New Free standing cooker
Discussion
HI,
we are looking to replace our cooker. It has gas hob, gas grill and top oven and an electric fan assist bottom oven. It is very tired.
What are the things I should look for when buying a new one? I've never bought one before, they've always been in the house when I arrived..
cheers
Rich
we are looking to replace our cooker. It has gas hob, gas grill and top oven and an electric fan assist bottom oven. It is very tired.
What are the things I should look for when buying a new one? I've never bought one before, they've always been in the house when I arrived..
cheers
Rich
First, you need to lok at your wiring, if your previous one is all gas other than the fan oven then it may only be plugged in to a standard plug socket, if so then, without re wiring, you options are limited to a similar spec cooker. If however you do have a proper cooker point then the whole range (joke) opens up to you.
Gas for the hob is the prefered option, both by cooks who know about such things and us engineers as the gas just rarely goes wrong. Its also what you are used to. When electric cooking on a hob is an altogether different expereince.
As for the main oven, go multifuction, ie you can select either fan cooking or convetion cooking, at least that way when the fan element packs in (it will!) you can carry on using the convection setting until we can get around to fix it, handy on xmas morning!.
Also look at the doors, some are swing out while others are drop down, see what suits you best. Try for one with user dismantleable doors as many are not and cleaning between glass panels becomes a major jigsaw. (Many times I have been called out to re assembe a door taken apart by the user for cleaning, even for me faced with a load of parts and screws its not easy and thats assuming they have not broken some glass in the process.)
One other thing, find one with a conventional oven thermostat, ie a knob you turn and point to the correct temperature, give the electronic digital versions a wide berth.
I know SMEG get some stick on here but Range cookers is their main business and IMO cannot be beaten and at least you know you are not getting some badged up cheap thing with an fancy name applied to it.
Gas for the hob is the prefered option, both by cooks who know about such things and us engineers as the gas just rarely goes wrong. Its also what you are used to. When electric cooking on a hob is an altogether different expereince.
As for the main oven, go multifuction, ie you can select either fan cooking or convetion cooking, at least that way when the fan element packs in (it will!) you can carry on using the convection setting until we can get around to fix it, handy on xmas morning!.
Also look at the doors, some are swing out while others are drop down, see what suits you best. Try for one with user dismantleable doors as many are not and cleaning between glass panels becomes a major jigsaw. (Many times I have been called out to re assembe a door taken apart by the user for cleaning, even for me faced with a load of parts and screws its not easy and thats assuming they have not broken some glass in the process.)
One other thing, find one with a conventional oven thermostat, ie a knob you turn and point to the correct temperature, give the electronic digital versions a wide berth.
I know SMEG get some stick on here but Range cookers is their main business and IMO cannot be beaten and at least you know you are not getting some badged up cheap thing with an fancy name applied to it.
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