You do need an electrician to install an oven. The reason for the advice is that an electric oven runs on a live 220V or 110V voltage with 15 – 30A current, which could burn your house down if not properly installed. Installing an oven by yourself is possible and some enthusiasts can do it by themselves, but the risks aren’t worth saving a few dollars if you’ve never done it before.
When will you need an electrician to install an oven?
Installation requirements
First of all, installing an oven is a two-man job. The first man will be in charge of the installation and solving the problems when something comes up, while the second man works as an assistant to hold the tools, do the easy parts, and help with lifting the device.
It requires that the first man in charge have experience in oven installation to make sure that he knows what he does and the final result would be safe for the customers to use for a long time. If your house already has an oven, it will also take your time to remove the old oven before installing the new oven into the place. In this case, the electricians need to check again for any faults that might happen in the future.
When you need an electrician
You need to call for an electrician when you don’t have any experience at all on the installation process, or when you have only yourself to do the job. Remember that you can’t do your job alone even if you’re an expert; besides, working alone with electricity is never a good idea.
Therefore, provided that your oven purchase comes with a free installation expert, be sure to always take it since it’s free.
What if I want to do it by myself? How?
In case you’re enthusiastic, and you want to install an oven by yourself, you need the following to safely and effectively put the appliance into your kitchen.
Prepare the tools and accessories
Here are the tools you need to help you with the installation:
- A screwdriver
- A needle-nose pliers
- A wire cutter
For your oven, if it doesn’t come with a cord or a plug, you need to check the model and the type of cord it uses, and buy the appropriate ones. Here are what’s necessary for your oven:
- A power cord that works with your model
- An outlet with 3 or 4 plugs
- The manual book
You need to make sure you get a 3-point or 4-point plug, because the power used by the oven is hugely big, so if you don’t ground the appliance, you might get shocked really badly after a while using it.
Turn off the circuit breaker
“Safety first”.
Before touching the outlet and the wires, you need to safely turn off your circuit breaker. Test and make sure that there is absolutely no electricity running through the wires you’re about to work with. If you’re not sure, you can turn off your whole house’ grid.
Intend the place to plug the outlet
The second step is to find a good place to install the outlet. A good place is a place that is reachable by you in case of fire and accidents, while being a place that your children and your dogs can’t reach, making sure that they won’t get shocked.
If there has already been a socket there, you can ignore this step. Otherwise, install the outlet and test it first.
Remove the old oven
If there’s an oven in place, you need to remove it first. To remove the old cooker, you have to open the door to notice at least four screws in the four corners of the oven holding it in place. All you have to do is unscrew all of them, then take the old one out. This step might need more than one person.
If there’s not an oven in place, you need to make room for one. If your new oven is an inside-wall oven, you will have to do some drilling and constructing; otherwise, clean the floor before putting in the new appliance.
Connect the wires
Unscrew the plate of your outlet, then you will see a lot of wires and plugs.
The live wire (brown), neutral wire (blue), and earth wire (green/yellow) must then be connected. The neutral wire should be on the left, the earth wire should be in the middle, and the live wire should be on the right.
After that, you’ll need to tighten the screws to secure them in place, then replace the plate.
Put the new oven in place
This seems like the most intuitive part. All you need is to lift the oven up, put it in place, and then use at least four screws to secure them into the wall. If you don’t know how many screws you need, or where the screws go in, make sure you have the manual with you.
Be noted that this and the previous parts need to be done exactly right. In case it’s installed in a wrong way, it might affect the ventilation and operation of the device, thus, easily causing a fire.
Turn on your electricity
If you’ve done everything right, your oven should have been properly installed. You can now turn your grid on and test your oven. If you’re having an expert with you, make sure he stays until the first baked food comes out to ensure nothing happens in the cooking operation.
Conclusion
Installing an oven is definitely not an easy job. Therefore, we recommend you to call for an oven installer to do the job for you, because concerns about your safety should be put up first. However, if you want, you and your brother can follow the steps we listed above and the manufacturer’s manual to do it and call it a DIY day.
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