Which electric oven?

[Stephen99]

Hello,

I’m about to start shopping for a new oven. It needs to be electric and built-in. I would prefer a double oven model. I’m bewildered by all the makes and models out there. Are some better than others? Which do you recommend, and which do you recommend that I avoid?

Thanks.

[kwatt]

Re: Which electric oven?

Most cheap ones are to be avoided, like a plague. 😉

Give us an idea of the sort of models you’ve been looking at and I’m sure Don or one of us can help a bit.

K.

[don]

Re: Which electric oven?

Hi

It’s all down to budget. To get a decent double you will need to be looking at the £500 mark and up.

Ones to avoid? I would not go for a brand you have not heard of or a DIY chain special.

Our cooking buying guide here has a few good articles worth reading.

HTH 🙂

Don

[washtronics]

Re: Which electric oven?

bosch/neff/siemens seem reasonable quality

[Stephen99]

Re: Which electric oven?

don wrote:Hi

It’s all down to budget. To get a decent double you will need to be looking at the £500 mark and up.

Ones to avoid? I would not go for a brand you have not heard of or a DIY chain special.

Our cooking buying guide here has a few good articles worth reading.

HTH 🙂

Don

Thanks. I had a quick look around a nearby Currys during lunchtime. They seemed to have mainly Bosch, Hotpoint, and Beko. From what I have read here, Beko is built to a (low) price, so their appliances are not recommended. I know Bosch washing machines have a good reputation but wasn’t sure whether the same applied to their ovens. I’m not sure about the Hotpoint ones; from what I have read here some like the brand and soem don’t but again, that is from reading about washers rather than ovens!

I was expecting the price to be around £500, so that’s ok.

The pages you linked to were useful, thanks. I saw that some of the ovens had a dial where you could choose whetehr the fan came on and whether the top element or rear element, etc was used. I couldn’t understand why before but that page helped explain the theory. I wonder whether it makes a real difference in practice though, and how many people need that versatility? How many people own a pizza stone?

[kwatt]

Re: Which electric oven?

Hi Stephen,

Okay, first mistake… going anywhere near a large electrical chain store. 😉

For anything even remotely decent they tend to bury, it’s too hard a sell as they have to actually explain things to people and why they should spend a little more to get a bit better. They really struggle with that concept. They also will bombard you to take out a warranty which is… err, not the best value will we say.

Let’s just park it as, that equation is not stacked in your favour.

And, for anything built in, they’re worse. Limited range, limited price points.

That said, most of the Bosch stuff isn’t too bad, they’re not No.1 in built in for no reason. Although I have issues with them, like restrictive servicing practices and spares pricing can be, a challenge.

But again, easy sell, “it’s German” and therefore costs more. Only it mostly isn’t German. But on the whole the best of the three by a country mile IMO in terms of quality.

The Hotpoint’s a lost cause, it’s an Indesit in a dress. Buy an Indesit and save a packet, same machine pretty much. Same goes for just about anything with a Hotpoint badge on it these days and, that’s all it is, a badge.

The Beko, Beko are not yet a fully known quantity on built in cooking, they’ve not been at it long enough but, spares are cheap enough if it does break to be fair to Beko.

For mid market built in’s the Fagor range is worth a look. Comparable quality and performance almost to Bosch without the price tag and aftersales is a bit (lot) more open. I also think that if you register the machine you get a free five year warranty as well, it’s worth consideration.

For upper end of the market you’re into Bosch or various clones thereof and a few esoteric brands.

Then you get into stupid money and particular installation requirements which will make life a lot more difficult. Like the F&P stuff, great kit unless they’ve given up to the Chinese now but, you would need custom kitchen units to accommodate it.

Pizza stones do work and can be good but, to get the most of them you need to be willing to learn and you must have a multi function oven or one with a static oven function on them, or a lower heat only if you’ve the patience. It also really comes into its own when you make a pizza from scratch, not a pre-packed job. I use one I blagged from the shop and it’s pretty good but it’s been delisted, if you want I’ll have a look for a good one for you.

HTH

K.

[gandh1]

Re: Which electric oven?

in an objectionable way but non-disrespective way, the old stock hotpoints, bd52/bd62 etc, were one of our top sellers. indesits dont offer self clean catalytic liners unlike mid-topspec hotpoints, and had a few people “move down” from neffs/bosch to hotpoints. yes the build quality isnt as high, but the cookign results, according to the customers, are percieved to be better. no feedback on the new DH series etc tho?

gorenje are always worht a look too. 5 year warranties are well liked, but in reality avoid unbranded and baumatic stock, stick to zanussi/elux/aeg, hotpoint, neff/bosch or gorenje. personally dont rate smeg either.

[pearce_jj]

Re: Which electric oven?

Just thought I’d mention that my own experience of Cannon cookers (Indesit made I believe) is that the electric elements and fans have a very limited life. I’m averaging three years a piece at the moment, and have just replaced ignitor and thermostat too at 10 years. Door handles have also been replaced…

[gandh1]

Re: Which electric oven?

to be fair to all the brands, its par of the course for most elements these days. took out a 20 year old belling the other day, no real reason other than it was “old” and not in keeping with the new kitchen decor, and the analogue clock wouldnt let you use the timer properly, but most people use manual mode anyway, this cooker had been owned from new and never had a breakdown, other than a couple of new rubber door seals. they had specifically requested a belling induction cooker, and within a week, they are having belling out to (probably) do something with the main oven element, as it tripped out. the main fact is its consumerism that brings these issues to light. the manufacturers are under pressure from major retailers to build something a bit cheaper, or to produce something for the same price even though manufacturing costs have risen. this is blamed/justified by customers wanting lower prices. somewhere corners have to be cut, so the manufacturer goes to their component suppliers and tells them to build the part cheaper or they will buy the components cheaper from a rival supplier. there is a terminal point where you can build something so cheaply it doesnt even last a year, which is whereabouts the manufacturers draw their lines, playing a percentage game as to whether expected failure rates will be likely to be low enough that they wont be called out too often within their free guarantee period.

take the motor industry, in ’88 you could buy an audi for about £2500… these days you need to add an extra 0. consumers seem to be able to accept the way inflation and production costs have caused these prices to rise, yet consumers all too often wrongly assume or place appliances in the fast moving “technology” bracket, whereby they expect prices to continue to drop as their designs become obsolete. but the appliance designs havent changed much over the last 15 years, their only major revision has been moving from timer mechanism programs, to electronic pcb controls but most of the quality brands have been using these for over a decade anyway. fact is if you strip down say a 11 year old bosch maxx w/m, and a classixx bosch today, theres not a lot of difference in the overall design, though there will have been 4 or 5 generations of ranges between them. if you took a tv, radio, laptop or mobile phone from 11 years ago, and looked at what one can doe now, its rather different…

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