Choosing appliances for your kitchen can be a bit of a minefield. You may find that you have to choose them in a rush if one has broken and you need to replace it asap. This can mean that you do not get the chance to compare functions and specs very easily or shop around for the best price. When it comes to replacing a cooker, you need to first decide if you want electric, gas or a combination or both. You can get a fully electric cooker, fully gas cooker or gas hobs and electric oven or vice versa. You may opt for integrated appliances if you are having a fitted kitchen installed or if you already have integrated appliances. When choosing these, you need to be certain that you get the measurements exactly right.

If you decide to choose a gas cooker, then you need to make sure that you already have the gas supply plumbed in. If not, you will need to arrange for a gas engineer to come and install a supply for you. This can be a fair amount of work and cost quite a bit of money, so think carefully before buying a gas cooker if you do not have the supply. Even if you do that the gas supply coming into the home you still need to get a gas engineer out to come and swap the supply over to the new cooker. They must be Corgi registered in order to do this. Although the process is often quite straight forward, never be tempted to have a go at doing it yourself. Not only is this very dangerous but you could also be fined ten thousand pounds if you do. A gas engineer will swap the cookers over for you and then should run a test on the gas meter to ensure that there are no gas leaks. If they find any leaks, they will be able to advise you of what you need to do and disconnect the appliance if needed. It is important that you have a carbon monoxide detector in your home which will sound if carbon monoxide is detected. This is especially important if you have a gas cooker. If buying a gas cooker second hand, ideally try and see it working before it is disconnected as otherwise you may pay to have it plumbed in to then find out that it doesn’t work as it should do.