Once simple forms and single colour appliances, nowadays they are replaced with sophisticated shapes and bold colours. All in all, aside futuristic, silver ovens we also have industrial models and the ones inspired by American 60s design.
How do you find your perfect oven in the sea of options, functions and forms?
Dimensions
The market offers ovens of various dimensions and capacities. Standard models usually have a form of a cube and are both 59.5 cm wide and high so that they fit in a standard housing unit that is 60 cm high, 60 cm wide and 60 cm deep.
While you analyse dimensions, pay particular attention to the interior capacity of an oven. In typical compact models, it ranges between 35 and 50 litres which means the main difference is in the size of the cooking space – a cavity. Most standard-sized oven compartments are 65-71 litres. Bigger ovens consume much more power (even up to 30% more) and are a good fit for professional kitchens.
Programmer types
Currently, we can find three types of programmers:
- Traditional control knob programmer.
Ovens with such programmers have two separate control knobs – one allows us to set the right programme, the other one is for temperature. Very often there is an electronic display located just between them; it may show, e.g. clock and delay start time.
Traditional programmers are widely used due to convenient and intuitive operation. Accuracy of the thermostat relies on the knob and allows professional cooking as well as culinary experiments at home.
Traditional ovens can have parameter symbols printed or laser embossed, thanks to which the text and markings are more durable and abrasion-resistant. Also, the failure rate of such programmers is the lowest in comparison, and they are relatively cheap to repair.
- Button programmer.
This type of programmer works similarly to the traditional control knob programmer; only instead of knobs, it has buttons.
- Visual programmer.
This is an excellent alternative for button programmers. All functions are presented on a digital or a TFT display controlled by a touchscreen or with additional sensors. The display panel can even be the size of a tablet screen.
Key functions
Modern ovens, apart from having essential functions and custom style, can also have additional functions. Thanks to those, cooking is more pleasant, much quicker and very often easier. Consider convenience options and check if the model you chose has those functions.
- Temperature probe – this device gives you exact internal temperature once connected to the oven and stuck in the food you are preparing in the oven.
- Delay start function – unsurprisingly popular in modern ovens. This function allows delaying the moment the appliance starts heating.
- Temperature choice – the wider the range, the better. The lowest temperatures work best for long cooking without loss of essential nutritional values, and high temperatures let you make traditional Asian dishes.
- Other – steam baking or defrosting. These new functions become an alternative for what previously posed a standard in design.