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woodysapsucker

microwave/convection and convection wall ovens

woodysapsucker
10 years ago

After talking to multiple appliance sales people, we've decided to go with 2 separate wall ovens stacked on top of each other rather than one unit with 2 ovens. We're told that in the long run the 2 separate units will be cheaper to service. So what we will have is a micro-convection oven on the top a shelf and then a full-sized convection oven on the bottom.

We are looking for 30" wide black wall ovens that are separate units. The two that we've found so far is a Jenn-Air (sorry I don't know the model) and the GE Advantium combined with a full-sized GE convection oven.

Looks-wise I like the Jenn-Air combination since the micro-convection oven (the top one) has a vent that drops down making the 2 units appear as one. Cooking-wise the Advantium seems to offer more speed cooking options.

I have the following questions.
1. Do you know of any other black wall ovens that could be used in this type of set up - microwave convection on the top and full-sized convection on the bottom.
2. Do you have any of these ovens? Do you like them and would you recommend them? Consumer Reports doesn't give very favorable reviews of the Jenn-Air repair record and was curious if you've had any problems.

Looking forward to your input.

Comments (14)

  • bevwinchester
    10 years ago

    We purchased the 30' Electrolux Wavetouch & installed a 125 watt Advantium above it. We are exceptionally pleased with both of them- my DH uses the Advantium several times a day & I use it often also. GE just did a new redesign on the Profile model & it blends very nicely with my Electrolux.

  • woodysapsucker
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks again bevwinchester

  • a2gemini
    10 years ago

    I have the 240 Advantium moogram and love it.
    I have it over a wolf(and hoping no chipping)

  • philwojo99
    10 years ago

    I don't have a full size oven, but we have the Wolf CS024 steam oven under the Wolf Convection/Micro and there are no issues with that.

    I don't know why any wall oven couldn't be used in that configuration as they are insulated to be in a wall any ways, so putting something above them shouldn't ever be a problem. That being said when you do settle on one or a few, read the install manuals to make sure of that.

    Phil

  • woodysapsucker
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks a2gemini. philwojo99 I was more concerned about looks - would two different types blend well together.

    Here's a new question about the advantium 240: We were back at the appliance store last night and saw that there is a toast setting. Does that mean I can practically make toast in this oven? Will I be able to ditch my toaster oven that hogs counter space? I would love that if it's true!

  • bevwinchester
    10 years ago

    Oh, my goodness, the Advantium will much more than compensate for a toaster oven. We have the Advan. 125 & we toast in it quite often!

  • woodysapsucker
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Wow, if I can get rid of the toaster oven I'm sold on the Advantium. I been totally undecided whether I wanted a Jenn-air convection-microwave wall oven or an Advantium 240 wall oven. Unless the Jenn-air toasts too I'm decided. Thanks again bevwinchester!

  • woodysapsucker
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    We took a slice of bread to the appliance store today and tried toasting in the Advantium. We toasted for 6 minutes (flipping once) and the bread still wasn't toasted. So I guess the Advantium really isn't a practical substitute for the toaster oven. I would so like to get that thing off of the counter though.

  • woodysapsucker
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I am REALLY sorry I went with the Jenn-Air convection microwave - My BIGGEST mistake in my kitchen remodel. There's no way to combine microwave and convection cooking UNLESS one chooses a pre-programmed selection. There's a heck of a lot of things that I'd like to speed cook that aren't pre-programmed. I would recommend purchasing an Advantium oven and combining it with the Jenn-air convection oven. That way you'll have an oven you can actually speed cook in. The microwave just as a microwave works well and the convection oven works well but that's not why I purchased a combination oven. I want to speed cook. I much preferred my GE Profile convection-microwave!

  • hvtech42
    9 years ago

    >I am REALLY sorry I went with the Jenn-Air convection microwave - My BIGGEST mistake in my kitchen remodel. There's no way to combine microwave and convection cooking UNLESS one chooses a pre-programmed selection. There's a heck of a lot of things that I'd like to speed cook that aren't pre-programmed.

    This is a great example of why one should always be sure to download and read the manual for an appliance before they buy it. That said... it seems to me like preprogrammed recipes are the way most people use speed ovens, given the concept is fairly recent. If they want to cook a food that's not on the list, they find a way to adapt a food that is. If you did have an Advantium and could create your own custom speedcook programs, how would you know what to program in for the halogen, convection, and microwave element proportions? I certainly wouldn't. It would take a great deal of experimentation to get good results. I'm not aware of any speed oven cookbooks, except materials provided by the manufacturer (which are usually built into the menus anyway).

  • woodysapsucker
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I must admit that I've been a micro-thermal user for years. We had a double Thermador full-sized oven back in the 1970's. Absolutely loved it - baked two full-sized yeast bread loaves in 11 minutes that were a perfect combination of moist on the inside and golden brown on top. At that time, the micro-thermal was a full-sized oven that one could bake a large, full-sized turkey. Unfortunately when we could no longer get that repaired we went with a convection oven. Thermador did it right back then supplying you with a large cookbook to get you started. Just like converting to convection, you just pick it up. Then GE came out with a great convection over-the-range microwave oven (non-advantium). I was really sad to see that go when we remodeled the kitchen. I even called GE to see if I could get a venting adapter for placing it above a full-sized oven but alas no. So, I might be unusual but I have no problem using the full capabilities of a micro-convection oven. Just like when I first started with the convection oven I would set things to undercook and then add time. I do take notes since I can't rely on my memory any more.

    BTW, I did download the user manual for the Jenn-Air micro-convection and viewed it multiple times in appliance stores before our purchase. It was a real toss up between the Advantium and the Jenn-Air. Since most of the appliances that we went with were Jenn-Air we decided to have the double oven match. Our mistake - I'm just trying to help future buyers from making the same mistake. I do like the full-sized Jenn-Air oven - just not the micro-convection. It has a LOT of design flaws besides the inability for full micro-convection cooking.

  • hvtech42
    9 years ago

    Just out of curiosity, what are the other design flaws with it? As un-flexible as it may be I can definitely see why Whirlpool did not bother letting the user create their own custom cycles, with these speed ovens there are even more variables than just radiant heat and microwaves like your old Thermador had. On these speed ovens you're dealing with at the very minimum a magnetron, convection fan, and an additional radiant element of some sort. Many ovens have even more radiant elements, a broiler, or halogen lights. And it's not so simple as how long it will take with all those running simultaneously - you have to figure out what percentage of the cooking time each should run and what times in the cooking process each should run, beginning, middle, end, etc. It's true you can get amazing results if you can program it correctly for the exact dish you're making, in fact that's how the Turbochef commercial speed ovens work. But the places that are using those ovens do tons of testing to figure out the exact perfect settings. The average home user doesn't have the time nor the patience for that.

    I agree micro thermal technology is great. Thermador had one until a few years ago, and GE also had a full sized one they called Trivection. However I'm pretty sure both of them used a menu system to pick the type of food so it could figure the proper timing for each heat source. Sadly they were both discontinued, I can only assume because of low sales.

  • woodysapsucker
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    The only thing the Thermador didn't have was a convection fan. It was self clean, broil, timed bake, bake, micro, broil/micro, bake/micro with a low, medium or high setting for the microwave. I personally rarely used the microwave only setting since I had a stand alone microwave. From what I understand that is why it went out of favor with consumers - it was a poor micro-only oven.

    Now as to the design flaws of the built-in Jenn-Air convection/microwave, I'm going to be adding to this so I don't make any mistakes and misrepresent it. I rarely use the Jenn-Air convection/microwave any more. My biggest complaint is that it turns itself off. I'll preheat it, hear the bell that it reached temperature and when I'm finished prepping find the oven has turned off. It will only preheat for a certain amount of time and after that time has been reached, it will exhaust the heat from the oven. A second complaint is the temperature fluctuation - more frequently lower than higher. The temperature is displayed on the digital readout. Heaven forbid that you open the door to check on your food, it takes forever to re-reach the set temperature.

    The oven was half programmed correctly. The oven does permit one to set the convection/roast/microwave to any combination one would desire. It's the convection/bake/microwave that can't be set other than the reprogrammed settings. So the capability is there - just incomplete.

    There is one thing that we do use the oven for regularly and that is reheating pizza, pancakes and waffles on the crisper pan. If you are into convenience foods then this oven is for you. There are just two of us and we both cook so normally we would use the smaller convection/microwave oven more - we don't because of our frustration with the product. As I had said we did use the GE convection/microwave more than our full-sized oven.

    I will be adding to this post. There are more complaints. I just want to document them correctly.

  • schmuttis
    8 years ago

    this is a continuation of woodysapsucker's post (my houzz username is different than the gardenweb username)

    other items that we really dislike about the Jenn-Air convection/microwave:
    THE NOISE - even after your meal is complete you end up eating dinner with this really noisy fan running. We both go ah-h-h when it finally kicks off usually at the end of dinner.
    THE ADD MORE TIME DOESN'T WORK - when cooking is complete you usually have the choice to keep warm or add more time. We've both tried the add more time pressing it from every angle possible but have never been able to continue cooking. The keep warm does work.
    NO WAY TO REPEAT COOKING WITHOUT PREHEATING AGAIN - as I said in a previous post, we do really like to use the browning pan. If all of your food doesn't fit on the pan you must re-start the preheating of the browning pan (even though it is preheated) to cook more food. Really annoying! Just think - cook 4 slices of bacon but you need more but you need to wait, wait, wait until the pan is preheated to cook 4 more slices of bacon. This is how I found out the add more time doesn't work. I was just going to cook my first set of bacon, add more time, take out the cooked bacon and press start to cook the rest of the bacon. No worky!

    There are more things that we dislike about the Jenn-air convection/microwave and I'll continue to add them in the future as I am reminded of the annoyance.

    Perhaps if we hadn't used and loved the GE above cooktop convection/microwave so much our disappointment with the Jenn-air wouldn't be a sharp but still no excuse for such poor design!