Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => The Knowledge => OT Knowledge => Topic started by: velosam on 03 May, 2019, 10:34:04 am
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I need to remove my old oven as I have managed to buy one on a trade in deal.
How difficult is it to remove the old oven and how would I make sure it was safe?
thanks
sam
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A few more details are needed.
Gas? Electric? Other?
Built in? Free standing?
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Also, how old?
I recently exchanged my 20+ yo cooker for my sister's 3yo one (she was having a ceramic hob fitted).
The old cooker was ~ twice the weight of the new one. Two of us struggled to move it.
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If it is a cabinet housing the opening size may be slightly different and have to be amended. I got over this last time by inserting a new shelf on blocks in reducing the opening size and obtaining a piece of black perpsex from a local signage company, then having it cut to size, drilled, countersunk and chamfered etc in a joiners shop.
If so mounted and a double oven, sliding out the old one is a two person job really as above.
Freestanding oven have to be secured to the wall nowadays, existing gas bayonet fittings are a no no for new cookers.
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Freestanding oven have to be secured to the wall nowadays,
Why ? I can see a reason if its a gas cooker but electric ?
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Sorry, is a Gas regs requirement but would recommend for electric as well to prevent appliance tipping over. Screwfix sell kits for less than £3.
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It's ridiculous regs as usual. My 100kg plus range cooker needs securing to the wall. I doubt I could pull it over if I climbed on it.
If it's gas remember
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I assume this is "secured to the wall" in the safety chain that's shorter than the gas pipe sense? In which case, eminently sensible and no drama.
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In our last house we had a range cooker / boiler. I don't know what it weighed but the latest version is 395 kg.
I suppose that strapping it to the wall of the timber-framed house would have helped to keep the wall in place in case of an explosion or a hurricane.
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I assume this is "secured to the wall" in the safety chain that's shorter than the gas pipe sense? In which case, eminently sensible and no drama.
Which I think has been a thing for many years.
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It’s a single gas oven about 20 years old
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It should have a fixed pipe on the wall, and a flexible hose on the stove with a push and twist bayonet fitting on the end, a bit like a light bulb fitting. Disconnecting it - push, turn, pull - will seal the pipe on the wall. It may also have an electrical connection for lights, timer etc.
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Thanks will have a go at sliding it out -
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I pulled out the oven.
The issue is more with the electrical fittings as the unit is wired in.
The gas has a separate tap and I can probably pull those out.
I am assuming that if I am fitting an electric oven and stuff I can leave the gas pipe there with the tap off?
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Yes you can leave it.
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How difficult is it to remove the old oven and how would I make sure it was safe?
As far as I am aware it's pretty much illegal these days to work on electrics or gas like this without being a Corgi* registered gas-person or the equivalent registered electrician's body
You may not care about that of course, but your insurance company might etc. later on, or if you're trying to sell the house or whatever.
Just saying ;). I appreciate this might not be the most popular option in this forum - i.e. to get someone in.
* if they still call it that.
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I think what was CORGI became GasSafe.
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How difficult is it to remove the old oven and how would I make sure it was safe?
As far as I am aware it's pretty much illegal these days to work on electrics or gas like this without being a Corgi* registered gas-person or the equivalent registered electrician's body
You may not care about that of course, but your insurance company might etc. later on, or if you're trying to sell the house or whatever.
Just saying ;). I appreciate this might not be the most popular option in this forum - i.e. to get someone in.
* if they still call it that.
The gas connection will be a safe-break seal type, can just be left. And as long as all you’re doing is connecting a new oven to an existing junction box / switch you’re all legal. Running new supplies in from the consumer unit needs (legally at least) a registered professional.
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I think what was CORGI became GasSafe.
It's worse than that, it's a different organisation that won the contract for being in charge of gas safety for a bit. Because obviously what the public needs is to learn a new name for approved gas fitters.
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Yes I never understood the total lack of understanding of the power of branding and its importance (in terms of safety) of fixing a name in the mind of the public, exhibited by the people who run these things. People just get used to the idea that a gas fitter/installer needs to be Corgi registered and how to check this and then they change the bloody thing. And.... personally I would want the gas supply capped, but that's me.
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How difficult is it to remove the old oven and how would I make sure it was safe?
As far as I am aware it's pretty much illegal these days to work on [...] gas like this without being a Corgi* registered gas-person
AIUI, the bayonet gas fittings are specifically designed to let any muppet disconnect and reconnect appliances without any need to GALMI1.
More to the point, the regs about needing GasSafe registration only apply if you're working on gas for money - the only legal requirement to work on gas on your own behalf or as a favour to someone is that you must be 'competent.'
(Of course, the legislation doesn't do anything so helpful as define the term 'competent,' and it's only likely to be tested after the fact: if your new boiler installation has taken out half the street, it's quite probable that the courts will find you didn't meet the test. That said, it's probably a plausible rule of thumb that if you're asking for gas safety tips on a cycling forum, you should assume that you don't clear the bar.)
1: Get A Little Man In. A classist, sexist acronym that deserves a wider audience.
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Turn the gas off at the meter, unplug the bayonet fitting, turn the gas on, check for leaks with washing-up liquid (even small amounts of leaking gas will form bubbles), and if in doubt turn the gas back off and phone a gas man...
Electrickery's easier, as it tends not to leak out of stuff. If the oven's hard-wired, turn the power off, disconnect the cable from the isolator switch, maybe fit a grommet or something to fill the hole if live stuff would otherwise be exposed, job done. No need for any kind of certification to replace an existing fitting, and disconnecting an oven surely qualifies.
But sure, if any of this seems scary, GAMI.
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It depends on the amperage of the new oven - if it’s a cheapo 2000W single oven it ought to work fine with whatever’s there*. If it’s a monster double oven with self cleaning that draws lots o’amps then you kind of need someone that knows what they’re doing.
(* assuming whatever’s there was competently installed - which is a very big if)
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Yes, that's true. But the question was about removing one.
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I thought all UK cooker circuits were installed as a dedicated 32 Amp circuit using 6mm cable and a remote on/off switch above the counter top ? I know some cookers might not need that but the point is the next one might. You can have a normal 13 amp socket on this circuit as well to plug a cooker in that uses a 13 amp plug.
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My kitchen (installed by MFI in 2005 based on the paperwork we got when we bought the flat in 2007) has a single oven on a normal 13A plug that connects in to a normal socket. No separate isolation switch. I think it's on the same ring as the rest of the kitchen (so that includes a toaster, kettle, microwave, dishwasher, washing machine, fridge/freezer). In 2005 this was all within the regs I guess (who knows, MFI might have used dodgy installers).
I replaced the oven a few years ago, like for like, and wired it in to a plug in exactly the same way. I made sure I selected an oven that was rated at less than 13A because of this obviously.
The above (and the fact that the flat is wired with only 4 circuits, no RCDs/etc) is the main reason I want to get the place rewired[1], but the electricians we've had look at it have said that there's no urgent need to get it done, the cables themselves are in good shape (i.e. not ancient cotton covered things that get chewed by rats), the fuses are correct and the loads on each of the circuits aren't anywhere near capacity.
1. We're sticking money away for this each month as the rewiring itself is cheap compared to the redecoration costs (especially with replacement carpets, and other 'upgrades' that it would make sense to do at the same time).
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Turn the gas off at the meter, unplug the bayonet fitting, turn the gas on, check for leaks with washing-up liquid (even small amounts of leaking gas will form bubbles), and if in doubt turn the gas back off and phone a gas man...
If there's a leak you'll probably smell it - assuming a fully functioning sense of smell of course. Recently I got home, opened the front door, and immediately said "gas" to my wife. We have no gas inside the house. The leak was from a small perforation* of the (externally run) gas supply pipe to the (externally housed) boiler. The pipe runs under the cill of the back door, which is 30ft from the front. I was amazed at how pungent the smell was.
*The plumber who installed the boiler about 10 years ago had run the condensate pipe out along the incoming gas line, and terminated it just above ground level. The condensate had over the years corroded the gas pipe, leading the the pinhole leak.
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If there's a leak you'll probably smell it - assuming a fully functioning sense of smell of course. Recently I got home, opened the front door, and immediately said "gas" to my wife. We have no gas inside the house. The leak was from a small perforation* of the (externally run) gas supply pipe to the (externally housed) boiler. The pipe runs under the cill of the back door, which is 30ft from the front. I was amazed at how pungent the smell was.
I spent much of my childhood telling my grandparents that there was a gas leak in their pantry. "Nonsense," they'd say "there's no gas in this house.". Apart from the capped-off piping in the pantry where the gas meter used to be, of course.
Eventually a man smelled it, and they got the gas board in to sort it out.
I trust my sense of smell, but experience has taught me not to trust other people's.