Freestanding cooker help

Emmamac5

Hope someone can point me in the right direction. 

I live in a rented house. The kitchen is quite dated (but the landlord has no intention of changing it). 

When we moved in 4 years ago, we bought a gas cooker. It wasn’t cheap but it has always has been terrible. It pretty much burns everything or takes forever to cook. Baking is completely out of the question. I honestly hate it. 

I’ve started looking at getting a new cooker with a fan assisted oven but I’ve hit a wall. I only have a 50cm gap and don’t have the correct plug to buy an electric oven (only a 13amp plug socket). 

Someone advised that I go with a dual fuel which would only require a 13amp socket but from what I can gather they are not a thing?! 

I can find countless 60cm cookers that have a fan assisted oven but nothing in 50cm. 

I have found one cooker that is the right size, but it has a conventional oven. Is that just the same as a gas oven (in terms of uneven cooking/heat)? 

I honestly don’t know what my options are.. I’m completely useless at this kind of thing. 

Any advice? 

Ectophile

A single oven can plug into a 13A socket.  But that's just one oven.  If you want a whole cooker, it needs to be wired into a proper 30A cooker supply point.  Most kitchens have one, but perhaps yours doesn't.

Duel fuel usually applies to a separate oven and hob.  If you're buying them as separate units, there's nothing to stop you having a gas hob and electric oven.  But then it won't be freestanding, and needs to be built into a kitchen unit.

nofoollikeold

1. You might consider starting by getting the existing gas oven checked and serviced.  In well maintained condition there is no reason why a gas oven should not cook properly.  It may be under gassed, or over gassed, or may need the thermostat adjusting / replacing.  

EssexExile

There are plenty of dual fuel cookers about but not many that size. Here's one:
https://ao.com/product/is5g4phx-indesit-cloe-dual-fuel-cooker-silver-65448-12.aspx

Edit: doesn't seem to have a fan though, very last century!

Emmamac5

nofoollikeold said:

1. You might consider starting by getting the existing gas oven checked and serviced.  In well maintained condition there is no reason why a gas oven should not cook properly.  It may be under gassed, or over gassed, or may need the thermostat adjusting / replacing.  

I’ve had hotpoint out twice. The first time they replaced it (and the new one was equally rubbish). Second time they said there’s nothing wrong but the repair guy replaced the seal. Still the same. But some gas cookers actually cook without burning?! 

EssexExile said:

There are plenty of dual fuel cookers about but not many that size. Here's one:

Edit: doesn't seem to have a fan though, very last century!

Yep, that’s the one and only one! I don’t get it.. they do full electric fan assisted ovens in 50cm. They are clearly capable of doing it. All I want is to bake with the kids again and make a meal without it being crispy haha

EssexExile

Perhaps search the internet for cooking forums, someone somewhere sometime has had the same problems as you and plenty of people manage with a gas oven.

Ajmason42

We had a 50cm gas cooker no issues with the oven. My wife cooked fab cakes in it 

twopenny

You can buy an oven thermometer for a £1. See what's happening.

I found with all cookers you need to adjust the heat according to the cooker. A little up or a little down.

Shelf height makes a difference. With gas it's much hotter at the top and cooler at the bottom. Useful as you can cook whole meals at once - not useful if you want to batch bake things, more than one shelf. I may be telling you what you know but it's rare to spend so long having problems without being able to adjust to them.

Having said that - I hate the electric cooker I've got with this house but 1yr in I'm managing.

-taff

I loathe electric cookers and have had a few.

I love my gas cookers and both of them have been New World ones, one of them is over sixty years old and is still going strong. Mine is nearly six and still good.

If you can't get an electric one to fit, then persevere with the one you have but get it serviced. There's no reason for it to burn or underccok anything if the supply is constant.  Are you sticking to the exact timings on recipes? I find that for things like cakes, when you can smell them, they're ready, bread is probably ten minutes off being cooked when you can smell it properly.

Ectophile

Of course, the other thing with a gas oven is that the top is always hotter than the bottom.  You have to get used to it, and work out not only what temperature to set the oven to, but also where in the oven to put the food.

There's a good reason I got an electric fan oven when I had my kitchen done!

southcoastrgi

make sure the cooker is level