Cooker hood blown, how to fix?

Merlin5

Merlin5

Merlin5

Soldato
Joined
17 Aug 2009
Posts
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Location
Finchley, London
Had an almighty pop the other night from the cooker hood. Both bulbs (40w SE14 screw thread Pygmy) bought in February blown although only one showing a broken filament. It tripped a switch in my fuse box which I've clicked back on. So I've replaced the bulbs but nothing works, neither lights or any of the fan settings. All my fuse switches in the fuse box are in the on position. So I'm guessing perhaps a fuse somewhere inside the cooker hood?

 
Hmm, from what I can tell, it's possibly not a DIY job. Might need removing the whole hood to get to a fuse. Unless of course the PCB has blown, but hopefully just a fuse. Got my builder chap coming tomorrow to look at it. (He's also going to be finishing decorating my flat ready to sell as my lease extension price has finally been agreed!)
 
Where is the cooker hood fed from? It's normal for it to be fed from a fused spur (or possibly a plug top hidden away somewhere). Quite likely the fuse has blown there if its had a big fault however it could well be that it dying blew the local fuse.
 
Almost certainly the fuse in the spur or plug. Stick a multimiter across the contacts in the unit to check.
Spur is usually in the wall above the work surface, above the cupboard or in a cupboard.
 
You're supposed to have a fused spur/isolation switch on a cooker hood. They often put it above the hood, and then cover it with the chimney cover, so try taking that off and see if it's behind there. Otherwise it should be nearby on a wall somewhere, or maybe stashed inside a cupboard.
 
Thanks guys, I'm sure you're right with a fuse spur located somewhere.

Steampunk said:
They often cover it with the chimney cover, so try taking that off and see if it's behind there.
Click to expand...

Actually yeah it probably is there behind the chimney cover. I don't have a multimeter and generally know nothing about electric and fuses so I'll let my guy take a look. Although he hasn't bloody turned up yet!
 
Last edited:
Fixed! Was indeed the fuse (regular 13A) behind the chimney cover.

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Yeah, probably just that. Although I've had other bulbs that blew more frequently than this one but never took the fan out. I'm having my flat prepared to go on the market, so as long as it holds for a few more months, it won't be my problem anymore. :p
 
I think he put a 13A fuse in. I just went to the local electrical wholesaler and bought a 3A fuse. He said the formula is wattage divided by 230. According to the info on the label on my picture on the opening post:

Rated input power 220w
Rated motor input power 140w

So how do you work out the fuse rating from those numbers?

Someone then came into the shop, a sparky I think, and overhearing our conversation said even a 1A would work but that a 13A won't do any harm. So...:confused:
 
220/230 = 0.96A rated operating current.

So 1A would be OK but the inrush current when the motor starts might blow a 1A, so 3A would be a sensible value.

The idea is to have the fuse rated slightly higher than the nominal operating current, so that a fault blows the fuse before damaging the circuitry.

With a 13A fuse, a fault that causes a 10A fault current wouldn't blow the fuse, but 10A through some circuitry rated at ~1A could well cause damage. In this case, you were probably saved by the RCBO tripping since it was a short-to-earth.
 
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