We have an electrolux icon speed oven and I love it. Still learning to use its "speed" function but it heats up SO quickly and it is a fantastic second oven - we used it non stop for Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is also a great microwave - easy to use.

Everything I have speed cooked in there - from casseroles to chicken breasts - has turned out great. There is a learning curve. I basically wanted a second oven but no great place for one and a microwave so we did this. Haven't regretted it except it is BEAR to keep clean!

I'm still trying to figure this out myself. I have an Advantium, and I can tell you what that is. The Advantium has 4 heating elements: a microwave magnetron, a convection oven element, an overhead halogen heating element, and a underneath ceramic heating element. This allows it to be used 4 ways: a regular microwave, a convection microwave, a regular convection oven, and what GE calls a speed oven. With the speed oven setting, you can set different combinations of the 4 heating elements to get the right degree of cooking heat with browning through the halogen element. When you are using the speed oven mode, you use a metal tray instead of a glass one for microwaving. This allows the ceramic element underneath the tray to contribute to additional heating and cooking which cuts down on cooking time. The Advantium comes with a ton of preset combinations [I can't remember how many, but it's probably listed on the GE website]. For example, if you want to roast vegetable or bake potatoes you can just use a preset. The speed oven is what it sounds like. It's a lot faster. For example, a baked potato takes just 20 min instead of 40 in a regular oven. When used in the convection oven mode, it's just like using a regular oven. You set it to a particular temp and it just works like a regular oven. Having run through all of these wonderful features though, I have to say that 90% of the time we just use it like a regular microwave. But it does come in handy for certain speed cooking activities, like potatoes, and mainly during the holidays or for a dinner party when you need a 2nd oven. In the latter case, we often just use is as a convection oven and not as a speed oven. We are just like athensmomof3. We didn't have space for both a 2nd oven and a microwave, so the Advantium combines both. As a microwave, it's actually quite good and spacious. Overall I'm very happy with it. I don't know if other speed ovens like the Elux or Miele offer exactly the same thing, or if they are just convection microwaves.

I am looking at this issue to, ellessebee. I'm wondering if there are any speed ovens that don't take a huge cabinet. The Adventium 220 is expensive and must be put in an upper cabinet. I like cooking items in base cabinets.

athensmomof3- where did you place your Electrolux speed oven? Is it built in or can it be exchanged out?

EurekaChef-is your Adventium 120 or 240? If it's 120 do you find it still bakes potatoes, a small casserole or 8 x 8 pan of brownies well?

Thank you. I will review other threads too on speed ovens.

The speed oven is in a stack with an oven below and a warming drawer below that. I use it lots as a second oven so that was the most logical place to put it.

I plan on getting a slide in 30" range. What are the options for placing this speed oven in the kitchen? I like the idea of having a smaller oven without having to go to the wall oven option, because of lack of wall space. Where could this speed oven be placed if we do not have a wall oven?

I just returned from PC Richards where I hoped once and for all to put an end to my quest for the perfect microwave/speed cook oven. No such luck! I told the kind but not so well-informed salesman that we have a Whirlpool G2Microven which has a halogen light and magnetron and that I wanted to get something similar. He said they're no longer made and didn't mention any other Whirlpool replacement although I have read on this forum about something called Velos. (No store has had one for me to see or purchase.) The salesman showed me a bunch of microwaves with convection but couldn't tell me if they were what is called "speed cook." I pointed to the Advantium 110 they had on display and he said it was GE's version of the same thing as all the others. Then he showed me a GE Profile but couldn't establish the difference between it and the Advantium - said it was just "construction." So I am still in a state of utter confusion BUT when I find what I want I will be installing it under a cabinet AS IF over the range even though it will not actually be over a range. My cabinet person said she can fit it out with trim to make it look built in. The only difference between this installation and wall-oven built in is that it will sit in about 8 inches from the edge of the counter and have a swinging door whereas a wall installation would be out 24" and might have a drop down door. You might consider this installation yourself, or put it over the range as a vent/hood. We have that configuration now with our Whirlpool and it is vented to the outside. It is not the strongest fan but that's all we could do in this kitchen. I would love to hear others chime in about their experience with speed cook ovens. I am on the verge of getting the Advantium 220 just to put myself out of my misery! I also have to select a refrigerator and wall oven! Please pass the Excedrin....

My definition.

A speed oven has a heating element on the top side that allows your to broil. A good unit will also allow you to set the amount of microwave energy that is used AT THE SAME TIME as the convection oven and/or broiler.

A microwave convection oven will have a heating element for convection, but no other. You may be able to use some preset microwave power settings depending on the vendor. Sharp has two defined, but you cannot change the Temp or Microwave power.

A GE Profile convection/microwave is NOT an Advantium. The 110v version has smaller heating elements than the 220v (something like 1000w versus 3000w), so it takes is a lot longer to heat up. But once it does, it makes an adequate oven. The Advantium is more flexible than your basic convection/microwave (Sharp, GE) since it has the broiler. You would have to look at the manual to see if it also allows you the flexibility to set the combination of temp and microwave energy.

Ok, I just took a look at the manuals for the Advantium wall oven and OTR unit(110v).

They both have an upper halogen element (lamp), rear convection element (and fan), lower heating element and microwave. They both have a 'vast' array of preset 'menues' for cooking different foods. They also both allow you to vary all 4 elements (upper, lower, convection, microwave) to any setting combination you desire.

It also looks like they are both the same size internally. But the OTR is a grand cheaper.

I was looking at the 220V manual for the OTR unit above.

The 110V OTR unit does not do the same. It does NOT use the convection element during speed cooking. Only the Upper halogen (and they are small), the lower (small) heating element and the microwave are used in combination. This is probably why folks who use the 110v unit don't care for it's speedcook ability.

Weedmeister! You are better than an asperin for curing my headache. Distilled all the information in one place so well. Thank you so much! That's one decision made, now for the wall oven and refrigerator....

In response to earlier question, I have a 240 V. I think there's a big diff and if you do go Advantium, I would recommend 240 V.

ellessebee -- your salesman sounds like, well - a waste of space.

I have a Miele combination oven, the low end one. I can tell you about that. There is a higher end one; I can never remember their names. Maybe "speed chef"?

The difference, I think, between low and high ends is the high end has a mess of preset cooking combos. My low end does not. It has three cooking methods and all combinations (and permutations) of these are available. They are (1) MW (2) convention oven (3) broiler. They each work great by themselves and well together too. But there is a long learning curve, I find, in figuring out what to do, how to cook the food. I find, like others, I rarely use the "speed" setting because, in part, it's not necessary. Being a small oven, it's really efficient in there -- it holds my huge le creuset lasgana pan just fine but takes about 3 minutes to heat to 400. Cooking stuff on just regular convection is way faster in there than in my oven. I use it as a "second" oven preferentially all the time!

I love the thing. The broiler works great. The MW is not quite as even as I'd like -- there's no carousel of course and sometimes it's not the evennest of MW-distributors.

I love that it's electric and I can program it to have dinner cooked for me when I get home. I love that!!!! (I know, not exotic but I've never had it before).

Mine is 240V; I read that if you want to do this combo thing, it works much better to do it with the huge burst of power. Know that this takes a dedicated 240V plug, so more costly installation, perhaps.

I bought this over the Advantium because I wanted it undercounter. The Advantium, all agree, really is, as advertised, not adviseable to be mounted down low -- apparently there is a scalding-steam issue and the location is a danger. There is no such problem with the Miele. I'm not quite sure why not, but, well, I can live without knowing that.

The Miele was costly, but it has become an integral part of our kitchen-life. I understand others love their advantium as well, I just couldn't make it work for me.

If you buy one of these things, do heed the advice from many on here to design a narrow cabinet immediately adjacent, either horizontal or vertical, to house the racks that will need swapping out. Without very easy landing-space, the machine quickly becomes a pia to use to its full potential and therefore morphs into a really expensive water-heating unit. You don't want to waste money like that -- do yourself a favor and front-load the planning for this thing to work as you'd wish it to. I think that also means make room for the 240V feature as well, though I'm not sure of that. This was my reading on it all at least.

BTW, I vaguely recall some discussion about that fourth heating element on the floor of the advantium which the Miele lacks being good, principally, for pizza. I can't attest to that being its only utility, but if that is the case, then for us at least, that function I would prefer in the gas oven anyway, so I don't miss it that I know of. [Actually, that function I prefer to relegate to a pizzeria who always does it way better than I can anywhere at all. For some reason I make the worst pizza on the face of the planet].

g'luck!

I've been steadily reading since joining last week. I really appreciate the level and quality of information sharing - and the polite discussions.

We are redoing our kitchen with new, intensively featured cabinets and new countertops. We'll keep our old fridge for now and our very quiet Bosch DW. We're abandoning 18 year old double wall ovens and 36" gas cook top and the countertop MW goes into storage for holiday backup. We're currently thinking of a 36" dual fuel range and an under counter speed oven and leaning to the Miele Masterchef. How wide does that rack storage need to be if using a vertical space? Can other items be realistically share the space - either vertically or horizontally?

Thanks!

"Vertical space"? You mean a cabinet stack? ... or do you mean something to store the racks on end, like books?

I have a narrow drawer underneath the open box where the Miele slides into. It's very simple and very helpful; I appreciate the advice from here to do that very much! It's the same width as the box, which is 24" I think. I believe the whole thing is 24" x 24" x 24" in fact. If you explain better what measurement you're looking for I can measure for you. But for consistency sake probably you just want to build in a space that's similar to the machine's box. If you're putting in a tray slot next to the MW box, that's going to want to be about the same height as the MW box and if so, it will be the right size anyway .... does that make sense?

Sorry if someone else mentioned this, I didn't read all the previous posts carefully. But I think one key difference between a speed oven and a microwave/convection oven is that in a speed oven, usually the microwave and the convection portions can run simultaneously. My built in Kitchenaid combo oven has microwave and convection, but since it can only run one at a time I don't consider it a speed oven. Many speed ovens do have a 3rd heat source (usually either halogen like on the Advantium or a broil element like on the Miele) but I wouldn't say that is required for it to be a speed oven. The Electrolux Icon doesn't have either of those things and it certainly is a speed oven.

Sorry. I didn't make myself clear. I can get the cabinet cutout for the oven itself from the vendor information

I was asking about how much space would I need to store the Miele parts that get changed out. Obviously, it will need to 24" tall if the parts storage is vertical. How wide does it need to be? 4"?, 6"? 8"?

If the Miele parts are stored in a drawer, it would be 24" wide. How deep does the drawer need to be?

And, is it practical to store other things with the Miele parts?

Hi HVtech42. I've read a lot of postings on this Forum and perceive that the only speed ovens (convection and microwave can operate simultaneously) are 240 v and the only 240 v that can go under counter is the Miele. If I have misunderstood this, I will widen my consideration (I was initially intrigued by the Electrolux Icon)

I believe you can get a 120V Advantium as a speed oven but it is not recommended as it is underpowered. It is said and confirmed here, that the hot air vent is too hot for undercounter use. For this reason I bought the 240V Miele so it could be undercounter.

There are (or were) two flavors of Miele, a highly programmed one and a less-so one. I have the less-so. We like it very much. It's possible the programmed-one does things that the non-programmable one does not, like cycle through a range of cooking instructions within the course of a programmed period, say, 15 min on convection only, then 15 min on convection/MW ... I am not positive about this as I do not own it. We are fine with out single-instruction programming.

I have a dim memory of there being a second speed oven that will go undercounter... can't remember. But I would take seriously the manufacturer's recommendations, because there was a report of someone ignoring it and installing it below counter and then being surprised at how searing the vent air was. With a child around that could be very dangerous. The aire that comes from the top of my Miele is hot, but not searing. I don't know what they do with the really hot air! I've wondered about that ... ;)

It sounds like you're planning (OP) a vertical slot to the side of the Miele. The width for that slot is not much. You will receive, at least I did in my low-end one, a (very expensive to replace) glass tray that is shaped like, um, a shallow dish. It is 1" deep and molded so that the side slides into the cavity of the oven. You will also receive one metal rack that slides into the oven; it has no 'pan' part to it so it is just the thickness of the metal, about 1/4". Personally, I searched and found a couple metal cookie tins to fit directly into the slots of the cavity, and those have some depth as well, approx 3/4". When stored in the drawer I use underneath it all, they nestle in the glass tray so additional depth is less. I also have a silicon mat which takes up no thickness of course, that I store there. Sometimes if you've used the oven and then want to use the MW, it's so hot in there I worry about setting anything on the tray. The mat helps for this.

Thus my drawer really is very thin, about 2.5" plus the "bonus" space up top. It's an upper drawer (the oven is above it but no drawer) so that is approx 1/4" addition.

This depth works perfectly for me - again, it's a drawer. I can fit the appliance booklet in there as well and a couple thin oven pads. It absolutely helps not having additional depth and junk to paw through. No way would I use this machine as much as I do if it were any more troublesome to get at the stuff -- just as explained here. As is, I have a little sorting to do through the racks I have stored -- also I stick a cooling rack in there too. This irks me a tad but not enough to stop using the oven. Anything more and I probably would start doing that little insidious subliminal calculation that results in an appliance not getting used.

I am also shopping for a speed oven and appliance salesman suggested I look at the high-end Italian manufacturer SMEG because their speed oven comes in 24" to fit my space and he says the unit is priced low to penetrate the US market. Does anybody have experience with the SMEG speed oven? It's a half the price of the MIELE M-Touch model.

Hi all, I'm also looking for a convection microwave to go along with my bosch single wall oven.

ellessebee - which one did you end up getting and how do you like it?

weedmeister - which GE model were you referring to for the OTR oven that uses 220v? Is it possible to put an OTR oven in a wall cabinet above my single wall oven?

thank you!

First I work in a deli and use a high speed commercial Blodgett convection ovens also use induction ranges. I cook at home every Sunday a large enough meal to feed 4 for the week, even though my daughter is as thin as a toothpick my son more then makes up for it (now 6.4" about 240) I've had the advantium for close to 20 years at home, my first was the 120v. It was a nice speed cook, a little weak microwave (only 900w) but general cooking times were much faster then conventional/ convection oven, especially casseroles, lasagna, scalloped potatoes etc... worked great! My oven was the Jenn-air, but I found to be too much to deal with cleaning to use any of the accessories Grilling frying etc, so it was really a waste of money in my new home I just have a convection oven with my Advantium. When I moved I added the Advantium 240v. even faster cooking, 1100w microwave & many more auto selections. I use my toaster oven for pizza, comes out a little better and my toaster oven is also convection so only takes a few minutes longer. The only time I use my lower oven is for holiday cooking turkey, or large roast, but even a roast alone I just use the Advantium in convection, I'll sear in large pot w/shortening, then convection in Advantium. The Advantium will sear but hot oil is faster method, and wont start cooking the meat, also searing gives off a lot a splatter. Same for steaks the splatter not worth it, a mess to clean, I just sear in pan on stove then auto cook in Advantium. I'm about to replace my Advantium (mines getting worn out). I don't think there is ANYTHING out there as flexible as the Advantium!

Thanks for bumping this since I just posted the same qu. I appreciate it.

I too am trying to decide on a combo wall oven package. I am looking at the Miele Speed oven vs the Jenn Air. There is quite a difference in price - about $3500 more for the Miele. I am leaning toward the Miele because I found reviews stating that the Jenn Air glass oven door explodes - yikes! Is it correct that the lower convection oven is self-clean but the upper oven is not on both these brands? That's not going to be fun to keep clean.

Paradise,

The Miele is not a single unit. It is two separate units that you can install as you please. The speedcook is a separate appliance and you can mix and match with a Miele oven of your choice or any other oven from any other manufacturer that you like. There are advantages to single units, if one unit ceases to function, the other can still be used. There have been reported issues with Double ovens for instance in the past where the control board went out and neither oven could be used. With single units, you have the flexibility to determine where to place your units in your kitchen configuration. The one negative with separate units is that they have a higher electric load than an integrated double unit.

Regarding which speedcook is better for your needs, what will you be using the speedcook for? There are quite a few threads on the forum about the Miele Speedcook and its capabilities.

I am still not totally clear what the difference is between a speed oven and microwave with convection? I thought it was that speed oven meant that the oven and microwave function were used together, but with a microwave with convection you could use only one function at a time. However, I think that since this post started there have been many more models that have come out from various makers as well, that blur this line. My appliance dealer is recommending the 24" Bertozonni single electric speed oven, and I believe the microwave function can bee used separately. I would welcome and input. Does anyone have the Bertazzoni and can tell me how they like it?

You have it exactly right. :) A true speed oven should allow you to use it as a microwave only, a convection oven (or once in awhile a conventional oven) only, and a combination of the two, sometimes with additional heat sources, such as the halogen in the Advantium, and the broiler and/or floor heat on some other units. Some makers call units that have only a few settings that combine the microwave and oven modes, though their speed functions are very limited. The granddaddy was TurboChef which was a residential design based on a commercial unit. Very beloved by their owners, and very pricey. Things have changed a lot since then, including that some microwave makers may also be including some limited combination modes without using the "speed" word.

Go to the Bertazzoni website to download and peruse the manual. That should answer your functional questions best. If you want to find users of the unit, open a new thread titled something like Bertazzoni Speed Oven Users--how do you like it?

Great Idea pllog! thanks!

just read eurekachefs post I have had an advantium for about 12 years. I still feel it's the best microwave to date.