Buying new oven

We bought our replacement oven from RDO Kitchens in Reigate. They had an excellent choice with people who seemed to know about what they were selling. We bought a Neff.

Features: self cleaning. Feature to totally avoid: any electronics. Electronics in ovens make for unreliable machines that are excessively expensive to repair. Check what power your wiring/CU can deliver, this sometimes limits oven choice.

NT

Oddly, on my last oven, it was the mechanical timer which failed.

Can you still buy one where it's not electronic these days?

My #1 would be, easy to replace generic elements that cost

Don't buy another Hotpoint. You will regret it.

I replaced an old Creda with a Hotpoint. Lots of failures, including the grill element, whoch was a pig to replace and also showed me how badly made it was.

We took a deep breath and bought a top of the range Bosch.

None of them.

Curry's tend to concentrate on their "own brands" masquerading under well known old brand names that they've bought the rights to use after the original companies went out of production. Personally I'd avoid them and concentrate on Bosch/Siemens or Electrolux/Zanussi/AEG.

Yes, but at a cost.

I don't know. If not I'd still avoid them & get an old one. I was offered a 1930s oven last year. That lasted well.

NT

I'd guess many want a bit more than a simple oven. I've got a Neff - double fan oven which includes a grill in the top one. Timer for on off and a countdown one too. Temperature in both ovens is pretty accurate too

- checked against my Fluke DVM. Would hate to go back to the days where you had to 'know your oven'.

Bosch are nice. But the pyrolytic, single oven with microwave cost an arm and two legs. They have Internet connectivity too, but that's blocked by the router, manually.

If I bought another I would spend even more and buy the one with full length runners for the shelves.

The perfect bake sensor on the other oven is good if you bake stuff. For some reason the OH won't use the meat probe.

"dennis@home" wrote in news:596cd399$0$63037 $b1db1813$ snipped-for-privacy@news.astraweb.com:

I have an Electolux Built -under double oven. I would live to replace it but it has a feature I really like. The controls are vertically down the right side which means:

1. They don't get hot

1. The top oven goes right up to the top of the housing (minus a bit for insulation) as it doesn't need to leave space for controls.

2. It is white and the division between the top and bottom oven perfectly aligns with the half hieght drawers to each side.

Love the layout - I think it was unique.

I've never had a problem with top mounted ones getting hot?

The one time mine gets used to capacity is Xmas. Have a turkey pan which only just fits the large oven width wise (at an angle). Height has never been a problem.

Ah - excellent. Mine is in a standalone unit (home made) and raised to a height off the floor that suits me.

As well as the sheds, if you've got a John Lewis nearby yo could have a look there. There prices are a lot more competitive these days and their guarantees are very good too.

Also check out independent suppliers. You can sometimes find special offers.

Yes, for a fee.

You'd be better off deciding this yourself after looking through all the specs and advertising stuff. One owner's "must have" can be another's serious annoyance.

We bought an AEG about 18 months ago. As an oven it works OK, but the timer is hopeless. Oh, it's accurate, but the alarm is so quiet it's barely audible, and you can only get to set the alarm after going through the cooking time and off time settings first. After a fortnight I got fed up with this poorly-designed timer and bought an external one to use as an alarm timer.

And don't be fooled by the apparently extra "defrost" setting. This is nothing more than just having the fan on without heating. There is already a position on the oven control for this.

In our previous house we had a "Stoves" double oven which worked for 14 years without any problem. Mind you, previous to that a new Stoves, on its first use, shattered one of the pyrolytic coatings all over the roast spuds inside! So I guess any brand can play up on occasion.

Many manufacturers have online instruction manuals which you can download. These can sometimes be more informative than the adverts.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk:

I have seen some with discoloured knobs due to using the grill with the door open (as you should)

They're SS on mine.

yes, fan & self cleaning are good things

If those days are gone it's news to me. I have 2 ovens, one electronicless one electronic. The latter's required cooking settings are nowhere near what it says on food packets. The former is closer.

I do find it a bit odd when people put pretentious pose value ahead of an item actually working, ie they choose unnecessary electronics when they know them to be unreliable.

NT

Depends on the make. Some manufacturers specify leaving the door open, others that it should be closed. I can't see any reason why there's a difference; to me a grill should be used with the door open.

As I said, no reason for well designed electronics to be less reliable than mechanical methods. Of course a budget oven is likely to cost cut in every single way. I happen to use the electronics in mine all the time - so nothing to do with pose value.

Only if you are installing industrial grade. These days the smart well insulated heat recylcing ones could run off a 13A ring main and they heat up much more quickly. Worth considering a combi oven micorwave.

Prehistoric ones with no insulation and gaps everywhere took a lot more power and had huge thermal inertia to overcome.

I can't say I've had any bother with the electronics on my ovens or hob. The microwaves magentron PSU blew up once but that goes with the territory. Only gotcha after a power cut is that they insist you set the clock time before working at all as ovens.