Main navigation

[buskerdog]

This is probably a silly question but I'm setting off on a full kitchen refurb and am deciding between a full cooker appliance vs. separate built-in countertop hob and oven units. Is it just down to personal preference/style? Are there any factors to consider?

I'm originally from the states and it's pretty much all full units as far as I know so I've never had to make this call before. I've had the built-ins in rental flats in London so I'm not opposed to them. Just wondering if there's some rule of thumb that I'm not aware of. Thanks

[ericmark]

Having an oven where you don't need to bend down, is in the main an advantage, not of course if you drop something, however in the main built in ovens are designed to work or 13 or 16 amp depending if designed for UK or EU. Where a stand alone cooker is designed to work on 32 amp, so the oven can have more power, so our stand alone oven heats up far faster than the built in oven.

Also you have to consider the housing, built in ovens need fans to keep the housing cool, which tend to be larger than those used for stand alone, as with stand alone the manufacturer knows exactly how big they need to be.

As to hob with induction you want a fast human machine interface, in the main that means a knob, you can turn a knob fast, so as pan starts to boil over you simply turn the heat down or off, and the area at front lends its self for mounting knobs.

With the stand alone that area is available to the manufacturer, with built in there is often not the room, and they tend to use touch controls, these were great with halogen hobs which were slow to heat and slow to cool, but with induction you want the speed so want knobs to control not silly touch controls.

We are about to rip out oven and hob built in, and fit a stand alone instead, the built in oven is under the built in hob, why would anyone do that? whole idea of built in is oven at an easy working height, if not then no point in having built in, stand alone is better.