Replacement cooking hob day

Rocker

A few weeks ago, my wife and I bought a new electric hob to replace the hob that had one of the rings which failed to heat.  The new hob is a Neff induction hob, so new saucepans were needed and bought.

The shop offered a delivery and installation service so as I am suffering from sciatica these days, this was availed of.  After all it was only a matter of removing the old hob and dropping the new unit into position.  And the installer would take the old unit away for recycling.  Easy.

The installation day came and alarm lights went on in my head when I saw the installer carrying his toolkit in his hand - two screwdrivers, one Phillips head and one flat head.  We had prepared the kitchen for his arrival, removed the drawers under the hob and left easy access to the underside of the worktop.  I went to isolate the circuit while he removed the old hob.  Rather than release the clips, an easy job, he pushed up the old hob and in doing so, broke three significant sized chips out of the worktop.  I collected the chips for gluing back later.  He connected the hob while it was resting on the worktop and all elements worked.  Then he tried to fit it into position.   The opening was fine, the problem was that the underside of the hob was deeper than the old unit, about 13 mm deeper in fact.  And the back [wall side] of the worktop was resting on a 75 * 50 mm hardwood batten that had multiple screws into the concrete wall.    Our kitchen, which is over 40 years in place, was built to last!  Part of the support batten needed to be removed to allow the hob to fit flush on the worktop.

The installer asked me if I had a jigsaw!  At this stage I took control and suggested that it would take several hours to chisel enough of the support batten to fit the hob and as he had demonstrated that the hob worked, I would finish the fitting of the hob.  And he probably had other deliveries to make that day.  He took the hint and departed.

Despite the incessant pain in my leg, I chiselled 15 mm from the batten for the length of the opening in the worktop.  When we were building our house over 40 years ago, my fiancée, now my wife, bought me a present of a set of Marples wood chisels.  These have served me well since then and made short work of removing the 15 mm of wood.  I glued the worktop chips in place, reconnected the hob and dropped it into place.  Induction hobs are very fast at heating and cooking and completely controllable.  Exactly what I needed and a great buy.

I still have not figured out what the installed would have done with a jigsaw ............

strtdv

Sometimes you're just better doing these things yourself.

Our kitchen fitter was great but he was no plumber, I ended up re-doing the waste pipe after he left

boogieman

I agree you’ve probably done a better job but I have to say I wouldn’t be best pleased if I was paying for an installation service and ended up doing it myself, let alone the guy damaging my kitchen as well. Why are the suppliers sending out an installer with such a limited amount of tools in the first place? I think I’d be complaining to the supplier if it was me. 

Nitefly

Good result, @Rocker , but an expensive way to get there!  You're right though, induction hobs are the best - Our Maud wouldn't have anything else now.