Oven cabinet, for a gas eye-level oven. Advice please?

[Benchwayze]

I am ready to buy an eye level oven, since my back got worse.

Most of the good deals I have seen comprise only the oven so my query is straightforward.
If I make a cabinet myself, what do I need to pay attention to, in construction?

I.e.
Are there any specific materials that I MUST use.
Are there any regulations on dimensions that must be complied with.
Any advice welcome. Even if you think I would be better off having soemone build and fix instead.

T I A

Regards
John

And what's this UKWorkshop survey that keeps popping up? It's dammed annoying.
If it's a virus or summfink, then so much for AV software.

 

[TimothyClaypole]

I worked a while at a kitchen company and they were just taller versions of base cabinets but without a solid back just a couple of cross pieces in the side cabinet material on the back.

Nothing other added to them etc.

 

[Benchwayze]

Thanks TC...

No need for metal then; inside or to take the weight?

Thanks for the info.
Obliged
John
?

 

[woodpig]

I lifted a double oven out to replace it. They aren't desperately heavy but I did get help lifting the new one in to avoid damaging it!

 

[AndyT]

I have needed to slide our high level gas oven out of its professionally fitted housing a couple of times. It's just a perfectly ordinary carcase unit in mfc.
The oven itself is encased in flat sheet steel all round. There does need to be good airflow which is provided by grilles above and in the plinth, with some space behind the unit, which is open backed. The oven just rests on the flat bottom of the opening and is retained by four screws into the uprights.

The oven should come with an installation guide setting out the size and clearances.

Professional installers should have a platform which is adjustable for height on a scissor mechanism so they can slide the oven in on the level. I managed ok with a Workmate and a workmate!

 

[Benchwayze]

I have needed to slide our high level gas oven out of its professionally fitted housing a couple of times. It's just a perfectly ordinary carcase unit in mfc.
The oven itself is encased in flat sheet steel all round. There does need to be good airflow which is provided by grilles above and in the plinth, with some space behind the unit, which is open backed. The oven just rests on the flat bottom of the opening and is retained by four screws into the uprights.

The oven should come with an installation guide setting out the size and clearances.

Professional installers should have a platform which is adjustable for height on a scissor mechanism so they can slide the oven in on the level. I managed ok with a Workmate and a workmate!

Thanks Andy.
Seems I might have a use for those scissor-jacks after all!

John

 

[Eric The Viking]

I've needed to take ours out too (so far we've had three electric Naff units in the same woodwork), Not having a scissor lift, I used a workmate, which was close enough to the right height (ours has one-and-a-half ovens, so the top half-oven is at eye level).

It's a two-person job, but they're awkward more than heavy, and obviously the doors come off, which are a lot of the weight. As Andy says - ours just sits on a flat strong shelf, and four chipboard screws from the front secure it to the sides of the carcase.

Toolstation used to do moderately tidy plinth grilles, dunno if they still do. I'd be tempted to rout out slots in the kickboard. Our unit has shallower cupboards above, so there's about 3" to the wall behind - a sort of chimney - and there are cooling fans for each oven that blow air round the outside.

If it's gas (nice for baking!), does it need an actual chimney?

E.

 

[Benchwayze]

I am open ended at the moment on a extractor hood.

Don't have one for the present cooker which is just an upright cooker with eye level grill. The air brick in the wall is sufficient apparently. I just have to budget for an extractor hood in case it's a 'yes-yes'.

Thanks Eric.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Pleasure.

I'd worry (but only slightly) about two things: insufficient air available to the oven will result in CO being produced - not good. And when going properly they produce a great deal of water vapour. We had a gas oven in the last place. It was really good, especially for baking as it's a 'moist heat', but it really steamed the place up. So some sort of extraction arrangement would help both things as it'll keep air moving.

That said, both here and the last place have solid walls, which can be dreadful for condensation. If yours is cavity, or well insulated, that may not be significant.

E.

PS: I did a quick comparison last year, based on our dual fuel contract: Electricity was 4x more expensive per joule than gas, so it's worth the effort. I've been meaning to buy a whistling kettle...

PPS: Which reminded me: Back in the late 1970s, colour TV cameras were very insensitive and needed a lot of light in the studios. The basic double-headed luminares we had in Bristol were 2.5kW, and for a normal, small TV set you'd probably have at least six of these going at once. If the set design used more of the studio, in one big open-space (think "Blue Peter" or, in our case, "Animal Magic") you might have 5x - 8x as many lights at once. Add in the ground row etc. lighting the cyclorama curtain round the outside, and the air conditioning to take the heat away, and the power used by the technical equipment itself (there were some things that were still valves even then). You'd also tend to keep a lot more of the studio lit during rehearsals too, so that people like carpenters had light to work.

Occasionally we used to get studio bookings on Sundays, but it was frowned upon. The story was that the BBC got complaints from the residents of Tyndall's Park Road (up the road, on the same 11kV feed), that they'd come back from church to find their Sunday roast half cooked, as we'd dropped the volts too much. I never found out how they worked out that we were the culprits! Happy days...