Posted by
The one and only aspect of my job that I dislike is when I have to tell a client that the work they want doing cannot be completed because previous work was substandard. Today I was supposed to have replaced a gas hob and built in electric double oven with two new appliances. I arrived and did my safety checks to the gas but could not locate a circuit for the cooker. After a brief discussion with the homeowner I pressed and removed the built in oven to see what lay behind. Unfortunately is was bad news.What lay behind was dissapointing. The hob didn’t look bad other than the pipe work was unclipped and the fuse was too 13amp instead of the 3amp it should have been. The double oven however was a different story. This double oven required its own circuit that should have had an isolator switch and would have been fed from its own feed from the consumer unit. Instead, the kitchen fitter removed the isolator switch that already existed in the kitchen, tiled over it and then wired the double oven to a plug containing a 13amp fuse! The situation was unsafe and was already causing nusance tripping of the Mini Circuit Breaker (MCB).
The original 6mm Twin & Earth wiring could not be located and was probably cut out by the fitters. The circuit at the consumer unit could not be located either so it was hard decision time. I could add a fan assist single cooker or a gas cooker but not the double electric without running a new circuit. As the basement was finished and they didn’t want to ceiling damaged it was decided to return the elecctric cooker and purchase a gas cooker. I shall return.
The hob removal and reinstallation went well although there were a couple of issues. The hob did have a gas isolator but the olives were coated in water paste. It should never be necessary to coat an olive but if you need to do it at least use gas safe products such as gas ptfe. The pipe work to the hob was only being supported by the connection to the hob and once disconnected slipped through the floor! It has since been sorted out. Also, the fuse to the hob was incorrectly sized at 13amp. That would have caused a lot of damage to the electrics in the hob had there been any electrical issue. It should have been 3amp as specified by the manufacturer.
As I’ve already presented the Cowboy of the Week Award this week look for this fitter to be awarded next weeks award for not understanding the first thing about gas or electrics but sees fit to work with both utilities.