Oven F&P or Smeg?

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17 posts

Geek

#1387975 15-Sep-2015 16:53

Good to hear that you are enjoying the oven. I had forgotten how much bigger the F&P was inside compared to some of the others that we looked at. And thanks for the tip about the depth - I will check our kitchen plans to ensure that the oven fits properly

StructureDr

77 posts

Master Geek

#1391694 22-Sep-2015 10:00

networkn:
Aredwood: Bottom element has probably failed. And the top bake assist element is the only one working.

Hmm, I don't suppose you would have even a ball park figure on what that might cost to get fixed? The oven is 9 years old, unsure if it's worth repairing for fear of another thing breaking.

We had a main element replaced in an unknown age (about 5-10 years) Smeg double width freestanding oven last year - was a few hundred for the part and then fitting - guess total bill was about $500.

Certainly much cheaper than replacing the whole thing

zyo

513 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1393073 23-Sep-2015 20:56

We also recently renovated our kitechen and got one of these F&P oven

OB60SL11DEPX1

Paid 2320 at Harvey Norman Mt Wellington (they gave us a big discount plus additional 10% gift voucher as we bought 10k+ of appliances including a 4k Samsung fridge), also bought 4 years additional replacement warranty for good measure.

Loved it.

zyo

513 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1393076 23-Sep-2015 20:59

For the dish washer we went for Bosch as it is so much quieter.

We also looked at SMEG at kitchen things and believe they are overpriced and the Italians don't have a very good reputation for reliability compare to the Germans (in my mind) :)

mattwnz

20141 posts

Uber Geek

#1393097 23-Sep-2015 21:33

zyo: For the dish washer we went for Bosch as it is so much quieter.

We also looked at SMEG at kitchen things and believe they are overpriced and the Italians don't have a very good reputation for reliability compare to the Germans (in my mind) :)

Our bosch dishwasher is currently playing up. It is 5 or so years old, but has started not to drain properly, and make strange sounds. Have followed youtube vids on clearing the sump and pump, as well as the backflow diaphragm but it hasn't fully fixed it. In terms of dishwashers, I haven't found any one brand to be less reliable long term. The only one that washes poorly though is the F&P, which doesn't dry properly.

networkn

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#1393142 23-Sep-2015 22:15

mattwnz:
zyo: For the dish washer we went for Bosch as it is so much quieter.

We also looked at SMEG at kitchen things and believe they are overpriced and the Italians don't have a very good reputation for reliability compare to the Germans (in my mind) :)

Our bosch dishwasher is currently playing up. It is 5 or so years old, but has started not to drain properly, and make strange sounds. Have followed youtube vids on clearing the sump and pump, as well as the backflow diaphragm but it hasn't fully fixed it. In terms of dishwashers, I haven't found any one brand to be less reliable long term. The only one that washes poorly though is the F&P, which doesn't dry properly.

We had the same issues with our dishwasher not draining (bosch) replaced it with the new bosch and had even more issues with all sorts of things. I am pretty much done with Bosch right now.

I am so torn about which oven to buy. I wish I could find just 1 person who was a decent cook and who owned the ichef.

bfginger

1267 posts

Uber Geek

#1393983 24-Sep-2015 22:34

If you don't have enough room for a 90cm wide oven you don't have many options as most 60cm ovens don't have enough usable space for any serious cooking. Some brands have fixed railings which further impair usability. So check the specifications and look inside before buying. Oven capacity and usable oven capacity aren't the same thing

Smeg and F&P do have some high usable capacity 60cm oven models. Most brands have few or no usable full size 60cm ovens as they're only intended for heating the pre-packaged dinners that are so popular in Europe and America. They're like benchtop grillers.

Bosch quality isn't as consistent as it used to be. They now outsource production of some products to other countries so check where the product is made. If it says "Made in Korea" or "Made in Turkey" it'll be their lower tier stuff. They've removed "Made in Germany" off the front of dishwasher models that had it not long ago. It isn't worthwhile buying a low end dishwasher of any brand.

Are F&P ovens made in China now? I think the Smegs are made in Italy.

New Smegs are only sold through Kitchen and Things in New Zealand. They usually have them on sale twice per year. I would only buy when on sale. Kitchen and Things has a clearance sale on til the 30th.

I like the look of Smeg's flush mount gas cooktops. Having the pots and pans level with the bench instead of sticking up in the air must be safer.

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Jase2985

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#1394016 25-Sep-2015 06:03

F&P do a 76cm oven now

Dunnersfella

4086 posts

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#1394124 25-Sep-2015 08:55

Good luck with getting a Bosch... there's a global oven shortage until Feb 2016.

andrew027

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#1394221 25-Sep-2015 10:10

I've never cooked in a Smeg oven so don't know much about them. A friend in Australia had all Smeg appliances in his kitchen and I remember thinking that the oven capacity looked quite small compared to what I was used to, but it sure looked flash and he swore by the functions and quality.

I've just moved into a new house and it's got this monster in it:

The double ovens are great - you can be grilling or roasting in one and baking in the other at the same time or, when it's Christmas lunch time, you can just have the quantity going to feed a small army. I wouldn't have thought of something like this but as it was already in the house when I bought it you can bet I'm going to use it!

If you want comments on F&P quality, assuming this has been there since the house was built it has to be over 10 years old now and everything is in perfect working order. There is also an old F&P double dishdrawer in the house with one drawer not working and the other only working on one wash programme, so that's being replaced this weekend. In our old house we had a different model dishdrawer that ran perfectly for six years, so make of that what you will. The ovens seem a little slow to get up to temperature compared to the Samsung under-bench oven in my old house, but once they get there they seem to be hotter than the Samsung so things cook in less time overall - no "putting it back in for 10 minutes" at the end of the suggested cook time. So far I've grilled steak, roasted a chicken and baked a lasagne in it, and my wife has done a baked fish dish as well as making some biscuits and a cake, and everything has come out very well.

My one gripe is that it has some kind of separate side panels that fit over the walls of the ovens (possibly something to do with pyrolytic cleaning?) and the side racks that hold all the shelves, etc. in place fit over the top of these panels. This arrangement seems to add enough extra width to the oven that the wire rack shelves are extremely tight and quite difficult to slide in and out. It may be that these panels are an accessory that I can replace (or even remove if I don't mind more manual oven cleaning) but I haven't had enough time to investigate that yet - I've only been in the house 8 days.

Niel

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#1396081 28-Sep-2015 20:41

I have not read the thread as it is too much, just the OP. But I have to add that I refuse to ever buy Smeg again. Five years ago we bought a stainless steel package at the Auckland Home Show (Kitchen and Things) after seeing the style of 90cm oven we wanted. Good deal, but we have had trouble with each and every appliance. We bought it before building our house and designed the kitchen accordingly.

The fridge is double door with built in water/ice, and is actually a re-branded Daewoo identical to the ones at Mitre10. The water stopped working within 6 months, and as an electronic engineer I've had a look at the circuit board that the technician replaced and saw it was a very basic dry solder joint issue which happens only with poor solder processes. And the circuit board is single sided, looks like it was designed 20 years ago before surface mount components. After the warranty ran out, the freezer air circulation fan packed up. I got one off eBay for about $25, added food grade silicone sealer to where the power enters the potting seal (which was obviously peeling away on the old one) and fitted it myself.

The oven clock packed up within 1 year of use, but the oven was in storage for for just over a year before we used it so it was a month over the 2 year warranty and Smeg would not fix it. A replacement clock would have to be ordered from overseas and would cost about $500, due to exchange rate fluctuations the final price would be available only when it arrives and I have to commit to purchasing. So I found an identical size clock on eBay for about $25...

The printing on the oven control panel are rubbing off. We are not scrubbing it, just spray and wipe, but half of the symbols are gone.

After 3 years the dishwasher heater wiring terminal melted. It is a good quality connector on the heater, but with a cheap insulator on the wire and it gets hot so the insulation melted creating a short. I've fixed it myself with a silicone boot on the terminal.

A week ago we saw the dishwasher door handle flap (push in to get to catch) is breaking. Ordered a new one today for $31 excluding the stainless trim plate. It is only flat plastic with a couple of (tiny!) stoppers and pins to attach the spring, but it is designed to break.

The dishwasher control panel has a plastic coating over the stainless, and after a few years it is blistering badly.

The range hood is unbranded, the clock looses time badly and the optional matching chimney extension is horrendously expensive. At least it has not failed yet.

So we bought it 5 years ago, and used everything 3.5 years except the fridge freezer 4.5 years. Everything failed at least once, except the range hood that has a useless clock.

When we've had enough, we will fill in the hole where the free standing oven is and buy a Bosch (or similar quality) induction cook top and a wide low profile built in oven. And a Samsung fridge freezer. Probably a Bosch dishwasher. Very happy with my Bosch tumble dryer, been used on average 1-2 times a day for 5 years now and performing exactly as when it was new. But I have also heard that with Bosch it depends where it is manufactured.

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networkn

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#1396121 28-Sep-2015 21:27

Today I confirmed the purchase of F&P OB60SL11DEPX1 60cm oven.

I liked the iChef, it was programmable, but more expensive, lesser internal capacity, and I couldn't find another person with it, for a decent review.

I have not heard a bad thing about the F&P except that the internal rails are a little more flimsy than the others, which was our experience, but the pluses really outweighed the positives. I ended up buying from K&T which is the same place we have bought our last 10 appliances, mostly because they could secure stock, when others didn't have any for a month or more.

spronkey

117 posts

Master Geek

#1396229 29-Sep-2015 00:20

Wow that's really poor on the Smeg stuff! :S

We have a Bosch basic oven. Made in Turkey. Surprisingly good, although in hindsight, would have got a Pyrolitic one instead. Only issue is the somewhat poor controls.

Beko induction hob I'm not so sold on - it's fine, plenty of power, noisy fan and pans vibrate sometimes (though that could be the pans), but it also is basically full on or full off, and it uses some sort of duty cycle mechanism PWM-style to determine its output, and the cycle time isn't very fast so you can hear it audibly click on and off, and even see it in your food. Not the best really. But it's fine.

Dingbatt

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#1396288 29-Sep-2015 08:07

I want to reiterate @Niel's comments about Smeg appliances. I will never buy another. Operationally great, but build quality and reliability poor.

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zyo

513 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1396475 29-Sep-2015 11:27

networkn:
mattwnz:
zyo: For the dish washer we went for Bosch as it is so much quieter.

We also looked at SMEG at kitchen things and believe they are overpriced and the Italians don't have a very good reputation for reliability compare to the Germans (in my mind) :)

Our bosch dishwasher is currently playing up. It is 5 or so years old, but has started not to drain properly, and make strange sounds. Have followed youtube vids on clearing the sump and pump, as well as the backflow diaphragm but it hasn't fully fixed it. In terms of dishwashers, I haven't found any one brand to be less reliable long term. The only one that washes poorly though is the F&P, which doesn't dry properly.

We had the same issues with our dishwasher not draining (bosch) replaced it with the new bosch and had even more issues with all sorts of things. I am pretty much done with Bosch right now.

I am so torn about which oven to buy. I wish I could find just 1 person who was a decent cook and who owned the ichef.

I think German made Bosch dishwashers are still pretty good, you pay for the higher price though.

F&P dishwashers (especially dish drawers) are the least reliable as far as I know, my company recently got 4 brand new ones installed and at least one had to be repaired rightaway due to a faulty circuit board.

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