The AEG oven itself looks good...online, i went out the the shops today, no one had it. One place said they are trying to get a display. They could not tell me anything about it. One guy compared it to steam assist by whirlpool. No one had the new Miele either, just the steam only models...no discounts on them yet. Saw the Wolf, its nice. The AEG: 2.6 cubic feet The manual Says 25% 50% and 100% steam modes. Four paned cool touch glass door. (some models) Has a convection Fan and convection element. Has a Broil Element Has a Steam generator. you can see it in this video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKMVTrDR5E4 (which has info text in German). Seems to also function as a bake element when not water is present. (Probably a mint to replace it it goes) Other notable modes. Proofing Bake, Broil and/or Convection Drying Warming Steam Reheating Steam Baking A Third bigger than wolf at less than half the price. There are a few add ons for those that want them...oven racks and glides ect. Wolf seems easier to control, at least initially. Mind you, this is with out playing with the AEG so its tough to say for sure. Looks like AEG does not heat left overs as well, it probably does not preheat as fast either due to size. If i go this way it will be easier to talk the wife into a Speed oven. Bonus Video of AEG: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ166Xe2m78 If any one has this I would like to see your contribution to the potato race. I don't think it would beat a steam oven but would be interested to know the time.

If you do a search of the forum (Google including "ths gardenweb" or use the search box below the list of threads), you'll find posts by a guy who both owns and sells a steam microwave. He's very happy with his. Also, check the current Gaggenau steam oven thread for a discussion of "wet bulb/dry bulb" cooking. Steam is helpful in reheating leftovers--keeps them from drying out--and is great for cooking vegetables. Vegetables will cook in their own heat in a microwave, so adding steam just makes them that much better, right? You wouldn't have to make your own with a little water in the pot. I mostly use my microwave for melting and defrosting. That hasn't changed since I got a combination steam and convection oven (an actual oven, no microwave). I use the steam settings on that for blanching and cooking vegetables, as well as a special setting for heating leftovers which is the best. These things should work well in a steam microwave. What I also like about the steam oven is being able to add steam to higher temperature cooking operations, like cooking meats and crusty breads, which wouldn't translate well to microwave cooking. The steam microwave sounds useful. The question only you can answer is whether it's useful enough to rework your kitchen plan again, and if you'd get enough use out of it for it to be worth your while.

Posted by trevorlawson I think its fair to say that the CC will out cook a thermadore due to open burners. Fair to say based on what? Please describe what this means. The high end is 22K BTUs-pretty close to Capital. This is the rating for the heat output, nothing to do with open or closed. The low end is 375 BTUs. We don't know what Capital has for that. I am sure everyone knows what I sell. What I sell does not detract from the fact that open burners outperform sealed burners. The difference between open and sealed burners is significant nothing nominal about it. We tested a wolf range with caps on and caps off using same pan same water side by side at the same time, the burner with caps off boiled water over 23% fast..... that is significant Here is the video. Outperform would be a mischaracterization of this "test". I see performance as more multidimensional than putting the most heat in the center of a pan. If you had a wider pan, or changed the metal it was made of, or what you are cooking, your results would be different. This falls under the category of showmanship rather than anything scientific. How can you say this-"the burner with caps off boiled water over 23% fast."without any supporting data? You are right it is not how big the burners are but how the burner delivers heat to the CENTER of the pan, so the base of the pan gets evenly hot. Sealed burner send vast majority of the heat to the outside of the pan, open burners send the heat to the center of the pan. Please explain using the principals of heat transfer how delivering heat to the center of a pan is allowing the base of the pan to get evenly hot. If you have a ring of heat on the bottom of the pan, heat will travel in both directions from that ring to heat the pan. The center will receive heat from more directions and heat quicker, until it comes to equilibrium, than the outside so it is optimum to have a ring with the maximum heat more towards the outside of the pan than the inside. It is much harder to get heat to the part of the pan outside of the ring. A sealed ring burner flame pattern is only slightly wider than an open ring burner, a little more if you have it wide open. If you use a pan with reasonably good heat transfer like copper or aluminum, the burner shape doesn't really matter as much, but I wouldn't want the heat in the middle of the pan. The only way I would see heat in the middle of a pan as a benefit is if I were using a very small pan or a wok. I use everything from a 7 inch pan to make caramel with no stirring to a 14 inch aluminum pan on my sealed burners. For any pan less than 7 inches, I have a "small pan burner" I can make fried potatoes in that 14 inch pan with even color all the way across. I use cast iron if I need a lot of heat as in searing meat.

A 120 V Speed oven isn't going to give you a whole lot of speed! If you have limitations that require you not install a 240 V, it might be the way to go if you really think you want both a speed oven and a microwave. A speed oven is a combination of a convection only oven (though some now also have limited broiler elements) and a microwave. What makes it "speed" is that it combines microwaves with the conventional (convection) cooking (i.e., hot air). Advantium also includes halogen heat in speed mode, which is an intense radiant heat for direct browning. There are steam microwaves, but most steam ovens are convection ovens (meaning hot air cooking only, but, again, some now have broilers as well), with steam environments. Some only have steam on and off, while others have several steam percentage settings. Some require you to fill a water tank and others are plumbed in like a sink with a water inlet and drain. Steam creates the kind of moist environment that you put pans of water or wine into your regular oven to create. It's very good for reheating leftovers, blanching or steaming vegetables, steaming tamales, dim sum, etc., steam poaching fish and chicken, steaming hard "boiled" eggs, etc. Because of limited cookspace in many European apartments, there are also lots of recipes for things like making rice in a steam oven, but that's for freeing burner space--it works fine but it's awkward. Anything you can make in a steam oven you can make just as well through conventional steaming or by putting the water in a regular oven. The steam oven just makes it easier. They're also generally smaller so people like to use them for small items. Because of the steam environment, you don't need as much surrounding space so there are a lot of large things you can make in a small steam oven. Unless you specifically want the speed settings of a speed oven, or you've decided that the model you're looking at is the best replacement for the conv./MW you currently use and you don't mind underutilizing it, there's no point in getting a speed oven. Steam ovens are nice to have, but not essential. If you're looking for something that will work as a small convection oven like your conv./MW (ignoring the MW part for the moment), then either a speed oven or a steam oven would do that. Since you'll already have a microwave, if you're looking for an additional function to go with the small oven, I'd choose steam.