Advice sought on cookers please ...

expat_jo

Hi

I am after advice from you experienced cooks please. I have always lived in rented houses so have always cooked (mostly heated up) on whatever cooker - usually bad - was in the house.

Our current cooker is really on its way out and our current landlady has said that we can have £300 to buy a new one of our choice. It needs to be electric and freestanding - is there anything else that I need to consider?

I have recently had a baby and have been cooking more from fresh. I would also like to bake more when my lo gets a bit older (like my mum did).

I quite like the idea of double ovens (there are one or two in that price range) so I can cook different things at different temperatures but am not sure if there are cons as well as pros. Can anyone guide me please ?

Many thanks

Gigervamp

A double oven is very handy. If you only need to use one baking tray, then you don't need to heat up a large oven. Also, if one of the ovens breaks down (as mine has a couple of times) you still have another oven to use.

The only problem I've found with my double oven, is the top (small) oven is also a grill, but in order to use the grill you have to fit a heat deflector shield thing under the knobs, which is too much hassle, so I never use the grill. So, I suggest checking to see if you have to do that with the cookers you're looking at. Apart from it being a hassle, I'd be worried about the safety aspect if there are small children around as it gets hot.

carriebradshaw

try and get one with a ceramic hob if you can as they are easier and faster to control the temperatures for simmering, boiling etc. I used to have one with solid hotplates and it was awful, it took ages for the hot plates to heat up/cool down again I really hated it. Not only that ceramic hobs are much easier to keep clean as well.

expat_jo

Thanks all. Definately things to think about. I wasn't sure if having a double oven made them less reliable? (I don't know why that would be necessarily but I'm sure I have heard it somewhere)

carriebradshaw - is it possible to ruin a ceramic hob? As it is a rented house I want easy to use, easy to clean and will look best for as long as we stay here. The only reason I ask is my mum had a ceramic hob in the 80's and I am sure it got pitted when saucepans overflow (as mine do quite regularly!!)

Thanks again!

Dave101t

ive never had a problem with an electric oven, you can easily work out how much its costing you as well by looking at the rated KWH usage.
i often just cook 1 tray in it and its not expensive at all

carriebradshaw

expat_jo wrote: »

Thanks all. Definately things to think about. I wasn't sure if having a double oven made them less reliable? (I don't know why that would be necessarily but I'm sure I have heard it somewhere)

carriebradshaw - is it possible to ruin a ceramic hob? As it is a rented house I want easy to use, easy to clean and will look best for as long as we stay here. The only reason I ask is my mum had a ceramic hob in the 80's and I am sure it got pitted when saucepans overflow (as mine do quite regularly!!)

Thanks again!

I've only had mine 3 years and it still looks like new & I overflow pans all the time 'cos I'm always trying to wash up when I'm cooking I only clean it with a microfibre cloth & either hob brite for any burnt on stubborn bits or when I've had a good day and it's not so messy, just a bit of diluted stardrops don't use scouring pads on them though. Can't really see how you could ruin it other than dropping something heavy on it

expat_jo

Excellent. I will definately get a ceramic hob then. Thanks for the advice!

carriebradshaw

expat_jo wrote: »

Excellent. I will definately get a ceramic hob then. Thanks for the advice!

you're very welcome, hope you get one you like

Bombchelle

According to Which? the 3 best buys (in order) in the £200-400 category are:

Indesit KD6C35W
Hotpoint GW38G
Indesit KD3G2G

Hope that helps!

expat_jo

Wow, thanks for checking that for me. Off to look now ... :j

expat_jo

the first one is too expensive, the second 2 are gas.

Thanks for checking anyway. Very interesting to know at least which makes are worth looking at.