What's new in ovens?

In My Humble Opinion
1

The oven went ffft-POP the other day. Now it doesn’t turn on. The stovetop works, but the oven bit is kaput.

I love to bake. I make bread about twice a week, and other stuff as the whim takes me. So this is a problem.

Googling around, it seems that Frigidaire models of this approximate vintage are starting to become obsolete. (I think it’s around 25 yrs old). It might cost more than replacement value to fix.

So, oven mavens. Am I right? Is it time for a new oven? What’s the best bang for my buck? Are there any new must-haves in oven tech? Any particular brands to avoid/consider? Induction range or standard coils? (We don’t have gas to our house, so I suppose we’re stuck with electric again.)

2

My gf just had our kitchen remodeled. Part of the project involved replacing our oven and dishwasher. She chose Bosch appliances and so far we are very pleased. The oven has so many options that it’s a little intimidating. Convection baking is one option that my gf likes. There is a plate warmer below the oven.

I’d have to look at the control panel to say more.

3

Your problem may simply be that your heating element has blown out. We have a Maytag Gemini range, with dual ovens; the top oven is just the right size for a casserole dish, pizza stone, or baking sheet, and also functions as a toaster, so it gets far, far more use than the lower, larger oven. As a result, we’ve needed to replace the top heating element twice (we’ve had the range for about 15 years, I think), at a cost of something like $100 a visit: far less than the cost of a new range. I don’t know that you have the same problem, but “ffft-POP” is a good description of how ours sounded when it went…it might be worth your time to investigate that possibility.

Of course, if you’d rather use this as justification to buy a new one, then please ignore everything I’ve just said. :slight_smile:

4

We bought a new Frigidaire range a few years back to replace the ancient one our house came with. We bought this one, but you don’t have gas so my review of it’s not going to do you much good (it’s great, we love it, BTW).

All I can tell you is to have as specific an idea of what you’re looking for. It really narrows down the choices between a whole lot of ranges that are mostly identical. Modern features are things like stainless steel finishes, French doors, side-swing doors, convection, dual ovens, warming burners, and “quick boil,” “power” burners, just off the top of my head (I did a lot of research when we were range shopping).

Also, the holidays are coming up which means BIG deals on these things. If you can manage a couple of months without an oven, you can do really, really well in holiday sales. I don’t remember what we paid for ours, but we bought during the holidays and got at least 30% off, maybe more.

5

Dual oven and convection are big functional upgrades routinely available nowadays in middle-to-upper tier ranges.

When we replaced our ancient Frigidaire a year ago, we found an LG which has an interesting take on dual-oven: it’s a normal single convection oven (full sized oven door) with a removable partition that converts it into a dual convection oven (separate thermostats, etc.) So if you need dual baking/roasting, and your food isn’t super tall, put in the partition. If you need a full-height oven, take out the partition.

My wife loves it. There was almost no queuing of food to be baked this past Thanksgiving, and there was a lot of baked/roasted food. Very efficient.

6

I upgraded to an induction top in a home that had no option for gas. It was awesome. They have the responsiveness of gas with an electric stovetop. I would urge you to research that.

I also really like my convection oven.

7

Too late to edit, but I think Samsung, not LG. (Working from memory, may have confused freezer brand with range brand)

8

My 2 cents: If it is just the heating element and it is replaceable, I’d go with that option before buying a new range. A couple of times recently when I’ve replaced 20-30 year old appliances, the salesman has told me, “Don’t expect this one to last as long as the old one. They really don’t make them like that anymore.” YMMV.

9

I also think it’s just a blown heating element. araminty, look for a spot on the heating element that looks suspicious, where it’s not the same uniform cross-section as the rest of the element.

I’ve had to replace two elements in the past 20 or so years, and it’s super-easy to do yourself. The cost when I did it recently was I think $45. I looked up my model of oven, quickly found the right part, and ordered it online.

ETA: to replace an element, first turn off the electricity, then most ovens will have a little plate attached to the element at both places where it goes through the wall of your oven, and that plate is held on by a single screw. Take out the screws, pull the element out a little, and you’ll see it’s attached by push-on connectors to the electrical wire. Pull the connectors off and the element is free. Reverse this process with the new one.

10

Thirding (or whatever it is) for checking the heating element if you want to save some dough. They’re easy enough to check with a VOM. Recently the one in our oven died as I was preheating it, which pissed me off… pretty much ruined dinner that night. Changing out the element was laughably easy and took less than 2 minutes—the worst part was having to drive across town to the parts store that had the appropriate element in stock. The element was about $15.

However, my in-laws had the same issue and decided to use it as an excuse to get a new oven. Like clothes washers and dishwashers and pretty much any other modern appliance new ovens have a plethora of bells and whistles that I, personally, would have no use for (and I cook a lot). Stainless steel is a PITA to keep looking nice after a few years, induction requires special cookware, and on and on. My MIL found that the two most useful features were:

  1. Dual ovens. The bottom chamber is the size of a regular oven that we’re all used to, with the upper chamber taking up the space that used to be used for the pan drawer. She doesn’t use the upper oven that often but when she does she says it’s a godsend. Cooking for large crowds(holidays, church potlucks, etc) is much easier. I suspect I’d use them more often as, being from Midwestern Catholic stock, I make a lot of casseroles and the like.

  2. Sliding racks. I don’t know why these aren’t more popular. You simply slide out the rack and lift off whatever you’re cooking. Great for things that have a tendency to slosh about like a pot roast or something that’s simply big, like a turkey.

I’ve also been told that ovens with a gas range (with high BTU’s obviously) and an electric oven are really nice to have. I’ve never used one but have talked to people that have them and they swear they’ll never go back.

11

This, but also unplug the oven from the wall. You’re dealing with a 240 volt applicance, don’t take chances.

Second, before you unclip the little wires from the element but a binder clip or clothes pin on each one to prevent it from getting lost. Once you release the tension on the wire (by unclipping it from the element) they have a tendency to slither back into the hole. That’s a good way to ruin your day and turn a 5 minute job into an hour job.

12

?

I don’t think I’ve ever seen an oven without sliding racks, and I’m pretty old. Am I misunderstanding you?

Most ovens I’ve worked with are wired in a junction box, but YMMV. As long as you don’t turn on the oven, it should be pretty safe to change out an element, but shutting off the breaker will make damn sure.

ETA: Good call on using a clothes pin to keep the wires from retracting back into the wall of the oven.

13

Thanks for the input, all. I didn’t mention the fzzt-POP was accompanied by a flash from the bottom of the console, and followed by beeping and error message flashing. So I don’t think it’s just the element. My Googling indicated a parts cost of a few hundred bucks, plus labour.

Do new oven doors seal better than old ones? When I try to add steam when baking bread, I feel like most of it leaks out the door. I don’t think steam injection is really feasible in home ovens, is it? The few I’ve found have been super $$$.

Convection, oo yeah. That could be ace.

14

How much energy savings is possible with a newer, fancier oven or range? I’d like to get an induction range eventually so that I’m no longer dealing with hot exposed elements and it’s a bit easier to justify to myself if I’m saving energy on the stove top and/or oven. I mean, you’re still heating a large mass of air with the oven, so I assume most of the savings would come in convection since that generally allows for faster/lower temp cooking.

15

When renovating our kitchen a few years back, the Home Depot fellow said that the real appliance sales happen in July and November, so it would be wise to wait until next month. We bought ours in mid November (multi-week sales, no need to wait until Black Friday), and saved a few thousand on the whole kitchen.

I tried something on a whim: I chose an LG double-oven unit, one of those ovens that has two short doors on the front instead of one tall door. It has been surprisingly useful. Both ovens have independent controls and timers.

Not only does it come in very handy for heavy cooking/baking days such as holidays, but the smaller top oven is just the right thing for almost all oven tasks, so it heats up faster.
Down side? Costs a little more and it has more parts to break.

16

I bought a new gas oven a few years ago. Maybe my experience will be relevant enough to be helpful.

New ovens are much better insulated than old ones. The exterior dimensions are the same as the old one, but the interior is noticeably larger, and the house doesn’t heat up nearly as much when the oven is on. It also pre-heats much faster.

My old oven was terrible, so maybe some of that is just from upgrading, but I think most is better technology.

I bought a large main oven, with lots of features and three racks, and a small lower oven with just a dial for heat. We mostly use the lower oven to store cookie trays and the broiler and such, but for large parties I pull that stuff out and can use it to bake two pies or a large lasagna or a few casseroles or other short food. I have really appreciated the flexibility of that second oven space.

I’ve also loved having three racks. I usually just use one, but it sure helps when baking cookies.

Other than the regular oven and broil settings, the only other feature I use in the main oven is convection roast. I’m afraid to use convection for baking, because baking is fussy and I feel I’d have to experiment with all my recipes. But convection roast is awesome. Roast birds, in particular, cook much faster. Think turkey. And all my roasts come out better, beautifully browned, juicy inside. I’m pretty good at the art of roasting, ymmv, but I’ve loved the convection roast feature.

The gas range doesn’t boil water as fast as I’d like. But it’s better than what I used to have. We have four real burners plus a fifth long narrow burner in the center, that I mostly use to make gravy in large roasting pans. In theory, I could use the griddle attachment, but my husband is the pancake guy, and he likes to use a pan and flip them. We have two regular burners, one small “back burner” which works well for simmering, and a large front power burner, which isn’t as powerful as I’d like. The regular burners are great, though. And the large one works well with the wok.

The controls are in front. Bad for small children, but great for cooking hot things, when you don’t want to have to reach over the burners.

My oven is quiet, unless the fan is on. A friend bought a new range recently, and it’s incredibly noisy. It has a fan to keep the electronics cool. He said, “we paid extra to get a quiet dishwasher, but never thought we had to ask about the stove.” He hates that “feature”. It’s worth asking.

17

To glom on this thread a little, I have a question. The original oven I had in my home was actually above the stove top. It had come with the house and lasted for decades before dying. When we replaced it we couldn’t find any models like that and have the standard oven below the stove top now. That was several years ago so I am curious if this has changed. Do they make ovens that are above the stove top anymore at all? It was actually very convenient and while we are used to the change now we we still miss the old set up a little.

18

The issue is with a gas oven it needs to be ventilated for proper combustion, so your steam goes out with the vented gases into the kitchen or vent system. It also does add some convection effect, more so then electric, and also gas combustion does add humidity.

19

Yes, yes, yes! Baking is so less choresome when the oven doesn’t heat up the kitchen as much. And not only is it faster to preheat, it’s cheaper too.

Mine has a lock button that turns off the panel. Works well enough for little ones.

20

Regardless of the seal, the simple process of flashing water to steam will cause higher pressure and leaking out of the door seal.

The best method I’ve found is an old baking dish filled with lava rocks (grill stones). Pour boiling water on them at the start of the bake.