Mini Ovens

Citygirl1

About two years ago I gave up my full size oven and bought a mini one instead. I had one before years ago and really liked it. I live alone and therefore feel I don't need a full size oven to use and clean.

However, the one I have, a Morphy Richards one, the oven is great and cooks food well but the hobs take ages to heat up so I have given up using anything on the hob. I don't tend to fry much anyway but it is useful to have a hob.

I could buy another mini oven as they are not expensive but would I get the same problem. Does anyone else use a mini oven and find it better than a full size one, especially if you live alone?

Living_proof

I use a Panasonic combi oven (grill, oven and microwave combined) but I already have a gas hob, little used. The main oven is only ever used if my lodger cooks a week's worth of food at once, which is rarely. I would say the Panny and a cheap induction hob (one or two rings) would suffice for a single person and personally I wouldn't have a big oven again in the future - it's an expensive way to store tins which I never use!. I also use all sorts of other gadgets from time to time - steamer, pressure cooker, George Foreman, slow cooker, etc. etc. and I keep all these bulky things on shelves in the garage as I wouldn't have space for them all in the kitchen.

Owain_Moneysaver

For frying get an induction hob and an appropriate frying pan or flat bottomed induction-friendly wok.

Or one of those electric frying-pan/casserole things.

Carrot007

Citygirl1 wrote: »

About two years ago I gave up my full size oven and bought a mini one instead. I had one before years ago and really liked it. I live alone and therefore feel I don't need a full size oven to use and clean.

However, the one I have, a Morphy Richards one, the oven is great and cooks food well but the hobs take ages to heat up so I have given up using anything on the hob. I don't tend to fry much anyway but it is useful to have a hob.

I could buy another mini oven as they are not expensive but would I get the same problem. Does anyone else use a mini oven and find it better than a full size one, especially if you live alone?

Your problem is that decent hobs are the reason why built in ovens have a dedicated feed from the consumer unit.


The hub is the part that uses lots of electric. As such a plug in one is never going to be any good. Might be better getting a seperate single one rather than one(s) on top of a mini oven but I have no experience.


No need for a mini oven though. You can get really small single built in ovens and then have a proper hob on top. You are not saving any money by using the smaller oven compared to a small single oven (well mabe 0.00001P per hour).

Carrot007

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

For frying get an induction hob and an appropriate frying pan or flat bottomed induction-friendly wok.

Or one of those electric frying-pan/casserole things.

I would assume not any better as built in induction hobs again use the higher capacity of the oven electric feed.


Not that I have an experience of them! Not allowed as OH has a pacemaker/ICD.

System

My cooker has two ovens. A large one and a small one. The large one has only been used twice and that was for the meat cooked at Christmas two years running.

I suppose I could do away with the larger oven completely.

BrassicWoman

wilko multicooker. replaces almost everything.

thriftwizard

I have & use a mini-oven as well as the two ovens on my big cooker - possibly I just need a bigger cooker! - but I also have a separate single induction hob, which runs off a normal plug. (This was bought for my business, when we were dyeing in the back room & needed a heat source to set the dyes. And the mini-oven was much needed when we had 7/8 living here full-time, with people on different diets needing feeding or use of cooking facilities at the same time.) So yes, you could pop one on top of a mini-oven, I think.

Citygirl1

Thanks for your replies. I live in a Council flat so can only have a stand alone oven, couldn't have one fitted in or anything like that, I have to go with what's there so to speak. The Wilko multi oven sounds interesting, how does that work?

I am reluctant to buy a full oven again as often I just put in one thing at a time and don't need all that space, plus its a faff to keep clean.