<p>I did a complete kitchen redesign/remodel (I hired carpenter/electrician/plumber and did all design, demolition, paint, and purchase work myself) of a previous house about 7 years ago (down to the drywall and subfloor) and found GE’s site had engineering speficications that showed exact dimensions for the range (conventional), vent hood (including where the hole for exhaust would be), dishwasher, and fridge I bought. I was able to have my cabinets trimmed out to within 1/8 of an inch of those dimentions. The fridge looked almost like a builtin(because I went with a shallow depth model). I made sure the tile and cement board didn’t raise the height of the floor too much so as to cause a problem sliding the dishwasher under the counter top and the fridge under the upper storage cabinet.</p>
<p>I recommend doing a little looking on the various manufacturers website for those specs. It might give you peace of mind before having the item delivered.</p>
<p>Himom,
I would try to pull that oven out a smidge to check the actual opening too. Usually it’s just a couple of screws and if it’s like my old oven, they didn’t even bother screwing it in - probably had something to do with why the door broke.</p>
<p>Thanks, Liz. I’ve thought about that & asked hubby but he’s very opposed to the idea. May try pulling it out anyway, but we’ll see. Looks like the hole is a tad smaller than the oven & its trim.</p>
<p>HImom, I’ve been doing the same thing since we moved into our house 10 years ago - replacing applicances one by one as they fail. I had to replace the double wall over several years ago. Because the space was narrow, I had no choice but to replace the oven with the (nominally) same GE model (but about 15 years newer). Even so, it took a superb contractor/carpenter a couple of hours to get it installed. The new oven was a little wider than the older model and much trimming was required.</p>
<p>One of the ovens is convection, and I love it. Things cook faster and more evenly. I use the convection feature for almost everything, and use the second (nonconvection) oven only when I really need a second. I’d recommend the convection feature highly.</p>
<p>By the way, Himom, when we replaced my dad’s stove, the space (the opening) only measured about 29 1/2 inches. However, the new stove, that was listed as 30" wide fit in there. Snugly, but it fit. Sometimes the measurements listes on the products aren’t exact. Good luck, and happy shopping! By the way, there are often lots of great rebates on the web for high end appliances. Take a look around. I got $100 back on a stainless steel fridge a few yrs back, and got free delivery (normally $50) on the GE appliances I got this summer.</p>
<p>In a previous house, we had to replace the oven and the only oven that fit the opening was a GE convection. It was fine. So is the Dacor oven I have now. One oven is distinguished from another mostly by features, not by heating.</p>
<p>Here’s what I’d do: figure out the easiest oven to fit into your opening. Buy the convection version, because convection means you don’t have hot spots and uneven heating. If there are multiple versions with multiple features, THEN worry about the features.</p>
<p>Do they still sell non-self-cleaning ovens?</p>
<p>dmd-
Yeah, believe it or not, they still sell ovens that are not self-cleaning. When I was shopping for the most economical stove I could get for my dad, he didn’t need bells and whistles (someone cooks for him in his home) bugt self cleaning was an essential feature. Believe it or not, there were several low-end stoves that didn’t have it. The m,ost basic model that had self cleaning was at least $100 more (forget exactly) than the el-cheapos without self cleaning. I can just see them with a spraycan of oven cleaner and a brillo pad. NOT!</p>
<p>Dmd, I have to disagree about what distinguishes one oven from another. The high end ovens put a lot of research into retaining an even heat level. They cost more but they really do work better - their doors are heavier and generally the whole oven is heavier.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the feedback. I’ll try to get to the library & read what Consumer Reports has to say. The JennAir we had worked pretty well–it was the high end model. The self-cleaning feature broke a few years before the rest of the oven & finally the entire oven stopped working. Considering it was in the house for about 24 years, that’s pretty good anyway.</p>
<p>Himom-
I love consumer reports, but they often don’t have the models you are looking at . Great for general info, though. There is a TON of info right here on WWWland. Lots of blogs, forums, epinions and the like about different companies, models, features, etc. I’d do some checking in your search engine first before hitting the library.</p>
<p>Love my Thermador oven. It replaced another Thermador oven. I loved the original, and replacing it with the same brand meant we slid out the old and slid in the new with no change in cabinetry. They make narrower models and might have one that might just “slide” in your opening. We have a doulble oven but they make singles. They have regular or reg plus convection or reg plus convection and microwave etc. They have a very helpful webiste with dimensions of models, other spec’s, etc. Best of luck.</p>
<p>Thanks for these additional tidbits. Our old oven was a convection one & I did like it, so we may end up with a convection replacement as well. Haven’t done much research yet, but appreciate all the input. I may start baking more once the kiddos are gone (the younger one is a HS junior). Anyway, lots of food for thought–thanks!
The reviews say that convection’s main benefit is in cooking meats. Most of our meats are cooked in our toaster oven on broil (doesn’t heat the whole house). Mainly I bake desserts a few times/year & sometimes use the unglazed clay pot in the oven for yummy meats. Since HI is already hot enough, I really hate using the oven on warm days & don’t bake much at all in the summers.</p>
<p>OK, have placed order for 27" GE single electric wall oven with convection. Now to see how long it will take to arrive–perhaps 4-6 weeks! Then, have to deal with the installation & installer! Oh well, it looks like there will be NO working oven in my home for Thanksgiving–good thing my hubby is able to smoke the turkey outside in the ceramic smoker. At least we have a micro/convection oven, which should help, as well as a toaster oven.
Thanks everyone, for all your feedback!</p>
<p>We have an in wall GE profile with convection. We have had it for five years and have had trouble with it. Have had to replace the keypad, the sensors, etc. I do NOT recommend the GE brand.</p>
<p>My brother will likely deep fry a turkey for our extended family, to go with hubby’s smoked one.
Sorry to read that you’ve been having trouble with your GE convection oven. The folks at Sears kept telling us that it was the one they most recommended. <sigh> Consumer Reports rates it pretty highly as well. We had a JennAir, but Sears STRONGLY recommended against us getting a replacement JennAir.
Other folks we know have Dacor ovens & are lukewarm about them.</sigh></p>
<p>I don’t know about GE ovens, but our GE Profile refrigerator is fantastic. We’ve had it for more than 10 years with not one repair. It is now in the laundry room and we have a stainless Kitchenaid built-in refrigerator that breaks down twice a year and has cost a grand in repairs…gaaah. Thank goodness for that GE in the back room; it’s saved me tons of money in avoided spoilage.</p>
<p>HImom, you might have better luck than we did. A couple of things that hurt us were: 1) we are in a fairly rural area and there is no GE service around here. 2) I made the mistake of not writing down the serial and model number when we got the oven. These are located inside the oven door. After time, the plate with those numbers had some of the numbers burn out and they are no longer readable. To make a long story short, we had a repairman out twice and he kept ordering the wrong part. SO…write down that model number and serial number the minute you get the oven…</p>
The folks at Sears kept telling us that it was the one they most recommended. <sigh> Consumer Reports rates it pretty highly as well. We had a JennAir, but Sears STRONGLY recommended against us getting a replacement JennAir.