Neff Oven Woes

nicka99

we have a neff oven single fan fitted with a new kitchen last year model B15E42NGB/01.

The engineer has just left for the 2nd time and Im left confused and annoyed ! Basically when used in 'circotherm' mode, the oven never reaches the set temperature but cycles between 3 and 20 deg lower. he used a probe and plotted a graph over 30 mins when set to 200 deg C. Initially it got to 198 then the heat element clicked off and it went down to 176 deg, element back on goes to 192 then back down to 177, heat back on to 193 then down to 178 - you get the idea ! after 30 mins it was yo-yo'ing between 197 and 184.

so if suppose I have to cook a pizza for 10 mins @ 200 then if I put it on when it claims its hot then for the next 10 mins its probably averaging 185 over the heating cycles. if I cook a chicken breast that should be 20mins @ 200 then it may average 188 over that period. its no wonder food doesnt cook anywhere near as fast as it should.

anyway, neff engineer says this is 'normal' and their ovens err on the low side since its better than on the high side. they have to cycle on and off and that is the range they use. the longer it is on the 'closer' it will get to the set temperature.

I said this wasnt acceptable and would be demanding a new one and he said the new one would be just the same !

circotherm mode does not go above 200 so I cant even set the temp a little higher. There are other options (fan + bottom heat) which go higher but are not recommended for some types of cooking.

so Ive paid a lot of money for an oven that never reaches the temperature it claims and the range allowed by the thermostat seems way to wide (thermostat was replaced on last visit.)

Ive called the kitchen company who are going to contact their neff rep for his opinion.

supposing he stands by his engineer - where do I go from here ? anyone else experienced this or think this is 'normal' ?

ormus

197/198 is acceptable for a 200 degree oven.

nicka99

ormus wrote: »

197/198 is acceptable for a 200 degree oven.

yes, and if it stayed at that I would be delighted. however, this is the peak before the element turns off and it starts going down again for a few mins to 184. if you take an average during the cycle, its a lot lower.

ryder72

What you are asking for the oven to achieve is a thermodynamical impossibility.

Any oven that hotter than its surroundings is going to lose heat to it so once it gets to a set temperature, the heating elements are turned off. Heat is then lost to the surroundings till it drops to a certain lower temp before its turned back on. This is how every other oven works. A replacement Neff oven might work to a slightly different temperature (allowable tolerance on the thermostat) but its never going to stay at the set temperature.

I am not aware of any oven that works in this manner.

VoucherMan

All ovens are different - at least that's what they say in recipe books.

I got a Neff oven a few years ago. It's fine once you get used to it.

It claims for example that a normal oven temperature of 200 degrees would be 180 in a fan oven but only needs to be 170 degrees in a CircoTherm oven.
Load of rubbish! I just use regular fan oven temperatures, sometimes even 5 degrees higher.

With a bit of practice you can cook stuff on different shelves at the same time. Usually the oven's not tall enough and I try to get two things in on the same shelf, but did once get meat & potatoes on the bottom shelf, and another joint of meat on the second shelf down. Everything cooked fine.

I'm surprised yours only goes to 200 degrees though. Mine goes up to 275 degrees. How are you supposed to cook something like Yorkshire puddings?

metron

Sorry to hear of the problems with your Neff oven. We've had nothing but problems with Neff ovens over recent years, sadly, and I'd never buy another one. The first one had to be replaced in a short space of time because they had to make so many unsuccessful attempts at repairing it, and now the replacement's just cost well over £200 to repair, just over 4 years later.

Neff service is awful, the people there don't seem to give a damn about customers, and even when you get to a senior level within the company they display an arrogance that's beyond belief.

Neff is a company trading on an old reputation for quality that isn't now deserved. Even Hotpoint and Indesit matched their reliability rating in the last Which? survey (Indesit actually did better than Neff).

For sheer unreliability I've never known ovens like Neff - and that's a comment based on actual experience. Never again! :mad:

nicka99

kmdesign wrote: »

A replacement Neff oven might work to a slightly different temperature (allowable tolerance on the thermostat) but its never going to stay at the set temperature.

I am not aware of any oven that works in this manner.

Im not expecting it to stay at the set temperature - just remain near it and perhaps the average be somewhere close across the cycles !

my issue with the oven is that using it to cook anything by the instructions/recipe/guidelines never works be it pizza, a roast, chicken breasts, salmon steaks - whatever it is, they are never cooked by the specified time. Thats why I bought 2 seperate thermometers which confirmed my suspicions.

I never had this problem with any oven before (Ive had 5 over the years). I understand they have to cycle on an off around the set temperature but I would expect that to be maybe between 5 above and 5 below so the average is what you set it at.

what I do not expect/want is an oven that has an average temperature 10-15 deg lower than it states and no possibility to go higher (in this mode). its no wonder things dont cook.

there are other options e.g. fan + bottom heat which go above 200 deg but circotherm alone is supposed to be the 'preferred' method for roasting things if neff are to be beleived. using bottom heat as well as fan ends up with things overcooked at the bottom

ryder72

Being in the trade, all I can say is that on balance BSH appliances are among the very best in the business. Sure there is the odd defective one out there but BSH service is excellent.

You can spend more and buy Miele but I dont believe its significantly better.

I have an AEG oven at home myself and its pretty useless - uneven temperature distribution etc.

I would highly recommend that you find and attend a Neff cookery demonstration near it. Most questions you have will be answered. Circotherm is a different way of cooking and its worth investing time into understanding it.

Regards to your comment about your expectation of how an oven should work, I can't comment on that, but I would be hugely surprised if other makes of ovens work differently.

For that matter I think most heat based appliances work similarly. If you apply your logic to an iron, ie heat it past say the synthetic temp setting and bring it slightly to achieve an average, it fair to say that you might scorch the fabric. Who'd be blaming the manufacturer for negligence then?

Yolina

I've had a Neff oven for nearly 13 years, never had any problems cooking stuff be it in traditional or circotherm mode (which I use probably 99.9% of the time) to be honest I've never checked the temperature with an oven thermometer or used the recipes in the handbook.

Doc_N

nicka99 wrote: »

Im not expecting it to stay at the set temperature - just remain near it and perhaps the average be somewhere close across the cycles !

my issue with the oven is that using it to cook anything by the instructions/recipe/guidelines never works be it pizza, a roast, chicken breasts, salmon steaks - whatever it is, they are never cooked by the specified time. Thats why I bought 2 seperate thermometers which confirmed my suspicions.

I never had this problem with any oven before (Ive had 5 over the years). I understand they have to cycle on an off around the set temperature but I would expect that to be maybe between 5 above and 5 below so the average is what you set it at.

what I do not expect/want is an oven that has an average temperature 10-15 deg lower than it states and no possibility to go higher (in this mode). its no wonder things dont cook.

there are other options e.g. fan + bottom heat which go above 200 deg but circotherm alone is supposed to be the 'preferred' method for roasting things if neff are to be beleived. using bottom heat as well as fan ends up with things overcooked at the bottom

Exactly the same problems for my wife with her Neff oven - and the same response from Neff that it's 'normal'.

Her response to that is that if it's normal for Neff ovens to operate over such a wide range of temperatures, it certainly isn't for other oven manufacturers. We've never had this problem before, and the temperature probe proves the very wide variation - which makes some things impossible to cook properly.

We've also had serious issues with Neff reliability, and with their service side. Next time round we'll be looking for another make.

Doc_N

Yolina wrote: »

I've had a Neff oven for nearly 13 years, never had any problems cooking stuff be it in traditional or circotherm mode (which I use probably 99.9% of the time) to be honest I've never checked the temperature with an oven thermometer or used the recipes in the handbook.

I think the problems have started over the last few years - they used to make very good, very reliable ovens. Then, I think, the accountants took over, decided to pare down the costs, and the result was inevitable - falling reliability.

There are some very poor reviews here, on Amazon, which should act as a warning to customers:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Neff-Built-Double-Stainless-U15M42N0GB/dp/B002ASS5FW/