Wall ovens (or not)

[ruckin]

I did a bit of searching but was not able to turn anything. I am in the design process of building a house and am working on setting up the kitchen. We will finally have enough space to regularly have large family gatherings at our house. While I would love a La Cornue they are out of the budget by an order of magnitude or so. Right now SWMBO and I are thinking gas (LP) burners and electric ovens but we could probably learn to deal with an all gas as well. The current thought is 36" six burner rangetop and a set of double electric ovens in the wall. The other option I am considering is a 48" range but I want to make sure that both of the ovens are usable.

I am not really sure what brands I should be looking but I know that Viking seems to be a brand to avoid. I was originally thinking that 36" wolf range top, + double ovens (not sure brand) would be the best option but I am now wondering if a wider conventional range would let me recover 30 or so inches of counter space would be better option. If I want two full size ovens I realize I need to get a 60" range but that is probably too big. I think a 48" range could work but would want to make sure the ovens are reasonable. Some 48" models have some very skinny 12-14" ovens on the smaller side. I see that fivestar has a all gas 48" model with both ovens the same size (both 19" wide) but have not been able to see one in person.

So I guess I am trying to decided... wall ovens or normal range? And secondly which brands should I look at/avoid?

Ruckin.

 

[AnotherChef]

Why avoid Viking?? They are great pieces of equipment, price is a little high but they perform well. I have a genaire commercial range with convection oven in my home. Great unit for under $6k.

 

[bberg100]

I would go with a large cooktop, gas or induction, or both? I think primary areas induction, but one or two high output gas for boiling, woking, etc. Ovens I would go with a double wall stack. I hate getting down to oven range level.

 

[pault]

We renovated, we also threw a lot of parties, family kids, xmas etc,, went with double oven and loved to have it. Nothing fancy but just so i could cook many items at diff temps,times.
Daughter has one but it is small , like for pies cakes,,pizza etc to go with reg size oven.
Appreciated it when we needed it.
Before you buy take measurements to see what size cookie sheet etc they will take. Mine was a little narrower, due to size left for oven and i couldnt fit large cookie sheets in. So we had to use a little smaller ones.

 

[Tim_McD]

Gas cooktop and the double wall ovens are the bee's knees. I did the kitchen over about 10 yrs ago and dropped in a 36 in Wolf ceramic cooktop and two GE Profile electric wall ovens (top convection, bottom std).

Looking back, the only change I would make is to get a liquid propane tank for a gas cooktop. We did several other upgrades that pushed the budget envelope, so it was a decision at the time that I wish I could have got back.

Induction is neat, but I think if you have a full gas cooktop it is unnecessary

 

[ItsTaz]

What about a 30" or 36" range and a single wall oven? This gives you two full size ovens while retaining some counter space.

 

[strop]

Wall ovens for sure, but make sure they are high enough that you don't have to bend over too far to get into the bottom one. I can barely read the controls on the bottom oven because it is too low in the wall. Never even thought about it during the design process. We don't have one, but friends of ours have a warming oven that they use and love, especially for large family gatherings.

 

[ruckin]

Just as a followup... I took SWMBO to a local appliance place to bring a tape measure and get a feel for some of our options. It was kind of nice to be able to look at AGA, American Range, Bluestar, DCS, Dracor, Miele, Viking, Wolf, and probably a bunch more I can't recall off the top of my head all in one place.

In almost no time SWMBO decided to skip the wall ovens and zeroed in on the 48" wolf. She said she liked everything except the red knobs... darn sales lady showed her the one with chrome knobs and her decision was made. It costs more than I wanted but what else is new. We kept going to look at other models but there was something wrong with every one of them... oven too small, too hard to clean, too many electronics, grates too high, grates too low, and some she just called ugly.

SWMBO then turned around and fell in love with a $18k sub zero refrigerator... It was nice but way bigger than we need. I talked her down into 7k miele that will work well in the planned kitchen.

When we left I told her that we blew the amount I was mentally thinking about for the whole kitchen on two appliances and the kitchen would look a little funny with no cabinets, sink, or counters... She laughed and said I would figure something out.

Ruckin.

 

[TexLaw]

We have Dacor double stack, and we couldn't be happier. The first ones we had worked wonderfully with absolutely no complaints until the control board was fried by a lightning strike. We had to get a whole new set after that, as the original ones lasted so long that there were no replacement parts (hooray for home warranty). For some reason, the electronics were wonky on the new ones (terrible on proper temperature), but that got fixed. We also had to replace the breaker to a higher amp one, as the new ovens draw more current, but they also have larger interior (not exterior) space, so we didn't at all mind that!

I've never had a gas oven, but I hear that you could be asking for trouble should something go wrong. Electric ovens are reputed to be more reliable and easier to fix (or replace--no plumbing to deal with).

If you only choose one type of heating for your range, go with gas.

 

[Rushman2112]

At our rented apartment here we inherited a wall oven - first time I have ever had one - and not bending down to access it it great.

I designed the kitchen in our French place from scratch and guess what? I put a base unit oven in. What the (expletive deleted) was I thinking??? It bugs me every time I use it and now the kitchen units are discontinued so I cannot replace it without a complete remodelling (which I am tempted to do!).

So my advice, wall oven everytime.

 

[oc_in_fw]

My beef with a lot of ovens and ranges is over-reliance on electronics. When those board get zapped, they are always expensive to replace. I am not a Luddite (I work in flight simulation) but it seems we are incapable of building appliances that last anymore (without costing a kidney to buy)

 

[Rushman2112]

My beef with a lot of ovens and ranges is over-reliance on electronics. When those board get zapped, they are always expensive to replace. I am not a Luddite (I work in flight simulation) but it seems we are incapable of building appliances that last anymore (without costing a kidney to buy)

This. Although we rent this place I am buying a new oven (the one the landlord supplied is utter rubbish) and we went shopping last week. I want something that gets hot, cooks food and cools down. I do not want a space shuttle but the guy in the store is showing me stuff that NASA would not have thought of and a price tag to match.

Ended up buying the same oven I got in France on line for not that much (it's a Bosch so a half decent brand). Delivery next Saturday so will be playing with it then.

 

[oc_in_fw]

This. Although we rent this place I am buying a new oven (the one the landlord supplied is utter rubbish) and we went shopping last week. I want something that gets hot, cooks food and cools down. I do not want a space shuttle but the guy in the store is showing me stuff that NASA would not have thought of and a price tag to match.

Ended up buying the same oven I got in France on line for not that much (it's a Bosch so a half decent brand). Delivery next Saturday so will be playing with it then.

Please post pics. Give me a good gas stovetop/oven with decent thermocouples. Electronics are for simulators.

 

[Rushman2112]

Please post pics. Give me a good gas stovetop/oven with decent thermocouples. Electronics are for simulators.

My place(!)

I will take a pic of the new one here when it arrives.

 

[ruckin]

I was trying to avoid appliances with too many electronic bells and whistles. Heck even the stove that SWMBO is wanting has more features than I want. Some of the stoves/ovens interface with or can even be controlled with your phone/tablet. While it might be nice to have a notification that the oven is preheated or the timer is done... I really don't want an oven with a remote temp set ability. Also it isn't like my house is so big that I can't hear the beep and the appliances need to send me a text to let me know they are done/ready

Right now I am in the waiting for permits stage of building. I will post a picture of the kitchen when the house is finished.

Ruckin.