Induction hob wiring

[Paultry]

I was led to believe that the wire coils of an induction hob were copper.

Our hob died a while back and I removed the multi stranded wires with the intention of burning off the resin and using the wire on fruit trees, gutters and outbuildings to prevent mould growth.

Interestingly the burnt wire is silvery white, some sections even melted into shiny silver balls. What is it?

As always, information gratefully received. Paul.

[jfgw]

If it looks like normal winding wire (before you have burnt it off), I suspect that it is aluminium. I have seen aluminium winding wire used on cheap electric motors. Aluminium is not as good a conductor as copper (so it needs to be thicker) but it is a lot cheaper.

Julian F. G. W.

[Paultry]

Julian

It could be aluminium, but it is very fine.

The fire was very hot and in my experience aluminium would have burnt to its oxide and turned to a white powder. Paul

[bungeejumper]

Shiny silver balls could surely only have been solder? (I don't think they use mercury in cookers.) Molten aluminium doesn't look shiny after heat, just grey and wrinkly . As I found out when I left an aluminium pan on my university landlord's cooker and came back to find that all but the steel handles had melted away to a tangle of blobby drips. Whoops.

Googling for images of induction hobs brings up a number that seem to have white discs on top of the elements. Looking forward to hearing about this, because now I'm intrigued!

BJ

[Stompa]

Well they appear to make aluminium ones:

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/ ... 58031.html

[Paultry]

They look identical to those for sale by Ali Baba.

Typically normal lacquered copper wires, except they ain't.

Next test, burnt wire into caustic soda to see if it gives off hydrogen, I'll be a while, but keep you posted.

Paul

[Bouleversee]

Of greater interest to me, since I need a new cooker, is how long did the induction hob last before it died?

[Dod101]

Of greater interest to me, since I need a new cooker, is how long did the induction hob last before it died?

I have not heard the term cooker for years because of course these days we tend to buy hobs and ovens separately. I have had my induction hob since 2006, when we moved to my current address and it is so far still going strong, as indeed are the two ovens bought at the same time. None of this stuff was cheap but as they say, you get what you pay for. Mine is NEFF, good stuff but certainly by no means the most expensive.

I can highly recommend an induction hob. Easy to use, easy to clean and fast and efficient. Of course you need non aluminium pans but those with copper in the relatively heavy base are great for cooking with as well.

Dod

[Bouleversee]

Thanks, Dod. I have a gas range cooker which came with the house when we moved here in 2008, now past its best. I will have to find something to fit the space and would still like 2 ovens. I don't relish the thought of chucking all my stainless steel (I think) pans, however. I wonder if ceramic hobs would cope with them and whether any of the range cookers with those would fit my space and what would be involved in fitting a suitable plug as ther is no visible cooker point. Will investigate when I have submitted that tax return (now up to complex cgt calculations) but nothing achieved in that department today. 6 a.m. start tomorrow. At the present rate of progress, I'll die before my cooker does. It does work but two of the caps that fit into the centre of the hobs have lost their enamel so it looks a bit ropey. If anyone is chucking theirs out (mine's a Belling and they tell me spares are no longer available) do, please, let me have the caps. Or if anyone knows if they can be re-enamelled... I have a horrible feeling the whole kitchen will have to be replaced because one thing leads to another and I simply can't face that.

[scrumpyjack]

Thanks, Dod. I have a gas range cooker which came with the house when we moved here in 2008, now past its best. I will have to find something to fit the space and would still like 2 ovens. I don't relish the thought of chucking all my stainless steel (I think) pans, however. I wonder if ceramic hobs would cope with them and whether any of the range cookers with those would fit my space and what would be involved in fitting a suitable plug as ther is no visible cooker point. Will investigate when I have submitted that tax return (now up to complex cgt calculations) but nothing achieved in that department today. 6 a.m. start tomorrow. At the present rate of progress, I'll die before my cooker does. It does work but two of the caps that fit into the centre of the hobs have lost their enamel so it looks a bit ropey. If anyone is chucking theirs out (mine's a Belling and they tell me spares are no longer available) do, please, let me have the caps. Or if anyone knows if they can be re-enamelled... I have a horrible feeling the whole kitchen will have to be replaced because one thing leads to another and I simply can't face that.

We have used stainless steel pans with a ceramic hob for decades. All works fine!

[Bouleversee]

Thanks, Scrumpy. Mine have heavy bases so should be OK.

[Dod101]

When we moved here there was a gas hob but as we do not have mains gas it was bottled gas. I thought that was crazy and my wife did not like gas anyway so we changed it to electricity and after having a halogen hob in our last house we went for an induction hob this time and never regretted it. The test for whether pans are suitable for such a hob is a magnet. Stainless steel ought to be fine.

My wife wanted two ovens and we have that with a microwave built in to each. They are great and actually much hotter than the average I assume. Certainly if a recipe says 200C fan oven for 20 minutes I need to watch it because the dish is usually done at about 15 or 16 minutes.

Dod

[bungeejumper]

We really like our new induction-hob cooker, which we bought a couple of months ago to replace our ancient gas/electric Britannia dual-fuel one. (It happened to be an AEG, but you can get exactly the same cooker from Zanussi, minus a few gizmos, for about £200 less.) The fast boil facility alone is worth the trouble. And all except one of our pans work fine with it.

But our friends had a disappointment when they installed a separate induction hob and a built-in cooker. They soon found out that their hob would start cutting out some rings (or cutting down) if you tried to use too many rings at once.

The reason was that many induction hobs, like theirs, are designed to plug into a 13 amp plug socket. Whereas the ones on all-in-one cookers (and some split cookers) are cabled straight into the heavy-duty cooker point, where there is much more amperage available.

Apparently, induction hobs have circuitry that calculates how the limited kilowattage from the power supply should be allocated, and then (in the case of an all-in-one cooker) they cross-check with the oven to make sure that the total load is safe. But a 13 amp plug-in induction hob has only got about 3 kw to play with, so it starts making choices about which rings will stay hot. (At least, the modern ones do - older hobs might not be so picky.)

Our friends are now preparing to Ebay their new cooker and hob, and to get an integrated pair instead. So always check whether the induction hob is a 13 amp plug-in before you buy it.

BJ

[Dod101]

We really like our new induction-hob cooker, which we bought a couple of months ago to replace our ancient gas/electric Britannia dual-fuel one. (It happened to be an AEG, but you can get exactly the same cooker from Zanussi, minus a few gizmos, for about £200 less.) The fast boil facility alone is worth the trouble. And all except one of our pans work fine with it.

But our friends had a disappointment when they installed a separate induction hob and a built-in cooker. They soon found out that their hob would start cutting out some rings (or cutting down) if you tried to use too many rings at once.

The reason was that many induction hobs, like theirs, are designed to plug into a 13 amp plug socket. Whereas the ones on all-in-one cookers (and some split cookers) are cabled straight into the heavy-duty cooker point, where there is much more amperage available.

Apparently, induction hobs have circuitry that calculates how the limited kilowattage from the power supply should be allocated, and then (in the case of an all-in-one cooker) they cross-check with the oven to make sure that the total load is safe. But a 13 amp plug-in induction hob has only got about 3 kw to play with, so it starts making choices about which rings will stay hot. (At least, the modern ones do - older hobs might not be so picky.)

Our friends are now preparing to Ebay their new cooker and hob, and to get an integrated pair instead. So always check whether the induction hob is a 13 amp plug-in before you buy it.

BJ

I have never had any problem with mine and often use several of the four rings/hotplates at one time. I guess mine is cabled into the heavy duty oven point as I think it should be, Why on earth would anyone want to plug it into a 13 amp socket? Mine is definitely a separate stand alone one. It is certainly not integrated with the ovens, and is in no sense an integrated cooker.

Just checked mine. When I turn off the switch labelled 'Cooker Switch', it turns off both the ovens and the induction hob. Surely just because a hob has a 13 amp plug attached to the cable it does not have to be used that way. Can the friends' hob not be wired in to the cooker/oven outlet? That would surely be fine provided the 'cooker' cable is heavy enough (as mine appears to be because I can use everything at once, both ovens, and several rings on the hob) which of course is the general idea?

Dod

[bungeejumper]

I have never had any problem with mine and often use several of the four rings/hotplates at one time. I guess mine is cabled into the heavy duty oven point as I think it should be, Why on earth would anyone want to plug it into a 13 amp socket? Mine is definitely a separate stand alone one. It is certainly not integrated with the ovens, and is in no sense an integrated cooker.

Certainly sounds like it's on the cooker circuit, as you say from your following sentences. But yes, some induction hobs are indeed 13 amp plug-ins.

Just checked mine. When I turn off the switch labelled 'Cooker Switch', it turns off both the ovens and the induction hob. Surely just because a hob has a 13 amp plug attached to the cable it does not have to be used that way. Can the friends' hob not be wired in to the cooker/oven outlet? That would surely be fine provided the 'cooker' cable is heavy enough (as mine appears to be because I can use everything at once, both ovens, and several rings on the hob) which of course is the general idea?

Cabling a device with a factory-fitted 13 amp plug so that it hooked directly up to an oven on a 45 amp cable? That would be above my technical pay grade, but I should guess it's strongly discouraged. And if you did, there'd be no guarantee that the circuitry in the oven would work happily with it.

Speaking of guarantees......... !!! Nice thought, though.

BJ

[Rover110]

We really like our new induction-hob cooker, which we bought a couple of months ago to replace our ancient gas/electric Britannia dual-fuel one. (It happened to be an AEG, but you can get exactly the same cooker from Zanussi, minus a few gizmos, for about £200 less.) The fast boil facility alone is worth the trouble. And all except one of our pans work fine with it.

But our friends had a disappointment when they installed a separate induction hob and a built-in cooker. They soon found out that their hob would start cutting out some rings (or cutting down) if you tried to use too many rings at once.

The reason was that many induction hobs, like theirs, are designed to plug into a 13 amp plug socket. Whereas the ones on all-in-one cookers (and some split cookers) are cabled straight into the heavy-duty cooker point, where there is much more amperage available.

Apparently, induction hobs have circuitry that calculates how the limited kilowattage from the power supply should be allocated, and then (in the case of an all-in-one cooker) they cross-check with the oven to make sure that the total load is safe. But a 13 amp plug-in induction hob has only got about 3 kw to play with, so it starts making choices about which rings will stay hot. (At least, the modern ones do - older hobs might not be so picky.)

Our friends are now preparing to Ebay their new cooker and hob, and to get an integrated pair instead. So always check whether the induction hob is a 13 amp plug-in before you buy it.

BJ

We bought a John Lewis branded induction hob; I guess it must be getting on for 8 years ago (we previously had gas).

The installation instructions had two options, one of which would indeed limit current for use where it is only wired to a 13A spur. The other option (which we went for) was to wire it to a dedicated 40A line from our fuse-box. The way the links were set at the bottom told the hob which way it was wired. We don't have problems using all the rings on it. It's possible their hob was the same - but did they keep the installation instructions?

- Rover

[Dod101]

Cabling a device with a factory-fitted 13 amp plug so that it hooked directly up to an oven on a 45 amp cable? That would be above my technical pay grade, but I should guess it's strongly discouraged. And if you did, there'd be no guarantee that the circuitry in the oven would work happily with it.

Speaking of guarantees......... !!! Nice thought, though.

BJ

I have no idea if it would work but it seems from what Rover110 tells us that there should be the option. Frankly like most things electrical I leave that to the experts, but I would have created merry hell, or at least my wife would have, if we could not have used all the rings on the induction hob at one time, plus at least one oven.

Dod