awful Zanussi free standing cooker

marcidarci

 I bought a freestanding Zanussi cooker in October 2023 as part of a newly fitted kitchen.  As soon as I used the oven I noted a huge plume of steam/smoke coming from the vents at the back which I presumed was a fault.  I reported it to Marks Electrical as this is the company I bought it from.  After many phone calls they referred me to Zanussi Customer Services as they only guarantee items for 30 days.  I sent the a video of the performance of the oven (both ovens spew out excess steam) to Marks Electrical who passed it on to Zanussi.  They sent an Engineer out who arrived without notice so nothing was cooking.  He declared it normal (how he could when the oven was not operational???) I complained and they sent another Engineer who did see the steam and said it was normal but did advise to send another video to Zanussi.  I've had on-going correspondence with a person from the Managing Director's office but am getting nowhere.  They tell me I should change the way I cook and cover up the food in the oven?????  I had many visitors over Christmas who are horrified when they see the amount of steam coming from the cooker, its affecting the paint work and has buckled the upstand at the back of the cooker. I would love your opinion on whether you think the cooker is fit for purpose as I feel I will have to get rid of it.

Aylesbury_Duck

Is it definitely steam?  If it is, then surely it's generated by the food and it would be the same for any cooker.  The steam has to go somewhere.  Covering the food won't make much difference.

If it's smoke, then there's a problem.  My first suspicion would be some leftover packaging or tape, but if it's been checked then that's unlikely.  That leaves a manufacturing fault, e.g. something rubbing like the fan or its bearing, or a plastic wire or something that's melting.

PHK

I don't really understand this. Steam is the water from food when you heat it to oven temperatures.

Any oven needs to let the steam out. An oven isn't plumbed in so the cooker has no supply of water. 

Are you cooking very wet dishes? Where do you think this excess liquid is coming from. 

RefluentBeans

Does the oven kick out this steam when it’s pre heating? Or just whilst cooking actual food? As others have said - if it’s steam it’s either condensation in the oven (unlikely) or from the food you’re cooking. 

I’d say if you don’t get it from the pre heating of the oven then it’s just steam. If you’re getting it from when there’s nothing in the oven then you should go back and say it’s clearly not steam as it focuses on the preheat stage.

If it is steam, you can see if you can get a pipe installed to remove the heat from the area to either outside or an extractor. 

Keep_pedalling

If it was smoke it would be accompanied by strong burning smells, so it is almost certainly water vapour from the cooking food. Any steam generated from the cooking will emerge from those rear vents quickly turning to water vapour especially if venting out to a cold back wall.

What are you cooking that generates so much? If you don’t have a cooker hood taking all this vapour outside you are going to have a bit of a damp problem in your kitchen.  

marcidarci

Thanks all, I do use my extractor fan but it doesn't help.  It happens when cooking a range of things, frozen stuff as well as covered casserole dishes, baked potatoes etc.  I could cope and expect some vapour but its the excessive amount of steam that bothers me.  Wish I could post a video on here to show you all what I mean.  I was hoping there would be someone else on here that had a cooker with two little vents at the back to see if they had the same issue.

apw81

Do you get much steam when you open the oven door during or at the end of cooking?

My Zanussi oven is freestanding. I get blasted with steam, often a lot (depending on the food), when opening the door. Mine is from 2010, so perhaps they’ve changed bits around since then to balance out how steam gets dumped. Mine also has vents on the back but would seem they’re not as effective for steam removal as they could be (though they do output some steam, just not a torrent).

Aylesbury_Duck

marcidarci said:

Thanks all, I do use my extractor fan but it doesn't help.  It happens when cooking a range of things, frozen stuff as well as covered casserole dishes, baked potatoes etc.  I could cope and expect some vapour but its the excessive amount of steam that bothers me.  Wish I could post a video on here to show you all what I mean.  I was hoping there would be someone else on here that had a cooker with two little vents at the back to see if they had the same issue.

You need to work out if it is really just steam.  If it is then there really isn't anything wrong with the cooker.  The steam can only be coming from the food.  That food would produce the same amount of steam from any cooker, the only difference will be how each model dissipates it.  This model seems very good at pumping it out of two vents, whereas other models may leak the steam from several places so it's not as noticeable.

I suppose the only other source of steam could be a water leak somewhere around the cooker and the cooker's heat is boiling it off, but that's incredibly unlikely.

Aylesbury_Duck

Just a thought: Have you installed it in accordance with the instructions, providing the minimum clearance specified?  Is it possible you've got it too tight against something and one or more vents are blocked, which is pushing all the steam out of the two you mention?