An oven is definitely one of the most important appliance in your kitchen, and likely one of the most bulky (after refrigerator) appliances in your kitchen. So we do want to make the most sensible and inform decision to buy or to repair or to choose a new oven. I hope you will benefit and be more informed in your decision making process. THIS IS NOT A SPONSORED article. All opinion and advice is solely ours from over 10 years of electrical appliances repair experienced. Who can give any better advice from the repairman himself?
Ovens are largely broken down into 4 categories
- Small Table Top Toaster
- Standalone Table Top Oven
- Built-in Oven
- Commercial Oven
Small Table Top Toaster
Small cheap and reliable. Frankly, there is no much point repairing a table top toaster. They are produced cheaply, and built to last. Their components are much simpler – wire filament, no fan, no digital display. Therefore less parts = longer lifespan. But they have their limitation when cooking bigger meals.
Table Top Oven
Table top oven are slightly more advance than small toaster with higher capacity >40L some even with built in fan functions. If you notice, they do not have the glass like filament heating element, thus they can go up to higher temperature at 250c.
However, due to smaller kitchens in Singapore home, and scarce table-top area, table top oven will take up your precious kitchen work and cooking space. If you already have a built-in oven. Is more practical to replace or repair existing oven.
Built-in Oven
Most household in Singapore is fitted with a built in oven. Please view our page on basic oven repair and troubleshooting.
Choosing the right oven
If you have given up on repairing your oven…. is time to pick the right and best oven to suit your needs and budget.
Size
Oven manufacturers are smart companies. All ovens are of standard cutout size of 59cm x 59cm. So don’t worry if you are jumping ship to other brands. Unless you have a pizza oven 90cm x 60cm. You will have a hard time looking for a replacement. Another odd shape oven is a combi oven (Microwave cum Oven). They are typically smaller 39cm x 59cm. You can easily get a replacement, but it has to be a combi oven again… which typically cost > $1500
Capacity
Most built in oven is around 50L – 65L. Which fit most home cooking for chicken, pizza, roast beef. Don’t buy a big oven just for turkey. How often do you cook a turkey?
Power – Energy Consumption
With all time high electricity tariff is important to know how much your oven is costing you per hour!
Based on the latest electricity tariff 27.22 cents per kWh (13 March 2022)
For a oven running at full capacity top heating (1200W) and bottom heating (1000W) + fan (60W) + Bulb (25W) = 2285W
Oven running for 1hr = 2.285KW x $0.2722KWh = $0.62/hr
You won’t find PSB energy savers tick stickers on oven products because there is no energy saving technology (yet invented) for ovens.
Tips on saving electricity consumption
- Turn on fan mode
when preheating. (Is like turning on a fan in aircon room) It helps to heat up the oven faster - If your door rubber seal is broken, replaced it. Hot air is escaping thus taking longer time to heat up
- A well insulated oven (heat insulation) traps heat better. Taking shorter time to heat up = less electricity
- Turned off the oven 10 mins before food is cooked. Because a well insulated oven can contain the heat up to 20mins
Oven Door
Most oven door are well insulated with double glass glazed. No harm getting one with triple glazed that provide additional heat insulation.
Timer Functions Selector and Display Panel
More oven manufacturers are moving to more sophisticated digital function display panels. Some even with preset mode for lazy people. 15 years ago (<2007) only super high end oven a fitted with digital control, nowadays is pretty common to find oven with full glass digital display. It may looks sexy but it definitely prove to be less reliable than analogue knobs. More importantly digital control vs analogue control have no difference on the functionality of the oven.
Type of Oven – Combi Oven vs Oven vs Steam Oven
Due to tight kitchen constrains. Some may opt for combi ovens – Microwave cum Oven functions. These are expensive ovens. But I will like to point out a few cons for such oven. Firstly, they are generally expensive. Secondly, is not standard oven size, once you a fitted with a combi your next oven have to be a combi oven, unless you are prepared to redo your kitchen cabinet. Thirdly, combi oven repair cost are pretty high, because is stuffed with many components in a very small unit. Lastly, when one of the function fails – the whole oven goes down with it. Think about it, a decent Panasonic MW oven cost less than $100. Lastly, combi ovens are fitted with complex digital features, that I bet you don’t use most of it. And the point of failure is more with more functions.
May sound good having additional steam oven function. And again, if you want a steam oven buy a separate oven. Steam and Oven don’t makes good friends.
Oven Self-Cleaning Function
Sound impressive. Oven can shower by themselves! Amazing! I feel is just another marketing gimmick like 3D air 4D air. (What is 3D and 4D heating anyway??!!) Some manufactures called it pyro-cleaning or pyrolytic cleaning. What they simply do is to heat the oven more than >400c so all the food, grease, oil stains will be vaporized like Thanos snap of his finger.. all turned to ashes. I personally feel this will do more harm than good to your oven. It forced over heating and increase your electricity bill and sometimes may caused some strain to your incoming supply.
Oven Common Faults (1 not so reliable – 5 reliable)
Below is solely based on my field experience and I have not bias against brand A over brand B
BOSCH Ovens
By far, one of the most popular brand in Singapore. Who doesn’t like German Technology?
Bosch oven are mostly made in Turkey (fyi). I hardly come across any German made Bosch oven these days. Still by far BOSCH oven is a very reliable a trustworthy brand.
Technical Reviews and Issues:
- Digital Timer Selector (5) – Solid. Durable
- Thermostat Sensor (5) – Solid. No Complain. Built to last.
- Oven Housing Bulb (5) – 40W (other makes usually use 25W) so Bosch Oven interior looks brighter
- Door (4) – Triple Glass Glazed
- Fan Motor (5)- Superb very seldom breakdown
- Digital Display Control touch button (3) – High end digital touch button model tend to loose its touch sensitivity after a few years. I will try to avoid those models. Unless is love at first sight.
- Power Tripping (4) – This issue is not unique to Bosch Ovens. If oven left dormant for more than 4 years. They do have some oven tripping issue.
ARISTON Ovens
Another old timer oven brand in Singapore. They used to market Indesit (no longer selling). Some of their ovens are still made in Italy.
Technical Reviews and Issues:
- Door (4) – Double Glass Glazed – Full glass
- Digital Function Control (3) – Certain digital models has been plagued by E05 error code
- Power Tripping (4) – This issue is not unique to Ariston Ovens. If oven left dormant for more than 4 years. They do have some oven tripping issue.
- Turning Knobs (3) – Tend to break very easily. Although is cheap to replace, but is rather annoying. Not sure why don’t they source for better supplier?
- Thermostat (4) – Not frequent, but they do have a bit of over heating issues need to be addressed for heavy users
- Fan Motor (4) – Good and hardy, but more failure for oven over 10yrs
ELECTROLUX Oven
The brand may have suffered some negative publicity over the years (you can google). Overall their oven are made for it purpose at a very competitive price.
- Digital Timer Display (5)- Robust
- Thermostat (4) – Break down due to wear and tear
- Fan Motor (5) – No major issues
- Heating Elements (4) – Will cause power trip if left unused for a period of time
- Design (5) – simple and utility. No Frills.
Brandt Oven
French are well known for their cuisine. Not so sure about their ovens. Brandt has another sister brand De Dietrich that is position more high-end.
They took some serious effort in designing their ovens. You may not notice, their ovens have a flushed back panel that gives them a full square boxy interior look. Thus a bigger tray capacity. Their front control panel is sleek and classy. – typical French design.
Common Issues
- Digital Thermostat (3) – Most of their models uses digital thermostat control. That is controlled by relay switching, they do tend to have a fair share of overheating issues.
- Door hinge (3) – Encountered a handful of door hinge housing issues. Could be a design issue or resulted from user rough handling
- Front panel (3.5) – For full glass front panel models, its usually glued on and not secured by screws, with constant heating and cooling. It tends to fall-off over time.
Techno – Rinnai – Mayer – EF Italia – Turbo
These ovens are usually priced more competitive than our MNC manufacturers. These brands are mostly OEM from Italy or Turkey. Which in my opinion they are still pretty good oven at a competitive price point. Used regularly, these oven can easily outlive >10years.
If you do a bit of research, you may find the same oven with different brand. Most of these ovens also coming with standard oven heating function such as top double grill, bottom heating and convection fan.
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