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Gas Hobs

TheCatWoman

Just a quick question to those who know these things, we're going to have to replace out gas hob, the one we have now is old, probably a good 25 years old and probably more, are the fittings still the same or will it involve a load of new pipe work?

I'm sticking with gas rather than electric as we have quite a few power cuts round here and I want to be able to have a hot drink and meals etc without having to keep a campling stove as a back up.

I'd quite like to go for a whole new cooker, with a seperate grill, the grill is in the oven of our current oven and will only work if the door is shut, so it's unused as stuff gets burnt and you can't get small things like toast near enough to the element to make it worth bothering with. Do'es anyone know if this is normal or are there any double oven/grill stoves that allow you to make toast on the grill without it taking 20 mins and having to have the door shut?

  • in reply to Sporadic Sparkly

    We do have the destructions for the oven and the grill won't work with the oven door open, I did an internet search and it seems that none of them will work with the door open and the heat might melt the knobs. Funny how we managed all those years without this happening, materials must have been more robust in the past. Finding this out has really annoyed me, it would seen that the only cookers where you can have an open grill door are the old fashioned cookers with an eye level grill that's open, but these are narrower than more hobs and I need a wider hob as I tend to cook quite large amounts at a time.

    Interesting that Argos told you the opposite of what I found, I will check it out.  

  • This is unlikely to be a helpful response  .

    I have a freestanding single cavity gas cooker that is probably about as old as your gas hob, and will likely need replacing within the next few years. Whilst it doesn't happen often, there are times when I feel a twin-cavity cooker would be an advantage, as it can be mildly frustrating if I want to use the grill while the oven is in use, and vice versa.

    I'm by no means an expert, so I cannot possibly comment on whether any changes would need to be made to your existing gas supply fittings.

    As I understand, if you were to opt for a twin-cavity cooker, or in fact any cooker, the door for the cavity with the grill would need to remain open when grilling. To be honest, I'm amazed that your current grill will only work if the door is shut.

    Earlier, I found myself looking at freestanding twin cavity gas cookers on the Argos website. There was a F.A.Q (Frequently Asked Questions) section, and one of the questions was if the grill door needed to be open when in use (the answer was 'Yes'). 

  • If you cannot find the instructions do you have the model number of your oven?

  • TheCatWoman said:
    Do'es anyone know if this is normal or are there any double oven/grill stoves that allow you to make toast on the grill without it taking 20 mins and having to have the door shut?

    I think it is usual to keep the door shut. I  have a Bosch gas hob with an electric oven. Although the oven is a single incorporating a grill, it has multiple zonal and fan settings which make it energy efficient for grilling small to large sized dishes, without excessive use of electricity. I do keep the door shut when grilling, but I don’t know how long it would take to grill toast as I prefer to use the toaster for that. 

    I know you hate looking for things online, but if you searched for ‘gas cookers with gas hob UK’, you might bring up a selection of stores that stocked such cookers and you would see what grill features are available.

    You could also try ‘Currys’, Appliances Direct, Argos, Robert Dyas and Euronics.

  • You would expect the grill to work with the door open - it may be worth having a look at the instructions for your oven(maybe available online if you don't have a printed copy) to check if there is some sort of different setting when using the grill.

    Regarding gas connections - in the UK it is only lawful for a gas-safe engineer to even unplug and plug in an old stand alone gas cooker which usually have a simple bayonet gas connector - I gather newer gas hobs/ovens use a flexible hose with a threaded fitting on the end so may just need transferring over.  If you have a built cooker and hob the new ones may not fit in the gaps you have, so you may need a new worktop and units.

    To be sure of what is required you would need a gas-safe engineer from the place where you are getting the new oven/hob from to have a look at what you currently have and give you a quote for installing the new kit.

    Edit: Something else to consider if you are changing your oven, even if your current one is already electric you may need a higher current supply to the new one - old consumer units (like the one in my house with rewireable fuses) have a maximum output per circuit of 30A and so it could end up with needing a new consumer unit and a new circuit to the kitchen and the electrician putting in the new consumer unit would require all of the house wiring connected to the new consumer unit to be compliant to current regs and so you may end up with additional re-wiring costs.(this is a worst case scenario, so is quite likely not necessary)

    Edit2: I'm not sure from your description whether your oven/grill is gas or electric, in either case if you don't use the grill pan (usually has an attached handle that means you cannot shut the door of the oven when using it) that came with your cooker it won't be at a suitable height to grill with.