The oven is dead. Long live the oven..Help!!!

Our double oven (in a nice pastel sunset yellow) came with our house which was built sometime in the 60's. Few weeks ago, we noticed that it wasn't preheating well and the temperature was not holding up well. Turns out that a heating element had given up it's soul. We had it checked out- and there is a circuit to the heating element that is broken and it seems too much of a hassle to fix it. Therefore, we are now toying with the idea of a new dual oven to replace it. Google throws up a lot of options- Viking, Jennair, Wolf etc. Our current oven is a 24 inch Frigidaire. To accomodate anything bigger, we have to remodel the cabinetry which we don't want to do right now.Of course nothing is "inexpensive". Since we do cook and bake a lot, we are looking for something that is primarily a reliable cook's oven. And we would like it to look pretty as well. The options get confusing -convection, steam baking whatnot. Honestly we don't have a price range in our mind yet but we would rather not sell the children to afford one. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I am a big fan of my electric convection oven, but be forewarned that not all convection ovens are created equal. To get the full benefits of convection heating, you should get an oven that has a separate heating element placed in front of the fan. I have no opinion on the steam baking option, but I've never had a problem placing a pan of water on the lowest shelf, either!

Mark Lipton

ETA: Of the brands you mentioned, I'd be happy with either Viking or Wolf. Jenn-Air I don't know about.

We did quite a bit of stove research a while back. We had concerns about the reliability of Viking products (although some people have pretty good luck with them). We liked Wolf and Blue Star quite a bit but ended up going with LaCanche. We've been very happy with both the range and the company. The only issue is that the oven is convection only - you can't turn the fan off. This has taken a little getting used to but both the baker in the house and myself have done well with it.

For a very active forum on large kitchen appliances (which helped us a lot in our decision) see the Gardenweb appliance forum

I have two big Dacor ovens and I love them. I have never used the convection feature because frankly, I dislike the fan noise. The only thing is that the first time I used them was harvest season for tomatoes and I had a ton to process. The acid from the tomatoe juice left white streaks on the bottom of the oven. The juice dod not overflow, it was from the splatters. I called Dacor and got no where. Their reply was, "we've never heard of that before". I've come to realize that I am the only person in the world who has problems that no one has ever heard of, because that is usually the answer I get.

We are happy with our Viking which has convection as well as regular settings. The only problem is the temperature settings are wearing off, so we will have to juryrig something.

Thanks everyone. Will keep you all posted how this saga unfolds.

Our home was built in the mid seventies and we replaced our 24" double oven last year with a Kitchen Aid. The top oven has a convection feature and the bottom oven does not. We, like you, did not want to remodle the cabinetry and the Kitchen Aid was a very good choice and has performed well.

Drew

My range is a 4 burner Wolf with an electric convection oven. I did quit a bit of research before I purchased my wall oven. One brand was so poorly designed that you could not get one of the racks in at the lowest level. Many were just too short. Go to the store with a measuring tape and measure the height of a turkey of the weight that you would be making. Then measure your roasters and find which pan would be used for the Turkey and would be tall enough to have the pan covered securely with it's lid. If you don't do turkeys think standing rib roast. Then measure the inside of the oven to make certain there is sufficient space to place the roaster on the lowest rack and have clearance sufficient clearance on the top to not hit the top element. You will find that many of today's ovens don't give you the clearance you require.

At the time I did my research the oven I chose was the GE Profile electric wall oven with convection. It was a thousand dollars cheaper than many of the others, had the clearance I wanted and had all the functions I required. I have had it 9 years and have been very satisfied.
Of course it doesn't have the trendy name of Dacor or Thermador but it does all I require and was a $1000 or more less in price.

In my kitchen it is my oven of choice.

As I've mentioned before, last year we picked up a 30" GE Monogram double convection oven at a steep discount (retailer was having a scratch & dent sale and a piece of stainless steel trim was dented) for the new house we are planning. The oven is in storage awaiting a house to put it in. I'm sure I will enjoy it eventually.

[Jenise]

Shaji, understand completely about not wanting to remodel the kitchen. Don't even consider it. But do be prepared to find that your options are limited in this size. A lot of the luxury brands that others are reccommending don't even manufacture 24" ovens--Viking, for one. 27" is their smallest and that's going to be typical of any brand that came of age during the modern impetus for "designer" kitchens. Your best bet is going to be the old brands that continue to make some of what they've made all along for people in your (and Drew's) situation: Kitchen Aid, General Electric (though possibly not in the Monogram line), etc. I'm sure any good appliance store in an area with a lot of older homes (like Albert Lee Appliances in Seattle) where they'd be used to this question could list a few off the top of their head for you.

I'm sure any good appliance store in an area with a lot of older homes (like Albert Lee Appliances in Seattle) where they'd be used to this question could list a few off the top of their head for you.

If you happen to be in the Sacto area, A&A Appliances, on Folsom Blvd., has a great selection and extremely knowledgeable sales people.

BTW, I misread your post and was thinking ranges rather than wall ovens. My wife bought a wall oven for our kitchen a couple of years ago and it continues to live in our contractor's barn in anticipation of our mythical kitchen re-model. I believe it was a Gaggenau that she bought on sale. BTW, European manufacturers like Gaggenau and Miele make very nice small ovens but they tend to be pretty pricey.

Shaji-
Are you sure the oven isn't still under warranty?
Redwinger

Jenise,
The thought of remodelling is like planning for a root canal and while a modern kitchen is every foodie's dream, we are hoping to postpone that pain for a long time...a very long time. You are right, most brands come in larger sizes. It narrows down our search a bit. We did perfectly fine with the smaller oven.
Mike,
Thanks for the suggestion. We were just in Sacramento on Saturday. We stopped by IKEA and they had some smaller wall ovens which looked nice. But looks like they will be discontinuing those models We come to Sacramento quite frequently and will check out A&A appliances.
Red,
The oven was here probably when this house was built which was around the time my parents were thinking of weaning me to solid foods. See the pic below of the oven. Alas, the warranty is probably expired too..We are having another appliance repair guy come by to see if this can be fixed reasonably.

We found out that the local Habitat for Humanity Restore had a Frigidaire 24 inch double oven. Turns out it was almost the exact model; just chocolate brown. It was $25. Installation was $120. We had to cannibalize a heating element from the older oven. But now we have a working double oven. Lets see how long this lasts. Whew!!

Congratulations! At that price, it won't have to last terribly long to be a great bargain.