HA2 · South Harrow
Hob repair in South Harrow HA2
Five minutes before we knock is worth twenty afterwards. On a hob more than most appliances, a few small things done in advance decide whether the job finishes in one visit or turns into two. More on hob repair across West London and Harrow.
Start with the pans. Take the ones you actually cook with and hold a fridge magnet against the base of each. If it does not grip, an induction hob will not run that pan, and a perfectly healthy zone will behave exactly like a dead one. Small pans sitting on large zones do much the same. Then look at the display for a padlock or a key symbol before assuming any component has failed, because a child lock switched on by a passing sleeve is a more frequent cause of a dead hob than any part we carry, and checking costs nothing.
Next, work out what to tell us on the phone. Which zone, and how it fails: stone cold from the start, or heating for a while and then dropping out partway through cooking. All the zones dead at once points at the supply and the main board rather than at the elements, so find the isolating switch, which is on the wall above the worktop in most of the semis here and tucked inside a cupboard in a good many of the flats above the parades. Then the model number. On a hob the rating plate is on the underside where nobody can read it, so it will be on the paperwork in a drawer, in the manual, or on a label the installer stuck inside the cupboard door beneath. Read it out when you book and it is often the difference between us arriving with the part and arriving to order it.
Last, the practical part, and in these kitchens it genuinely matters. Empty the cupboard or the drawer under the hob. The connection box, the cooling vent and the fan are all reached from underneath, and in a small semi kitchen that cupboard is where the pans, the foil and the tea towels live — which is also, as it happens, how a cooling vent gets smothered and why a hob starts cutting out mid-cook for no obvious reason. Clear the worktop on both sides and move the kettle and the toaster out of the way. If the glass is cracked, switch it off, stop using it and tell us when you ring, because a cracked top is replaced as a complete unit and there is no mending it. The visit costs £80 whatever we find, including when what we find is a child lock. Labour on most repairs sits inside that, parts are quoted before fitting, and the part itself carries three months.
£80
call-out charge per visit
Labour is included for most repairs. More extensive or complex jobs may require additional labour, which we always quote and agree with you before starting. Parts are charged separately and always quoted before we fit them.
We are not registered for VAT. The price we quote is the price you pay.
What South Harrow kitchens throw at us
In the semis around Roxeth the hob nearly always sits over a drawer unit or the oven, and that cupboard underneath is where the connection box and the cooling vent live, so clearing it out before we arrive saves real time. In the flats above the parades near South Harrow station the isolating switch is often inside a cupboard rather than on the wall, which is worth locating before we knock. Either way, have the pans you actually cook with to hand, because on induction the pan is as likely to be the problem as the hob.
What you can rely on
Frequently asked questions
What should I have ready before a hob repair in a South Harrow kitchen?
The model number read off the paperwork or a label inside the cupboard below, a clear note of which zone fails and how, and the cupboard or drawer under the hob emptied out. Clear the worktop either side and find the isolating switch. If you are on induction, have your usual pans out so we can test the ones you actually cook with rather than a set of ours.
My hob cuts out partway through cooking in HA2 — is that the hob or the cupboard underneath it?
It is worth ruling out the cupboard first. Most ceramic and induction hobs draw cooling air from below and shut themselves down when that air path is blocked, and the cupboard under a hob in a small kitchen is exactly where boxes, foil and tea towels accumulate. Clear it, run the hob again, and if it still drops out we look at the fan, the vent path and the board behind it.
3-month guarantee on the part we replace. Any part we replace is guaranteed for 3 months from the date it is fitted. This covers the replaced part only — it is not a warranty on the whole appliance.