Whats a good oven to buy ?

[JDarvall]

Gas, or electric. Anything useful. What not to buy. How to save money sort of stuff. Haven't a clue really.

The wife wants a new oven. Actually, a new kitchen. But the oven should keep her happy for a while. So maybe a free standing one I can install now, and I can build new cubboards around it sometime in the future.

Thanks.

[Burnsy]

My mother was a home economics teacher and is an absolute wiz in the kitchen. She always told me that the best ovens are electric (fan forced) and best cooktops are gas. We just put a stand alone electric oven/gas cooktop oven in our new place and my wife loves it. It is one of those 900mm ones and you can fit alot in them. It is not a top of the range one and I think we paid around $1200 for it, Teknica is the brand.

Check out the cattledogs for the best prices or one of those exdemo/runout stores

[JDarvall]

Thanks Burnsy. I'll mention that to the misses.

[manoftalent]

As a chef of more than 30yrs, I can tell you that you would waste your time and money with anything electric ...gas stoves/ovens .....win hands down ....even better if its fan forced, as it helps to minimise hot spots ....being from a professional background I would prefer stainless steel.....top, bottom, and all over .....sure its going to cost a lot more than a standard baked enamel job ....but it will last a lot longer ....maybe you might like looking at the "Kenwood" range .....or lookup a commercial showroom and go have a sticky beak....in the long run its the better option....you dont wanna be building cupboards etc, around a stove and 4-5 yrs later have to redo them all over to fit " a new stove" in again.

[Burnsy]

No worries, reasoning behind it is that apparently electric elements give a more precise and even heat for an oven - better regulated than gas and the gas is instant, heat on/heat off for cooking in a pan.

Edit - I am not a chef so manoftalent is probably more the expert

[Cliff Rogers]

the best ovens are electric (fan forced) and best cooktops are gas.
Seconded. :2tsup:

If you can afford it, get a double oven rather than a super large one.
That way you can have a roast going in one & a batch of biscuits or pudding or cake going in the other.

We had saved up some serious dollars for our kitchen so we have a St. George electric double oven & 3 gas 1 electric hob.
We don't use the electric hot plate much but there are a few things that need very low heat that gas won't do.
We have since found a 'spacer' thing with small holes in it that works as a diffuser for gas hot plates & it works well for very low heat but it is a cheap junk thing that is always rusty. :rolleyes:

[journeyman Mick]

Jake,
I'd second what Burnsey said. Fan forced is best for ovens and as far as I know not acailable in gas. Gas is best for cooking on (you won't find any electric cooktops in a commercial kitchen) So you want a "dual fuel" cooker, either that or an underbench electric oven with a gas cook top.

Mick

[markharrison]

We have a Technika cooker (gas cooktop and electric oven) which came with the house. It's not bad but the oven is a little touchy.

In our last house, I bought an Ilve double electric oven. Given a choice, I would buy an Ilve anything again in a heartbeat.

[manoftalent]

as a footnote ...it appears that after some checking, that electric ovens have come out that acctually do cook ok, thats the responce I got from several chef type mates of mine, there are several points to remember though ...electricity costs are forever increasing,electric ovens still take ages to cool down when either turned down or off, electric ovens produce a "dry" heat, gas produces a "moist heat", baking pastries and breads are not such a good idea in electric, you wont get the same results......and need to add moisture to compensate ....bowl of water in the bottom ....more liquid in the mix ....etc...you may like the idea of a split unit ......but it may end up like owning a rollsroyce ....nice to look at .....but costs an arm and a leg to drive .....so my advice is ...go to showrooms ....have a look .....ask questions ......then go to commercial repairers ....ask them questions .....like parts available, item most likely to breakdown ..you would be suprised at what you learn from the guys that fix them ..

[Bleedin Thumb]

One more vote for the electric oven gas top. I'll add make it 900mm wide the flexibility that it offers is far superior than mucking around with a 600.
Also go cast iron trivetts.... and stainless steel

I went through the big shopping dilemma a couple of years ago..

I decided :

That the self cleaning claims were pretty dubious so didn't waste the money.
Meile and smeg where just overpriced for the brand conscious consumer (I am not one...except for my beer...:) )
Most salespeople wouldn't have a clue because they don't own new stoves.
Most ovens come from the same couple of factories and are branded for their clients and after a while you can recognise that the cheapy is identical the branded one in the other shop.
Wait for them to go on special we paid $1800 for a stove that usually retails for $2400. Its called a Euromaid but I have seen the same one with at least 2 different names on it.
Got it from Hardly Normal and am very happy with it.

good luck.

[bitingmidge]

A Weber is a good oven and you don't have to worry about fitting cupboards round it.

Cheap too, compared to those other ones.:2tsup:

P

[journeyman Mick]

A Weber is a good oven and you don't have to worry about fitting cupboards round it.

Cheap too, compared to those other ones.:2tsup:

P

Yeah, but the pre-heat time is a bit of a killer.:rolleyes:

Mick

[jags]

After two reno's and my own place i have to agree with the rest of you .
Gas cook top and Electric fan forced oven .
Electric cooktops suck they do not desplace the heat as good as gas ones (imo )
I have just brought an Ariston cook top 900cm with wok burner and inbuilt cast iron griller $800 and a Ariston oven $690 for my current reno which i will be living in so wanted something special .Shop around and you can get a good price i got mine for a Harvey Norman sale and saved about a grand .Also as people have mentioned do your reseach visit some review websites i almost brought a Ariston dishwasher as well but was glad i did not when i read the reviews about them .(there shockers )

i think there is a major difference in what you buy for a reno to sell or rent and what you buy for yourself .Seeing that it is for your own use i would buy what you want not the cheap option as you will be using it a every day .
( that statement all depends on how much takeaway you eat )

two things two remenber are that gas oven are alot more expensive than eletric ovens from my research ( I got a electric oven for a reno in an apartment and then realised that to wire it in would cost thousands so had to get a gas one insted )
And i believe all new installed gas ovens in W.A must be flued . Which can cause major headaches.

rob

[SilentButDeadly]

We are in the oven buying department at the moment....

The Westinghouse/Electrolux product assembled in South Australia seems to be the best value in terms of size versus dollars in the standard oven size.

We are looking only at 600mm ovens because having had a 900mm oven I've found them a waste........one pizza in a whopping great oven is just stupid and our current old Chef 600mm fits a full roast and veges just fine. How often would you really need a monster oven? Or do you just want to impress your friends?

Most of the Euro made 600mm ovens are much smaller than the Oz made (sic) Electrolux etal. I say sic because while the box is made here none of the electronics is.

Of the Euro's.........Bosch is the best rated bang for buck by Choice, followed by Miele....with Electrolux bringing up the rear. Neff isn't such a bad brand either...

Us? We still have noooooooooooooooooooo idea. Why should it be this hard and so stupidly expensive to select a steel box that gets hot????

[craigb]

Just bought an AEG fan forced electric oven for the kitchen reno.

It's absolutely brilliant.

I don't agree with Bleeding on the self cleaning though (at least not on ours) the pyroelectric cleaning works a treat. The oven heats up to 500 C and just vaporises any crud. In all honesty I was a bit dubious about it but it really does work.

The last oven was a gas under bench and it sucked.

No doubt a pro oven would be different though.

[jags]

Thought i would add
I also noticed the internal size difference in ovens definitely worth checking each one you look at .
They maybe all 600 out size but some internally are the size of an icecream container .

[Ashore]

Still another vote for Gas hotplates / electric FAN FORCED oven , we don't have a conventinal oven though just a larg convection microwave , you can use it as a fan forced electric oven , a microwave or a combination of both , so you can roast a chook exactly the same as you would in an oven , at 180 deg bout 60-80 minutes depending on size or 40 minutes if you go at 180 deg and 100-160 watts of microwave at the same time , chook looks and tastes the same both ways:2tsup:

[woodcutta]

I don't agree with Bleeding on the self cleaning though (at least not on ours) the pyroelectric cleaning works a treat. The oven heats up to 500 C and just vaporises any crud.


I'll second what craigb says. Having lived in the US for 3 years where nearly all ovens are self clean - best thing ever.

We have just bought a Fisher and Paykel self clean oven. Its a 70cm and that bit of extra width allows 2 trays or frypans to be put on one shelf

With 13 shelf positions there is no wasted space.

AT -try Winning Appliances for a good range of ovens

woodcutta

[bitingmidge]

Yeah, but the pre-heat time is a bit of a killer.:rolleyes:

nah, that's what the oxy's for!

P
:D :D :D

[redheeler]

Hi Jake

We have an induction cooktop (Miele) that I have found to be almost as quick as gas. Advantages - when cooking, if you remove the pot and the hot plate is still on, no burns as surface only generates heat if in contact with pot, not flesh - great for those of us with small offspring. A completely flat surface that is easy to clean. Energy efficiency - only the base of the pot receives gets heat, not the whole element.
Disadvantages - induction cooktops are pretty pricey. As well, special cookware is required, as induction uses electromagnetic energy that will only respond to cookware that has a base that a magnet will stick to, so standard pots don't work. I do heaps of cooking and induction is the best as far as I am concerned.

Cheers
Redheeler

[macca2]

We have redone the kitchen recentley and when choosing a stove and cooktop went for the Teknica gas cooktop and a Westinghouse electric oven.
The main reason for the Westinghouse was that when you pull out the oven trays they have stop at the back of the tray and cannot be pulled all the way out of the oven without lifting the front of the tray first.
All of the European oven we looked out,although they had some good features, it was possible to pull the oven trays straight out of the oven, thereby dumping the hot roast etc on you lap or down your shins.
A very good safety reason to buy the Westinghouse.
Macca

[journeyman Mick]

nah, that's what the oxy's for!

P
:D :D :D


Or a 50/50 mix of petrol/diesel:D :D

Mick

[China]

My grandmother was a chef and would use only gas, there good and bad in both, I have installed a 900mm emilla/glem made in Italy (no one in australia makes a similla one) it's all stainless steel and has both electric and gas oven in the one unit it's too early to tell how long it will last but it works like a dream, it does come with a price tag of $3000.00 including stainless conopy

[rhancock]

Definitely gas hob, electric oven.

SWMBO bought Smeg from the scratch and dent auctions and the oven's been a piece of cr&P from the day I put it in. The hob and dishwasher are good though. Bought a Whirlpool side by side fridge freezer from scratch and dent which has been great too.

In England, "European" appliances means cheap and nasty, so I see no reason to buy them here! I couldn't recommend anything else from experience though.

I did have a job for 3 months running the complaints call centre at an old fashioned cooker company in Britain a few years ago. The cookers were manufactured downstairs and the call centre was upstairs so if there was something we didn't know, we'd go down to the factory floor and ask the experts! You don't get that from a callcentre in Mumbai...

So I"ll fully back the recommendation that you talk to the appliance repairers first - they will know all the faults going back over the last 10 years or so. They'll tell you which models are dummies and which are top class.

Remember at the end of the day you want an oven to get to the right temperature and stay there. Anything else in the way of complications is money the maufacturer hasn't spent on what you actually want it to do, so keep it simple.

[JDarvall]

Thanks. I like that advice on asking appliance repairers. Thats crafty. like that.

Thanks on all the other advice as well.

Will be calling Harvey Norman -> Hardly normal for now on.:D ( go well with our other shops....crazy clarks -> crazy tarts, mitre 10 -> mitre 50 :- )

So definetly gas top. The oven must be fan forced. Not sure if it should be gas or electric.

[woodbe]

Another vote for Gas cooktop and electric fan-forced oven.

We bought a St George side hinge door electric oven and Smeg gas cooktop about 5 years ago. The oven has those self cleaning inserts, which seem to keep it cleaner than if they weren't there, but we're not over the moon about them, the oven still needs cleaning every now and then :) We chose the side-hinge model because we got sick of the bottom hinge that we had last time, you have to reach over the door to get to the contents.

Reliability: The cooktop hasn't missed a beat, the igniters (push to spark) work well and have given no problem. The Oven has had maybe 4 service calls, and currently needs another (dies if you turn it over 160) it has killed 2 oven lights in the time we have had it. The service calls have been for an element not working or the oven not turning on at all, repairs have been quick and simple, and mostly under warranty. When it works, (which is most of the time) the oven is very good. If we decided to replace it, I think we would look hard for another brand, but as long as parts remain available, I can't see that happening anytime soon.

As a side note on the electric oven being 'drying', my brother, who is into things culinary, tells me that the best commercial ovens have a water connection that is used to keep things moist. As far as electric ovens 'staying hot' and gas ovens cooling down quickly, I would have thought that is a feature not a fault.

woodbe.

[rhancock]

Funny story to keep the mood light...

Went to see friends at the weekend, and swmbo tried to use the oven, but couldn't get it hot, so asked hostess who didn't think anything was wrong with it. - but agreed to ring service. Turns out one of the elements had never worked, but hostess had never realised that it didn't get hot enough.

[Andy Mac]

We have a run-of-the-mill gas stove top and oven, one piece. I wish it was a bit bigger, and had a wok burner, and I wish the click starter on the stove kept working, but I'm glad the one inside the oven keeps going!
My only comment about what's been said is I don't really see the point of worrying about fan-forced and even heating in the oven. Heresy!!:p Maybe I'm a Luddite, never owned a microwave even, but why not just accept hot spots, learn to use the oven for what it is. If you need a hot, quick cook like a pizza, shove it on the top shelf. If you want a slow cook, maybe for a roast joint, or a cake, adjust the shelves to the lowest point and cook at the bottom of the oven. If you have two or three shelves in use and something's not cooking at the right rate, swap things around. To me it allows more options.

Cheers,

[woodbe]

Now you're talking.

To heck with the oven. Some of the best food I've ever eaten was cooked in the coals of a campfire.

In cooking, like most human pursuits, the results are dependent on the skill of the operator more than the quality of the tools.

woodbe.

[journeyman Mick]

Uneven heating isn't too big a deal for roasts and the like but is disastrous for baking pastries and other delicate stuff that needs to rise and/or is easily burnt.

Mick

[Andy Mac]

Uneven heating isn't too big a deal for roasts and the like but is disastrous for baking pastries and other delicate stuff that needs to rise and/or is easily burnt.

Mick

Fair call, as long as its not a code violation!:D

Cheers,

[Bleedin Thumb]

Try these ovens if you want something a bit different.

http://www.slingsby.com.au/domesticovens.html

[journeyman Mick]

Fair call, as long as its not a code violation!:D

Cheers,
Yeah, baking pastries seems close to a code violation, but eating them, well, I don't think anyone would have any problems with that!:D

Mick

[Bleedin Thumb]

Uneven heating isn't too big a deal for roasts and the like but is disastrous for baking pastries and other delicate stuff that needs to rise and/or is easily burnt.

Mick


I knnnnooooww,

Yesterday I burnt my Vol Au Vonts and nearly died of embarresment...


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