The Touch Switch  was here when we moved in has finally gone pop, it was rubbish anyway and took about 50 mins to warm up. Time for a new one.

The old one was dual fuel, gas hob, electric oven and connected to the electrics via a standard 13amp socket. I've been told that a dual fuel cooker should connect to a 'cooker point' one with a big red switch next to it. The old one certainly wasn't connected to one of these and there isn't one in the kitchen. What gives? The new cooker I'm looking at requires 3KW connection which I thought was the limit of a standard 13amp socket.

Some ovens come with a 13amp plug as standard. However, these are usually ovens rather than cookers (ie hob and oven combined).

My guess is that the cooker was fitted with a plug by the previous owner as there wasn't a cooker outlet in the kitchen and they didn't want the expense of fitting one.

A cooker switch can carry 45 amps so is designed for an electric hob/oven some of which can pull more than 10kW. The cable is usually 6mm rather than the 2.5 or sometimes 4mm of your ring circuit.

Another reason for the cooker switch is isolation. If your chip pan goes up you need to be able to isolate the cooker quickly and easily without having to get behind it.

I assume the new cooker is dual fuel too from the small loading. If so, it could safely be run from a socket outlet but unlike a kettle or washing machine it is on for extended periods which could cause the fuse to go (they are thermal devices so longer = hotter) and puts a high load on your domestic socket circuit.

Cooker Switch will also likely mean that the socket for it is behind the cooker - see isolation above.