The Effectable Homes Lamona built in oven has burned out my cupboards and could have killed us *title edited by MNHQ at OP's request*

[Tarano17]

My Lamona built in oven stopped working so I was provided with a new one today. When the company Effectable came to remove the old one it was discovered that it had completely burnt through my cupboards as Effectable failed to install a metal plate between the built in oven and the wooden board they had sat it on. Has anyone else had problems with Lamona or Effectable? Photo attached.

I believe the manufacturer guarantee on all Lamona ovens is 3 years, 5 years for the door glass.

As a pp said, metal conducts heat. Putting some kind of plate under the oven would surely make the cupboard even hotter and more likely to melt/burn?

OP - have you checked the installation instructions for your oven model? They are all available to download from the Howdens website. Does it say the oven needs to sit on a metal plate?

I'd be surprised if it does; I've never seen anything like this in any oven installation manual (I read a lot of them in a previous job).

One thing I noticed from the photograph; the gap between the bottom of the cupboard and the tiled wall is woefully inadequate. The installers should have removed a notch from the back of the cupboard to allow for adequate ventilation. The size of the notch/gap around the sides will vary according to the make and model of the oven.

This is clearly an issue with the istallation issue isn't it?

Maybe you should have titled your post "The idiots that fitted my oven burned out my cupboards and could have killed us"?

Definitely sounds like an installation issue. Though given how poor Lamona appliances are, it could be an issue with the oven too.

Thanks everyone for your comments. I have just bought a new electric cooker from Currys and am getting it installed next week. @goldierocks it was the owner of Effectable Homes that actually installed my Lamona oven not just a workman so says a lot for them. @DHome your title sounds a lot more appropriate but at the time of posting I was totally stressed out. I honestly don’t know if it is an installation issue as the Firemen & Firewomen said or a dangerous faulty hob. Still am actually. With regards to warranty it was the Disability Home Improvements team of our local council that provided it to us and contracted Effectable Homes to install it. We are still very grateful to them but think they need to seriously look into their contracts instead of providing people who don’t install electrics correctly and put peoples lives at risk. Effectable Housing still refusing to take responsibility and I had an idiot from our Council Housing department come to do an inspection today who laughing said to me “What happened here did you burn your food?”. This is the same type of contemptuous treatment that could have killed me and my 2 sen children, the youngest of which is severely Sen. There is nothing funny about but this “manager” from the disability home improvement team thought it was.

I don’t think this was an installation issue. The base and dudes of an oven simply don’t get this hot. This oven was unsafe and you must inform trading standards and I would speak to Which too.

No oven should ever do this if installed in the correct housing. Usually laminate finishes MDF. I’ve had built in for 40 years. AEG, Neff and now Miele. Bosch would be good too. You have been sold an unsafe oven and it must be reported. Ovens don’t need any special housing other than what I’ve suggested. I simply don’t understand how the base of it could have got so hot that it charred the housing.

I hope your new cooker is safe. But do rest assured, your old oven is an unsafe rogue.

Complain to the housing manager! Go to the top. Don’t put up with stupid people.

Firemen & Firewomen said or a dangerous faulty hob

I'm slightly confused by your reference to hobs and induction. A built in oven is the oven only, no hob. Has someone attempted to fit an cooker (i.e. oven and hob) into a base unit?

@pinfloy I am not sure which part you are referring to. Sorry as my head has been scrambled since this occurred. I have/had and inbuilt oven and an inbuilt hob. Both were provided by the disability home improvement team of my local council. It was the oven that caused the fire and which the Fire Authority said was installed incorrectly. The council’s contractor Effectable Homes/Effectable Construction Ltd wanted to install a new oven into the burned out shell that is remaining of my cupboard and told me it was safe for them to do so as it was “still sound”! If I had not been watching what he was doing he would have installed a new oven into my burned out cupboard and just left me and my children to deal with the consequences. Having trouble getting anyone to accept responsibility either the Council or Effectable Homes and all they want is to cover up what occurred. The Disability Home Improvements Council manager that came today thought it was funny to say to me “What happened here did you burn your food” in what I believe was an attempt to make me think that I was responsible for what occurred. The council want to pass responsibility on to me and just want to cover up that their “disability” contractor could have killed us.

This is in the instruction manual. I’m going to look up my Miele manual and see if it has the same warning about the heat at the bottom of the oven.

Also, you should not have sockets behind an oven! It should be hard wired with a fused spur and a safety switch - usually adjacent but above the work surface.

@PresentingPercy can you provide me with a clearer copy of that instruction page please. I never knew that sockets should not be placed behind an oven. Thanks for that.

The instruction page is on line. Just look up the make of the oven and the model. Sorry - I’m useless at links. There are lots of safety paragraphs.

Nk sockets behind ovens is standard practice now. Ovens are too high power for a plug in socket. So they should be hard wired. Was the oven plugged into this socket? My ovens have always been wired in as I described.

Also all around the exterior oven shouldn’t get hot enough to burn anything. My view is that it’s just a very bad product.

I think the manuals are on the Howdens web site.

See attached. What are you running off the socket behind the oven? If that’s a 13 amp socket, that cannot be correct. My oven is 32 amps.

Ovens are too high power for a plug in socket.
Not necessarily, a single built in oven can often be run off a 13 amp plug. Hobs, combined hob and oven and double ovens would normally require wired in connection and more power.
Our neff oven only requires a 13amp connection.

Oven and cooker are not two different words to describe the same thing. Advice for installing an electric cooker will not always apply to an electric oven.

@PresentingPercy the oven was just plugged in. Definitely not hard wired. When my council told Effectable Homes to come to my home to see what happened they changed the plug in to a different type of plug. I did wonder why they did this so now I know. @pinfloy I had both a hob and an inbuilt oven plugged in with normal plugs right behind my oven. I don’t know what amp they used.

I don’t think there was anything wrong with the installation, lots of ovens just sit on top on the unit , it looks like you had a faulty oven , I think the problem is with the manufacture on that oven .

@Chumleymouse Effectable Homes were definitely negligent as it was the Fire Authority that said it was installed incorrectly. Also when the Effectable Homes workman came to my home he was most insistent that the burned out cupboard (see photo) was “sound” and it was safe for him to install a new inbuild oven on top of the ashes. When I objected and said I didn’t think it was safe as the shelf on the cupboard was completely burned out his response was “You don’t have to use it. It can just sit there.” Does this sound like the actions of a reputable firm. It was after he got a phone call from his boss that he was very insistent on installing the new oven without even removing the ask or replacing the carpentry. This is not the actions of a reputable firm and as most of their work is doing disability home adaptions in several boroughs I seriously doubt that I am my dc and I are the only people whose safety they have recklessly endangered.

Still looks like a faulty oven to me , I’ve seen lots of built in ovens over the years but never seen a burnt unit. You just got a bad oven. Maybe someone in China or wherever they are made, forgot to put a heat shield in or something ???

Not convinced this was just an installation issue. If I was ever dubious about Lamona appliances, this has now confirmed that they shouldn't be touched with a barge pole

@Smallgoon the centre circle of the Lamona oven just disintegrated. It was as if it just heated up in a circle at the bottom. I would never get another inbuilt oven but would defo advise other OPs to avoid both Lamona and Effectable Homes Construction Ltd based on Effectible’s response to what occurred ie Just install anew Lamona oven on top of all the ash and burned out cupboard. That was unbelievable.

[quote Tarano17]@Smallgoon the centre circle of the Lamona oven just disintegrated. It was as if it just heated up in a circle at the bottom. I would never get another inbuilt oven but would defo advise other OPs to avoid both Lamona and Effectable Homes Construction Ltd based on Effectible’s response to what occurred ie Just install anew Lamona oven on top of all the ash and burned out cupboard. That was unbelievable.[/quote]
But will you be flagging this issue to Lamona too? It seems as though you're letting them off the hook.

mixrepairs.co.uk/common-lamona-oven-problems/#:~:text=Lamona%20oven%20problems%20can%20also%20include%20complications%20with,excess%20heat%20and%20damage%20to%20the%20block%20itself.
this is interesting

@mumwon Thanks for sending me that link.

@Smallgoon I have contacted Howdens about that but as their is another Op link about Howdens not responding to their contact I just have to wait and see what happens.