How to Fit a Multi Position Switch on a Hob

Hi I'm Josh from eSpares and in this video I'm going to show you how to fit a multi-position switch on your hob.

Hob's can have two different types have switches one is a simmer stat, and that's a variable position switch which can be set to any position within its rotation. Other hobs use a multi position switch like this one and this has fixed positions that it can be turned to.

The process for fitting either a multi-position switch or simmer stat is very similar, and in this video I'm using a micro mark hob, but the process should be fairly similar for most types of hob.

Now before we begin, make sure your hob is turned off at the mains. Most hobs are also hard wired so you won't actually be able to unplug it, but if you want to be extra safe you can turn it off at the fuse board as well.

Hobs tend to be set into a cavity in the worktop and some are also clicked in place underneath for safety. Just have a check before you try to get yours out that it isn't clicked in place underneath. Obviously if it is, just undo those clips so that you can lift it out, and once you've got it out the first thing you need to do is remove the knob on the switch that you're replacing.

In most cases these simply pull straight off like so. Once you've got the knob off the next thing to do is grab some pliers or a spanner and undo the nut that's holding the switch onto the hob. Now I've got the nut off I can just turn the whole hob onto its front and very gently lay it down. I now need to separate this base plates from the restive the hope now on this one it's held in by four screws here, so I'm just going to go ahead and unscrew those. So I've got those four screws off I can just lift that base plates straight off and I'll just pop that to one side.

Here we can see the switches underneath, now this is the switch I'm going to be replacing. In normal circumstances we tell you to take a photo of the connections as a reminder of how to fit the new part, but in this case there are actually a couple have wires that are the same colour, so there is potential for them to be mixed up when you're swapping them over. So for that reason it's actually better to simply swap one wire onto the replacement switch at a time and that means you're less likely to get them muddled up and these are simple spade connector wires so you can just pull them straight off and then fit them onto your replacement switch.

Okay, so now I've swapped the connections over I can take the old switch out and pop the new one in its place; and I'm just going to refit the nut to the shaft of the switch on the other side to make sure it's in the correct position. Now that's in place I need to reattach the base plate and now all that remains is to fit the knob back onto shaft.  

If you've had to disturb the seal that was fitted around the hob when you were lifting it out of the worktop you can either buy the actual hob seal from eSpares, or you can just use some draught excluder set around the edge of the hob just to make sure it's sitting properly into the cavity. Spares for hobs and other appliances are available on the eSpares website.

Thanks for watching.