Ovens and cooktops

Hi,
I'm about to build a new house and the builder standard is Technika. I currently have a 540mm Westinghouse Gas Upright Oven/Cooker in the house we built 13 years ago. I have hated it from the beginning. This is actually the second one. Unfortunately there was not a lot of choice when replacing it as to what would fit in the space and we knew we were moving anyway so we went with the same thing. I have never been able to cook meringue and the cleaning is a nightmare.

Just about anything will be an improvement so I was happy with the Technika but now I'm wondering if I should pay a bit extra and upgrade. I do like cooking and as a SAHM I tend to cook a lot. I want a gas cooktop and an electric oven.

I have two concerns.

*General quality for the price. I don't want to spend unnecessary money just to buy a brand but I want to have an oven I'm going to love using.

*Size - I'm now worried about how small people are saying new ovens are. My current oven isn't great but at least I can get the Christmas ham in it. I was thinking of going with a Blanco 900mm dual fuel upright cooker but I've read they are costly to run because you are heating such a big oven all the time.

Any suggestions? Would you stay away from Technika? Would you have a 900mm upright cooker? I have read the threads about ovens and know that Technika doesn't have a great rep but I thought I would see what the recent point of view is. I haven't seen much about the large upright cookers though.

Thanks,
Nat.

Bosch and Electrolux pyrolitic 60cm ovens are electric and high capacity you can fit trays up to 42cm wide and these ovens have depth too. Seems like Bosch is better for even distribution of heat.

If you are a keen cook and use you appliances a lot I would upgrade from Technika. Lets face it, it is not a premium product, it is built to a cost. The difference between a good oven and a poor oven is massive and the joy you will get from using an oven that is precise will be worth far more than the price difference.

The 60cm ovens from Germany seem to range in capacity from abouty 60 litres to 70 litres. Ours is 63 and we can certainly get everything in but it is rare that we cook more than one thing at once. The difference between 63 litres capacity and 70 litre capacity is not that great and if you want any meaningful space increase you need to go to 75cm or 90cm. In my experience, 90com takes a long time to heat up and only the very best 90cm ovens will not have hot and cold spots.

For me, I would get the best you can afford. If you go to 90cm then I would spend a bit more than you can afford to get the best.

I think unless you want a very hot wok burner, you can save money on the cooktop because performance between the top of the range gas cooktops and lower range is not that much different.

Can I please add my 2c worth on TECHNIKA. I have been using the gas cooktop & electric oven for 15 months & I hate BOTH!

The brand is c**p!!!! I opted not to upgrade because I didn't want to pay the builder's margin. Figured I could wait until the Technika cooktop & oven die and then buy my own replacements Well I wish they'd both die NOW !!! . Now don't get me wrong.......I'm no chef that expects the best appliances but when I prepare a meal, I do expect them to work reaonably well. These don't ! No way around it.

If you love to cook & can't wait several years to replace T, then upgrade now & cop the builder's margin. You will avoid years of frustration. If being in the kitchen is no biggie....then make do with T.

The issues.
Cooktop :
1. the burners are rubbish - the simmer burner doesnt' simmer! IN other words, anything that requires simmering gets burnt!
2. The wok burner doesn't produce the proper flame. Keeping it clean doesn't help, the flames are yellow & don't cook properly.
3. One of the control knobs causes the ignitor(makes the clicking sound) to stay on often upto 1 minute after the flame appears!
4. You don't get much difference in the size of the flames when turning down the gas. This makes it difficult to control the cooking

Oven :
1. Stupid temp dial - where the hell is 180 deg - the most common one used for baking ???



2. Uneven temperatures within the oven. Using fan-forced option makes no difference.

Yeah we are supplying our own. Whats peoples thoughts on omega stand alones. We want the 900 electric?

Have had Tecknia and I too think they are crap, so both now gone. The oven wasn't too bad, but the gas cooktop was shocking. When ever I wanted to boil water for example it was faster by a long shot to boil the kettle and put it in. One new cooktop (Westinghouse) it takes about 1/4 the time. The new oven, also a Westinghouse is so much better too.

Hi,

I would not go for a 900cm oven. As Melrich wrote, they take longer to warm up, and it is more difficult to keep the temperature.

I just bought a Siemens pyrolytic oven and it's brilliant. Siemens has a promo going, $300 redemption + a free pizza stone and paddle. The oven has 3 telescopic rails, a smell filter and 5 yrs warranty! It has 63 ltr, the shelves are about 42x34cm. I've used it for roasts, chicken and cakes and I can't believe how much different everything is cooked.
I paid for my HB76AU560A oven $2899, minus the $300 + $229 (RRP for pizza stone).

You can have the same oven without pyrolytic, it's cheaper and cleaning is supposed to be as good as.

I would have liked a Miele, but I'm not prepaired to pay for the same thing over $4000 just for looks.

I would recommend upgrading if budget permits.

For the oven - focus on what features are important to you and focus on those. We picked up an ex display Euromaid for half price and it has the features I wanted including pyrolitc and lots of functions. our is a 60cm. DH would have loved a double or 1.5 oven (ours is a wall), but we figured out we really hardly ever cook more than one thing at a time, and he has a monster BBQ if required - cooked the xmas turkey in the bbq last year and it worked a treat! The ham was in the oven!
This allowed us to spend more on the cooktop - Highland gas with black ceramic base - because we use the cooktop much more than the oven. Highly recomend it, the wok burner is super high but can also go to super low simmer, which can be hard with gas.

IMO the sink, benches and appliances are pretty much the most important because they are used the most in a kitchen.

Hello,

Bosch pyrolytic are excellent. Pyro self-clean gets is absolutely spotless. They bake well. Also Chef are meant to be reasonably priced and well reviewed by people and Choice magazine.

Regards, Mimes

Awesome feedback guys! Thanks! I'm definitely going to upgrade. We got a bit of a fright from our tender document that came through yesterday so I need to keep it under control. Although everyone seems to love the Bosch and Miele, I think they may be asking too much from my budget, but I will check. I think I will check out the 'Aussie' brands and Siemens. I guess I will stay away from the 900mm because I don't see the point of spending so much money if the performance isn't necessarily there or the size isn't as big as you would expect. Also I'm often in a rush for week night dinners and don't want to waste time waiting for a giant oven to warm up! I think I need to go to Clive Peeters or somewhere and have a look around.

My builder said they prefer to source the oven as if it goes missing from site (which apparently often occurs) they will be able to replace it. So is this just an excuse to add more profit for them? Has anyone had difficulty putting their own appliances in? If I go to all this trouble of researching what I want and telling the builder and they substitute it I will strangle someone!

Nat.

Siemens = Bosch with slightly better quality + 5 yr warranty (instead of 2or3) + more $$$

We picked up an entry level Bosh oven for around $1k, has good features and std triple glazing means a relatively safe door for kiddies (child lock std + ours will be in the wall so more out of reach for the minute)

Our builder gave us back almost retail on our appliances. the only thing we have to pay for past the credits is the Schweigen rangehood, but its sooooooooooooooooo quite.

Bosch HBA13B250A Oven

Bosch PCR915B90A Cook top

Hi,
I swear I get more confused the more I research! At this point I am leaning towards an Electrolux or Bosch oven. I'm thinking though that the Bosch will be too small. I usually do a whole leg of ham at Christmas and regularly cook a large chicken and a large tray or sometimes two of roast vegies at the same time. And I'm a regular cake, cookies and muffin baker. I mentioned the possibility of buying two Bosch ovens and putting them next to each other to the hubby and he wanted to know why not just go with the Electrolux that has an 80L capacity instead of the 63L capacity of the Bosch? Hmmm... not sure if I am being a brand snob or not?

Then we were looking at gas for the cooktop but saw induction working the other day and was impressed. We will be on bottled gas and if we don't have to plumb the gas to the kitchen (bottles will be a fair distance from the kitchen) we would actually save some money in that regard. BUT I think I would rather put more money into the oven than the cooktop. BUT love the idea of easy cleaning of a cooktop.

Sigh We have a couple of weeks before our colour appointment where we apparently have to choose our appliances.

Scarystuff,

I doubt an 80lt single oven would take a ham and a medium bird, let alone a big one and 2 veg trays.

The Bosch Oven internal sizes are very generous, but the best thing you can do is take your favorite tray and see if it fits. My biggest roasting tray only just fits in our current oven, but there is plenty of room in the Bosch.

I read on another website that does mainly reviews and comparison that a lot of Electrolux stuff has door problems, so I steered clear.

You could try looking the appliances you want at http://www.comparison.com.au or http://www.productreview.com.au

Ok we bit the bullet and really had to buy the 900 as the space in our kitchen was already made.

We brought the omega electric/electric but apparently because this one has two fans unlike all the other brands the temperature is spread evenly. Stay tuned I will let you know how we go lol.

what cooktop did you get?

A bit late to join in, but anyway.

When we were supposed to select our appliances, I read lots of reviews and there was a consistent trend re. Technika - not good. So, we eliminated that brand.
Anyway, finally somehow got AEG nat gas top and Electrolux oven (haven't used it yet ).

The top is, as usual, designed the wrong way around (largest plates at the back, so you're constantly watching if any breeze is going to sway the gas to touch that splashback or if your wide pot can actually fit). Almost all plates are super slow - this might be an adjustment issue I hope, far slower than electrical c/tops we used recently and far far slower than our old gas stove (which was super good).

Re. oven size - I recently used an old Chef wall oven (and a half). It's excellent IMO, and most of the time I just used the smaller half-oven (top heating only, not even a fan in it) but with a bit of "customisation", I managed to even bake cakes in it. So, I'm now all for the wall 1.5 ovens (but too late for us).
With our large oven (I think it's 80 l, but it says 66 l net capacity), I'm thinking of getting a small toaster oven for quick heat-ups and small stuff. Don't like using the microwave and can't imagine having to use a huge oven for tiny little pieces ... That said, I do still have to test it

Not sure if your talking to me leni but we got this one..

I would not consider an Electrolux oven either because it doesn't seem to keep the temperature as well as a German brand.

More and more confused! I went to Harvey Norman and was impressed by the induction cooktops but I'm not sure of cost but then again I won't have to put gas to the kitchen if I do that instead of a gas cooktop. I have to make a decision by next Tuesday. I'm not enjoying this process! I think I broke my decision making muscle.

Narrow down on the oven features that you'll actually use.

We got a very impressive pitch about an oven that had 100's of automatic cooking modes. Not only was it confusing for the novice, it cost much more for those specs.

We ended up with an 8 function oven. Saved on that to invest in other bits.