should stainless steel cooker splashback be earthed?

[google.10.robessee]

hey,

we're just fitting a new kitchen, and intend to have a stainless steel splashback behind our dual fuel (gas hob/electric oven) cooker. There's a chimney style extractor hood above.

Should it be earth bonded? (by law and/or common sense)

I presume if I buy the manufacturers spalshback for =A3100 or so it will have an earth tag if bonding is required, but I was looking at those on ebay for about =A330 that i guess are pretty much home made and probably won't be so particular about regulations, if there are any.

anyone know?

cheers,

rob.

[Christian McArdle]

There's no legal requirement to bond it (unless it is part of the appliance). Given the large area, I would consider bonding it, if there is any conceivable way it could get an imperfect earth by some means. This could be if it touches a metal cased earthed appliance (including the cooker), or metal pipework. If it only conceivably touches insulated items, it may be safer to leave it unbonded.

Christian.

[Andrew Gabriel]

There's no requirement for earth bonding in a kitchen. Some people do it, and others don't. Personally I do within reach of the sink. It's not universally held to be a good idea though -- there are some failure modes where it makes things more lethal.

[Nick Atty]

I suppose Agas are another thing like this - ours doesn't do hot water any more (although it did, and still has the remains of some 1" pipe hanging around in the voids somewhere) and is connected to the gas supply. So it's probably "vaguely earthed".