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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.
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    Andrew Jewsbury:




    There may also be wizard circuitry which might be able to distinguish a pan from a spoon.



    The induction hob I have automatically detects the lack of a pan and switches the hob off - so a very large spoon may fool the system, but normally you'd be OK.

      - Andy.

     




    Ok, that sounds pretty safe. So lets say we have two induction hot plates that were left on through lack of activity next to each other on flexes and the cook decides to place one on top of each other, inverted.....

    What might happen then?


    Legh

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    Legh Richardson:


    Induction hobs may well be the way forward as there have been some mention of banning gas fired stoves for the future.




    When the technology is developed to sear a roti on an induction hob.


    No induction hob accessories currently exist that can successfully reproduce that flame grilled taste and feeling of a roti seared using a gas burner.


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    My dad did his National Service as a cook house corporal in the 1950’s his cooking is based on the thought that when it’s brown it’s cooked and when it black it’s ########.

    These days the advice is to “Go for gold”


    Regards cooker switches with a socket outlet, they are a traditional piece of equipment from a time when they were the only socket in the kitchen, carefully positioned above the cooker so that the flex of the appliance plugged in trailed across the hot plates and you couldn’t get to the switch when the chip pan was on fire. They are legacy items, but still serve a a purpose in that if the cooker circuit is on a different RCD to the kitchen socket circuit and there is a fault that trips the socket RCD there is still a socket in the kitchen that works.


    Life would go on without them, but we still keep fitting them.


    Andy
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    Yes I`ve seem cooker switches with or without a socket on board and they are fitted just above the rings as a scald device LOL
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    An electrician queried whether combined cooker switches with a FCU instead of a socket are commercially available.
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    I have seen an old, possibly pre-war cooker switch that incorporated a changeover switch labelled "cooker" and "washing machine" These used to be popular in premises with a restricted supply of 40 amps.

    I found one in use fairly recently, and AFAIK it is still in use to limit maximum demand. The "washing machine" circuit is used for the milking machine on a farm. The lights dim alarmingly on use of either the cooker or the milking machine, suggesting simultaneous use would be unwise. The milking machine is three phase and connected via a home made rotary converter. input current about 40 amps.
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    I should dig out my encyclopaedia of electrical engineering dating to the 1930s. I am 99% certain it describes a combined cooker control switch and socket outlet 'for the convenient use of an electric kettle'
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    I can’t remember any complaints about having a cooker switch with a docket built into it.


    What people don’t like is the the cooker switch rocker is either red or orange even when they are paying for an expensive fancy fitting.


     Andy Betteridge
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    Schneider do ones with a white switch for both socket and cooker in their Lisse range (our default where the customer asks for 'normal white')

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