plug socket? Wouldn't it have been better to wire the extractor into a fused plate-thing somewhere away from the actual appliance?

The same electrician was due to return last night to wire up the lights in the units, but he didn't turn up. No phone call, nothing. If this extractor wiring is in any way dodgy, he's not coming near my house again.

Thanks for any advice

Dan

Reply to
getbent
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In article , "-=D@n=-" writes

Sounds fine to me ... surely the heat/moisture you are worried about is inside the extractor ducting, and the power socket is outside it?

Reply to
Tim Mitchell

Yeah, yeah I suppose it is. It just didn't seem right to me. Oh well, I'll leave it as it is.

Thanks for your reply.

Dan

Reply to
getbent

Can you isolate the hood without dismantling it? (Is there a switch and/or a fuse next to the socket for the spur the extractor is plugged into?)

Sparks..

Reply to
Sparks

Hi Sparks,

in a word, no. The wiring is straight into the spur for the kitchen sockets, so i'd have to switch an RCD(?) off at the CU(?) to isolate it. But that would be isolating all the sockets, not just the hood.

Does that mean he's done a bad job?

Thanks

Dan

Reply to
getbent

Is 'isolating' different than simply unplugging it?

Reply to
Grumps

Erm, I dunno. I can't unplug it without dismantling it, but I can switch off the spur that it's connected to. But that would also switch off lots of other stuff.

Reply to
getbent

But how much dismantling? When you remove the cover, do you have finger access to any electric terminals? Or are you just removing the chimney?

Reply to
Grunff

Just removing the chimney. The chimney slots on top of the actual extractor, and the plug is under the chimney.

Reply to
getbent

You really are desperately looking for something to crib about aren't you?

Reply to
John

As I re-read the thread, it would appear so, yes. But I was just really asking if the way he'd done the job was 'normal'. I guess I'm just annoyed that he didn't turn up last night!

Reply to
getbent

My cooker extractor fan is wired to a plug, which plugs into a spurred socket above the cabinets in much the same manner you described. Nothing wrong with that!

Reply to
Dark Angel

Oh ok, ta. It just didn't seem very professional. I would have thought it better to wire directly into the ring(?) with a fused plate somewhere.

Reply to
getbent

Well it's no differant to using a switched fused spur unit and wiring that into the mains, electricity will still flow through the outlet (be it a socket or fused spur) into the appliance (be it plugged in or wired in directly).

Reply to
Dark Angel

Or the lighting circuit - since that's usually closer. But I agree an FCU would look neater than a plug and socket - if you can see it. If it's not on show, it doesn't matter.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Then it seems a reasonable job to me. He has provided a safe was to isolate the extractor (plug & socket), hidden from view, accessible before you have to dismantle any of the main casing.

Reply to
Steven Briggs

Better than a fused spur in my opinion as the extractor can be fully disconnected by just pulling the plug, no need to turn off everything to unwire the connection.

Reply to
DJC

If it's an FCU with a switch these are double pole switched these days.

But nothing like actually unplugging something to know it's isolated.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

I have to say, I think that he is right to "crib", if I understand his situation correctly...

It appears from his posts that in order to isolate the hood, he has to partly dismantle it. In the event of a fault, there may not be time, particularly if tools are needed to do so...

In addition, since most modern hoods seem to be double insulated, a fault where the hood (if it's metal) comes live, by virtue of a faulty cable, for instance, could prove difficult to overcome without switching off at the consumer unit.

Placing isolators for kitchen appliances in an adjacent cupboard is frowned upon by some, but placing them out of easy reach iirc does not meet current regs...

Reply to
Will

See, that's what I was getting at I think. On our old kitchen, there was an FCU(?) next to the hob that would switch off the power to the extractor. That's what I would have preferred. I'm interested in what you say about current regs, so i'm going to get an electrician friend to take a look.

Thanks for the reply.

Dan

Reply to
getbent

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