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R1 + R2 on a cooker circuit, tested from the frontDo you need to take the cooker switch off the wall?

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A cooker circuit is simpler: no lighting switches. Link line and CPC at the board as before, then prove the CPC at the cooker control unit and at the cooker outlet.

  • If the control unit has a socket-outlet, plug in the tester’s socket adapter and test line to CPC through the pins — with the socket’s own switch on. That proves the CPC is connected behind the plate without taking the plate off.
  • At the cooker outlet, probe the line and CPC terminals. Operate the cooker switch off and on: open circuit, then a reading.
Unscrew as little as you can. You opened the accessories once already, to inspect them. Every time you take a plate off and put it back you risk disturbing a conductor. Testing from the front proves the connection behind it.
✋And this is why you test. A CPC can be pulled off its terminal just by refitting an accessory — a cable catching as it’s pushed back in. The outlet reads open circuit, and nothing you looked at during inspection would have told you. A loose CPC on a cooker circuit is a metal appliance with no earth.

Easier still: if you can, ask the installer to leave the cooker unconnected until you’ve tested. Testing the cooker itself is in-service inspection and testing, a different job.

While you’re there: the socket on the control unit. It puts a socket-outlet on the cooker circuit, so the circuit needs 30 mA RCD protection under Reg 411.3.3. And a cable buried in a wall at less than 50 mm needs it too, under Reg 522.6.202 — or 522.6.203 in a metal-stud partition. That’s inspection, not this test, but it’s the kind of thing you notice here.

BS 7671 · Reg 411.3.3 · 30 mA RCD for socket-outlets BS 7671 · Regs 522.6.202, 522.6.203 · buried cables

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