Cutting off Moulded Plug Top from appliance

[Midwest]

Some of you might have read a thread where the OP was asking about cutting off moulded plug tops from Velux windows;
http://www.electriciansforums.co.uk...rical-forum/109817-electric-velux-window.html

I personally had been advised by Velux, in doing so would invalidate the warranty, another member had been told the exact opposite. There have been other threads about the subject, in recent times, where the predominant view was cutting off moulded plugs would not invalidate a manufactures warranty. I've therefore emailed some of the major manufacturers, and asked;

'I see that some of your appliances come with an attached lead and moulded plug. If the plug is not suitable, can I cut off the moulded plug, without invalidating the warranty. I would employ the services of a qualified electrician'.

Here are some of the replies, if others respond, I'll post them.

Velux

Thank you for your email.

I am sorry for the conflicting advice that you have been given.

You can remove the plug from our window and connect this into a fused spur, this will not effect your guarantee as long as it is wired correctly.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for further assistance.
Kindest Regards,

Bosch

GOOG Morning.

Thank you for contacting Bosch Customer Service and the warranty will not be invalidated as long as the plug is changed by a qualified electrician.

Miele

Good Morning,

Thank you for taking the time to contact us with your enquiry about changing a moulded plug.
Yes you can take the plug off without invalidating the warrenty, as long as it is connected by a qualified electrician.

Samsung

Thank you for your email. Your customer reference number is ******.

This is to acknowledge that we have received your email. In reference to your query, kindly be advised that the designs of our products are made based on market preferences and have undergone series of tests before it is being decided by our Samsung design team and engineers. Thus, changing/altering parts of the unit will automatically void its warranty.

 

[Midwest]

[/B]Bring on the 5 page PIC then.....(Plug Installation Certificate) !

Howdens (Lamona appliances)

Good Afternoon,

Many thanks for your enquiry.

If the plug provided is not suitable, you will require a NICEIC Qualified Electrician to remove it and provide an electrical certificate of works carried out in order for the warranty to remain in place.

So that's 7 for & sort of 1 1/2 against (cutting off plug)!

 

[Darkwood]

[/B]Bring on the 5 page PIC then.....(Plug Installation Certificate) !

Unfortunately this is how the big companies work and use the legal system, they will try and avoid the cover when possible and will tell you after removing the plug the wires were not terminated correctly and the item suffered damage, it is then up to you to provide evidence that it was installed correctly and by a competent person.
You can actually call a competent person in when the item goes faulty to check the plug or spur and write up that it was correctly terminated and fused, if an item just out of warranty, you can get in an engineer to fault it and if it shown that the fault was premature failure of parts etc and it is deemed this is far short of its service life then you can use the report to have the product replaced or repaired and reclaim the cost of your engineer.

 

[DPG]

Those replies sound as to be expected. Surely we can finally put this nonsense to bed now. Daz

 

[PEG]

Some of you might have read a thread where the OP was asking about cutting off moulded plug tops from Velux windows;
http://www.electriciansforums.co.uk...rical-forum/109817-electric-velux-window.html

I personally had been advised by Velux, in doing so would invalidate the warranty, another member had been told the exact opposite. There have been other threads about the subject, in recent times, where the predominant view was cutting off moulded plugs would not invalidate a manufactures warranty. I've therefore emailed some of the major manufacturers, and asked;

'I see that some of your appliances come with an attached lead and moulded plug. If the plug is not suitable, can I cut off the moulded plug, without invalidating the warranty. I would employ the services of a qualified electrician'.

Here are some of the replies, if others respond, I'll post them.

Velux

Thank you for your email.

I am sorry for the conflicting advice that you have been given.

You can remove the plug from our window and connect this into a fused spur, this will not effect your guarantee as long as it is wired correctly.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for further assistance.
Kindest Regards,

Bosch

GOOG Morning.

Thank you for contacting Bosch Customer Service and the warranty will not be invalidated as long as the plug is changed by a qualified electrician.

Miele

Good Morning,

Thank you for taking the time to contact us with your enquiry about changing a moulded plug.
Yes you can take the plug off without invalidating the warrenty, as long as it is connected by a qualified electrician.

Samsung

Thank you for your email. Your customer reference number is ******.

This is to acknowledge that we have received your email. In reference to your query, kindly be advised that the designs of our products are made based on market preferences and have undergone series of tests before it is being decided by our Samsung design team and engineers. Thus, changing/altering parts of the unit will automatically void its warranty.

...Been cutting off plug tops since i was a kid,never needed any permission...the only reason i stuck with this,is that fantastic "Allo Allo" phrase,of Goog Morning...i will be using that all next week :smile5:

 

[electron1]

Sometimes necessary when appliance is fitted into kitchen units.
i.e. to get flex through hole in side/bottom of cabinets.

 

[M-Ty]

It has only been the last 25 years that manufacturers have been required to supply equipment with plugs fitted (where not inappropriate). How to wire a plug was taught to all pupils aged 14 when I was at school, so it should be the case that anyone over 39 is competent to do this (though, unfortunately, experience shows this is not always the case). But it's OTT/ unreasonable for the same manufacturers to now insist on a certificate from an NICIEC member when they used to make everyone fit their own plugs to their products.

 

[Midwest]

...Been cutting off plug tops since i was a kid,never needed any permission...the only reason i stuck with this,is that fantastic "Allo Allo" phrase,of Goog Morning...i will be using that all next week :smile5:

Yep made me chuckle. Left it in when I copied & pasted, to see i anyone would notice!

 

[NDG Elecs]

Howdens (Lamona appliances)

Good Afternoon,

Many thanks for your enquiry.

If the plug provided is not suitable, you will require a NICEIC Qualified Electrician to remove it and provide an electrical certificate of works carried out in order for the warranty to remain in place.

So that's 7 for & sort of 1 1/2 against (cutting off plug)!

I have an account at Howden's which I use a fair bit. I am going to have to email them to check whether NAPIT is OK too now!! Haha!

 

[ruston]

I have an account at Howden's which I use a fair bit. I am going to have to email them to check whether NAPIT is OK too now!! Haha!

Would you like to comment on their hobs lol. (only joking)

 

[Darkwood]

In all fairness, anyone who has done the day PAT course would be classed as competent to check the plug and confirm its been fitted correctly, any company specifying any particular scheme body would from a legal stance be in breach of fair representation by not recognising others out there.

Like I said earlier, it may all sound silly you need all this just to change a plug but when your up against the big companies, they will not hesitate to try wriggle out of any financial cost to themselves if the option is given to them.

 

[NDG Elecs]

In all fairness, anyone who has done the day PAT course would be classed as competent to check the plug and confirm its been fitted correctly, any company specifying any particular scheme body would from a legal stance be in breach of fair representation by not recognising others out there.

Like I said earlier, it may all sound silly you need all this just to change a plug but when your up against the big companies, they will not hesitate to try wriggle out of any financial cost to themselves if the option is given to them.

I think the reference to NIC is more than likely a historical reference due to a tendancy to copy and paste text from older documents. As you say any scheme would likely be deemed just fine.

Worst plug I ever saw wired was by an alcoholic with the shakes. Really bad wiring it was, with only a couple of strands inside the live pin being one of the better bits of it. Better watch yourself there Tel!! :drunk::drunk:

 

[Dave OCD]

I think the reference to NIC is more than likely a historical reference due to a tendancy to copy and paste text from older documents. As you say any scheme would likely be deemed just fine.

Worst plug I ever saw wired was by an alcoholic with the shakes. Really bad wiring it was, with only a couple of strands inside the live pin being one of the better bits of it. Better watch yourself there Tel!! :drunk::drunk:

A long time ago maybe a year or so into my apprenticeship there was a cottage in the grounds of the big hospital where I was working which was junior doctors accommodation. The place still had 5 amp and 15 amp sockets and there was a report that a fuse must have blown as a new table lamp didn't work. One of the medical geniuses had fitted a 5 amp plug to the lamp, all the conductors were firmly connected but ALL insulation had been removed from about 1/4" past the cord grip on the live,neutral and earth and they were all touching nicely ! :banghead:

 

[Midwest]

For those who use the Swedish store.

Thank you for your email.
If you do remove the molded plug this will invalidate the warranty as the item has been tampered with.
Should you need any further assistance in the future please do not hesitate to contact IKEA again.




Kind regards,


IKEA Customer Services
IKEA Ltd

 

[DPG]

'Tampered with' - what a lovely technical expression. Daz

 

[UNG]

I always remember the early days of the moulded on plug top some where found to be faulty with wires too close to the surface of the plastic which in a few cases had resulted in some people getting shocks off the the plug tops at the time we had a daywork contract with the local health authority who instructed us to replace all the moulded plugs with MK toughplugs on all appliances as they had received a HTM that cast doubt on allowing their continued use until the problem was resolved. Can't remember exactly how many plug tops we used but it was over a 1000