Buying a new oven? We turn up the heat on the latest choices

Here's what you need to know about size, features and placement when it comes to that key kitchen purchase

Neff Hide n’ Slide has been around for years and continues to draw praise for its space saving mechanical action. Standard Neff oven singles from €699 – look out for their Circotherm feature to bake and roast without flavour tranfer, suppliers include Harvey Norman.

Seduced by a marked down free-range turkey, I had the ultimate Christmas dream come 12pm on the great day. Having grappled with a similarly oversized, porcine breeze-block leering from under a foaming saucepan lid, the oven door refused to close over the blasted bird.

There was an unsavoury struggle, shouldering the latch, spiced with muttered festive figs, before we prised off the handles of the tray and entombed herself. It’s amazing because my reconditioned old Stanley is a Sherman tank on the armoured exterior but pierced with couple of ridiculously dainty cavities.

Changing your oven or renovating the entire kitchen? Here’s some tasty need to know for size, features and placement.

Editing all appliances onto one working wall including all your eye-level ovens is clean, smart and much easier for your electrician to deal with. Gold bespoke handles are optional not standard, miele.ie

OVEN INDIVIDUALITY

How many troops are you dealing with? Older fan-free ovens had variable temperature from top to bottom, and we stoically put up with their eccentricities. Today’s oven should cook at one temperature throughout the cavity. If you need two temperatures and more room to work simultaneously, buy a double or a back-up compact oven.

Take a look at your best and biggest oven pan or sheet. Most ovens are around 60cm or 90cm wide. It’s the height that varies, pressing the spine of your roast onto the oven roof, diminishing shelf positions, and reducing that vital circulation of heat and moisture. After the 60cm/90cm decision and finding the cabinet position, the choice will be the height of the oven as the depth will be the same front to back.

Don’t discount a single oven. Freestanding or built-in, at 60cm/90cm wide, a generous single oven set at eye level or under the counter can offer up to 110, hot interior litres in one oven. This may outstrip fiddling with a double with a shared total capacity of 130l over two cavities.

Pureline Design from Miele with a microwave, oven and steam/combination side by side in a contemporary horizontal arrangement that’s also super-practical. Single ovens from €1,300, miele.ie.

Sizing the internal capacity of ovens extends to all cooker types from range cookers to compacts — judge the volume, dimensions, ease of use and features of the oven or ovens as one appliance no matter what all-singing and dancing detailing is happening on the stovetop.

The lack of the ability to grill while oven cooking something else drives many householders to a double oven. Check how the grill impinges on the space in any single. Second ovens don’t just cook, they are fantastic for plate warming. Mind you, so is a 140mm stand-alone warming drawer (Neff, Whirlpool, Miele and Smeg from around €440 for six place settings).

DOUBLE DILEMMAS

Two built-in horizontally arranged, eye-level ovens or an integrated (stacked) eye level double oven, offer great versatility. Apart from capacity and simultaneous service, with glazed doors, there’s no stoop or problem watching progress in the cavity. Obviously, it’s more difficult (but not impossible) for toddlers to reach the oven handles.

Allowing for the housing and baseboard, stacked double oven sizes are limited in under counter positions to around 70cm of (unit) height. A super-wide free-standing range cooker with a horizontal arrangement of a primary and secondary oven is a good double option if you don’t want to go to eye level.

Expect fewer functions in a secondary oven. The energy rating may vary too, for instance, with the main oven carrying an A and the second a B. Don’t want a double cavity? You can split positions with two working single ovens, one tailored into say a range cooker.

In a double, closely examine how that cavity space is shared. 55l/50l would be typical but 59l/37l might suit your habits better, the second oven just backing up the first for slightly lower, flatter trays. Look for triple-glazed doors to keep the unit cool to the touch.

Point of information: Together with stand-alone cookers with double ovens, built-in ovens can be built-in under the counter; unusual but not impossible. This does ignore their primary advantage; useful high placement. Examine if your column unit for your eye level would be better served with a single oven stacked with a combination microwave oven.

PLACEMENT PUZZLES

How present do you want the ovens to be aesthetically? A real anti-kitchen won’t star any single appliance. Still, where taste and room allow, is there any argument in favour of crouching and bending to an under the counter oven?

Under-counter ovens are less on-show than an eye-level oven. They can be consumed into the working side of an island if you don’t want to see them at all from the living side of an open plan area. This is ideal if you have a modest area where you want an airy kitchen with runs of low floor units only.

Wall-hung cabinetry has seen something of an architectural setback, but there’s a good compromise in a tower. Stacking your built-in double ovens into a 60cm or 90cm wide pantry-signalling, vertical cabinet, delivers a handsome, anchoring pillar. The units below the double oven here are ideal for a pan drawer. It’s possible to set built-in ovens discreetly into the bulk-head (end) of high cabinetry in the right setting. Get advice.

Steam ovens in dedicated devices and combinations are drawing attention for their healthy cooking method. This Combination Linea Smeg SF4104VCS oven calculates the best addition of steam and can be plumbed in, ensuring you have moist cooking options when you need them, €1,669, various suppliers, smeg.ie

It’s important to consider the traffic flow. Backing up with a hot load and lowered hatch — we don’t want the dog and/or hysterical four-year-old to careen into us through the back door. Give the area some breathing space and access to a counter for hefty, set downs. As well as putting your ovens proudly on show — consider floating the microwave to eye level too.

Going back to the wall, editing all appliances onto one working wall including all your eye-level ovens is clean, smart and much easier for your electrician to deal with. Configuring a modular style with one distinguished brand of two-six appliances will keep the knobs, handles as one. Fridges and ovens can be terraced together due to modern insulation standards. Thirty centimetres remains the minimum distance between electrical appliances and power outlets to your wet area.

FEATURES

Gas ovens are said to have a more moist heat and are favoured by some users. Because they are heated from the top and don’t include a fan, they offer a limited form of zoned cooking in the cavity.

Fan-assist or convection ovens ensure an even, consistent cooking temperature throughout the cavity. They also work more swiftly, save energy and don’t require pre-heating. Fans can be switched off for some delicate or fussy dishes including bread

Steam ovens: Gimmick or glamour? It’s a hard call, but for a healthy cooking option using no added oil and retaining important nutrients, look for units (plumbed or with a portable water reservoir) that can deploy to infuse the cavity. If this is an occasional adventure, look for a multi-function convection/steams oven with a steam setting, over a dedicated unit. All-in? Plumb in the water supply.

Touch controls: Digital touch control is much easier with hot greasy hands and offers precise thermostat decisions over a loose, mechanical dial. They suit a handle-free kitchen and readings can be seen easily from the other side of the kitchen too. Timers, remote control, recording favourite settings and full recipe functions with automatic changes in temperature are all possible with intelligent digital ovens. Check out the latest Bluetooth connectivity. Autocook (guided) programs using your input of the recipe and weight? Handy detailing.

Go beyond the brochure and eat up valuable real user reviews online — ask around for reports on roasting, baking and grilling for your favoured model and technique. Cast-iron range cookers remain iconic for many householders, and excel at radiant cooking in the oven — superb for succulent meat and poultry. Key in the model number and reviews.