The fuse switches to isolate individual kitchen appliances don't include the switch for the cooker hood, which isnt working. An electrician called out couldn't find it at all, short of ripping off all the top cupboards. I thought it would be best to replace the hood completely as I would only need to turn off the supply for the whole flat and join it to existing supply. Any ideas would be appreciated Thanks Alison

Alison A, July 2009

b4 you replace the appliance, check your getting power to it.
the power is normally on top the cupboards via a plug top or have you removing the flue if it has one

foot, July 2009

Alison, you don't say if the broken cooker hood actually has power. I think, but am not absolutely certain that your cooker hood should have an external fused isolation switch.

If you follow your drastic route of putting in a new hood you will do best to fix the external fusing issue at the same time.

If it were mine I would switch off all the power and wire the cooker hood supply cable to a lampholder with light bulb. Switch the flat's power back on and run round throwing every switch in sight until I could turn the bulb on and off. Then I'd learn which circuit the hood was on and possily the fusing arrangement.

At the same time I would examine the existing hood and temporarily wire it up to a known good supply for troubleshooting on bench, table or worktop - and fix it!

You will feel pretty silly if you buy a new hood and install it and discover that all the old one needed was a new 3A fuse hidden away at the back of a cupboard or underneath the base units behind a plinth board.

If there's a similar flat next door you might ask the people if they know where their fuse is.

Good luck...

Peccavi, July 2009