Buying a gas wall oven

[onefineleo]

Please give me some guidance. The search turned up lots of mixed and hard-to-follow information about cooktops and ovens. I'm in the market for a great oven, and don't mind spending a bit if I get an oven that I really love. I purchased a Miele dishwasher a few months ago, and am so very happy with it.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[mow123]

I am also looking for new appliances. I am especially confused about which double-oven to choose from. Interested in the GE Advantium. Anyone familiar with it? Also not sure which side-by-side refrigerator is best. Help...

[mlgb]

It looks like the mods removed an advertising post and my response to it. However I think my advice still has merit. If you need something over 24-inches wide, there are very few choices, and some will be very very expensive. You might want to cost out upgrading your electrical to allow for an electric (or dual fuel) oven, and then you'll have a much wider range of options (by a factor of about 10-to-one).

I will say about gas ovens, if you have an (older) one without fancy electrical components, they generally last forever. The only part that tends to fail and is difficult to replace is the clock/timer, and I think that's expendable.

[Eric in NJ]

When we did our kitchen over our thought was to go with a gas wall oven (double) also. While researching we found out 2 things. One there are very few gas wall ovens, and two the ones we found were rather small. We ended up with the electric Electrolux Ikons and love them.

[ThreeGigs]

Things to consider when buying an oven:

- Size matters... bigger is better. Ovens interiors vary in temperature from top to bottom, and from wall to center. The bigger the oven, the less chance half your cake / roast / cookies will be in a hot or cold spot. Not size as in just height, width is important. A bigger oven will promote more even baking and broiling.

- Brighter is better... I can't stand the way most ovens are lit. I want DAYLIGHT light levels inside my oven when I turn the light on. Look for a well-lit oven interior.

- Convection... I don't think you can even buy a serious oven these days that isn't convective, but there are a few caveats. Airflow patterns from the fan can create 'heat gun' zones, so look for a well baffled fan. An out of balance fan will drive you nuts with the background noise. Hard to clean fan filters are a pain, so look for easily removed and cleaned ones.

- Dirt happens... So look for an oven that doesn't have any nooks and crannies where grease spatters will accumulate, or will be hard to get at. Look at the window and see how it's mounted... will things get in between the two panes of glass and spoil your view? Can you easily pull off any dials to clean under them?

- Options, dials and blinkenlights... Look for a lot of choices in heat sources and source combinations. Top element? Bottom element? Fan element? Combinations of the elements? Can you get extra racks? Temperature probes? Steam injection?

- Venting... If you're going with gas, you're going to want to know where the combustion air is going. You're also going to want to know how efficient your oven is, because lower efficiency means a hotter kitchen.

- Quality... I'm a salesman's nightmare. "Can I show you our ovens?" they ask. "Sure", I say..."you open the door of the oven, and I'll sit on it while we talk." If they say "I don't think that's a good idea", they hear "Bye!" from me. I want bulletproof, over-engineered appliances that will stand up to 30 years of use and abuse. If I slip and my weight winds up on a door, it had better not break. Also, how far can you pull out a rack (that'll have, say, a roasting turkey on it) without it falling out ot tipping so much it slides off?

[mlgb]

Do you have a budget? An existing cabinet opening? (This can create problems if you are replacing an older oven). Do you require self-cleaning? Convection? Is the interior dimension important? (not all of them will hold a full half-sheet pan).

There are not many remaining manufacturers of gas wall ovens, especially if you want one wider than 24 inches. I found this to be a problem when trying to replace my dead one. I wound up adopting a friend's 30-year old O'Keefe and Merritt which fit almost perfectly into my cabinet, and still works like a charm.

[Kelli2006]

I love my wall ovens but I would never recommend a gas oven outside a commercial application because they are notoriously inaccurate and the broiler is almost impossible to use.

[ferret]

Nonsense. I was in the kitchen business in the early 90's and sold plenty of gas wall ovens (I preferred Thermador but sold lots of others). Unless the manufacturing has gone all to hell since then I refuse to believe that a gas oven is "notoriously inaccurate." In fact, my current GE Profile is a fine gas oven with a not-at-all impossible broiler.

[MMRuth]

Do you mean all gas ovens, or just wall ones? Thanks.

[Kelli2006]

I'm not a fan of gas ovens for baking and pastry work, but if you don't bake that wouldn't be a problem.

[MMRuth]

Thanks - I do bake, though nothing fancy, and am using an oven thermometer and probably need to get the oven recalibrated (I assume one can do that with a gas oven?). I don't have a choice of ovens at this point, and I do hate that broiler on the bottom!

[RGC1982]

Go for a double oven. You will never regret it.

[josephnl]

Not fair to generalize like that. We live in a small home, love to cook, entertain at least once a week, but rarely for more than two guests (we are two ourselves) and simply have a dual-fuel Bosch range which is more than enough for us. We wouldn't have room for a double oven, nor would we want or need one. We love our new range, and especially like the gas cooktop and the electric oven and warming drawer which our range has. It has terrific and easy-to-use electronic controls, the gas cooktop is very flexible (simmer to super-hot) and the oven has more setting choices than we will ever use (from convection bake, to dehydrating, to sabbath, etc.).

[Mother of four]

Double that suggestion!!!!