Ovens buying guide

Door

• An oven door that's light and easy to open, and stays open in any position (without falling fully open or slamming shut).
• A large enough window for a clear view inside.
• With a side-opening door you don't have to reach the food over a hot oven door. They're a particularly good option for wheelchair users, but there are only a few on the market.
• Typical prices: $950-$1160 (WESTINGHOUSE), $2400 (BOSCH) and $1500 (ASKO).

Inside

• Capacity - check the usable space rather than going by the stated capacity.
• An interior light - check when buying that the bulb is easy to replace.
• Shelves should have safety stops to prevent them being pulled out accidentally.
• A good range of shelf positions. Three or more shelves may be handy, especially if you often cook several items at the same time.
• Shelves that don't slope down when pulled out with the weight of a casserole or baking dish on them. If shelves do slope, a guard at the front will help stop dishes falling off, but may make it harder to slide heavy baking dishes in and out.

Grill

• A smokeless grill tray that traps fat and grease below it, rather than a wire rack -- important for ovens with an internal grill, as spattering and smoking fat can be messy.
• A grill tray that's easy to slide in and out and comes out far enough to let you easily manipulate food at the back of the tray. Look for a safety stop mechanism to stop it pulling right out.
• A grill tray that doesn't slope down when pulled out.
• A grill element that's set high into the ceiling or has a shield in front, so that it can't easily come into contact with your fingers.
• At least two grill tray heights.

Oven and grill function

Unlike with a gas oven, there are many variations and combinations of heating methods that can make an oven multifunction -- many of which you're likely to use only rarely. According to CHOICE's home economist, the most useful are:

• Classic or base bake: this is where heat comes from the bottom element only. It's particularly recommended for foods like pizzas and quiches, to get crispy, rather than soggy, dough and pastry bases.
• Top and bottom elements (also called 'conventional bake'). This is standard convection baking. It provides reasonably even heating, but the temperature tends to be slightly hotter towards the top, allowing food to brown on top. It's good for cooking scones, muffins, cakes, fruit cakes, baked custards, pastry, meringues, roasts and casseroles.
• Fan-forced bake: heat comes from an element at the back of the oven and is circulated by a fan surrounded by the element. The oven heats relatively quickly and efficiently, and heat is distributed evenly throughout, which is helpful for multi-shelf cooking. It's similar to conventional bake, and good for similar foods, but it's faster, with more even heat distribution.

Other ovens functions include:

• Quick preheat: A setting that reduces the oven preheat time.
• Fan-assisted: The top and bottom elements of the oven are used, while a fan circulates heat. This can be useful for cooking on more than one shelf at once as it helps to distribute the hot air evenly.
• Rear and bottom elements plus fan: This gives a very even heat and can be useful for roasts.
• Grill with fan: Can be used to cook chicken and other roasts.
• Defrost: The fan operates without or on low heat, moving air around to help defrost food.

Self-cleaning ovens

True self-cleaning ovens are pyrolytic. Set on the cleaning mode, the oven locks itself and heats up to around 500°C, converting food residues into ash, which you just wipe away when it cools. The easy cleaning comes at a price though.
Typical prices: $1700–$4700.

Often referred to as ‘self-cleaning’ surfaces, catalytic liners work by absorbing fat splatters. For the liners to work well, you need to regularly heat the oven to 250°C for an hour to burn off the splatters and, when cool, wipe them with a damp cloth. Properly cared for, they should last a long time, but may eventually need replacing –– at an additional cost. Ovens that have catalytic liners are those in the mid to upper end within each oven category.

• Built-in vs freestanding
• Double ovens
• Extra-wide ovens
• Internal vs external grill
• Side opening doors

Built in vs freestanding

A built-in oven gives you more flexibility with your kitchen layout — you don’t have to put it under your cooktop, and it can either fit under-bench or in the wall. It can also be positioned at your preferred height to minimise bending or squatting and make cleaning easier. But a built-in oven with a separate cooktop may take up more bench space than an upright stove, depending on the layout.

If your kitchen is small, freestanding stoves (oven and cooktop combined) are available 50–60 cm wide, which may fit better. Just make sure it’s installed correctly, with wall brackets if applicable (see Tipping stoves).

Typical prices
Standard built-in (60 cm wide): 1000–$2100 (gas); $970–$2100 (electric), although you can pay up to $4700 for a top-of-the-range MIELE.
Standard freestanding stove (50–60 cm): $800–$1200 (gas); $760–$1600 (electric).

But it’s not just about your kitchen layout — you also need to check the oven capacity when buying to make sure you’re getting the size that meets your needs. Although Christmas only comes once a year, you may want to base your decision on the size of your annual turkey. A more practical approach is to take your favourite or largest baking dish with you when selecting a model.

Double ovens

A double oven is essentially two distinct ovens, each with its own door and functions, stacked one on top of the other, or positioned side-by-side as one unit. They’re excellent for entertainers or large families who like to bake lots of different types of food. They’re versatile, as you can bake and grill different dishes at the same time, or bake two things that require different cooking temperatures and functions.

If you’re cooking large quantities of food at a time, a standard-width (60 cm) double oven can have much more space than a single extra-wide (90 cm) oven — around 164 L, compared to 118 L. Of course, if you want double the capacity but don’t fancy paying the price of a double oven, a cheaper alternative may be to install two single ovens –– subject to your electricity circuit(s).

1½ ovens — often referred to as double ovens and sometimes as a single plus secondary oven — provide similar versatility to real double ovens. However, the secondary oven tends to have limited functions (generally classic bake and grill) and only one shelf. For single or small items, though, using the secondary oven is likely to save on preheat and cooking time, as well as energy.

Typical prices
Built-in double ovens: $2200–$2500;
Built-in 1½ ovens: $2100–$2500, although you can pay up to $3600 for an ILVE model.

Extra-wide ovens

If you’re completely renovating your kitchen and styling is all-important, you might want to go for a flash extra-wide oven. The 70–80 cm width is excellent for fitting extra-large trays and great for large batches of cooking. And it might surprise you that while 90 cm models are externally wider, most 70–80 cm ovens often have the same internal usable volume. Like standard-width ovens, extra wide ovens can be single, double and freestanding.

Typical prices
Built-in single $3000–$3300 (70–80 cm), $1900–$4300 (90 cm)
Built-in double $7000 (70–80 cm)
Freestanding single $2400–$7500 (90 cm)
Freestanding double $2100–$9500 (90 cm).

Internal vs external grill

An external grill is more versatile, as you can grill one item while you roast or bake another at the same time. It also isolates the mess, so the main oven cavity stays cleaner. Open-door grilling tends to give a better result than closed-door grilling, which can steam food, making the skin of meat tough. However, an internal grill is more common, takes up less space and can give more direct heat for certain types of cooking, such as au gratins.

Ovens with external grills are limited to the Electrolux manufactured models.

Typical prices
Ovens with an external grill (single, built-in): $1000–$2200 (gas oven with electric grill); $1100–$3700 (electric).

Side opening door

With a side-opening door you don't have to reach the food over a hot oven door, but there are only a few on the market.

Typical prices: $950-$1160 (WESTINGHOUSE), $2400 (BOSCH) and $1500 (ASKO).

A new generation of ovens claims to offer quicker cooking times and/or healthier food. So how do they work?

Light

Take an ordinary combination convection/grill/microwave oven, add a halogen lamp and you have the LG SolarDom Light Oven (around $1250). Despite the name, it doesn't cook using just light - the light's main purpose is to assist browning and heating on some preset functions only, and our tests found that cooking times were only somewhat reduced.

New on the market, the BOSCH Light Speed oven (around $2100) is a similar concept and claims to cook up to 70% faster than a conventional oven. We've yet to put it to the test.

While the above models are microwave combination ovens with extras, LG's latest built-in oven (from around $3000) is a conventional oven but with halogen heating to speed up the cooking.

Steam

Steam ovens claim to produce healthier food than conventional ovens because fewer nutrients are lost. They can produce good results, but there are some limitations. Steam ovens aren't capable of browning foods, so if you don't want pallid meat, you'll need to grill or fry it before or after steaming. And compared to a conventional oven, steam ovens aren't very versatile (and there are cheaper ways of steaming food).

KLEENMAID , MIELE and SMEG have models. Typical prices are $2500-$3600.

If you like the idea of steam but want more versatility you could look out for the combination steam and conventional ovens produced by AEG ($3300 - $4500).

Pre-programmed

There are ovens with automatic cooking programs for a multitude of food types, ranging from biscuits to roast chook. You select the type of food and specify the weight, and the oven sets the time, temperature and oven functions needed to cook it. BOSCH's touch screen control oven (around $2100) has 51 programs plus subcategories; LG's speedcooking model (around $3000) has up to 40 auto-cook menus.

The Independent Living Centre, NSW, provides the following guidelines for buying ovens:

For wheelchair users

• Control panels and door handles should be within easy reach from the wheelchair.
• Wall ovens generally need to be installed at slightly lower than normal height, within the user’s reach range.
• Side-opening doors are more user-friendly.

For upper limb impairment

• Look for doors that are easy to open, and handles that allow a good grip.
• Easy-to-press buttons may be preferable to rotary knobs. Any knobs should be large and easy to turn, with little resistance.
• Choose appliances with shelves and trays that move very easily and aren’t heavy.
• Place the oven at chest height to avoid excessive reaching.

For visual impairment

• Controls that are large and wide-spaced, and labels in a contrasting colour.
• Positive feedback — beeps and electronic lights — can be helpful.

For back pain

• It’s best to minimise bending and reaching, so avoid appliances with controls knobs at the back.
• A wall oven installed at chest height is preferable to a freestanding oven.

For cognitive impairment

• The key is to keep it simple. Labelling that has a very clear and simple picture may be more useful than words, but this will vary for different people.
• Choose appliances with few options for the controls.
• Avoid appliances with auditory feedback if this will confuse the user. However, this can be useful if it successfully reminds the user to do something.