Kitchen/oven advice needed for complete amateur!!

gingerninja72

Hi, we're in the middle of planning our new kitchen (complete gutting and rebuild, all a bit scary!). Being complete novices, I think we have made our first (of many) errors


We plan to have a gas hob built in to the worktop, and then an oven underneath. I assumed that mixing and matching was acceptable, so we went out and bought a hob yesterday. But now I'm getting a bit confused by the difference between "built under" and "built in".


There seems to be a huge choice of "built in" ovens (all we need is a single oven), but hardly any "built under" ones (and the latter seem to only be available as doubles, and are mentally expensive)


With integrated oven/hobs - is this oven one unit, with the worktop cut out to accomodate the hob? Or are the oven/hob separate? God I feel like such an amateur asking dumb questions like this, but everyone has to start somewhere!


Hope someone can advise

CliffWalker_2

Hello, I've worked in the kitchen trade for XX years, (don't like to give out my real age... ha ha) as a fitter originally and then in the survey/installation side - so I have a bit of experience.

A lot of firms advertise built in when they actually mean built under (just installed an integrated fridge for the mother in law and lost count of how many firms said a fridge was built in, when they meant under...) ebay is a good place to start looking, especially at those firms that specialise in returns, as usually the goods are fine, its the box thats damaged. (and even if the appliance has minor damage, who sees the back of a dishwasher when its fitted anyway?)

The hob and oven are pretty much always separate (although Stoves did a hob a few years ago that had the controls on the oven which sat underneath, so you had to buy their oven/hob combo... and it wasn't cheap either) and you can suit yourself what you have (gas or electric-wise), most people have gas hob and electric oven but there's no reason you can't have any combination.

So long as the built under (or in) oven is less than 720mm tall, it will sit in the space between worktop and plinth. Some ovens need a housing (or at least two side panels) some have a rail that screws to each adjoining unit for the oven to sit on.

The only real problems occur when you have a gas hob over an oven that has little room for the pipework above it, then its knuckle scraping time for the plumber...

I've never had one I couldn't get round one way or another though.

Hope this helps.

gingerninja72

Many thanks for the reply mate, appreciate it. I had already got a few models lined up, I'm adept at hunting out the bargains!

Hmm, that makes sense. The vast majority of ovens for sale on various sites are advertised as 'built in' which does seem a bit misleading. We bought the Delonghi GHS261 gas hob (not allowed to link as I am a newbie here), and am looking at something along the lines of say a Bosch HBN531E0B electric oven so looks like it will be no problem then. And if the guy fitting it gets his ickle hands scraped, well...I'm sure he will cope

Thanks again!

Meepster

Single ovens are always built in, as they need a housing. It doesn't matter if they are under a worktop or in a tall housing, the oven is the same size.

The time where built in or built under really matters is when you have a double oven. Built under ones are only 720mm high and fix to the sides of the kitchen units. Built in ones are 890mm high and are designed to fit into a tall housing...

pimento

I have a double built-under oven and until Monday had a separate gas hob built into the worktop above the oven.

I'm changing kitchens and keeping my oven, and I really wanted an induction hob, but aparently they're not designed to go above a double oven because they need a minimum amount of space between the two appliances and my double oven doesn't give it, so I'm having to go with an ordnary ceramic hob.

I'm really disappointed.

ukmaggie45

pimento wrote: »

I have a double built-under oven and until Monday had a separate gas hob built into the worktop above the oven.

I'm changing kitchens and keeping my oven, and I really wanted an induction hob, but aparently they're not designed to go above a double oven because they need a minimum amount of space between the two appliances and my double oven doesn't give it, so I'm having to go with an ordnary ceramic hob.

I'm really disappointed.

Sorry about your disappointment. But many thanks for the information about needing space between double oven and induction hob. We're just beginning to think about new kitchen in new (to us) house... Obviously there's more to it than just shoe-horning the appliances into a limited space! Will pass this useful information on to OH, as I'm really hoping to get an induction hob.

pimento

My disappointment is tempered with the fact that there is no other place that I can put a hob, so even if I had known about the issue at the early planning stages, I still wouldn't have been able to have the induction hob over my double oven.

A single oven isn't a consideration either because I like my grill more than I like the idea of an induction hob.

Oh well, next house maybe...

Hope your new kitchen goes well!

Meepster

pimento - why not look at the Openspace oven by Hotpoint. It is the size of a single oven, but can be used as a double, or as a full multifunction oven is needs be...

pimento

I'm keeping my current oven. Perefctly good and just recently had the element changed at a cost of £80.

Can't afford the £500 or so it would cost to change at the moment.

Also, it looks like you can't use the grill at the same time as the oven which is a dealbreaker for me..