Massive cooker cables - how to terminate

[Tim Watts]

This is more theoretical at the moment.

When the kitchen is tiled, I'll be fitting a 90cm wide cooker (induction).

Looking at some idly in the shop, I noticed a Smeg (probably not a brand we'd get) - or more particularly, I noticed the cable hangling out the back.

It must have been getting on for 15-20mm diameter!

The conductors looked like 6mm2, maybe 10mm2 - but it was a rubber cable (H07 type possibly) and having checked some tables, 6mm2 would indeed be about 15mm OD, and 10mm2 20mm OD.

How on earth do you terminate a 15-20mm cable? That would be way outside the capacity of a standard cooker connection plate surely???

[harry]

Nah, fits quite easy. You might need pliers to bend the conductors if the space is tight. And need to be carefull cutting to the right length.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I've had to repair 3 Smeg ovens a number of times over past 10 years. Their internal cable harness and swiches burn out - a thoroughly unsuitable design for longevity of high current wiring. I would never buy a Smeg appliance which used electricity for heating. A Smeg gas hob with just electronic ignition has been OK for years - only had to repair the ignition circuit after water poured into the cooker after a carpender put a screw through a heating pipe, but that one wasn't Smeg's fault.

A good quality cooker cable outlet should handle it.

I fitted a Hotpoint induction hob recently, which had a similarly fat cable. However, it was about 6 conductors IIRC, for connecting to several different types of supply and balancing the load across

3-phases, split-phase, or for just using single-phase. The multiple conductors came crimped together for single-phase - you needed to cut the crimps off and redistribute the conductors for other schemes.

[Tim Watts]

Indeed - I wasn't planning on getting Smeg - and you've just given me a valid reason to avoid :)

I've seen that multiple phase arrangement, but in the cooker side junction box (where you supply your own cable). I was just curious at the massive cable lying around the back of the Smeg in Currys - looked like something intended for a Vax 8600!

[spuorgelgoog]

cooker connector plates will work up to 16mm conductor size, at least the one I bodged did.

Why someone rewired my cooker in 16mm cable I don't know. The meter tails were only about 6mm!

Owain

[John Rumm]

Probably someone like Phil's BCO who did not understand how to apply diversity to a cooker load calculation!

[spuorgelgoog]

It was probably a council electrician.

Even so, 4 rings and an oven can't be much more than 6 kW without diversity.

Owain

[dennis]

IIRC my hob has two 3.9kw rings and two 2.9kw rings. The ovens run to ~2.5kw each unless self cleaning when its a lot more.

They are on separate feeds anyway as they are some distance apart.

[Jeff Layman]

When we moved in 5 years ago there was a Smeg washing machine and dishwasher here, which were already 3 years old. We haven't had any problem with either of them. The washing machine even survived me ripping the power cable out of the back of it (electricity was off, fortunately) a couple of years ago!

[Steve Walker]

What used to be our cooker supply (now no longer required due to a gas cooker and repositioning on the other side of the kitchen) is supplied by a run of 16mm2 T&E. Way oversized, but I got it free when I was rewiring. The division of the company my father worked for had produced about a mile of it, before they discovered that the earth was oversized

- perfectly safe, but not to saleable standards.

It was a bitch to fit!

SteveW