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Replacing a gas oven with electric - who disconnects the gas?

20 replies

NameChange374 · 28/11/2024 13:23

We are planning to replace our freestanding gas cooker with a built-in electric oven and an induction hob. The oven we are looking at just plugs into a 13amp socket.
When I order it, there is an option to pay £125 for installation, including disconnection of the gas oven. But if the "installation" just means lifting the oven into the cabinet and plugging it in, I assume DH and I can do that ourselves.
Is it worth paying the £125 to the man from Currys, to get the gas disconnected, or would I be better off getting some local tradesperson round to do it independently? And if the latter, is it a plumber I would need?
The induction hob will need to be hard wired in, so we will get an electrician to do that. But I'm guessing the electrician can't disconnect the gas - is that right?

OP posts:
bilbodog · 28/11/2024 13:30

For anything gas you need a corgi registered person. Do you have a gas boiler? Anyone you use to service that would be corgi registered.

SnuffleTruffleHound · 28/11/2024 13:32

Curry’s will assume your swapping like for like so they won’t cap it off.
like pp says you need a corgi registered plumber to do it for you. You can then plug the new oven in yourself.

BigDahliaFan · 28/11/2024 13:34

We got charged £50 to cap the gas off. Pre covid. Probably more now. Local plumber. Then we needed to upgrade the electrics to cope with the induction....

JurassicPark4Eva · 28/11/2024 13:40

bilbodog · 28/11/2024 13:30

For anything gas you need a corgi registered person. Do you have a gas boiler? Anyone you use to service that would be corgi registered.

It's not been CORGI for fifteen years.

OP you'll need a Gas Safe engineer to cap your supply and make it safe before the electric oven is installed.

Check with Curry's that their installer will be properly accredited, and is also qualified to hard wire in the electrics.

You will need to ensure your electric cables are sufficient - we had to have ours upgraded and a new switch installed for safety.

NameChange374 · 28/11/2024 13:43

Ah, great - the guy who services the boiler is fantastic so I'll message him. Thank you!
@BigDahliaFan this is my fear... someone came round the other day to put a new socket in - a handyman, not a qualified electrician, but a friend who I trust to work within his competence - and warned me that because we have 6mm cables I would need to check the specs of the induction hob to make sure it would work. So whilst that's a useful headsup, it's a whole nother thing I have to research / get my head round 😣 Was it a nightmare to have to upgrade the electrics?

OP posts:
Ihateslugs · 28/11/2024 13:46

I had a new kitchen fitted last year and swapped a gas hob for an induction one. The old gas hob was taken out by the kitchen fitter, who was also a plumber but not gas safe qualified, when they dismantled the units. He capped off the pipe and arranged for a gas safe engineer to remove the pipe permanently once the new units were fitted and the induction hob was ready to be installed. Then the electrician came and did the wiring for the hob and other lighting work.

I did use a local kitchen company to buy the units specifically so they could coordinate all necessary work to save me having to get in tradespeople at the right times - obviously cost more but well worth it for convenience and peace of mind.

NameChange374 · 28/11/2024 13:47

@JurassicPark4Eva Did you have to upgrade your electrics just for your oven? Is yours hardwired in to the cooker switch or does it just plug in to a normal socket? I assumed if it plugs into a normal socket then it wouldn't need anything extra... maybe I need to get an electrician in even just to explain the basics to me!
It didn't even occur to me that Currys would send an installer who's not properly qualified / accredited! Surely that would be a legal nightmare for them if something went wrong or someone's house burned down to due incorrect installation.

OP posts:
DeltaAlphaDelta79 · 28/11/2024 13:50

We did similar and the oven had a normal 13A 3 pin plug that goes into a normal socket. My friend is Gas Safe registered and came to disconnect the gas, but we had a bayonet style fitting for the gas pipe from the cooker. He simply twisted the connection out like a light bulb and said it didn't need capping. Its been like that for about 15 years.

JurassicPark4Eva · 28/11/2024 13:52

NameChange374 · 28/11/2024 13:47

@JurassicPark4Eva Did you have to upgrade your electrics just for your oven? Is yours hardwired in to the cooker switch or does it just plug in to a normal socket? I assumed if it plugs into a normal socket then it wouldn't need anything extra... maybe I need to get an electrician in even just to explain the basics to me!
It didn't even occur to me that Currys would send an installer who's not properly qualified / accredited! Surely that would be a legal nightmare for them if something went wrong or someone's house burned down to due incorrect installation.

I would assume they are accredited, however I wouldn't trust them to be capping the gas supply and I definitely wouldn't be expect them to upgrading wiring unless it's specifically stipulated.... Seems too good to be true otherwise.

Yes, we had to have the wiring upgraded to accept the oven, but we have ropey wiring in a 1980s house. It will also depend on the power of the oven you've chosen.

www.myappliances.co.uk/ovens/oven-guides-and-advice/can-i-plug-my-oven-into-a-normal-socket#:~:text=In%20most%20cases%20

DeltaAlphaDelta79 · 28/11/2024 14:01

DeltaAlphaDelta79 · 28/11/2024 13:50

We did similar and the oven had a normal 13A 3 pin plug that goes into a normal socket. My friend is Gas Safe registered and came to disconnect the gas, but we had a bayonet style fitting for the gas pipe from the cooker. He simply twisted the connection out like a light bulb and said it didn't need capping. Its been like that for about 15 years.

That said, having looked online since my last post made me curious, it does recommend to get the bayonet getting capped off if it going to be permanently disconnected so will get that sorted. But the bayonet fitting can be disconnected by you, until a permanent cap is installed.

HotCrossBunplease · 28/11/2024 14:02

You might be OK with 6mm wiring for a standalone induction hob. If the oven has a plug on it then that is fine. We bought an induction range cooker recently and had to have our wiring upgraded to 10mm, it was very expensive and not an expense we had anticipated at all as we had a big dual fuel range in already. You need an electrician to look at the spec of the hob, check your wires/consumer unit and do the calculation. 10mm wire is very thick and can be hard to thread through existing cable runs.

As for the gas, I had the boiler engineer round anyway servicing the boiler. He showed me that the gas connection to the existing gas range had an auto-closing valve so it was safe just to pull out the hose. He fitted a cap to it as an extra safeguard but it wasn’t really necessary. Cost me a fiver I think! The pipe itself remained as it didn't get in the way. I have no idea though if all gas pipes auto close like that, would be a risky thing to test.

NameChange374 · 28/11/2024 14:04

JurassicPark4Eva · 28/11/2024 13:52

I would assume they are accredited, however I wouldn't trust them to be capping the gas supply and I definitely wouldn't be expect them to upgrading wiring unless it's specifically stipulated.... Seems too good to be true otherwise.

Yes, we had to have the wiring upgraded to accept the oven, but we have ropey wiring in a 1980s house. It will also depend on the power of the oven you've chosen.

www.myappliances.co.uk/ovens/oven-guides-and-advice/can-i-plug-my-oven-into-a-normal-socket#:~:text=In%20most%20cases%20

Ah, I see. No, I wouldn't assume they would be qualified or have the time to be upgrading wiring, just to wire it in if needed, if the existing wiring is suitable.

That's a helpful link - thank you!

Beginning to wish we'd just bought a whole kitchen from Wren or somewhere and got them to fit it. We do need to upgrade it a little just to make it safe and functional, but we're DIY-ing it because we're on such a tight budget and will literally save about £8k by doing it ourselves. I can tile reasonably well and DH is good at joinery and basic plumbing, but gas and electrics are well out of either of our remits!

OP posts:
NameChange374 · 28/11/2024 14:08

@DeltaAlphaDelta79 @HotCrossBunplease We definitely won't be taking any shortcuts / testing anything ourselves when it comes to disconnecting the gas properly. One of the reasons we're getting rid of the gas is because of my slightly irrational fear that one day one of the kids will be messing around and turn the knob on, and slowly gas us all in our sleep 😱

We definitely can't afford a huge unexpected electrical expense - sounds like we'll need to get an electrician round to give us specifics as to what sort of induction hob might work.

OP posts:
johnd2 · 28/11/2024 14:15

Capping off the gas is a half hour job in itself, most of the time would be taken getting the tools out and doing the tests before/after the work. I'd expect it to be whatever the call out fee is for a gas safe person.
Regarding the 6mm cable that would surely be fine for an average hob, 10mm is often needed for the more powerful showers, but you can derate hob cables due to usually only using a couple of rings at a time, and they click in and out as it warms up anyway.
I can't remember the exact rule but eg if it's a 50A max hob you would take 10A plus half the remaining so you'd run it off a 32A breaker with cable thickness accordingly.

DeltaAlphaDelta79 · 28/11/2024 14:16

NameChange374 · 28/11/2024 14:08

@DeltaAlphaDelta79 @HotCrossBunplease We definitely won't be taking any shortcuts / testing anything ourselves when it comes to disconnecting the gas properly. One of the reasons we're getting rid of the gas is because of my slightly irrational fear that one day one of the kids will be messing around and turn the knob on, and slowly gas us all in our sleep 😱

We definitely can't afford a huge unexpected electrical expense - sounds like we'll need to get an electrician round to give us specifics as to what sort of induction hob might work.

Edited

Yes that makes complete sense. I would never pay Currys/AO etc to install anything for me, as I simply don't trust and think the charges are ridiculous. If I couldn't to it myself, I would get a proper qualified tradesperson in.

YouveGotAFastCar · 28/11/2024 14:36

You'll need a qualified gas safety engineer, as others have said.

I wouldn't feel too bad about not buying a fully planned kitchen, though - we were told our kitchen fitter was not gas safety trained, so couldn't remove the old gas hob or cap the supply, and we had to get our own gas safety engineer to come and disconnect, make it gas safe, and then the kitchen fitter took over and did the electrical work for the hob (alongside building the rest of the kitchen).

NameChange374 · 28/11/2024 14:36

@johnd2 Regarding the 6mm cable that would surely be fine for an average hob, 10mm is often needed for the more powerful showers, but you can derate hob cables due to usually only using a couple of rings at a time, and they click in and out as it warms up anyway.

Does this apply to induction hobs too? I seem to have the impression that they draw more power than a "normal" electric hob, but I don't fully understand why (or even know if that's accurate!)

OP posts:
LividBaubles · 28/11/2024 15:11

I had to buy a gas oven to replace a gas oven when I moved in, as the electrician said my cables were insufficient for the power needed for a modern electric oven and it would cost c£2k to rewire through floorboards from the consumer unit to the kitchen.

I couldn't find an electric oven that didn't need the special plug!

I hate the gas oven, but two things have helped.

  1. A gas alarm that plugs in, a bit like a smoke alarm for peace of mine
  2. Fucking the stupid oven off and mostly using an air fryer.
Nic834 · 28/11/2024 16:26

We’ve had to look into this a lot. We’ve moved into a house with an empty space for a cooker. The space only has a 13A plug socket and gas feed so our only option was to go for an all gas oven. Very annoying. We would need to have a 32A supply in our kitchen in order to have a duel fuel or electric cooker. We have been told 13A just isn’t powerful enough for a cooker.

Our 32A supply is in the garage and an electrician said that we could run the supply outside the house and into the kitchen. We will do this eventually but for now the gas cooker it is!

johnd2 · 28/11/2024 16:37

NameChange374 · 28/11/2024 14:36

@johnd2 Regarding the 6mm cable that would surely be fine for an average hob, 10mm is often needed for the more powerful showers, but you can derate hob cables due to usually only using a couple of rings at a time, and they click in and out as it warms up anyway.

Does this apply to induction hobs too? I seem to have the impression that they draw more power than a "normal" electric hob, but I don't fully understand why (or even know if that's accurate!)

Same for any cooking appliance really, just look at the listing or instructions to find the current draw in amps (I), or the power rating in Watts. Your 6mm² cable can have a 45A breaker allowing it to supply a cooking appliance rated at 116A and can power a 28kw cooking appliance aiming the cable is clipped to the wall rather than running through insulation or similar.
Unless you're running a restaurant I think you'll be fine!

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