removing appliance plug

[jelly]

When i recieve my new fully integrated dishwasher the first thing i will do is chop of the plug and wire it into a FCU.Will this effect my warrenty.I'm sure its done all the time.

 

[il78]

Not 100%....but warranty companies being cr*p, they would use any excuse to get out of it........They may recommend that you call out a qualified electrician and install and issue a certificate for the job, I've heard of them doing this before......

Phone them to make sure, but get it in writing aswell........

 

[Big_Spark]

When i recieve my new fully integrated dishwasher the first thing i will do is chop of the plug and wire it into a FCU.Will this effect my warrenty.I'm sure its done all the time.

This will could invalidate the warranty, legally the plug, being moulded onto the appliance lead, is part of the appliance, and it could be argued successfully that you are modifying the applicance and thus in breach of the warranty as you are

1: Not qualified to do so.
2: Not authorised to do so.
3: Changing the appliances electrical designation in law.


The last point is due to the fact that when delievered the appliance is legally transportable equipment, not portable, but by hard wiring the apppliance into a spur, you are changing it to a fixed appliance, and you are not qualified to make this change of status and as such this will likely be cause to invalidate your warranty.


However there is a simple way around this problem, write to the manufacturer of the appliance and the issuer of the warranty, explain that you wish to have the aplliance hard wired into an appropriate fused connection unit and simply ask if, in their opinion, this would invalidate your warranty.

They will reply, and in all likelyhood they will say NO, once you have it in writing from them you have them by the gonads if they tried to invalidate the warranty for this reason, and for the cost of a stamp is well worth it.

 

[jelly]

Sorry i did not explain clearly.Yes i have a fused switch above worktop level which is connected to a connection unit below the worktop.The results the same in that i can't chop the plug of without voiding my warrenty.I thought it a good idea in that to change the fuse you don't have to pull the appliance out to get to the plug.
I have had it done in my extension although the switches are not fused.They are there just simply to turn the appliance on rather than at the plug socket which is hard to get to.
What about integrated appliances they are not designed to be portable.
I suppose the best option is to change the connection unit to a plug socket.Its just that its behind the appliance so may stick out too far and stop the appliance going back far enough.
I have got the same with my tumble dryer.The plug touches the hot back of the dryer is this potentially dangerous.Thats why i was going to put a connection unit which is flush to the wall.

 

[breezer]

when i worked for a well known white goods company (i serviced washing machines) if an appliance was wired via a spur you looked and walked out again.

reason being as an engineer, you are not authorised to disconect it, but you can not work on it while it is connected. (how do you know it is conected right way round in spur?)

Also before working on appliance, after un plugging it it had to be "meggered" (for the unknowing, basicaly you tested it to see if it had any faults, or potential faults) if it had these had to be rectified as well as why you were called out for in the first place.

after fixing fault, it had to be meggered again and the reading obtained written down on company paperwork.

footnote: in all appliances i repaired, can count on one hand number of times i looked and walked out.

its not "jobsworth" but "lifes worth", what if spur is wired wrong? also sometimes "supervispr would follow you to see is customer happy, woe betide you if you worked on one which had no plug

 

[jelly]

Isn't a cooker wired in this way though.Seems very much the same to me.

 

[breezer]

don't know never touched them, did go once to "assist" with an oven he unplugged it first

 

[Extrasolar]

Isn't a cooker wired in this way though.Seems very much the same to me.

Cooker's over a certain power are "designed" to be wired into a fixed point due to the fact that you wouldn't want to plug a 10kw (42A+) cooker into your ring circuit.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Yes, but the point is if you were a service engineer called to sort out a problem with a hard-wired hob or cooker, what would you do? Surely the same problems of authorisation to disconnect and safety referred to by Breezer would apply?

As you say, you cannot plug a cooker or hob in (unless you use one of those industrial plugs), so they are always hard-wired. If a cooker engineer can deal with that, why can't a washing machine one? Is it because a cooker engineer is really an electrician, but a washing machine engineer is really a plumber?

 

[jelly]

Never mind.I think the best thing for me is to mount a socket in a unit somewhere and connect the dishwasher to that.I will still keep the fused switch or should i change to a normal one.If i change to a normal switch what type am i looking for.It can't be a normal light switch.
I have got some wired like this in my extension but no sure what they are.
i.e what ampage should they be.

 

[breezer]

I was actually called "a home laundry engineer" you have to be trained how everything on all home laundry (by the company) works, how to take it apart ect etc so although part of a team, i do not know exactly what the others did, but as a HLE you had to write down the insulation resistance reading of all m/c when finished.

 

[Big_Spark]

Never mind.I think the best thing for me is to mount a socket in a unit somewhere and connect the dishwasher to that.I will still keep the fused switch or should i change to a normal one.If i change to a normal switch what type am i looking for.It can't be a normal light switch.
I have got some wired like this in my extension but no sure what they are.
i.e what ampage should they be.

Jelly, if you do wish to change it to a socket, you can happily leave the FCU controlling it, the only other switch you could use would be a 20A Double pole, but there is no need to change it.