What do i need to know about purchasing an oven?

We're about to renovate our kitchen and we will need to purchase an oven. I've never purchased an over before and have absolutely no idea where to begin.

I've been looking on-line and had a quick look at a few in-store. I found that the few i looked at in-store seemed to be way too small. We use our oven a lot and some of them barely looked big enough to fit a roast and roast veg in at the same time.

So i have a few questions...

Do i choose gas or electric?
Do i go free standing? (We will need to purchase a gas top also, am i best to get all in one)
What brands have you had success with?
What size do you find works well for a family of four?
How much will we need to spend to get a reasonably good/great oven? We were thinking 2,500 but i'm not sure it'll be enough.

I think that's it for now but if you have any other suggestions that i haven't mentioned that will be handy to know/think about when making choise i'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks ladies :D

we got a wall oven when we built our house so that the kids couldnt reach it as easily (esp while crawling) and becuase Im tall and didnt want to have to bend as much.

Im regretting it for 2 main reaons:

1) its too small - heaps of our tras do not fit in it - though that could be the brand. My mum has a westinghouse wall oven and she likes it. Ours is technika.

2) its next to the fridge which is not the best plan. Your oven should not be next to the fridge as this will make the fridge have to work harder so it uses more power.

Depending on brand you could easily get a 900mm freestanding cooker for that price range, well within it actually.

Technika are the worst brand I have had the misfortune to have.

Westinghouse are fine and would be well within your price range.
St George are awesome but crazily expensive

We had to replace our oven about 5 years ago. (under bench oven and seperate cooktop)

We have a blanco under bench oven electric and blanco stove top gas.

Blanco has been good only thing I dont like is with stove top only 1 good large burner other 3 are small and crappy. We also got cast iron umm things that go on top sorry cant think of name.

I much prefer gas cook top hate cooking on electric top. However love electric oven.

I think its personal preference. Good luck

I guess the main things to look at are how big it will be and where it will fit in your kitchen. Will all your trays fit in it, etc?

I have a 900mm Smeg freestanding. It was already in the kitchen when we bought this house and compared to the ovens in previous houses I've lived in, this Smeg has been great. I like it because it's wide. I can fit big roasting pans in and baking trays. Great for cooking for a crowd. The oven is electric and the hob is gas. I prefer gas hobs over electric because they heat faster and more evenly.

Myboys, have you checked the CHOICE website for reviews? I know they had at least 1 review, but not sure if it was for paid members??

We have been looking at ovens lately. One thing i did read was, if you can, take your trays/dishes that you use the most, or are the biggest, and see if they fit in any display models at the shops.

We looked at a Bosch that i was totally in love with, but when i pulled the shelves out, they made a horrible screeching sound :( so checking too see how different models slide, might be useful if you think it could annoy you.

We have a wall oven, and for us it is perfect. I love not having to bend down to check on stuff while its cooking. Our current oven is probably 25 years old, and it has a door that slides in under the oven when you open it. You could always go for one that has a door that hinges on the side instead of the bottom. But that would only work if you had the space to be able to swing that door out.

Buttons on the front. Can they be pushed in, (flush with the oven face) so little hand can't play with them? or some sort of similar design? My parents have a new oven and DS loves to play with the buttons and turn the hot plates on. Open plan living, means we can't block it off and keep him away.

Grills. Check to see if you can use the grill as another shelf for the oven. I'm sure the Bosch one we looked at had the option of turning the grill of therefore giving you another shelf to cook in the oven..if that makes sense?? It would give you that extra shelf for cooking if you don't use the grill a lot.

We are having the same problem with finding the ovens seem to be a whole lot smaller than our current one. We can actually fit a Bosch double oven in the space where our current one is. :o

goodluck searching.. If i can think of anything else I'll come back...we are all a little unwell here ATM, so am not thinking all that straight.

Thanks ladies that is really helpful. I think -like it has been mentioned- i really need to go and look at more in-store. Open doors, pull out wire racks and take my trays in (although i'd be a bit ashamed of them, they aren't as clean as they used to be :o)

I am one who prefers to pay more and get a better quality product. (Not sure this is always how it works though).

We currently have a westinghouse Ultimate One. I have no idea how old it is but it's brown so i'm guessing pretty old. The oven and microwave are wall mounted all with in the same unit, one on top of the other. I think it would have been pretty good in it's time. Both work fantasticly still but won't go with the new kitchen.

Nic -I did try looking on the choice website but couldn't get much information out of it. I think i had to be a paid member to get any realy info. But i did look on Product review and was able to read about heaps of different brands and models and pros on cons on each. It was here that i got a bit overwhelmed.

From what i read on product review there were a few ovens of well known brands that had trouble with hinges and seals, cooking evenly... The only brand i found on this website with pretty much faultless reviews was Miele but we'd be paying more for the oven alone before we even begin to look at gas tops :o

Feeb i'll be looking for a good size gas top also, currently we have a Miele Combiset (which is two burners and a bbq grill, already here when be bought). We don't use the grill at all because it is too messy and just smokes out the house. Cooking with only 2 burners so close together is really difficult :o. Really looking forward to having some space on the gas top.

So with the freestanding ovens or mounted low does the 'triple safety glass' (or whatever it is called) work? Does it not heat up? I have young children so it will be a concern?

Must get the little one into bed, i will be back if i think of any more questions. Thanks so much for the replies.

I agree, most ovens look so tiny these days!!

Pandora, would you be able to share what else is wrong with your technika? Thanks! (sorry bit OT MyBoys!).

Ooohh... I'm getting a new kitchen too! We bought all our appliances last weekend. I chose a free-standing 900mm Omega oven and matching rangehood. The cooktop is gas and the oven is electric (my preferred combo, but everyone is different ;))

I looked EVERYWHERE and did heaps of research, eventually narrowed it down to the Smeg or the Omega. Interestingly, someone told me that the two brands are manufactured in the same factory (Omega is owned by Smeg or something??) Don't know if that's true! Anyway , I preferred the look of the Omega (not a big fan of the Smeg knobs) and it was on sale... $1500 cheaper than the Smeg. The Smeg had one extra cooking function... which I'm sure I would never use!!

One of the things which made these two brands my preference was the cooking capacity. There are many different 900mm ovens, but these two had a larger capacity ie. the actual inside cooking area of the oven is larger than standard. If you go for a larger cooking capacity, make sure you buy a decent brand as it is important that the oven is properly insulated.

Good luck!:D

Myboys, my Smeg is a few years old and the glass heats up so I try to keep DS out of the kitchen when it's on. I think the latest models have the feature of the glass not heating but not 100% sure on that.

I have an Omega set too. Electric 90mm oven and 5hob gas range. Omega is made by Smeg but is their cheaper range. I cannot speak highly enough of it.
I originally wanted free standing but this one is under bench and is the best oven I have ever used. I love love love it.
The benefit of having separate is that you can have them separated if you want ie oven under a bench and cooktop on an island if you so desire (next kitchen I build will be like that).
I would never opt to have under 90mm again as none of my trays fit.

Ok, I found this on choice, telling you the differences between gas and electric :)

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About electric

* Older electric ovens have a reputation for taking longer than gas ovens to heat up and cook, but in fact they’ve markedly improved over the years, so this is no longer relevant.
* Most electric ovens these days are multifunction, meaning you can use a combination of top, bottom, grill and sometimes rear elements plus a fan to optimise different cooking, baking and grilling needs, so they tend to be more versatile than a gas oven.
* The price range for electric ovens starts lower.

About gas

* Gas ovens don’t dry food out as much as electric ovens (unless they’re fan-assisted), so they’re ideal for roasts, casseroles and heavy cakes that require moisture.
* Gas ovens are naturally hotter at the top and cooler at the bottom, so unless there’s a fan, food will need to be rotated to get even cooking and browning if you’re doing any multi-shelf cooking. However, it does mean you can cook several different foods at once. For example, after a roast has been in the oven for some time, you can move it to the bottom, turn the heat up, and use the top shelf to crisp the potatoes.
* There’s no direct heat from the top in a gas oven (unless it has an internal grill) so it may not be as good as an electric oven for foods that need browning or crisping on top.
* A gas oven may have electronic controls and/or an electric grill, in which case you’ll need an electrical outlet nearby.
* There are only a few brands of gas oven on the market, meaning less choice for you.
* The bottom line is, if you’re willing to experiment with your oven, you’ll learn how to get a good result regardless of its fuel.

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Pandora, would you be able to share what else is wrong with your technika? Thanks! (sorry bit OT MyBoys!).

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It doesnt heat evenly, im pretty sure its not even at the temperatures that the dials say it should be at. Its completely useless for baking of any kind.
I dont think its fully sealing either. I should see whether this is all covered by warranty, but i don't want another one.

We also have a technika dishwasher. its worse than the oven. Honestly if Id thought of it I would have upgraded both when we built the house. My work are acutioning their miele dishwashers soon so I'm waiting to see what they go for..

Who said Smeg? I LOVE Smeg, too pricey for us though :(

We put an Omega pack in our new kitchen. 900mm electric oven and a 900mm 5 hobb gas top with matching range hood.
With the rangehood, try and get the ones that are more of a boxy shape or you'll be cleaning and polishing the dome shaped ones all the time. We got the box shape one cause the house before had the dome one and all the hard to reach places are more on show IYKWIM.
With the oven, I didn't realise, but you can get some ovens that the glass doesn't heat up too much when cooking. Our Omega one was boiling to touch but we are renting a place atm ( we rented our house out a few months after doing my dream kitchen, so someone else is enjoying my kitchen for now LOL ) and it has a 90cm freestanding Euromaid ( electric oven and gas top ) and I kid you not, but you can touch the glass on the oven even after a few hours of roasting, it's awsome.
I have had a 60cm freestanding Euromaid before with the glass top stove elements that heated up in a couple of seconds, but didn't like the fact that the top was still burning hot after using them so would definately recommend getting the gas top. My cat found that out the hard way.....

Nic, thanks for that. I did see that bit on Choice and i think i'm pretty set on Elec oven now. It only occured to me today that all i've ever cooked with is in electric oven!

Pandora i'm wondering if the Technica brand was used by a lot of house and land package companies. I just did some research amongst family who have fairly new kitchens (house and land package) and they both have Technica. So far no complaints from them though. The seals and even-heating seems to be a common problem in a few ovens on the market... from what the reviews on the Product Review website says anyway.

Nicambhar we went looking today and an Omega freestanding is on my list. But after being favourable to free standing i'm now wondering if we might get seperate oven and cook top. I'll be choosing gas i think ;)

We had a quick look today and i've found a Miele oven and cook top that i'm happy with also. The oven is not extremely expensive so i'd say it's fairly base model but as much as i love to cook i'm not a 'fancy cook' so i don't know that i'll need too many extra features to choose from. The gas top is only 4 burner, i can't imagine myself having too many more pots than that on at a time. I've managed with only two up until now and if i can fit two things on a gas top without having the pan hang over knobs i'll be happy.

Should i be wanting more than four?

the only reason youu'd want more than 4 is to get the wok/fish burner.

Yes I think you are right baout them being used in display homes. Im going to get out the manual/warranty and see if I can make someone fix it.
The gas hobs we have are fine though, thats the only think I like.

Pandora definately get your warranty checked out, make them fix it for you if you can :D

The Miele gas top i'm looking at has a wok burner (or a removeable wok ring). Again though i've never been able to use one in the past but i just might have to get myself a wok and try some 'real' asian cooking once i get my new kitchen :D

Most people go gas stovetop and electric oven.

I recently redid my kitchen but kept my old oven because it's still going strong after 12 years. It's a Neff. The newer ones have telescopic trays on them which means you can pull stuff out without having to shimmy it out. DIdn't explain that well - go and have a look. It used to be under the bench but I've moved it so it's a wall oven because I can't bend very easily since DD.

So because I've been so happy with the oven, I bought a new Neff stovetop too. It's four burner with a wok burner in the middle. I wanted a Miele but the one I wanted was all sold out and it was going to take months to order one in. Plus my friend started calling me Pru from Kath n Kim and I didn't like that ;)

The house we're moving to has a freestanding oven. I'm not overly excited because I'll have to bend PLUS it looks like it's on legs with a gap underneath and I'm pathologically opposed to gaps. Stuff goes underneath and I hate it.

MB - I went out looking for freestanding, but after months of looking I ended up with the separates. Mainly because our kitchen was going to be minimal, no overheads with drawers only and I wanted to keep the look with clean lines IYGWIM..
Thing with the freestanding we have now is that I have to get right under it and clean it out cause it's on legs - just another thing to keep clean.
Lastly, I got my top from Harvey Norman for half price cause it was display stock, there was not one mark on it and still looked brand new. So maybe try asking for the display stock if you wanted something more expensive and don't mind the display one.