Cooker Wiring

[10monty]

I have just pulled my built in cooker out of its housing and found this little arrangement.
I have a cooker isolation swith above the worktop which is fed from a 45A fuse in the CU.
From this isolation switch I have a cable (not sure of size but it is fairly thick) that runs in the wall to the socet you see in picture 2.

All seem fine so far??

From there the bigger of the 2 cables goes to the electric hob and the other cable (which looks no bigger than 1.5mm/2.5mm, not sure??) goes to the fused outlet that the cooker flex comes from.

It just doesn't seem right to me that the hob should have this big, hefty cable while the oven itself is fed from a smaller one.

Obviously there is a fair bit of heat damage to the socket and the end of the cable (also no earth sleeving) but apart from that does it seem ok or do i need to get it sorted???

Thanks in advance.

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[ban-all-sheds]

It's the small cable from the outlet plate to the FCU that's the problem. Not because it's too small for the load - ovens use a lot less power than hobs, and many can just plug into a normal socket, but it is too small to be protected by the 45A fuse in the CU.

The FCU ought to be somewhere more accessible anyway.

And are you sure the heat damage is external, i.e. from the oven, and not from overheating cables? What's it like inside the FCU?

 

[10monty]

Just took the outlet plate off and it is immaculate behind it, not a mark on it.

What cable do you suggest I use from the FCU to the outlet plate.

Are you saying that the cable will burn out before it trips the fuse if there is a problem???

Trouble with moving the FCU is the length of flex from the oven, if I move it further away I won't be able to pull the cooker out fully.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Just took the outlet plate off and it is immaculate behind it, not a mark on it.

What cable do you suggest I use from the FCU to the outlet plate.

The same size as the one that supplies the outlet plate.

Are you saying that the cable will burn out before it trips the fuse if there is a problem???

It could do. Unlikely, but why take the risk?

Trouble with moving the FCU is the length of flex from the oven, if I move it further away I won't be able to pull the cooker out fully.

Then move the FCU, and take the outgoing cable from that to a flex outlet plate where the FCU currently is.

But I just thought - is the cooker outlet plate supplied directly from the CU, or does it go

[CU]----[Cooker Switch]---[Outlet Plate]

?

 

[10monty]

Just took the outlet plate off and it is immaculate behind it, not a mark on it.

What cable do you suggest I use from the FCU to the outlet plate.

The same size as the one that supplies the outlet plate.

Ok that makes sense, so a 13 amp fuse in the FCU will blow before it causes any damage

Are you saying that the cable will burn out before it trips the fuse if there is a problem???

It could do. Unlikely, but why take the risk?

Trouble with moving the FCU is the length of flex from the oven, if I move it further away I won't be able to pull the cooker out fully.

Then move the FCU, and take the outgoing cable from that to a flex outlet plate where the FCU currently is.

But I just thought - is the cooker outlet plate supplied directly from the CU, or does it go

[CU]----[Cooker Switch]---[Outlet Plate]

?

Yes it does. There is a cooker plate approx. 2 feet above the worktop. From there it goes to the outlet plate then onto the FCU

 

[ban-all-sheds]

OK, so it will isolate the oven as well as the hob. No real need to move the FCU, apart from the hassle of access to the fuse if it goes, and maybe nothing should be there anyway because of the heat. Could you move it lower, so that it's not in the hottest part of the space?