Oven isolators in new kitchen

[JohnW2]

Although showers and cookers don't really need local isolators, immersion heaters do need local switching as no one in their right mind leaves them on 24/7.

Indeed, but that's most commonly done with a time switch (and ideally not a 'local' switch, if that means local to the immersion, behind all the towels and undies ), since the alternative requires either an infallible memory or an alarm clock!

Kind Regards, John

 

[JohnD]

Although showers and cookers don't really need local isolators, immersion heaters do need local switching as no one in their right mind leaves them on 24/7.

unless insulation has been invented.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Although showers and cookers don't really need local isolators, immersion heaters do need local switching as no one in their right mind leaves them on 24/7.

Not an isolator, in our sense, then; just a switch - like lights have.

 

[securespark]

Dunno what you lot is on about... I regularly see local iso's for IH's, often in the cupboard. Sometimes there is one in the kitchen too.
The local one means you can isolate easily to work on it. Boilers too often have this arrangement.

 

[JohnW2]

Dunno what you lot is on about... I regularly see local iso's for IH's, often in the cupboard. The local one means you can isolate easily to work on it.

I don't think that any of us (certainly not me) have said, or even implied, that local isolators are not very common - I'm sure that they are very common (all my immersions certainly have them, as well as a 'remote' means of control) but what I and others have said is that they are not really necessary for things like immersions on dedicated circuits.

The local one means you can isolate easily to work on it.

It does, but the need to 'work of an immersion' usually only arises once every few years, and on those rare occasions, the CU (or the 'remote' switch/isolator, if there is one) is usually no more than a dozen or two steps away.

One thing I would say is that if there is a hard-wired timeswitch, there probably an argument for having an isolator upstream of (and adjacent to) it, since some people might otherwise be tempted to rely on the timeswitch for 'isolation' whilst working on the , with obvious dangers.

Sometimes there is one in the kitchen too.

Yes, albeit less common. To have a 'remote' functional switch (which can also function as an 'isolator') makes a lot of sense if one wishes to routinely control the immersion manually.

Local switches/isolators are probably even more common with showers and cookers, but, since they are on dedicated circuits, the above comments again apply.

Boilers too often have this arrangement.

They do but, firstly, they are commonly not on dedicated circuits (so a separate means of isolation has some advantages) and, secondly, the 'isolator' is usually an FCU, installed because the boiler manufacturer 'required' 3A (or whatever) fusing.

As I have admitted in the past, my own electrical installation is absolutely strewn with 'isolators' of one sort or another (including a good few 'unnecessary FCUs') but very few of them are actually 'necessary', and I would't generally suggest/advise others to follow that example (and I probably wouldn't if I were re-wiring now).

Kind Regards, John

 

[sparkwright]

In a lifetime of working in properties, I can honestly say I have never seen a shower or a LARGE cooker (6.0 mm2 for example) without a double isolator fitted somewhere, however well hidden.

I'm pretty certain I've never seen even a single oven, plug-in style, without some form of accessible isolation.

 

[JohnW2]

In a lifetime of working in properties, I can honestly say I have never seen a shower or a LARGE cooker (6.0 mm2 for example) without a double isolator fitted somewhere, however well hidden.

Given my lack of experience/exposure, what I have or have not seen proves very little. However, I did say that local 'isolators' for immersions were "very common" (and that I had them myself), and that 'local' isolators for showers and cookers were "even more common" - and what that actually means that, in my limited experience, I (like you) have never seen any of those things without local isolators.

Whether or not they really serve a useful or necessary purpose is perhaps a different question. In the case of cookers, there is usually a need to have some sort of interface between the fixed wiring and the (usually flexible) cable of the cooker, and some sort of switch/isolation may often be the most obvious or convenient way of doing that - but in the case of showers, where the wiring is usually 'fixed all the way', that doesn't really apply.

I'm pretty certain I've never seen even a single oven, plug-in style, without some form of accessible isolation.

There we do differ. Even with my limited experience, I have certainly seen single ovens plugged into a socket (usually on the 'kitchen ring') behind the oven (without any other switch/isolator) - which I would not regard as "accessible".

Kind Regards, John

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Odd really, as soon as a shower or cooker plays up on this forum, the forum members will ask straight away for details on the isolator.

Because they are so common.

 

[EFLImpudence]

... and, frequently with showers, a/the problem.