<p>Well, it appears we’re replacing everything in the kitchen, a piece at a time. Sigh! Just finished replacing the dishwasher, fridge & built-in cooktop & built-in microwave. Now the oven has totally given it up.</p>
<p>Anyone have any great suggestions, recommendations, dos & don’ts on picking out a new oven? I called the manufacturer of the existing one & they told us that they don’t keep specs for ovens >15 years old (ours was about 24 years). Sigh–the oven hasn’t worked since June (can tell we don’t use it too much), but we’re having Thanksgiving at our house, so time to get moving on getting a replacement.</p>
<p>I have a self-cleaning convection gas range (one of those overpriced stainless mini-commercial-wannabe jobs). The self-cleaning part is a must. Convection? Eh…could take it or leave it. My advice is get as big as possible…preferably with at least three racks so you can make that oven multi-task.</p>
<p>I love my convection oven! You can also use it in a non-convection mode if you don’t think that would be right for a recipe – like a souffle – I didn’t have the courage to convection it. But, in general, just setting the temp 25 degrees lower and checking for doneness about 10% early is all the adjustment needed. It’s a Whirlpool Gold. It was noticably bigger on the inside than other models we looked at, so take your tape measure to the store. Some ovens are <em>tiny</em> on the inside, although the outside measurement is the same.</p>
<p>I have a Dacor, and I love it. It is a double oven, top has convection, and it is a self cleaning oven. What I think is very important is that the door does not allow fluid to get inbetween the glass, so I don’t have that ugly old drippings look when someone peers through the oven’s window! My old oven had this problem, and I hated it. You could not clean the gook between the glass.</p>
<p>We have no gas line, so the appliance would have to be electric. We already have a convection/microwave & the oven we’re replacing was a convection/conventional one, JennAir. We rarely bake, but sometimes like to use the clay pot to bake & once in a while do bake desserts.</p>
<p>I love the speed of convection, too. Also, the wider the better, Moomin is right, the same measurement on the outside does not always mean the same opening inside!</p>
<p>Are the sizes & trim kits for wall ovens pretty “standard”? I sure hope so because would prefer not to hunt around forever to find the one that will nicely fit in the spot where the expired oven not resides. Is it OK to switch brands or do I have to stick with the original brand? It seems wall ovens come in standard sizes–24, 27 & 30. Our hole is 26.5 inches wide & I believe the oven is “27 inches” tho it actually measures 26.5. The height is 28.75"–as you can tell I don’t have much experience in kitchen appliances.</p>
<p>WesDad’s link is the place to go - you guys think we’re obsessed! Sheesh, those people are truly obsessed.
I have a Kitchenaid convection oven under a Kitchenaid Ultima oven. I would recommend it. The self-cleaning does not work as well as I would like, but the convection cooking is great and the oven heats and browns very evenly. After a few false tries, the broiler is quite good as well.
Per the advice of the Gardenweb folks, we keep a pizza stone in the bottom of the oven at all times which really helps even out the oven for baking.</p>
<p>Yes ovens are standard with the typical being 30". 24" are a little hard to find these days.</p>
<p>Added
Also the KA fan (not the convection, the cooling fan) is fairly quiet, some of the oven fans are noisy. The fans are important these days because they cool the electronics after the oven is switched off - the electronics get hot and it greatly shortens the life of the boards - and some of them are noisy. Four years ago, when I was seriously looking, one of the advantages of the Wolf (the oven I drooled over), was that it had a different kind of electronics (?Glass,?solid state) that were much more durable.</p>
<p>I first suggestion is to find out what ovens fit your opening. I have two friends who had to replace the old oven and had to do some major cabinet cutting to get any of the newer ovens to fit.
I have a Dacor double oven with Convection on top. I use the convection for almost everything. Doesn’t work for brownies or that well on frozen pizza. Our cooling fan is pretty noisy and stays on for a long time once the oven is off. It can be annoying. I find if I open the oven door it cools quicker. Ours is about 10 yrs old and we have had to replace the electronics due to the fan not venting as well as it should. It was pretty costly. Supposedly the parts for the Dacor are expensive. According to the oven repairman Dacor has improved the fan and vent system. Another annoyance with my Dacor is that often after self cleaning the oven won’t heat past 180 degrees. I have had to call the repairman to come out and reset some switch.
My oven is beautiful to look at. Stainless steel and bakes and cooks great. If I was going to replace it I don’t know if I would go with a Dacor again for the above reasons.</p>
<p>I would also check epinions. I have a kitchenaid ultima superba oven/microwave combo (like cangel). The microwave has the superfast ultima feature which i LOVE. Soooo cool. Can make a baked potato in about 10 minutes- fridge cinnamon roll biscuits in the morning for breakfast in about 6 minutes- so they are fresh out of the oven – yummmm!!! I don’t know if the builtin electric oven alone has an ultima option, but it is just wonderful! Looks like GE makes one of these now too-- called the advantium fastcook oven. They are pricey- but its worth it!</p>
<p>HImom,
Are the openings you mentioned the actual cut out sizes? That is what you need to find out from any oven you choose and that may dictate which oven to buy. Most ovens come in standard sizes as you mentioned but the specs for each brand vary slightly as do the cut out sizes. </p>
<p>I bought a Dacor a few years ago (2003 to be exact) and like it for the most part - mine is not immune from the liquid between the glass problem. We use the convection/bake setting for frozen pizzas and it is wonderful. It’s worth having the convection just for that setting. I ended up having to have someone patch the cabinetry on either side since the old oven opening was an inch or so larger. They were both considered 30" ovens. A good appliance store should be able to help you with the opening sizes and I think you can usually access them online. I would recommend Wolf as well but it’s pretty expensive and might not be worth it if you don’t use your oven much.</p>
<p>lizschup, sorry that you are having this door problem with your Dacor. Mine has not caught any drippings. I really like its clean, look. </p>
<p>Mom60, I am sorry to hear that you have had problems with your Dacor. Mine is about 3 years old now, and I have not experienced any problems yet, and I hope that I won’t. I am a very satisfied customer (so far anyway). This is the most expensive, and the best functioning, and looking oven that I have ever had.</p>
<p>Northeastmom,
It was caused by operator error I believe. I sloshed something with liquid all over the door and it seeped in. I still love the oven - the way it looks and the way it cooks. For stainless, it’s amazingly easy to clean - I’m not sure what they do but I don’t have to use those fancy stainless cleaners to get it clean.</p>
<p>^I still think that this should not happen. They know that people do spill things on the door as they pull out a roasting pan, etc. I have not had this problem, and I have had my share of spills too. I tend to overfill my pans so that they come close to bubbling over, but I do know when not to push the envelpe.</p>
<p>BTW, mine is not stainless, so it is good to know that you are happy with your stainless steel. Mine is black (inside and outside).</p>
<p>northeastmom- According to the repairman I can get a conversion kit that would help with the venting. I haven’t done it. I open the door slightly and that helps. It was a design flaw that they fixed on subsequent models.
I also have a Dacor gas cooktop and I love it.
Lizchup- my kids find that with frozen pizza the crust and top don’t seem to both get cooked. This is with the type of crust that is supposed to rise in the oven as it bakes. I can use the convection for flat frozen pizza.
When I first got my convection oven I was in charge of the 5th grade bake sale every friday. I was so thrilled to be able to cook 4 dozen cupcakes at the same time and have them done in such a shorttime. My old oven I could only cook 1 dozen at a time. That was worth the price of the oven</p>
<p>We never use the Dacor for pizza. My kids use our GE Advantium microwave/oven. It works well for their pizzas. It can microwave and brown at the same time.</p>
<p>The dimensions I wrote appear to be the dimensions of the hole (as best I can measure while the non-functioning oven is still in place)–26.5 width x 28.75 height. Depth looks like it’s standard.</p>
<p>Sure appreciate all the input, since I’ve never purchased an oven (the apartment we rented had one & the house had this one that has since died).</p>
<p>This is off topic a bit, but speaks to some of the side benefits from our kiddos expensive college educations. My s interned for GE this past summer. First thing he did was email me a link to the website where I could purchase appliances at employee prices! I now have a nifty new cooktop, and my dad’s freestanding stove conveniently died this summer while s. was interning. Through the employee website I was able to arrange to have a new stove delivered, installed, the old one hauled off, etc, from 1000 mi away with a few keystrokes. And the prices were good too!! Wahoo!!</p>
<p>I also have Dacor double wall ovens–they are now 12 years old and still going strong–no problems. Though I probably don’t use the convection as much as I should.</p>