One for the Sparkie's out there

[leon]

Hi Guys, this one is for any sparkie out there.

My Daughter has just had her kitchen redone and has a new electric stove put in and installed by a professional electrician.

He, the Sparkie wired up a power point inside the pantry , very near to the stove and the said stove is plugged in to this power point with a normal plug type arrangement yet the plug terminals are something close to 20 amp plugs, but this is on all terminals.

The question is, my dear daughter now wants a microwave in the pantry close to the stove plug.

Can i just plug into this 20 amp plug to give the power to the microwave ?

Many thanks.

Leon

[PCH (Paul)]

Hi Leon,

I'm not a sparky by trade but yes, you can do that. There's absolutely no reason why you couldn't.

[Mosc_007 (Charles)]

Sockets are usualy designed so you can put a lower rated plug into it. But not a higher rated plug. I don't see any issue here.

[leon]

I did think that, but thought it best to ask, many thanks.

Leon

[AussieTrooper (Ben)]

Yes. (Electrical engineer here.)

The rating of the plug is determined by the circuit in the wall, ie: the size of the wires.
It's actually the best place to plug in high power use devices.

The only word of caution I would give is to check that you have a safety switch. The higher rated circuits take longer for the fuses to blow on high rated circuits. If you have an old porcelain fuse board, consider getting it replaced.

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Leon , we use 15/20 amp single phase leads and plugs at work for our inverter TIG welding machines that can pump out up to 200 amps , the smaller 80-140 amp machines are 10 amp .

For over 200 amps we use 3 phase at 400 volts.

15/20 amp single phase leads are heavier duty and the earth on the male plug is wider and thicker to fit the 15/20 amp female wall socket / FM plug but the phase and neutral are the same size as standard 10 amp plugs .

You can put a 10 amp male end into a 15/20 but you cant fit a 15/20 into a 10 amp wall/FM plug .

Just be sure the earth on the new stove plug is larger than say the one on the jug or TV and the wall socket has a bigger earth slot for the heavier earth of the plug , its quite a lot bigger ( wider and thicker ) and easy to see without measuring .

Also check the circuit breaker that should be only for the 'Stove' as Aussie Trooper says .

Brian