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Electric cooker switches

Arran Cameron
I hope that this doesn't come across as a daft question...


Why do most electric cooker switches have an in-built socket? Do analogous cooker switches exist in other countries that use different types of mains sockets?


I used to think that the socket was for plugging in a gas cooker electric ignition, but there is no real reason for having a separate circuit from the ring main for this.
  • 0
    Just to clarify.

    Yes a 13A socket not 5A for kettle was incorporated but due thought given to diversity and say a 10A kettle will only be on for a few minutes at a time then 5A was allowing for diversity. It seems reasonable to me. But washer/dryer no not really if you are running a potentially 13KW cooker
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    David Strachan:

    I`ve always understood it was for occasional use of a kettle. At a time when sockets were few, i.e. one per household or one on ground floor and one on first floor. It made sense to fit this scoket by incorporating it to a cooker circuit. That`s why we diversify the kettle to 5amp because it aint running for long.


    Now a washer or dryer is a whole new ball of wax and best not allowed.




    A cooker switch with an in-built 5A socket for a kettle might have been acceptable in the mid 20th century, but I find cooker switches with in-built 13A sockets where the socket can be used at the same time as the cooker as a very dubious design. I have never seen a cooker switch designed in a way that enables either the cooker or the socket to be switched on, but not both at the same time. 



     

  • 0

    Martin Hutson:

    Would love to see a BS standard quick connector plug developed to be supplied with new cookers ...




    Time was you had to get an engineer in to connect a new gas cooker, but then they introduced a bayonet fitting. If gas, why not leccy?


    Of course, there is no reason why a Commando socket should not be used.

  • 0
    A 13amp socket on a cooker control unit should be protected by a 30mA/40/msec RCD. Now on a new wire installation, I had the misfortune being asked to find out why a mains RCD was sometimes tripping, found out the cooker was sometimes causing this tripping 

     Why did the NICEIC contractor (they are the only ones that can do a council grant for a new installation) not replace the old cooker unit with a new one without the integrated 13amp socket, well fussy woman would not let them touch the kitchen tiles it must have been the solution protect all with 30mA RCD. The old 7/.062 red and black cable still in place, if they were saving money I would at least sleeved the cables brown and blue. In between the years, if supply being TT protection was by voltage-operated trip and then to more sensitive current operated trip, all socket circuits were 30mA protected and cooker 100mA.

    Not now but then If it was TNCS you could fit no RCD for cooker circuit. nowadays ultra sensitive RCD even has to be fitted on all lighting circuits.
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    Would love to see a BS standard quick connector plug developed to be supplied with new cookers and The corresponding socket in the wall. The state of the cooker wiring in a lot of homes leaves a lot to be desired and think there’s a need for this. It would work a bit like a miniature version of the electric vehicle charging cable. I think with the new modern double ovens that well over 10 amps must be being drawn and overheating cabling with poor connections must be an issue . I think before Brexit it could have been a European standard but l quess this is not going to happen now.
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    Are electric cooker switches with in-built sockets commonplace in other countries that use BS1363 or are they a peculiarly British phenomenon?
  • 0
    Agreed,

    I`ve always tried to disuade folk from having other than a plain switch, it is a throw back to times of no sockets.

    I don`t like to give folk the ability to plug in a washer or dryer.
  • 0
    Some people still want to see a BS1363 socket outlet attached to a cooker circuit isolation switch. It might be regarded as obsolete for very modern kitchen designs where the cooker and / or oven are connected exclusively to a radial circuit. particularly when the cooker/oven is fitted into a surround and the isolator is hidden in a similar cupboard or to one side.


    Legh
  • 0

    Clive Brittain:

     The cooker switch for a 30 Amp circuit for a new electric cooker would contain a socket outlet for a kettle





    Which is exactly what I use mine for... ?
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    Martin Hutson:

    I believe you now need a dedicated supply for a new cooker installation with its own circuit breaker at the fuse box. There’s also a switch in the kitchen to isolate it when removing or fitting a new cooker. I don’t know why a quick safe dedicated 32amp appliance  connector  wasn’t developed to stop people botching up this. I was horrified to see the original state of the cabling when my kitchen was replaced.




    Any appliance that consumes more than 13A cannot be powered from a ring main, and has to have its own dedicated supply. Ideally any fixed appliance consuming more than 10A should have its own dedicated supply. The modern practice is for houses to have a kitchen ring main separate from the downstairs ring main which somewhat reduces the requirement to have dedicated supplies for higher current appliances.


    An older neighbour replaced a full sized electric cooker when her kitchen was refurbished with a two element hob and small oven combo. It plugged into the socket on the cooker switch although this decision was probably more one of convenience of location rather than for technical reasons. Therefore I can't help wondering if that is actually the real reason for the socket. 



     

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