DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad Electricians

Another week and yet another electrical issue located during a Periodic Inspection.  This is the kind of issue we see on  regular basis. When we removed the oven to test the cooker circuit we found two connections to a single spur which under certain circumstances would be correct. Under this circumstance however all is not good, correct or safe.

[Show as slideshow]

These photos highlight the issue of two appliances with different current requirements hooked up incorrectly. What is correct is that the electric hob is wired with a 6mmT&E cable to the cooker connection point. That’s it! Note the LARGE hole that has been cut into the connection cover and that the earth had not been properly sleeved!

The built under oven is a fan assist unit and requires a hookup to a 13amp supply. This is where problems really begin with this installation. The circuit breaker is rated at 32amp which is correct for the hob but not correct for the cooker. The cooker requirement is 13 amp and therefore that is what it should be.  Why the big deal over this?

The big deal is that if a short circuit does happen within the cooker the fuse is double the amperage it should be. So when the fuse should go BANG it doesn’t! That in turn causes metal to vapourise, plastic to burn and the very good possibility that the live side of the circuit could energise the cooker housing. Not good for your heart or your house and in this case it’s a rental property.  As I’ve said before “you wouldn’t want to injure a tenant would you?”

The solution here was to remove the oven from the cooker circuit and plug it in via a 13amp plug instead. The connection cover was easy enough to replace and of course we also placed an earth shield over the exposed earth cable. We tested the circuit and with everything looking safe we put it all back together.

Related Posts

1. Hob and Double Oven Dissapointment
2. Danger of the Week Award – Cowboy Kitchen Fitters
3. Gas Hob and Oven Replacement

Bad – Kitchen Fitters

So our job was to locate the hidden cable that what was feeding the fan, the fluorescent light, the cooker spur and the hob from the 32 amp kitchen circuit. We started by isolating the kitchen circuit and removing the  light switch and spur covers so that we could visually trace the cables back from where they were coming from. What we found as we kept digging at the wall is the mess pictured below.

[Show as slideshow]

Fortunately we found a ring main which came straight down from the ceiling directly behind the hob. Unfortunately we then found the hidden junction box behind which was hiding behind the tiles and a layer of plaster. From there the cables ran over to the 13 amp switched fused spur via a metal back box with no grommets to protect the cable. From the spur ran three low heat flexi cables ran back out through the metal back box again with no grommets. Two of the cables ran back towards the hidden junction box and beyond to feed the double light switch which in turn controlled the fan and light. The other flexi cable, again with no grommet, ran down through the plaster to feed the electric cooker. It turns out that the hob wasn’t run off the mains but rather a hidden battery pack behind a shelf.

We stripped out all of the electrics, re-routed the ring main cables away from the middle of the fake chimney breast and then inserted three junction boxes into the ring main. We then set up three separate switched fused spurs to divide the power with the correctly sized fuses for each leg. You can see the new spurs in the cupboard to the right. The spurs were divided into:

1. A 3amp spur for the gas hob. Gas hobs almost always require only a 3amp fuse. A fuse larger than 3 amp will cause a lot of damage to the hob if there is ever a short circuit. For the sake of a few pence you can buying yourself a new hob.
2. A 5amp spur for the light and extractor fan. Again, the light and fan use very little power so a 5 amp is what should be in place. We moved the light switches to another location which cannot be seen in the photo.
3. A 13 amp spur or the cooker. The oven was correctly hooked up to a switched 13 amp spur however it was also feeding everything else under the sun at a fuse rating that was only correct for the oven.

We also removed the old appliances and the poorly mounted hob, work surface and shelf that the cooker was sitting on. We rebuilt a brick plinth for the cooker and replaced the worksurface with a butcher block unit. We completed everything in just over a day and the system is now safe and looks good.

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.

Related Posts

1. Gas Hob Switch Plate Heater Horror
2. Kitchen Fitters Unsafe Electrical PLUS
3. Danger of the Week Award – Cowboy Electrician

Bad – Kitchen Fitters

[Show as slideshow]

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.

Related Posts

1. Danger of the Week Award – Cowboy Kitchen Fitters
2. Hob and Double Oven Dissapointment
3. Danger of the Week Award – Cowboy Cooker Fitters

If you had to place poor workmanship into only three categories they would these:

1. Johnny Cut Corners – who gets the job done faster than humanly possible gets the cash and gets out usually with poor and unsafe end results
2. Harry Houdini – who starts the job with vigour but then has lots of excuses for not showing up until one day ‘poof’ – like magic they disappear
3. Bite Off More Than They Can Chew Charlie – who start a job larger than they can cope with and in many cases won’t stop no matter what even when unqualified to undertake certain aspects of the job. These guys sometimes turn into Houdinis late in the job.

The latter is the most dangerous from what we see on a day-to-day basis. The unqualified builder, kitchen fitter, bricky or any trades person who modifies the fabric of the property without the knowledge or a clear understanding of what they’re doing and without the TEST equipment to check their work and without a thought to the homeowners, neighbours, apprentices or even themselves is the most dangerous person out there. Although a lot of what we see on a daily basis are dangerous with a small ‘d’ many of the jobs we see are DANGEROUS with a capital ‘D.’

The 2008 Cowboy Of The Year Award from February of this year is just such a job and the worst in the sense of a dangerous trap set for the homeowner so that if the conditions were just right – BANG! Someone was going to get very hurt! The original post ( see original here ) for the winner was from February of 2008 and was a cowboy kitchen fitter.

A kitchen fitter had already replaced laminated work surfaces with granite and had disconnected the old hob in order to do the work. When queried by the home owner about disconnecting the gas appliances he told the home owner that he was allowed to disconnect the old hob but wasn’t CORGI Registered so could not install the new one.

Despite the fact that the counter top bloke couldn’t check the pipework for leaks (tightness test) before they started they most certainly couldn’t check for leaks after they removed the appliance. Also, you cannot leave an open gas pipe such as the one shown in the first photo! It must be capped using an approved fitting before leaving the site. Mr. Counter Top Installer left an open gas pipe for over a week with no cap or means of isolation except the main gas valve into the property which hadn’t been checked for leaks!

[Show as slideshow]

Not a good scenario at all. Dangerous gas and electrics all in one.

WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!!!!! If you’re not CORGI Registered you can’t touch the gas – PERIOD! If you’re not Part-P you can’t touch electrics in a kitchen.  This is why! This is the perfect example of why you want a time served licensed gas fitter and/or electrician in your house.

Related Posts

1. Danger of the Week Award – Cowboy Kitchen Fitters
2. Danger of the Week Award – Cowboy Gas Fitter
3. Danger of the Week Award – Cowboy Electrics

Bad DIY Gas and Electrics

[Show as slideshow]

When working on your own homes do like the professionals do.  Always use qualified people to get the work done (Gas Safe Register, NIC EIC, FENSA, etc.). If you’re unsure about something ask somebody that knows. Don’t ask your mate who is handy with a screwdriver. Just because your old cooker was hooked up with a flexible gas hose doesn’t necessarily mean that you can hook up anything else that way. The building regulations are clear and the manufacturers installation book that comes with the appliance is the final say. If it says you can use a gas home then you can use a gas hose. If it says that you cannot then you cannot!

As for electrics there is no reason why a home owner cannot disconnect and reconnect a cooker cable. Just watch what you’re doing and connect things up the right way around. As always, the original hookup may have been wrong so always check the work that the previous person did; it may be wrong! Stupid mistakes like leaving an opening in the back box can lead to really dangerous situations and dead people.

Related Posts

1. I’ve Heard Of A Double Oven…
2. Gas Hob and Oven Replacement
3. Electric Oven & Hob To Range Cooker

Date: Feb 2009

Description: Another kitchen and another set of problems to sort out. The job was to replace an electric double oven with same and swap a gas hob with a new gas hob. The owners also wanted to add an extractor unit at the same time. We found that the original housing that the cooker sat in was out of square and out of plumb so we had to remove the existing shelves which were pinned in place and adjust them to level. Also the electrical connections were incorrect and we sorted out those issues as well. The hob too was no picnic. The new hob did not fit the cutout from the original hob. The original cutout was not square and was poorly done. We cleaned up the cutout and were ready to mount the hob. But first we had to sort out the old gas connection. The previous hob was installed with a flexible cooker hose and as with most hobs they must be connected with a solid connection unless the manufactiurer states otherwise. We ran a new copper feed with an isolator and quickly finished the hookup and testing. This hob has the added safety feature of a flame failure device. If the flame goes out for any reason such as a pot boiling over the gas will turn of withing a few seconds. Older devices would just continue pumping gas into the room! Last but not least was the extractor unit. Once mounted on the wall at the correct height for a gas hob (750mm for those who care) we stitch drilled through the inner and outer brickwork and connected the flexible pipe work and added the outside vent cover. Job done!

Related Posts

1. Gas Hob to Electric Induction Hob
2. Built in cooker, hob and extractor replacement
3. Hob and Double Oven Dissapointment

Date: Jan 2009

Description: We were called to see if an electric hob could be installed into a stone worktop without the need for cutting the opening any larger. Most times it is an easy swap but sometimes new hobs do not always fit the old cutout and require some trimming. It really all depends upon the manufacturers. Inthis case we were all lucky and the electric induction hob fit perfectly into the opening left over by the gas hob. We of course had to cap off the gas to make it safe but the old cooker point was feeding an electric wine cooler. We had to modify the feed to allow for an isolator for the new hob and a plug sockets fused at the correct amperage for the cooler. Once completed the hob looks like it was meant to be there. Fab!

Related Posts

1. Electric Cooker & Hob To Mixed Gas & Electric
2. Electric Oven & Hob To Range Cooker
3. Built in cooker, hob and extractor replacement

Date: Jan 2009

Description:  The remit for this job was to replace the electric built under oven with a like-for-like and to replace the electric hob with a gas hob. Unfortunately they didn’t have a gas pipe to the kitchen. We were able, after some time, to find an old hatch with which to gain access to under the kitchen where we were able to run new pipe work behind the kitchen units without having to dismantle the kitchen. We hooked the gas up via a pipe which ran through the garage next door to the kitchen and then  installed the new appliances. Once complete we put back the hatch, underlay and re-tensioned the carpets.

Related Posts

1. Built in cooker, hob and extractor replacement
2. Electric Oven & Hob To Range Cooker
3. Built in electric cooker and hob install

Bad Gas Fitters

…but half an oven is ridiculous!

When called to replace an oven and hob with a range cooker the last thing we expected to see was a hob mounted in a section of a work surface, un-fastened to the rest of the work surfaces nor to the wall and all of that was perched atop an old free standing cooker which had the top surface removed. The gas valves and mechanisms were still fully functional as well!

[Show as slideshow]

Please don’t play with gas appliances at home! I can guarantee that these hook ups were not made by anybody with qualifications.

Related Posts

1. Gas Hob and Oven Replacement
2. Electric Oven & Hob To Range Cooker
3. Hob and Double Oven Dissapointment

Date: Jan 2009

Description: Our client was in desperate need of a new cooker and hob as the old ones were not only worn out but illegally installed and unsafe (previously a Cowboy of the Week Award). She also wanted to add and extractor to the kitchen as the old one had stopped working some time ago and did not extract outside. As the kitchen is small the heat build up is overwhelming. She chose to have a range cooker added and after removing the old appliances and correcting some of the pipe work and electrical connections we installed the cooker. The extractor was a bit more work as we had to open a hole to the outside and get everything connected up and sealed tight. Once completed, as you can see, the kitchen took on a whole new look. The owner will be finishing the kitchen off with new tile work and some minor decorating.

Related Posts

1. Electric Oven & Hob To Range Cooker
2. Replace faulty cooker with new range cooker
3. Built in cooker, hob and extractor replacement