Electric Ceramic Hob - Wiring connection

[jat1]

John Lewis Ceramic Hob - built by Electrolux.
Two queries:
1. connector on underside of hob show has 4 terminals - 2 live (L1), 1 neutral and 1 earth connection. Why is there 2 live connections shown and am I supposed to run a short length of cable from one live connector to the other? If yes, why did not the manufacturer loop the 2 together.

2. instructions state earth cable to be 2cms longer than live and neutral. Why? Earth is the first terminal in the connector and therefore needs to be of a shorter length than the live and neutral to fit within connector.

Both John Lewis and Electrolux will not give me any guidance although it does not fall within the building regs to connect a kitchen appliance to an existing wall outlet - only applies if you amend wiring and outlets in the wall. Thank you for your time.

 

[Diyisfun]

The 2 live terminals are for easy of manufacture, ie when they sell as 3 phase or internal wiring, they are linked for single phase. Re the earth if you know how to wire it, just do it as long as it conforms.

 

[JohnD]

2. instructions state earth cable to be 2cms longer than live and neutral. Why? Earth is the first terminal in the connector and therefore needs to be of a shorter length than the live and neutral to fit within connector.

They mean that the earth cable should have some slack in it. This is common good practice for an earthed appliance. This is so that, if the cable should be yanked (e.g. you trip over the cable, or the cooker unit falls over) the live cables will come out first (and stop the appliance from working or blow the fuse so that you become aware that there is a fault) and the earth cable would be the last to fail. (If the earth unluckily got disconnected first, then you would have an unsafe appliance and might not be aware of it). This is also the reason why a 3-pin plug has a longer earth pin, so it comes out of the socket last, and why you should make the earth wire in a plug longer and slacker than the others.

 

[jat1]

Thank you for the prompt response. Just to clarify:

1. I only need to connect live to one terminal then and ignore the other? it does not look as if they are linked - unless hidden.

2. earth - it is ok to cut the earth to a shorter length then so it fits with connector? why would they have made that specific statement?

thanks for your time.

 

[Diyisfun]

jat1

1. I only need to connect live to one terminal then and ignore the other? it does not look as if they are linked - unless hidden.

Must be linked

jat1 wrote:

This is also the reason why a 3-pin plug has a longer earth pin, so it comes out of the socket last, and why you should make the earth wire in a plug longer and slacker than the others.

Beg to differ..Its so the earth pin opens the shuttes on the L + N

 

[JohnD]

Beg to differ..Its so the earth pin opens the shutters on the L + N

Yes, you're right, it does that as well on a UK 13-amp plug. But it is also longer, for the same reason, on other non-shuttered plug and socket designs.

I should have said "This is also one of the reasons... "