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Happy lazy sunday to you all!
We are yet to commence construction on our house (eagerly awaiting land registration next month x fingers!).
I have been set on our upgrade to the 900w smeg freestanding cooker
eg:
but I've lately been starting to wonder if we should try and go for a 900w (I'm set on that width) underbench oven with a separate cooktop.
eg:
Does anyone have any experiences or thoughts to add regarding these two types *note it may not necessarily be these exact models, however im more after the differences with the two*
Thanks!
Kym
Hey! I had the same dilemma and eventually chose a Bosch under bench, I personally prefer the more slimline/ sleek look of them and you can use the extra space underneath for an extra pot/ storage. I also didn't like the idea of having all the dust and grime build up underneath the freestanding ones. Having said that I think In the right style of house the freestanding ones look great it really depends on your style I suppose. Good luck!
It depends on the style/look you're after!
We chose the freestanding as our inbuilt option was a smaller Litre/capacity even though it was 900 wide still.
But in hind sight I would've gone built in. They're tidier, less space for cockroaches to hide/breed, and our freestanding one is really shallow. It's surprised us and trays that fit in lengthwise in our old 600 don't in the 900. We have to turn them around thus less trays in total fit.
We've chosen an under bench oven located in a wall tower. This will allow two people to work easily in the kitchen i.e. one at the cooktop & one at the wall oven. As said above there is less height in the 900 ovens. We investigated them all & found one within price range which offered more height.
KDR - Under the Flight Path (Dennis Family Homes)
I really wanted a large freestanding oven too but after reading another thread regarding ovens, I've decided to go with 2 X 600 under bench ovens side by side. You get the extra capacity and the versatility if you're only cooking a small amount of food. I've heard it's a hassle to heat up the large freestanding ovens when you only want to cook a small amount
From my experience at looking, Inbuilt 900 wide ovens often had fairly small internal cavities compared to the size they take up. Kitchen builders also tend to waste the vertical space around inbuilt ovens as well, whereas the freestanding ones will have a rack underneath for storing trays etc. Inbuilt 900mm ovens also seem to be less standard sizes, so if it needs replacing, it may be harder to find one the same size. We ended up going with two 600mm built-in ovens
We had planned to have an underbench oven with separate cooktop because we prefer the streamlined look, but when we went to our selections appointment we discovered the cooktop on the built in option was much sleeker, plus the freestanding included a drawer underneath for storing trays etc - if we'd chosen the built in the space underneath would have just been kickboard.
We are just about to get going with construction so haven't seen the final product yet. I suspect I may have been happier with the look of the built in but my partner preferred the freestanding and does most of the cooking so I went along with it.
We chose the freestanding option. Mostly because I wasn't 100% happy with either of the freestanding or under bench options and I figured it would be easier to change over a 900mm freestanding after handover than it would to try and find an under bench model to fit.
As it turns out the freestanding model that came as standard has actually turned out quite well. It's much larger than I thought, doesn't take long to heat up and so far (fingers crossed!) hasn't caused us any issues. I guess we will keep it until it breaks ?
I prefer a built in oven. We have a 900mm at bench height. I like it. In another build we are currently doing we have gone for 2 600mm in a tower above each other.
I personally don't like that look of the freestanding as much (only my opinion), it means that the bench stops and there is a small gap creating space for crumbs etc to fall into.
Really you probably need to go looking at ovens to see what you like & take your biggest lasagne dish and roasting dish with you to check they fit.
wow, all very valid suggestions and opinions! I think i'm going to have to go looking at ovens now... 2 x 600 ovens would also be a great option i think... its just fitting it into the kitchen...
hmmmm I'm thinking I'm going to need to press the builder for our kitchen elevations!
I like that Smeg oven as when I looked at a few options it had a big oven cavity compared to others. I've had a freestanding Smeg before and I don't think the grime was too bad in the space between the oven and bench top. Also it's a good price and its cooktop, oven and (I hope) warming drawer all in one. I'm probably going for the freestanding 900mm oven plus a built in 600mm which I'm hoping will be faster to heat up so probably used more often.
One big thing with the freestanding ovens is the repair cost if a part fails underneath the gas burners. If the part that fails is an electrical part then you will need the electrician to replace it BUT he will need to call a plumber to disconnect the gas and remove the top burners so he can replace it and test it. Having two trades to fix one oven could get very expensive.
Hi, really curious as to what you ended up deciding on and are you happy? Thanks!
I'm going thru this same question in my head now/
I think I'm leaning more towards the free standing oven 900mm
They look nice and the shelf space is actually 900mm compared to the inbuilt 900mm shelf space is about 700mm.
Its a tough decision- they both look so different to each other!
I'd recommend looking at how deep the shelves are!
Ours is a freestanding 900 but strangely its not all that deep. Our 600wide fit as many trays just about as we could fit them deeper in. (if that makes sense).