1970 Tricity oven, re-use the oven point?

[julie_m]

I have seen quite a few installations with a cooker switch mounted above and behind the hob -- right where you would have to reach over a burning chip pan to turn off the heat. This never struck me as particularly safe .....

[Herald1360]

At least the actual hob controls are not going to be at the back.

With a burning chip pan, I'd be inclined to go for the fireblanket/soggy towel first, then kill the heat.

[Lancs Lad]

I don't know if this is the first house you've bought, but if it is, and you are anywhere near as excited and enthusiastic as I was, my advice would be try not to be too impatient or anxious to get everything done all at once.

Just be content to take things steady, and make sure whatever job you are doing is done RIGHT!

You'll get far more satisfaction looking at 'a job well done' the next morning, than if you had rushed, cut corners and 'bodged it'.

That's my experience, anyway! Have fun with your lovely new house

[Andrew B]

I'd fix the original, looks tidy enough, use reasonable care and take your time.

[McMurdo]

As I have a gas cooker, I 'repurposed' the unused, surface mounted cooker switch/socket combo installed when the house was built, by changing it to a 13A double socket and replacing the fuse in the consumer unit from 45A to 20A. It can always be changed back if I go electric.

[Herald1360]

If the cable's rated for the 45A, you might as well fit a 30A fuse- it's what the socket would be fed from on a ring circuit and would allow a bit more load to be applied- boil two kettles at once?

[vidjoman]

I suspect that the Tricity oven, hob and kitchen cabinets were fitted around the same time (1970) and previously there would have been a freestanding cooker with an eye level grill stood about where the fitted oven now lives. That would have put the wall switch well away from the freestanding cooker and grill. It's often the case that the electrical wiring is left as it was and only new cabinets fitted to upgrade the kitchen.

[Radio Wrangler]

I shudder when I recall some of the wiring I've seen that was done by kitchen replacement companies.

David

[Refugee]

I had to fix a socket where it had been pulled out and moved to a jagged hole in the plaster before it had been found to still require a jagged hole to be made in the kitchen unit. One of those jagged holes was completely pointless and caused by poor planning.

[kirstyd]

I would try to fix the old Tricity its far better built than any of the modern TIN efforts on the market today [even the expensive brands]and it wont have any dodgy electronics [just good old fashioned mechanical switches] in it that cant be fixed and cost more than the oven is worth to replace

[G6Tanuki]

Originally Posted by vidjoman

previously there would have been a freestanding cooker with an eye level grill stood about where the fitted oven now lives. .

Can someone explain to me the logic of 'eye-level' grills? The idea always seemed deeply odd to me, since they sat directly above the hob and so doomed all hob-based cooking to take place in shadow.

They also disrupted the free flow of hob-produced cooking-steam to any sort of cooker-hood/extractor-fan. Thankfully 'eye level' grills entirely disappeared from the kitchen-designer zeitgeist by the early-1980s and subsequent decades of refurbishment have seen the remaining examples banished to oblivion.

[factory]

Sorry to disappoint you, but cookers with an eye level grill are definitely still available and we bought a new one a couple of years to replace a knackered one.

David

[Hartley118]

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

Can someone explain to me the logic of 'eye-level' grills? The idea always seemed deeply odd to me, since they sat directly above the hob and so doomed all hob-based cooking to take place in shadow.

They also disrupted the free flow of hob-produced cooking-steam to any sort of cooker-hood/extractor-fan. Thankfully 'eye level' grills entirely disappeared from the kitchen-designer zeitgeist by the early-1980s and subsequent decades of refurbishment have seen the remaining examples banished to oblivion.

In the perceptive words of Flanders & Swann when eye level grills were the latest cooking innovation, "it's so that the fat can spit straight into your eye"

More seriously, my wife wouldn't want any other sort of grill, on the basis that if the grill be mounted any lower, it's very difficult to gauge the state of the food being grilled. That's why I have a domestic duty to keep our 40-year old Cannon 151 gas cooker in tip top running order. Fortunately it's built like the proverbial battleship!

Regarding the shadow issue, I suggest a minor kitchen lighting modification.

Martin

[paulsherwin]

I have an even older Cannon 145 and find the eye level grill very useful.

This is drifting off topic though - back to cooker points please.

[bionicmerlin]

Just abit of a long shot. Have you definitely made sure the oven is not working due to the timer settings not being on.
I used to repair these in the 80s and 75% of the time the reason for the oven not working was the fact the off control knob on the clock had clicked off unknown to the customer. I would advise them over the phone to check. 9 out of 10 times they would phone me back thanking me as that’s what the problem was.....Andy

[Boater Sam]

If nothing element wise works on the oven I'd bet the clock is in auto mode and that's all.

[Brigham]

I'm not sure if this topic is in the correct section; or, for that matter, the right Forum.

[Dave Moll]

I think 1970 just about counts as "vintage" these days. Certainly, it would do in some sections of the forum.

[Herald1360]

Certainly "classic". Same age as my series 2A

[Brigham]

Originally Posted by Dave Moll

I think 1970 just about counts as "vintage" these days. Certainly, it would do in some sections of the forum.

I was rather thinking about the content, rather than the year.

"I'm throwing my dangerous old 1970s appliance in the skip, shall I get rid of the dangerous old switchbox it connects to?", is NOT what I expect to read on a vintage Repair and Restoration site.