Replacing ceramic hob

[Merlin5]

Hi guys. After 8 years of good service, my hob is all but dead. Three out of four of the element rings have stopped working, so it's hanging by a thread now. I have just one smaller ring to cook on. I'm going to buy this hob,

https://ao.com/product/e6431c-hisense-ceramic-hob-black-64111-38.aspx

it has a 2 year warranty and is very inexpensive. I've got a Hisense fridge freezer which I've had for 2 years and it's great so I don't mind the brand.

I'm just deciding if I'm able to wire it myself or get AO to do it. I'm not confident with electrics. I've removed the top drawer and unscrewed the 4 screws that hold it in place over the worktop and can see that the thick grey cable is going into the wall behind. So it appears the only way to wire a new hob is where the cable terminates at the black terminal block on the old hob. And apparently the new hob comes without a cable.

Looking at the black terminal block under the hob, there's 4 screws and 3 wires. I'm just wondering if the new hob will wire up exactly the same, and also if the unit would have standardised hole positions, ie, screw down into the same 4 positions where those silver brackets are? Also, the new hob is 6 kW electrical connection and 25 amps fuse rating. My old one is 5.5 to 6.6 kW and the manual says it must be wired into a 30 amp double pole switched spur outlet, whatever that is. Does that mean that my wiring and fuse rating is already good enough to take the new hob?

I'm thinking of just chickening out and paying the £100 to get AO to install it, assuming the installer won't have any issues wiring it with the existing cable and screwing the unit down? It would be free delivery, so £209 doesn't seem bad.




Screw brackets on each side.



From manual

 

[BUDFORCE]

£100 to fit it????

wtf?

I paid a local sparky £20 cash he even had to cut a bit more out of the worktop.

Its easy enough to wire it BUT... it will be on a much more dangerous circut to run an oven on, if you are not confident dont do it. But seriously mate, ring around £100 is ridiculous.

Do you get on with ceramic hobs? WE dont have piped gas here so so need to go electric, we have an induction hob I'd never go back to any of the other electric alternatives.

EDIT: Thinking about it, he even needed to change a bit in the consumer unit/upgrade one of the circut breakers

 

[Merlin5]

£100 to fit it????

wtf?

I paid a local sparky £20 cash he even had to cut a bit more out of the worktop.

Its easy enough to wire it BUT... it will be on a much more dangerous circut to run an oven on, if you are not confident dont do it. But seriously mate, ring around £100 is ridiculous.

Do you get on with ceramic hobs? WE dont have piped gas here so so need to go electric, we have an induction hob I'd never go back to any of the other electric alternatives.

EDIT: Thinking about it, he even needed to change a bit in the consumer unit/upgrade one of the circut breakers

You're quite right mate, don't know what I was thinking. I need to get a sparky in, I'm not going to attempt it myself. I'm fine with ceramic hobs. I doubt I'd get a sparky for £20 but even £50 would be ok. Your sparky doesn't happen to be in London does he? I could use him if you think he's alright.

 

[BUDFORCE]

You're quite right mate, don't know what I was thinking. I need to get a sparky in, I'm not going to attempt it myself. I doubt I'd get one for £20 but even £50 would be ok. Your sparky doesn't happen to be in London does he? I could use him if you think he's alright.

Nah sorry I live in East Anglia, and to be fair this was about 8 years ago give or take, and the sparky was known to the inlaws. That being said, yes, I am pretty certain you could easily beat £100, I think your £50 figure is realistic if not better.

 

[Mr.Cookie]

Double pole just means it switches both live and neutral, biggest issue you have with replacing hob tops is the size of the whole in worktop.
Wiring can be either 3 wires live, neutral and earth or sometimes they can have links to put across lives, sometimes neutrals.

 

[Merlin5]

Double pole just means it switches both live and neutral, biggest issue you have with replacing hob tops is the size of the whole in worktop.
Wiring can be either 3 wires live, neutral and earth or sometimes they can have links to put across lives, sometimes neutrals.

That's why I'd rather get a professional to install it. As far as the worktop, my current hob is 59cm wide by 52cm deep and the one I'm buying is 59.5cm wide by 52cm deep so I assume it should fit fine and I'll lose 0.5cm of worktop space or quarter of a cm each side.

 

[Countcussy]

I've just changed from a ceramic to induction. The difference is night and day, if you can stretch your budget and you have the correct pans.

As for the wiring, for me it was straightforward. The cable going into the wall usually reappears at worktop level in the form of a red switch. That's your double pole. From there, the cable will go into a 32a breaker in your consumer unit. Switch both off, unwire the cable from the old hob, wire into the new hob, switch back on and you are done. Obviously, if you are not confident then contact someone more qualified.
Some modern hobs are 3 phase compatible. Not an option in most homes.

The cutout size is more important than the actual hob size. All the major websites normally carry this info. It's normally one of the images. Typically for a 60cm hob its 560 X 490, but this is not set in stone.

 

[SoliD]

Whatever you do, don't buy another ceramic. If you can afford it and your pans are compatible get an induction.

I did the same thing as soon as I moved in, moved from a 4 burner 60cm ceramic to a 90cm induction. Done the wiring myself, was fairly straight forward although I did have an issue with 2 of the burners not working and called neff out who sorted the wiring out for me. The bloke said the instructions were poor and he had had sparkies call him out for the same issue so I felt a bit better.

 

[Jez]

Not sure if you are aware but you don’t need to replace your whole hob like for like due to the elements going, elements are a consumable... this is very wasteful unless the hob has cosmetic/other issues as well.

either replace it with a nicer hob as mentioned by solid, or replace the elements. 3 having gone seems bizarre, have you been living with fewer and fewer working for a long time or did they all fail at once?

 

[BUDFORCE]

Yea induction hobs are really good, second to gas but where I live I don't have that option anyway.

Probably safer than gas.

For most things it's works just as well as gas IMO, it'll heat up a pot of water just as fast.

The only thing it doesn't work with is any kind of rounded edged/bottom pan - wok. Even a flat bottomed wok, they dont work very well at all, I tried several ones. You need to heat going up the sides.

 

[Merlin5]

I know they're really good but I'm not going to buy an induction, I'm quite happy with a ceramic. I'll get an induction in my next home, I might be selling this one soon. There's no point in me replacing the elements, they're £70 to £90 a pop.

The large one on the right at the back went wrong about a year ago. It would glow red, but instead of staying on for about 30 seconds, it would go off about 2 seconds, then a while later come back on and again go off after a couple of seconds, so it never stayed on long enough to heat anything properly anymore.

Then a couple of weeks ago, the small front right stopped altogether, doesn't glow or heat up, completely dead. Then a few days ago, the large front left went the same way as the front right. Last night it started glowing again and stayed on for a good time, then after a couple of minutes it would only glow for a few seconds and then go off too quickly, and then after a few more minutes it didn't glow at all.

I'm guessing it's a thermostat problem in the unit.

 

[Merlin5]

Guys, I've just called a sparky that was recommended to me when I asked in an electrical wholesaler shop. He said he can do it for £60 but it depends if the breaker needs lowering which apparently means replacing. I asked him if I'd blow myself up if I wired it and it was the wrong breaker and he said yes. Do you know anything about breakers?

 

[200sols]

Guys, I've just called a sparky that was recommended to me when I asked in an electrical wholesaler shop. He said he can do it for £60 but it depends if the breaker needs lowering which apparently means replacing. I asked him if I'd blow myself up if I wired it and it was the wrong breaker and he said yes. Do you know anything about breakers?

Sounds like rubbish, find someone better.

 

[BUDFORCE]

Guys, I've just called a sparky that was recommended to me when I asked in an electrical wholesaler shop. He said he can do it for £60 but it depends if the breaker needs lowering which apparently means replacing. I asked him if I'd blow myself up if I wired it and it was the wrong breaker and he said yes. Do you know anything about breakers?

Hmmm yea, it would catastrophically combust into a thermo nuclear micro nuke.

That or just trip the breaker.......

 

[Jez]

I'm guessing it's a thermostat problem in the unit.

Yep to be fair, doesnt sound worth the effort.

A bit confused as to how you could wire it into the wrong breaker, just wire it like for like, the two hobs will be largely identical in terms of power demand.

 

[BUDFORCE]

Yep to be fair, doesnt sound worth the effort.

A bit confused as to how you could wire it into the wrong breaker, just wire it like for like, the two hobs will be largely identical in terms of power demand.

Two cermamic hobs I would imagine.

When we had our induction fitted from a solid ring, the electrician needed to upgrade that specific circuit breaker, on our consumer unit it's just a case of clipping the old one out and placing a new one. In our house the cooker is on its own circuit from the breaker. Actually same when we had electric underflood heating in, there were spare "slots" on the consumer unit so the electrician just added another break and wired the under floor heating again, on a separate circuit straight from the cunsumer unit.

I dunno though, the OP lives in London, so it might be a very old unit and not as easy as it was with ours.

 

[Merlin5]

I decided I should be ok to fit it myself. I spoke to a sparky that used to do work for my mum. Great guy, knows what he's talking about and has confidence in me that I'll be ok. He said what you both said Budforce and Jez, worst that will happen is trip the fuse but should be like for like wiring. It's coming thursday. If it goes **** up, I'll post a picture of myself looking like one of those cartoons, with my hair sticking up in shock, soot all over my face and a shredded shirt.

 

[jpaul]

even if you are moving, you could still invest in an induction, and take it with you ? or demand an additional fixtures payment.

... the ceramic in current place is a nightmare, can't heat a wok or griddle to a good temp, burns stuff, lots of previous rants on here

 

[Merlin5]

Right then, old one is out and am about to have a go and install the new one. I drew on the photo so I don't get it wrong.

 

[Merlin5]

I'm a bit stuck now. Have I done the jumpers right? I tightened the jumpers down with the screws. But where am I meant to feed the wires through? In the same holes as the jumpers?
I'm guessing I'm correct using the single phase connection?