Ovens and hobs and stuff

We’re going to re-do our kitchen in the near future and as part of the refurb we’re going to replace the oven, hob and hood. The kitchen itself os pretty small so we don’t have the option of anything other than a built-under oven and hob or an all-in-one. Either way it will have to be standard 600mm wide. I’d also like an extracting hood rather than a recirculating one to actually get rid of the steam and smells.

Total budget for the three items is probably about a grand. Anyone got any recommendations, experience or suggestions.

Are double ovens worth going for remembering that it will be built-under rather than the larger built in versions.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Cheers

We had ours done a few years back. One recommendation I’d make is to get an induction hob. You have to use steel pans, but the heatup speed is amazing, and it powers down like turning down gas. We changed to an extracting hood also – just don’t get one with sharp corners and install it at forehead height 🙁

OK most cooker hoods dont last long these days motors are poor and cant take the steam, induction is the new big thing in hobs but be warned they do break down and are very expensive to fix, a simple gas hob with a single elctric fan oven is probably the way to go, stainless steel is popular but scratches and shows every little mark and grease spot most customers hate it,i would go for a coloured one
currys is a very good place to buy as not the cheapest but back up service whne things go wrong is better tha n most, i know people will shout out about their bad experiences but i contract for 32 insurance companys and their service is way better than most when stuff goes wrong
and it is possible to get a larger built under style double oven if that floats your boat
just looked on currys packages around 600 quid for all you desire the 3 items well within budget

I am a sales rep for a “Rangecooker” company and would advise you to try an Internet retailer for a big saving on whatever you decide on. Stay away from the sheds like Currys and Comet if you want good customer service and advice. Saying that Comet have an Internet site called “Kitchen Science” which is pretty good.

My advice would be to buy a German brand like Neff, Bosch or Siemens. They quality is much better, Miele is well worth it if you can afford it and want it to last 20 odd years.

Most hoods can be ducted out or recurculated with the use of charcoal filters, ducted out is much more efficient and will remove odours as long as you turn the hood on before you start cooking and don’t wait until you can’t see across the kitchen!!

Hope this helps

Where are you getting the kitchen from?

I fit them and have been using Magnet for a couple of years now.
When I order a full kitchen, I get a Candy appliance pack for £250, stainless 4 burner hob, multifunction fan oven and chimney hood. 5 burner option has cast iron pan stands and flame failure, about £380ish. Comes with 5 year guarantee also.

The kitchen prices are awesome comparatively too.

Anywhere near Manchester and I’ll see if I can get you a deal when you’re ready

I’m doing the same thing at the moment. We went for a Bosch 5 burner hob and single over which if I remember rightly comes in at about £800. I’m sure you’ll find a cooker hood for £200. Best price I found was from B&Q when they were doing 15% off. Currys/comet were way more expensive. I searched through loads of sites for the best price.

B&Q also didn’t achieve the sales figures they hoped for during their 15% off thing so it’s highly likley to happen again at the end of this month.

I’d second the induction hob. Got one when we re did our kitchen and it is very impressive. All the advantages of gas with heat up/cool down speed and variable temperature selection (18 different settings) but also it’s very clean, super efficient and safe. Well as safe as anything that goes that hot can be !

We’ve got a Belling built-under double oven in our new kitchen.

Works great for the two of us as most of the time we only need the smaller top oven, but we still managed to cook two ducks at Xmas and a 5Kg glazed ham at new year so I don’t think size is as much of an issue as you’d think.

For the hob we went with a matching Belling gas hob, mainly because we already had gas installed and going induction would have meant buying new pans. Plus we wanted a larger gas ring for the wok.

Induction hobs are kind of cool, although they are a bit technology-mad compared to a simple gas hob. They do crash sometimes. A cooker where the software can crash? How crazy is that?

And as for being super efficient? It depends really – they have more efficient heat transfer to the pan, but they still cost more to run, and depending on how your energy is generated, and how far away it is transferred to you from, they may or may not be more efficient (or environmentally friendly for that matter).

I’ve only used other people’s though, and they are a right hassle if you’re not used to them – as unless you know what exactly the numbers mean, you can’t tell how hot you need to set it for a certain temperature. They just don’t have the intuitive obviousness that gas cookers do. I guess if you live with it, you get to have a good idea of what the numbers mean.

Joe

Matt, I’ve just got the same belling ones as Graham S for my house, if you leave it til week after next my new kitchen should be in so your welcome to come and have a nosey about.

Comet were the cheapest place i could find (inculding online shops) for the things I wanted but didn’t have the oven in stock so i got that elsewhere.

Oh and budget wise these ones came in at about 500 with the extractor so well in your budget. Depends if mrs h if like mrs jeays and wants smeg stuff 🙂

A tip on the hood, if you have space get a wider one; the steam/smoke capture is better and often they come with more grunty motors. I have a Bosch with dishwashable grease filters ducted outside. £170 after some digging about ont’web.

I have:

Hood: CHIM90
Hob: GHU60C
Oven: XOU70FP

My induction hob stopped working during my cooking of the christmas dinner, well shorted out the house. I reckon some water got where it wasn’t supposed to. It will go if it does it again. Gas is good!
They are very good when working but………..

Thanks for the info, all. Apologies for the late reply but I couldn’t log into here at work today in order to reply.

We’re definitely going for a gas hob as I prefer them and we don’t want to have to change the saucepans we just got as wedding presents.

Rapidman, what advantages do we get from the better makes like Neff etc. I had been trying to persuade Mrs H that we should not skimp on the appliances but then she asked me what we would gain from spending more money on flasher stuff and tbh I was a little short of a good reply. If you could expand that would help.

FunkyMonkey, we’re in Sheffield so not too far from Manchester but probably a bit far for you. My best man is also a builder who fits kitchens a lot so we’re probably going to get him to do it and chances are the kitchen will be coming from Howdens. Feel free to get in touch with me though if you feel you can help (matthew at screamingjaffa co uk)

Graham, that Belling kit looks pretty decent in the pics and it is encouraging that you managed at Christmas with the double oven. Steve would be great if we could come and have a look once your kitchen is done.

Most of my kitchen appliances are Miele and the extra quality is worth the cash.

They tend to be really well designed and rugged. Our washing machine has a 10 year warranty which is mad for something that’s used so often.

Having said that I have a Smeg cooker and hood. I’ve had both for about 5 years and they’ve been great.

Try to get a hood where you can stick the filters in the dishwasher. It keeps everything clean and fresh.

I can definitely understand the advantages of Miele etc in washing machines as there are loads of moving bits and the like where extra quality would make sense but with an oven or hob I’m struggling to see what the advantages could be other than things like nice nobs.

We don’t have a dishwasher so filters that go in one would be no advantage really

We don’t have a dishwasher

If you’re redoing the kitchen I’d highly recommend getting one.

Dishes are cleaner and you spend less time chained to the sink.

Not enough room. We’d have to move the washing machine out into the shed and that eats into bike building space so ain’t gonna happen (besides neither of us want to go outside to get washing). There’s only two of us anyway so not great shakes.

Our new kitchen is pretty small so we put in a Belling slimline dishwasher

(the kitchen company that fitted our kitchen had good prices on Belling gear!)