Replacing single electric oven - Confused.

[AdamW]

which you can pick up in Maplin, or even (wash my mouth) a shed

I am never sure which makes me more ashamed, walking into B & Wickes-base, or admitting my geek tendencies by hanging about in Maplin...

Nope, definitely the sheds... Never feel entirely at ease in those places.

 

[mcalpinep]

Yep, got one of those ... - thanks for all your help. I'll take your advice re. checking everything when the spur is disconnected - I used to have my central heating boiler in the kitchen but has now been reloacted ... but the engineers kindly left the FCU (and most likely all the cabling with it) - I don't think I 'll have any problems wiring the cooker now....

 

[kendor]

I take it all I need is a circuit tester (which I have).

Don't know what you mean by "circuit tester". If it's a neon screwdriver, then it's better than nothing, but there are strongly held opinions amongst the glitterati here which are basically that it isn't a great deal better than nothing.

Something like this is better:

or just a basic multimeter, which you can pick up in Maplin, or even (wash my mouth) a shed, for £10-20, which if you think about it is less than the savings you're making by installing the oven yourself.

Don't forget - while the spur is disconnected, go round and find which sockets are on it, for future reference.

Those testers as above were bought as a job lot for the maintenance department at work and were found to be absolute c**p! they gave misleading readings suggesting the supply was much lower than it was, this fault was found to be the batteries, they were good quality alkalines but because they were a couple of months old they were making the testers give out bad readings and if a tester cannot be relied on if the batteries are only slightly worn out then they should join the ones bought, in the skip

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Did they ever get so bad that they indicated no voltage present when there was 230V?

Or hundreds of volts when there was 0V?

I had no idea about the battery problem, and it sounds appalling (what did the manufacturer say?), but my only observation was that something like that was better than a neon screwdriver.....

 

[securespark]

Pi**ing on the cable (a la Daily Mirror!!) would be a better indication than using a neon.......!

PS DON'T try this at home. Or anywhere else!!

 

[AdamW]

Pi**ing on the cable (a la Daily Mirror!!) would be a better indication than using a neon.......!

Nah, wouldn't work. The force of the wee-wee would wash away all the electricity. Don't you know nuffink?!

I jest, but my Dad told me when he was younger he lived with someone who insisted on putting those plastic caps into every unused outlet in the house "to stop the electricity coming out and electrocuting them"... but it was the 60s, perhaps they had a bad trip where they got attacked by rampaging electricity.

 

[kendor]

Did they ever get so bad that they indicated no voltage present when there was 230V?

Or hundreds of volts when there was 0V?

I had no idea about the battery problem, and it sounds appalling (what did the manufacturer say?), but my only observation was that something like that was better than a neon screwdriver.....

They would show the next value down ie 415v supply would show 240v, 240 would show 110! They were bought from RS.
Agreed anything is better than a neon screwdriver

 

[kendor]

Pi**ing on the cable (a la Daily Mirror!!) would be a better indication than using a neon.......!

Nah, wouldn't work. The force of the wee-wee would wash away all the electricity. Don't you know nuffink?!

I jest, but my Dad told me when he was younger he lived with someone who insisted on putting those plastic caps into every unused outlet in the house "to stop the electricity coming out and electrocuting them"... but it was the 60s, perhaps they had a bad trip where they got attacked by rampaging electricity.

Ah the good old days when electricity was electricity, not that namby pamby stuff you get these days where just blowing on an RCD will make it trip

 

[securespark]

Think about this one lads...(you may want to cover your groin with a protective hand before reading on)


My uncle & father p*ssed on an electric cattle fence many years ago....

Can't have done either of them any lasting harm as one has three kids and the other, one..