spur from cooker socket?

Dean123 · Post by **Dean123** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 9:50 am

I was busily smashing plaster of our bedroom the other day wasnt quite sure where the cables would run in our walls so switched the power to all the sockets off.

my wife came up with a hot cup of tea that she had made for me! a little confused as to how she had done this with no electricity i found that a random double socket (which our kettle uses) seems to be connected to the oven socket.

is this safe?

ive stoped using it for the time being

thanks

dewaltdisney · Post by **dewaltdisney** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 2:22 pm

It is usual to have a cooker isolator switch with a socket in a dual plate. Is this what you mean??

DWD

skiking · Post by **skiking** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 2:37 pm

I think he's suggesting a seperate socket spured off the cooker isolator. My view this is not right but I'm not an electrician so I wasnt going to comment!

BobProperty · Post by **BobProperty** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:48 pm

I'm assuming what skiking said, there's a double socket spurred off the cooker point. Now, I'm not an electrician, but I think if you do this, there should be a fuse (13a?) protecting the socket otherwise you have 2.5mm cable and a socket designed to take no more than 13a off a 6mm(?) cable protected by say a 45a fuse. That last bit being the big problem, anything wrong at the socket needs 50a-ish to blow the fuse.

sparkydude · Post by **sparkydude** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 8:07 pm

Unless the socket is incorporated into the cooker switch plate then this is a potentially dangerous situation . The socket should be run off the ring main of the house , and most definitley not off the cooker circuit. Cooker circuits are designed to feed an oven and hob , and not anything else.

Nick

Dean123 · Post by **Dean123** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 8:45 pm

sorry probably didnt give the best description to begin with.

Yes it appears that there is a double socket which is spured from the oven socket.

presumably if i just dont use this then that will be safe? the kitchen is reasonable functional (apart from some dodgy electrics) and id rather not start removing things without finishing what i have started upstairs.

thanks for your replys

Rich-Ando · Post by **Rich-Ando** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 12:44 pm

as sparkydude stated m8. you should not have a socket spurred off the cooker circuit.

a cooker circuit will be backed by a 30amp fuse/MCB and the cable will be 6mm which can easily handle the current. if somebody has spurred a single 2.5mm cable from the cooker circuit in theory you could overload the 2.5mm cable (would have to be an extreme and highly unlikely)

you should disconnect that socket from the cooker circuit as people that tend to do this make a bad job of the connections when they fit a 2.5mm cable with a 6mm cable as one is far smaller than the other they do not clamp properly together in the terminal and usually are loose.

a typical example of bad workmanship that gets hidden when somebody buys a house because no surveyor inspects electrical work properly.

uncle buck · Post by **uncle buck** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 11:10 pm

Whilst on this topic can someone explain why an incorporated socket is still allowed?

Fair enough when a 30 amp fuse was used to feed cooker circuits as this is the same value as a ring main….but cooker circuits are now quite often 45 amps.

Hinton Heating · Post by **Hinton Heating** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 11:18 pm

I would guess because the socket is built in, its ok, its the fact that spuring off in 2.5 mm cable will mean the cable could melt/arc before the 45amp protection device (fuse) blows.

sparkydude · Post by **sparkydude** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 7:14 am

A cooker switch with socket is allowed because the maximum assumed demand from the socket outlet is 13A , and by the regulations, there is diversity to be applied to cooking appliances as you are not going to be using all the rings all the time so never loading the circuit to its maximum.

Nick