DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad – Kitchen Fitters

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Early this week we were called by a client who required an ‘emergency’ gas hob and electric oven swap. The old appliances were old, partially broken and in pretty rough shape. When we arrived it was mere seconds before we had to make the homeowner aware that we couldn’t install the gas hob or the electric oven due to safety issues.

The hob was the first safety issue.  The PLASTIC double light switch to the left and the PLATSIC switched fused spur unit to the right are too close to the burners. Although regulations state that there should be at least a 50mm gap from the side of the hob to any flammable surface the recommendation is 300mm.

The other main issue was the electric oven. Though only a fan assisted oven we noticed that there was no purpose built ventilation. When we removed the oven to see how everything was hooked up we discovered that the wiring for the hob, which was also incorrectly hooked up to the same 13amp switched fuse that controlled the oven, had been heated up to the point of melting and is now unsafe. The cable from the oven to the switched spur was of the correct high heat type but was showing signs of stress due to continual overheating.

Also noted was lack of gas isolation valve to the hob, the kitchen lighting (all of it) was connected somewhere to the 32 amp kitchen ring main with no step down fusing to the correct 5 or 6 amp rating.

We’ve scheduled a day to remove the old tile work and find out where everything is connected so that we can correct the electrical safety issues, repair the wiring and then we’ll install the hob and oven correctly.

ALWAYS make  sure  that your kitchen fitter is trained and is a member of a regulatory body. If they’re working on gas then they MUST be members of Gas Safe Register and if they are touching ANY electrics in your kitchen they MUST be members of NIC EIC or NAPIT or EAL. If they are not members of these groups then get rid.

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