Installation of appliances... am I being shafted?

double07 · Nov 09, 2006 2:31 pm

Hi all, first post be gentle.

We're finalising all the variations with our builder at the moment. In our contract we had a $4000 allowance for a 90cm upright oven/rangehood on top of the original oven included in the contract (a cheap Euro oven cooktop and rangehood). The Euro gear retailed for approx. $1200 so we expected to get about $1000 back from that. We decided to purchase a Smeg package now - while it's cheap- and got a credit back for $4000 from the builder for that. The builder asked if we wanted him to install the oven/rangehood, I agreed thinking he would know the schedule of things better etc. but he did mention that it would be dearer to install a 90cm oven (thicker cable/pipe or something?). Anyway, I got the variation today which included the $4000 credit for the original allowance and $250 for the original Euro oven package, effectively meaning it's costing $750 to install the Smeg oven/rangehood package. Does this sound right or am I being shafted?

Thanks in advance.

Edit: This is in SA by the way.

Dukekamaya · Nov 09, 2006 8:00 pm

Sounds a bit excessive to me.
Did you buy the Smeg 90cm freestanding oven and rangehood package from Harvey Norman?
If so I just bought the same package. There should be no difference in install costs between a 60cm and a 90cm oven.

double07 · Nov 09, 2006 8:24 pm

We haven't purchased the package yet (going to shop around etc.) I can't recall the model numbers off the top of my head but the package is around $3600.

renomart · Nov 09, 2006 11:14 pm

If you were putting in a new 30 amp circuit then it might cost about $300 dollars.

double07 · Nov 10, 2006 9:15 am

I see. I going to query it, seems too much to me.

double07 · Nov 17, 2006 10:03 am

Just for some closure on this I got this response from the builder that I'm fairly happy with:

Quote:

"Unlike the standard Euro appliance, the SMEG SA9066X has a higher power rating and needs to be hardwired on a separate circuit to the meterbox. The wiring needs to be upsized to cope with the additional power loads, thus the additional expense."

The original Euro package was only valued at $800 so effectively the extra wiring etc. is costing ~$550.

renomart · Nov 17, 2006 4:32 pm

All oven circuits are hard wired to a separate circuit in the meter box. As I posted before, my sparky would charge $300 for a 30A circuit.

The Smeg SA9066X (Gas/Electric) draws a maximum current of 17.1 amps so a standard 20A circuit would suffice. There is nothing unusual about the power requirements for this oven as most oven circuits are standardized at 20A.

Dukekamaya · Nov 19, 2006 6:13 pm

what Renomart said

double07 · Nov 20, 2006 11:27 am

Thanks people. All sorted. Sucks to be my builder with you guys around