Neff built-in oven stress

ovenstress

When having a new kitchen fitted in late 2018, the kitchen company advised that they would only provide premium branded Neff appliances. We were content to proceed on that basis and we have 5 Neff built‐in appliances.
The fan within the main oven failed less than 2 months later, whilst cooking the turkey on Christmas Day!
A call to Neff saw them come out and replaced the fan. Great, problem solved!
A few days later the new fan failed! A call to Neff saw them come out and replace the oven.
Fast forward to a few days short of the 6 year anniversary of the newl oven being installed the fan has gone again!!
Having been reminded that Neff were a premium brand and despite the original problems we foolishly elected not to take out any extended warranties. To get Neff to repair the oven will cost £100± for a callout plus the cost of the repair and parts.
We now have to consider whether to cut our losses or potentially throw good money after bad we. We are siding with disposing of this "premium brand" oven, that we have no faith in, and buying a standard brand. The original standard brand lasted 15 years without needing any repair!
To be fair out of the 5 Neff appliances there is only the hob extractor that we haven't had issues with. Accordingly we wouldn't replace any of the appliances with new Neff products. Ratherly childishly,  but we feel aptly, we have changed the "e" to an "a" when referring to the built-in appliances, but in our experience that's what they are. 
Has anyone else had similar experiences with Neff built-in ovens? Or are we just unlucky, as we were advised was the case by the Neff engineer when he replaced the first fan!

DullGreyGuy

Neff, Bosch and Siemens are all the same company and these days broadly all the same products with just some cosmetic differences to align to each's brand language. Whilst historically Bosch were known for their good engineering and durable products I've not had that experience from the dishwasher and washing machine we bought from them. 

I would caveat slightly though that "premium" can mean different things and in some cases it means fancy features and its probably inevitable that the more gismos and gadgets an appliance has the more there is to go wrong with it. A friend had an old but expensive at the time Miele oven which had physical dials, 4 functions and was 15 years old and still fully operational when they changed it. The new one, also Miele has a webcam inside the oven, wireless temp prob so rather than setting time you can set the target internal temperature, about 15 different programmes etc etc all controlled with a large touch sensitive front... I'd be very surprised if it's all still working in 15 years time. 

Rodders53

Unlucky, I'd venture to say.   Neff is mid-range of the Bosch-Neff-Siemens brands.  So you may be best avoiding all those.  Even within each sub-brand they have a variation in features and quality if you do some research.

What was the "standard brand" that worked better and longer?  Also what is the Oven model number to find spare part prices?

This home had all Neff appliances when we moved here and were 8 years old then.  Another 8 years on and we have in the last couple of years updated most, not for any failures but due to tiredness / wanting to.

Bosch induction hob in place of the Ceramic hob.
Neff integrated dishwasher with a 'on floor indicator' (on offer cheaper than a Bosch) - rusting on the shelves.
Neff double over (similarly a good price) very recently, generally tired and the 'cleaning element' blew 8 years ago.

Any faults with an oven I'd fix myself (outside warranty). 
Fan motor and element around it are usually dead simple to do and may be possible from the front without removal from the housing/cupboard. 
Mind, the fan motor and fan assembly is some £102.54 from Neff themselves for mine = almost 1/8th the cost of the whole appliance. 

I try to research the items I buy from Bosch-Neff-Siemens are actually made in Germany rather than just designed there and assembled in cheap labour factories.

Marmaduke123

You can get a new fan from espares, who have excellent "how to do it" videos. Don't get a new oven just because the fan has gone.

Albermarle

he fan within the main oven failed less than 2 months later, whilst cooking the turkey on Christmas Day!
A call to Neff saw them come out and replaced the fan. Great, problem solved!
A few days later the new fan failed! A call to Neff saw them come out and replace the oven.

We had a new Bosch oven about 5 years ago and the fan went on this not long after we bought it. 
The Bosch engineer said there was a faulty batch.

Neff, Bosch and Siemens are all the same company and these days broadly all the same products with just some cosmetic differences to align to each's brand language.

So maybe connected.

Chrysalis

I dont buy into the premium made to last now days, as the premium tends to be huge.

As an example I got a very cheap hotpoint washing machine about a dozen or so years ago, and it still works to this day with not a single repair or malfunction.  If it died say after a few years, replacing it probably cheaper than buying a single expensive unit.
Another example is my fridge, I could have got a similar spec'd fridge for approx 500% of the price, the expensive fridge does come with 10 years instead of 2 years warranty, but to be break even, my fridge would have to break every 2 years, thats unlikely to happen without really bad luck.
So I would replace it if the upkeep is proving expensive.

DullGreyGuy

Chrysalis said:

Another example is my fridge, I could have got a similar spec'd fridge for approx 500% of the price, the expensive fridge does come with 10 years instead of 2 years warranty, but to be break even, my fridge would have to break every 2 years, thats unlikely to happen without really bad luck.
So I would replace it if the upkeep is proving expensive.

I'd be surprised if the only differences between a £300 and £1,500 fridge is only the warranty duration, durability and badge. Most will also introduce extra features, better efficiency, lower noise, greater volume to size ratio and some may include those slightly harder to measure things like temperature stability. 

Naturally these things may not be something you worry about if it's in the back pantry thats got vast spare space etc and so arent worth paying a premium on. They can also be more things to go wrong so may reduce durability. Some may have a real use case for the features though and others will want them despite that. Hence it's good that a range of options are available for people to choose from. 

Personally what I dont get, when comparing a larder fridge with a larder fridge and not an American style fridge freezer with an undercounter fridge etc is why there is a vast gap in the middle of the pricing? You get fairly consistent models from £200 up to £2,500 and then you get the SubZero or Monolith or MasterCool at £10,000. I get the later brands are basically commercial units but why is there absolutely nothing in between the two

Chrysalis

DullGreyGuy said:

Chrysalis said:

Another example is my fridge, I could have got a similar spec'd fridge for approx 500% of the price, the expensive fridge does come with 10 years instead of 2 years warranty, but to be break even, my fridge would have to break every 2 years, thats unlikely to happen without really bad luck.
So I would replace it if the upkeep is proving expensive.

I'd be surprised if the only differences between a £300 and £1,500 fridge is only the warranty duration, durability and badge. Most will also introduce extra features, better efficiency, lower noise, greater volume to size ratio and some may include those slightly harder to measure things like temperature stability. 

Naturally these things may not be something you worry about if it's in the back pantry thats got vast spare space etc and so arent worth paying a premium on. They can also be more things to go wrong so may reduce durability. Some may have a real use case for the features though and others will want them despite that. Hence it's good that a range of options are available for people to choose from. 

Personally what I dont get, when comparing a larder fridge with a larder fridge and not an American style fridge freezer with an undercounter fridge etc is why there is a vast gap in the middle of the pricing? You get fairly consistent models from £200 up to £2,500 and then you get the SubZero or Monolith or MasterCool at £10,000. I get the later brands are basically commercial units but why is there absolutely nothing in between the two

Well of course there would be better quality components, but the question is are they going to make a big enough difference that they are needed to make it last 10 years, and I think someone mentioned on here the more expensive fridges actually show you the current temperature, not just the configured temperature, but on the pic's and the official specifications, they were very close.  Give it a few years and see if I am posting on here about my fridge giving up on me.    Also to be fair the fridge is noisy, when defrosting.
Agree on your point about mid tier pricing, I noticed the same thing.