Advice on 60cm freestanding stove

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leemillerau

37 posts

Geek

#240090 20-Aug-2018 11:51

Hi there

I'm just looking for suggestions and/or experience with the various brands (not many) of freestanding stoves. We have an old stove where the oven is unreliable and so I'm thinking about replacement options without redoing the kitchen.

Budget (within reason) is not an issue but looking for reliability and easy to use/clean above design and aesthetics.

It's not easy to find any reliable reviews of products available in NZ so any advice/guidance you can provide would be appreciated.

Thanks

Lee

MikeAqua

7779 posts

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#2076137 20-Aug-2018 12:02

Based on my experience I would avoid Delonghi like the plague. I've owned one house that came with a Delonghi stove and had them in two houses where I was a tenant and had significant problems with all of them.

I haven't experienced problems with any other brand of stove.

Mike

trig42

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#2076154 20-Aug-2018 12:23

Gas or Electric top?

We have a Bosch (90cm however) and it has been great.

It replaced a Parmco, and it was a great oven (Gas top, fine as well) but it had a design fault in that the switch selecting the oven functions would burn out and need replacing. Parmco replaced it twice for us in the 5 year warranty period, and once after. When it did it last year (after 7.5 years of owning the oven) we could have got them to provide the parts again, but we got a good deal on the Bosch.

The Bosch is quieter than the Parmco was (the Fans in the Parmco were quite loud, and developed a sort of thrumming noise).

timmmay

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#2076162 20-Aug-2018 12:27

Consumer magazine often has useful reviews. You can buy access to a single article or for a short period, or you could ask someone who has access to send you an article.

We got a Beko free standing oven with induction cooktop. From memory it cost $2500. It's good, but has just a few minor annoying things to it, like the oven rack heights, and the touch controls. I'd consider buying a Bosch next time, but the Beko is ok for the money. Induction cooktops are awesome, IMHO better than gas as they're easier to clean and about as responsive.

Wheelbarrow01

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Chorus

#2076179 20-Aug-2018 12:42

You really can't go past the tried and trusted brands such as Fisher & Paykel (and their subsidiary Elba) and Westinghouse. I know there are other brands out there that are starting to go mainstream, such as Belling, Bosch and Ariston, but I really don't know about their reliability sorry.

I have rental properties and when any of the original ovens (think Shacklock and their ilk) have started failing repeatedly, I have always swapped them out for F&P or Elba and these have been super reliable. Because they are rentals, I value reliability/simplicity over almost anything else - I don't want to put a cheap oven in, only to have no end of problems and a tenant on my back about it.

Just a couple of weeks ago I managed to pick up a "new old stock" Elba fan forced oven in brand new condition for $600. I just got lucky on Trademe with that one. I find even second hand ovens on Trademe can be quite pricey - especially the trusted brands. But patience is the key here - I check for new listings daily when I'm on the hunt and invariably find that a good deal on a new-ish oven will pop up eventually.

[EDIT - I just remembered that my own under bench oven at home is an Ariston and I DON'T recommend it. Whilst it has been a great oven to use with many cooking programs and an electronic interface, I blew it up (complete with smoke) when I tried to replace the light inside - I changed the bulb successfully, but I must have caused a short or something when I pushed the glass light cover back into place. It gave me a hell of a fright as my head was in the oven at the time...It was outside of warranty due to being about 4 years old (and the previous house owner bought it, not me). The service agent I took it to for repair took nearly 3 months to sort it out - they had to wait for a part on back-order to arrive from Germany. The long wait was extremely frustrating and the repair cost me over $400. So to me, Ariston equals expensive and time consuming to get repaired when something goes wrong]

Fred99

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#2076255 20-Aug-2018 14:33

We've got a "Scholtes" oven, which is a premium brand from the same stable as Ariston and Indesit. Terrific oven functionally - when it's working - but I'm not recommending the brand for reliability either, it's had a series of niggles since new, one of which defied the service agent for months when it was under warranty. It's playing up a bit again now - I need to change out a control switch that they call a "potentiometer" - when it actually isn't - it's an electronic control switch. It may respond to cleaning/contact cleaner - I need to pull the thing apart to get at the switch - nasty job. Poor design IMO, steam etc from the door gets up and into the electronics on the control panel. Last problem I had to DIY fix was spillage from the gas cooktop leaked on to a ribbon cable connector on the main board. An easy fix - just needed cleaning - but again poor design with nothing shielding the main board from things that are bound to happen. The original main board died a couple of months from new. The agent shipped a replacement board, but that was probably a general board to suit different models. It had an empty socket on the board where the original board had a model-specific EPROM chip surface mounted - so the agent then had to get the specific EPROM chip flown out. I think we had a non-functional or partly functional oven for 2 or 3 months. Really crappy all round.

I'll probably replace it with a Bosch oven when the time comes. Possibly F&P - as I've always found that they have parts available - even for quite old appliances.

MikeAqua

7779 posts

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#2076270 20-Aug-2018 15:02

We've also had good service form a Parmco oven. I don't like it, but it's proven reliable

Mike

mdf

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#2076621 21-Aug-2018 10:03

Probably depends a bit on the type of stove/hob you're after. We're firmly in the gas cook top camp. We previously had a Delonghi and it was at best okay. Currently have a Bosch and I definitely prefer that.

As others have said, Consumer is a good starting point. They've got a 7 day for $7 deal on at the moment that seemed a reasonable deal when I was tasked with finding a new washing machine for mum.

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Bung

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#2076640 21-Aug-2018 10:48

Fred99: Poor design IMO, steam etc from the door gets up and into the electronics on the control panel. Last problem I had to DIY fix was spillage from the gas cooktop leaked on to a ribbon cable connector on the main board. An easy fix - just needed cleaning - but again poor design with nothing shielding the main board from things that are bound to happen.

Design engineers must test their work with empty ovens. We had an F&P that needed a control board replaced after steam from the oven condensed and dripped all over it. The replacement part came with a silicone sheet like you'd put on a bbq hot plate that was wrapped around the control board and secured with cable ties. That stove has been reliable since then. A newer Simpson regularly needs simmerstats. Apparently the MP101?? style is used by several brands so they all have the same problem.

Some stoves have a short retail life and parts become scarce. There is a company in Auckland that can replicate elements if you send them the faulty one.

KaroriPete

96 posts

Master Geek

#2084247 5-Sep-2018 11:11

We're in exactly the same situation. Our current 60cm freestanding oven (a F&P Saffron ceramic top) has been a lemon since day one. Numerous simmerstats were replaced under warranty, more were replaced after warranty, and the door doesn't close properly on one side so it hemorrhages heat and heats unevenly inside the oven.

For this reason I'm reluctant to buy an Elba which looks pretty much identical to the our current F&P, door has the same spongy feel when closing etc..

Westinghouse have a comparable model, but also has lots of reports about simmerstats failing and uneven heating.

Something with a ceramic top would be easiest for us, but a gas hob would be possible, and a warming drawer would be preferred but I think that limits us to Elba and Westinghouse (why don't people want warming drawers anymore?)

A proper Fisher and Paykel oven is around $2,700 and although it does look nice it is reportedly slow to heat up and nothing spectacular for around $2,700

There's a Bosch at around $3,600 which has good reviews for the oven, but apparently has a very weak frame with reports of it collapsing when rocked back onto the two rear legs to adjust the level on the front two.

There's a Smeg at around $2,500 which has OK reviews for it's features, but there are loads of reports about Smeg reliability issues.

Any personal experiences with any of these makes and models, or ideas for something reputable that I haven't considered would be greatly appreciated.

Are Smegs really that bad?

Cheers,

Pete.

trig42

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#2084256 5-Sep-2018 11:26

Smeg ovens are OK, but friends of ours had one that rusted out (well after the warranty expired). I wouldn't touch their dishwashers again after living in a house for a year with one - awful.

Have a look at Beko for freestanding with either Ceramic or Induction tops. I'm not sure on how good they are, but I've had no issues with our Beko washing machine for the last three years.

KaroriPete

96 posts

Master Geek

#2084287 5-Sep-2018 12:48

I have started wondering about Beko. Their ovens seem to be quite fully featured for the price, have decent capacity, and come with a five year warranty which I don't see anyone else offering. Being wary of the "if it seems too good to be true..." mantra I checked out the web and found some UK sites where the brand was slammed pretty hard, but I might go and have a look at one anyway.

Re dishwashers; we have an Asko which replaced a previous very old Asko. It did have a pump or motor of some kind replaced outside of warranty, but Asko provided the part for free and I paid the labour which seemed like a fair deal. Otherwise it works well and is very quiet.

kingjj

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#2084310 5-Sep-2018 13:34

Wheelbarrow01:

[EDIT - I just remembered that my own under bench oven at home is an Ariston and I DON'T recommend it. Whilst it has been a great oven to use with many cooking programs and an electronic interface, I blew it up (complete with smoke) when I tried to replace the light inside - I changed the bulb successfully, but I must have caused a short or something when I pushed the glass light cover back into place. It gave me a hell of a fright as my head was in the oven at the time...It was outside of warranty due to being about 4 years old (and the previous house owner bought it, not me). The service agent I took it to for repair took nearly 3 months to sort it out - they had to wait for a part on back-order to arrive from Germany. The long wait was extremely frustrating and the repair cost me over $400. So to me, Ariston equals expensive and time consuming to get repaired when something goes wrong]

I'll second that but for slightly different reasons. We put in an Ariston freestanding oven with ceramic cooktop about 3 years ago at our old house. The decision was based on price (we had already blown the budget for our renovations) so we went with Ariston as one of the cheaper options for what you get. It was ok reliability wise however I had great difficulty trying to track down a screw for the door hinge when it fell out and disappeared during a cleaning. The NZ stockist couldn't help nor could the store we brought it from. In the end I found a repair store that carried a range of weird screws and brought one that was similar enough to fit well. Cleaning it was also a pita. The cooktop was easy, the dials where terrible. You only had to lightly wipe the dial decals with a wet cloth and the decals would come right off. I ended up having to use a toothbrush to clean around the decals...

Have a Bosh 90cm with gas stove top and love it. It has great heat circulation and is easy to clean.