New Double Oven...What Kind?

I am not a happy camper right now. For the second time in about a year my 7 year old Whirlpool double oven has hit a snafu at the end of the self-cleaning cycle that has caused it to malfunction. The door to the top oven is locked, the oven is off and the read out panel is totally black (no clock...nothing). I know you're not supposed to use the self-cleaning feature of an oven very often, and that's why this is the first time I've used it since a repairman fixed it after the last time I used it. Not a good sign.

So while I'm waiting for the repairman to call me back, I thought I'd ask you LTHers for your recommendations on ovens. I just checked out Consumer Reports and I'm thinking the GE Profile looks good. It seems to me that on the thread where Subzero refrigerators were discussed, GE Profile was the brand that people were most happy with all the way around.

The GE's are rock-solid reliable, and I like the one I have: top is convec, and can do Proofing. Either oven can be set to Warm, top has a temp probe too.

Hi,

I have a KitchenAid double oven, which failed during the cleaning cycle after Thanksgiving last year. The repairman told me not to use the clean cycle very often and to keep the oven well ventilated. How do you keep an oven well ventilated? About as soon as he was out the door, I flipped the clean cycle on and it popped off again. Serves me right, they ordered parts that didn't come until after Christmas. I have not had a problem since. I don't regret my actions, because I was convinced he did an interim repair instead of the repair it really required.

If, big If, my parts were delayed to mess me up, they didn't get any satisfaction. Christmas roast was cooked on a Weber Smokey Mountain. All other dishes requiring an oven were cooked in a 1920's or 30's gas oven in the basement.

My favorite feature of my oven: shabbat setting.

Regards,

My Thermador is great, although its pricey. I got a floor sample from the Great Indoors in Schaumberg, but normally they don't discount at all. Also had some issues when it was first installed that were only exacerbated by the repairman who first tired to fix it. The next repairman referred to the first guy as a "bonehead" and actually got it running, but I digress.

Two ovens, both standard or convection, both can also work as warming drawer, proof, or dehydrate. Top has probe. I also find it is larger inside than others. I only had space for a 30" oven. The old GE was not wide enough to fit my standard cookie sheets. This one is big enough with room to spare. Just a better design I guess. Also has multiple built in timers which is nice when I'm cooking a lot of things at the same time. Also has a fast pre-heat setting which is convenient when I'm short on time.

I researched extensively (all the brands including Dacor, Thermador, Wolf, etc) before we built a new home in 2004 and the GE Profile double oven (convection on top, standard below, top oven also has temperature probe) won hands when I compared price, reliability, and durability. Mated with the Profile five-burner cooktop and Profile warming oven, I did Thanksgiving for 18 persons last year with no worries and we regularly have dinners for 8 or more.

I love our ovens and use them daily!

Davooda

Hi,
We've been doing some research on double ovens and have seen the bluestar listed at Abt. When we went to that website we saw some good features, but have never heard of bluestar. It is a restaurant stove with double ovens and a multitude of configurations for the cooktop. It has the wok power burner. You can get both a griddle and/or a grill for the cooktop or have as many as 8 burners. One oven is large enough for a full sheet pan and the second holds a half sheet pan. Does anyone know anything about them or have any advice.
Paulette

Don't know where you are at in your decision making, but I can recommend a guy named Ellis Patterson at Northshore in Lake Zurich (same strip mall that Walmart is in, closer to the Costco end).
They have a great showroom, and he is one of the more knowledgable and least sales pressured guys I have done business with.

We re did our Kitchen, and laundry room. Prices were competitive, service delivery and installation by professionals who you had no problem having in your house. I needed an after purchase service, and they worked very diligently to make it covered under warranty.
(And no, I am not affiliated with them)

Here is the googled address
Northshore Appliances

724 S Rand Rd
Lake Zurich, IL 60047

(847) 726-7676

I have a Dacor, just over two years. I don't love it.

The timer is the most asininely designed thing I've ever seen, I truly hate it and never EVER use it.

The thermometer probe thing never worked right, they came to repair it twice and now I just don't use that either. And I wanted to.

I don't find the convection baking all that reliable either, I definitely do NOT get the evenly baked cookies on multiple racks as they assured me I would.

It looks nice of course, but wouldn't get it again.

Thanks to everyone for their input. Well, this time I called a different service company than I did last time to fix my oven and was truly pleased with the result and information I got. He was able to fix my oven for about $280, but what it comes down to is that I just can't use the self-cleaning function...ever...again. The heat is just too intense for some of the innerworkings of the oven to handle and I had a blown fuse (in the oven itself) plus some melted wires. So my choice is either the $280 I paid the repair man other day and a can of Easy-Off for Self-Cleaning Ovens, or Lord Knows How Much for a new oven with a self-cleaning feature. Given that the oven is only 7 years old, I think I'll take the former.

I did ask the repair man if he thought there was one oven that performed the best and he liked the GE Profile series. He said his wife chose Viking when they remodeled and it always needs some sort of tweaking. I laughed when he said that his philosophy about high end appliances is that the more stuff that's on them, the more there is to break.

Capsu78...Thanks so much for the rec in LZ! If I can find a locally owned business that I like, I will gladly patronize it over the megastores in VH or Schaumburg.

Well, between the EZ-Off and the self-cleaning, let me offer another option: avoid messing up the oven:

* Get a wider, deeper roasting pan to prevent spatter
* Put an old cookie sheet on the rack below the one your pie is on
* Use a stiff brush to get pizza cheese et al off right then, rather than letting it fossilize over the next few items baked

Seriously, I think we only cleaned my old oven a couple of times over the course of its 13 years, and even my mother was never grossed out

Joel...So true, so true. I already do a lot of things to prevent my oven from getting messy because messy ovens just gross me out, so like I said, I was only running the self-clean once a year. However, I guess a lot of this boils down to principle for me. If a manufacturer tells you that an appliance will perform a certain function, you should be able to reliably use that function unless you are somehow using it improperly. If you use that function in the correct manner and it causes the appliance to malfunction, well, then the manufacturer needs to go back to the drawing board. IMHO

Kwe730 wrote:Joel...So true, so true. I already do a lot of things to prevent my oven from getting messy because messy ovens just gross me out, so like I said, I was only running the self-clean once a year. However, I guess a lot of this boils down to principle for me. If a manufacturer tells you that an appliance will perform a certain function, you should be able to reliably use that function unless you are somehow using it improperly. If you use that function in the correct manner and it causes the appliance to malfunction, well, then the manufacturer needs to go back to the drawing board. IMHO

I agree it should work as promised, especially if you are doing nothing exotic. Clean cycle is not beyond their design parameters or at least it shouldn't.

Regards,

I've got GE Profile ranges in both my kitchens, and I'm really really happy with them, and they get Self-Cleaned about once every 6 months. Of course these are ranges, not double ovens, but I think that the mechanisms must be about the same.

There's a huge appliance store in downtown Janesville that would be well worth anyone's visiting if they were in the market for an appliance. Just to talk to the guys there would be worth the trip: they sell the whole range of appliances, top to mid-thrifty, and can tell you about Wolf as well as Frigidaire, plus they do their own maintenance. They got me off the high end stuff: "Not enough high end X's are made/sold for them to get it as right as GE can and does with their much larger market."

Geo

Cathy2 wrote:

Kwe730 wrote:Joel...So true, so true. I already do a lot of things to prevent my oven from getting messy because messy ovens just gross me out, so like I said, I was only running the self-clean once a year. However, I guess a lot of this boils down to principle for me. If a manufacturer tells you that an appliance will perform a certain function, you should be able to reliably use that function unless you are somehow using it improperly. If you use that function in the correct manner and it causes the appliance to malfunction, well, then the manufacturer needs to go back to the drawing board. IMHO

I agree it should work as promised, especially if you are doing nothing exotic. Clean cycle is not beyond their design parameters or at least it shouldn't.

Regards,

I too had a self-cleaning KA double oven. And I too had it blow out the first time I ran the cycle (luckily just a week before Thanksgiving....NOT). I was about 3 weeks out of warranty and screamed bloody murder and ultimately did not have to pay for the service or part, but I too believe things should work and for principle, would not buy another KA.