Following on from this thread yesterday, I have now had a look at it and had a chat with my electrician mate and have both come to the comclusion that the oven, whilst it is fixable, is not really cost effective to do so. So, I intend to buy a new one and fit it myself.

The questions I ask is has anyone fittind a built in oven themselves? Was is difficult? Am I likely to fry myself?

Bump, come on STW, someone must have done this!!!

is it really more cost effective to replace the whole oven rather than the element. I hate to see white goods getting thrown away when so much energy goes into making them.

Ive put a new belt on my dryer, PCB in the dishwasher and element in an oven.

Built in ovens arent that difficult to install. The form factor should be standardised. Fittings and mounting my be specific, but nothing a hairy-arsed man with a drill and screwdriver cant do.

Maybe check that the cable capacity is OK if you go for something a bit special. Nowadays, ovens are very efficient and dont need massive cables and 30Amp fuses as even big ones are rated fine on 13A circuits now.

Very easy to fit.

Shape and dimensions are standard. Just slide out the old one and slide in the new one. The securing screw holes may have different centres so you may have to drill 4/6 new ones. Make sure you have a minimum 5mm gap between the unit housing the oven and the next floor unit. The power rating of a modern electric oven (assuming gas hob) is around 2.2-2.5 kW. No problem for a standard 13A switched socket.

Plug in and cook!

This does depend on if there is a 3 pin plug for the oven or whether you have to fit your own cabling. This can be a drag as trying to connect the cable into an outlet plate along with the cable from the hob (if the hob is electric) can be a fiddle and i have seen these badly connected and in some cases loose connections under load have failed. Its worth checking to see what outlets are in place behind the oven and then make the decision on whether you want to proceed. There may even be some wall chasing involved as some ovens connect straight into the cooker switch which may be much higher up the wall……then again it could be a doddle!

tbh it depends single oven is generally a 13 amp supply so can use a standard socket and is easily diy able, doubles use a higher load and you will need to know what the incoming feed is to know what needs to be done

Thanks all. It is a single electric oven, gas hob so that won’t affect things.

There is a oven switch higher up on the wall, does this mean I have some electrical fun and games to contend with?

If there is an electric hob then i would bet there is just one outlet plate behind the oven so you would really need to match the cable size to match the hob tails and the MCB rating. This will no doubt require a 6mm which can as i said be a pain to double up in the outlet.

If you don’t have a skirting level double switched socket then you do have some work to do. You’ll have to chase the wall out up to the cooker switch and wire up the new oven and the hob ignition to the corresponding terminals in the switch. How was the previous oven powered??

piece of cake.. if your replacing a built in electrcic oven even easier.. usually held in by 4 – 6 screws that you can see as you open the oven door just remove these and pull firmly and slowly, bear in mind that it will be still wired in but whoever fitted it just did the reverse so there should be plenty of cable there. re fitting is just the reverse wire it it nice and neat use choc blok and then insulate that and you ll be okay the only issue you may have is there are slight differences in height and width but not something someone with two brain cells cant solve. whats for tea?

It is replacing electric with electric so I am hoping it will be a simple job. I may pull the old one out tonight so see how it is wired up at the moment.

Is there any reason I can’t reuse the wiring the is in the back of the existing unit on the new one?

totalshell, tariflette is I can get the bugger working.

there should be a cable at the back of the existing cooker which is controlled from the cooker switch you mention. This may go directly into the back of the existing cooker or it may go to a white box and then on to the cooker.

*If it goes to the white box, all you have to do is AFTER SWITCHING OFF the COOKER SWITCH AND THE CIRCUIT BREAKER or REMOVE THE FUSE at the fuseboard. Then get yourself a single socket and remove the plate and put what is likely to be 6mm2 into the appropriate connections, there should be sufficient space to slip the single socket in behind the new cooker and slide the cooker back.

If the existing cable goes directly into the present cooker then get a socket and a deep single surface pattress and go through the same stages as above.

It can be a bit of a struggle to get the 6mm2 cable into the housing but it is doable.

The reason you have to put the single socket in is so that the oven is fused down to the 13A, if it wasnt there and you connect directly to the existing cooker supply it will more than likely be at 30/32A.

I would use the brand MK as the terminals are bigger and are generally of a better quality. IMHO

* If you are competent

** I happen not to live in the England shire so have absolutely no knolwedge/understanding how the part P regs affect you, that is also assuming that you do live in England

EDIT

even after what you have said about the current one not being repaired it should be a hell of a lot easier and les cost than what you are about to do. just my opinion loikes 🙂

Job done…..

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/bosch-built-oven-with-two-year-guarantee-brushed-steel-239-41-delivered-from-com/984058

Some very contradictory advice above. Some is right, some wrong, some confused. Ask your mate who is a sparky if it isn’t a straight swap plug’n’play. Don’t go changing fuse / MCB ratings or cable sizes if you don’t know exactly what you are doing.

is it really more cost effective to replace the whole oven rather than the element. I hate to see white goods getting thrown away when so much energy goes into making them.

Just. I guess the overheads of shops keeping a huge stock of spares mean they are more expensive than you would have thought to look at them.

I thought my oven was getting a bit tired and then it stopped, a quick twiddle revealed both elements were gone (i thought it was slow!) and the replacement parts even if i did it myself was about £30 less than a brand new one of equivalent spec/quality.

….Which was pretty easy to fit in the end since I went for the same spec, just disconnected one and put the other in. I may have used a drill for about 20 seconds to secure it into the fitted kitchen unit, otherwise it was all screwdrivers and done in a jiffy.

When the big casting on the back of my £200 washing machine cracked up that was also almost exactly the same price as a whole new one since it only comes riveted to the drum. Again, i could have fixed it but as soon as the next thing broke on it i would have spent more on fixing it than it cost to buy. 😕

Good point 49er I made the assumption it was a dedicated cooker supply.

Damn my poor reading skills