<p>My old range was SO old, it took forever to heat up. The concealed element…or any other feature…would still have been an improvement over the old range.</p>
<p>There is a piece of me that thinks I should have coughed up the additional $400 for the next model up which had the convection feature…but I didn’t.</p>
<p>My oven has both steam clean (not aqua clean) and traditional self clean. I used the steam clean option and was disappointed…but maybe I should have done it immediately after the spatter. Oh well. The self clean will take care of it when I run that eventually.</p>
<p>Igloo, the LG ovens I looked at have a 20-minute easy clean feature, as well as the deep clean where oven 800* Reviews say if you use the easy clean feature, you probably won’t need the heavy duty cleaning too often. I was reviewing the single oven, convection.</p>
<p>Bookworm…that 20 minute steam clean is what I just did with my new oven. I was underwhelmed…but it may be that you have to do it immediately after any spatter takes place. </p>
<p>In this day and age I can’t imagine having an oven without a self cleaning feature.</p>
<p>thumper, Just curious where you saw that link about discontinuing the disposals in 2009. The only thing I could come up with on a search was a 2009 gardenweb thread “Disposals or No Disposals?” which looked as if it referred to Bosch but was actually about the Kitchenaid. </p>
<p>Just replaced a 2000 model a few months ago. I know they didn’t come with grinders as an option on any model then because it was originally a negative factor in my decision. It’s possible there was a brief time they were sold with the feature, but just bought a 2009 and a 2012, and thought that they never offered this. I could be wrong!</p>
<p>thumper, love self-cleaning featute in the oven. I also like the antique look for my kitchen. The look is winning over convenience at the moment.</p>
<p>My Miele dishwasher also did not have a grinder and like others have said, when I have cleaned the filter, there was barely anything in it. Lack of a grinder has really been a non-issue for me. I’ve really been having a hard time fitting a lot of stuff in the Bosch in our new house. It really seems to hold so much less. I think we will be replacing it with a Miele shortly.</p>
<p>When I recently purchased a range I got an LG with two ovens. The top one is small, and perfect for when I want to make some pizza or roast some veggies (which I now do on my pizza stone with A++ results!). The bottom oven is closer to the normal size, and was plenty big enough to do bone-in spiral cut ham. Might only have issues with the largest of turkeys. It also has convection, but I haven’t given it a shot yet.</p>
<p>I really find the smaller top oven to be wonderful. It heats up really quickly, and doesn’t make my whole kitchen hot like my old one used to.</p>
<p>Update from the OP! Close to a year later, we’ve finally made some forward progress. Since we like the kitchen footprint, we’re mostly refacing the dated laminate with wood. We need to rebuild the oven cabinet and a large built-in desk area in the adjoining breakfast room. I only found two reputable contractors willing to take on both refacing and new construction. Both were relatively close in price and below what I was expecting.</p>
<p>As for appliances, we went with a lower end Bosch dishwasher, a single Whirlpool convection wall oven and a Kitchenaid warming drawer (that has slow-cook feature). The warming drawer is a custom panel model that the cabinet contractor will install, along with changing the existing Sub Zero custom panels. We’re going to try to fix the existing cooktop’s downdraft, the cooktop itself is fine. May or may not change the sink. Will put in a new faucet and soap dispenser. </p>
<p>Funny how I forgot about this thread. I had entire kitchen redone, and just passed final City inspection. Really like the 800 series Bosch d/w. </p>
<p>Oooooooo, I love my own new kitchen, but re-doing it was so much fun that I wish I could do it again. aMacMom, enjoy the decisions that still remain!!</p>
<p>My new kitchen is almost done. They took the template for the countertop the other day. We’ll be finishing up with painting on Monday. In two three weeks, I should have the totally new kitchen. I love the look so far except the paint color. I chose the trims the same color as the cabinets. It seems too much of that color. It’s a small kitchen packed with cabinets.</p>
<p>@aMacMom, I like your countertop microwave idea, but do you find it to be an inconvenience to pull up the cabinet each time you use the microwave. And do members of your family pull it down when you are finished with the microwave. I’m afraid my family would never close it. They had trouble closing a toaster over door with the same configuration.</p>
<p>I remember reading this thread last year (and others) when I was contemplating a new kitchen. I did all the grunt work over the Summer, it was installed in September. All is finished now, except I still haven’t sealed the glass/cracked glass backsplash. I’m pleased with everything, and learned a lot from the threads on CC.</p>
<p>All my appliances are Whirlpool, wonderful quality, black. The previous appliances were bisque, but even from the same manufacturer, didn’t match perfectly. </p>
<p>Mine, too. It took me forever to find a shallow microwave. I don’t know what I’d do if this one breaks down.</p>
<p>I am having a walnut countertop installed. I am having trouble deciding whether to have a permanent seal or mineral oil seal. Permanent seal is easier to maintain, it’s permanent. Mineral oil finish will allow me to refinish making it look new again although I have to reseal from time to time.</p>
<p>Re: closing the microwave cabinet: We’re empty nester now… DH and I are both pretty OCD so closing it when we’re done isn’t an issue. But I went with the pull up door so it can be left open during food prep without the door(s) getting in the way. We also looked into pocket and rollup doors, but this worked better for us. </p>
<p>@Iglooo: We’re putting a walnut countertop on the breakfast room cabinet and haven’t decided how to seal it yet. I’m interested to hear feedback on pros/cons on the options.</p>
