ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades Company refused to connect cooker (range)

There are quite a few units like that on the British market these days, obviously intended for 3-ph operation in Continental Europe.

Some of the older British models were supplied in an export version too. There were four terminal positions on the chassis, but the U.K. version had a terminal fitted only to the L1 and N positions.

These are the ones where each circuit comes back to the terminal block with 1/4-inch connectors, so the export version would have been a simple matter of fitting extra terminals in the L2 and L3 positions and connecting the lugs to distribute the load appropriately.




[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 07-31-2005).]

Standards aside, that's just bad in my opinion. Documentation gets lost over the years, but we still need to know an important fact such as this.

We have the cooker requirement here too, be it a gas range, electric range or wood stove. Probably even a plug connected 2300W hot plate would be enough. Just any means of cooking.

I don't know about the rest of the world, but within the EU there is a very definite requirement that all appliances sold are marked with a plate that contains information about the voltage and maximum consumption in Watts (not the current draw in amps)

This is often INSIDE the appliance!

i.e. on ovens, it's commonly written inside the main oven door, either beside the seal or under the glass.

On washing machines, dryers and dishwashers it's also often printed inside the door of the appliance.

Not sure why this is now the norm rather than putting it on the back near the cable entry.

Paul,
Thanks very much for the advice!.
One saving grace I suppose is the fact that the switch-board is in the same wall as where the oven and cooktop will be installed.
I checked out the Oven and Cooktop and there is no ratings on it apart from the normal 220-250VAC markings, oh and the usual LNE terminal markings.
The installation instructions are just as next to useless, as they only state the dimensions that a builder would need to fit the things and they have been translated into English from some other language, rather poorly.
The only mention of Electrical parameters is this:
So much for the translation!.
The kitchen gets installed on Wednesday, so I'm going to go with 2 dedicated circuits.
A 32A circuit for the cooktop wired in 6mm2 and a 20A circuit wired in 2.5mm2, both having thier own isolators.

Yep, seen it there on a lot of the new ovens.

I've even seen a sticker next to it which says "Caution: Oven gets hot during use."

Paul,
Yes, I was expecting to see something like that on the inside of the oven door or near the cable inlet or anywhere else on the appliance.
I turned the thing upside-down and over and over, but B*gger me, I couldn't find a darn thing, all I found was Made in Spain.
I'd be interested to know if any other Electricians have ever copped this rubbish before?.
Free market?, don't make me laugh!.

Trumpy, the ovens I mentioned also displayed the Voltage requirements. But not the power consumption. The power consumption was only detailed in the manual.

What I can't decide is:

Do we lodge a complaint when we find things like this and advise customers to purchase compliant electrical products. Or do we turn a blind eye and let the market decide.

In NZ we have enjoyed electrical products which complied with AS NZS & European Standards up to now. But recently we have allowed the importation of cheaper "almost compliant" products.

How does the UK enforce the standards ?

What do you guys do when you discover a non compliant product ?

Ah... That probably explains it!

Senor, what for we need no steenkin' labels? The oven, she work just fine without them, no?


What would I do faced with such a situation?

First I'd grumble about the company not providing simple technical specifications which we need to run a circuit for the appliance (while at the same time -- as Alan pointed out -- they no doubt supply 20 volumes of standards booklets and other junk).

Then I'd probably try to find the power rating in all that documentation.

If that didn't work and we really needed to get the appliance in and working, I'd probably take the pragmatic approach and do a temporary hookup so that I could actually measure the current.

Never get a Dago buy!

(Sorry! )
Alan