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howard1550

Appliance advice

howard1550
10 years ago

I'm hoping for some real-world advice to help me narrow down my choices for an electric wall oven (single) and a gas cooktop. I need to replace my 23-year-old Creda cooktop and a 10-year-old Kitchenaid electric oven that I never liked in the first place.

Reading the threads here and on other sites, it seems that nobody makes reliable appliances any more and there are several companies to avoid if you need customer service. (Bosch comes up frequently in this regard).

So, here is what I'm considering on the recommendation of a local independent appliance dealer: DCS CDU304, and Dacor Discovery Epicure 30" single wall oven (EO130).

Both brands seem to have reliability issues. I'm open to suggestions here, if anybody has opinions about these or any other brands.

Comments (4)

  • gr8daygw
    10 years ago

    You are right, no one makes good appliances anymore. It's not like the old days when things were built like tanks and good quality and lasted forever. It's almost stressful to get anything new these days because it is getting all too familiar that there will certainly be something wrong with it. It's like holding your breath to pass even the first use without disappointment. With that in mind, they all seem to have reliability problems these days and so I would pick out something you like that has the features you really want and just approach it from that angle. After doing tons of research on everything, I still seem to have problems when I buy something and so from now on, I am just going to pick out what I like, what I want in features and just do it.

    My KA appliances are still going strong at 15 years old. My new KA fridge is not in their league at all but after the store had to replace it after a big rattle making me nuts the second one seems fine.

    Since most appliances are made by a few company conglomerates now it's hard to know what to do. Good luck with your selections. I like how Decor looks, they used to be good, hope they still are.

  • ginny20
    10 years ago

    I'm part of the extensive Elux oven fan club on GW. I love my wall oven with Wavetouch. 19 months, so far, so good.

    But I know there are also Dacor fans here, so if you like it, get it, as gr8tday suggests.

    Remember that you are more likely to find negative reviews. I certainly ran around to various sites posting negative reviews about my noisy Kitchenaid induction cooktop, hoping to warn others. I have not posted lots of loving reviews of my oven, except here on GW.

    That said, I agree, appliances are not what they used to be. (In fairness, neither am I.) My old oven was 50 years old, and it still worked. But new appliances are more sophisticated and have more things to break.

  • howard1550
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks, gr8day and Ginny20 for your helpful replies. I wound up buying the DCS cooktop and opted for a slightly less expensive oven, the Thermador ME301JS. Both appliances have good features and hopefully will be a big step up from my present ones. I'm still awaiting delivery and installation. Once everything's in place and I've had a chance to put them through their paces, I'll post my reactions and observations.

  • howard1550
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Follow-up: appliances have arrived and I've been using them for about 2 weeks now. Both the cooktop (DCS CDU304) and the oven (Thermador ME301JS) are so vastly superior to the appliances they replaced that I'm having no end of fun putting them through their paces. For one thing, the Thermador oven has an excellent broiler, something I've really missed these last 10 years with that awful Kitchenaid oven I'd been using. Roasting and baking are also a huge step up, so much more even and predictable.

    I'm also thrilled with the DCS cooktop, which is far hotter than anything I've ever cooked on, but also far more adjustable, with a low simmer setting that I've found very useful and which my previous cooktop lacked. So this is all still quite new to me--feels like I'm learning to cook all over again, but I'm enjoying that.

    As for reliability, that remains to be seen. Everything's very new and so far so good, but in a year or two who knows?