I have had a single oven for the past 10 years and only twice did I wish I had a second oven. I guess I have always planned my meals around one oven.

That being said, I'm building a new house right now and decided to go with one wall oven and one convection microwave.

I think that in general, if you are constrained to one oven, you will adjust your cooking style to make that work. And if you have two ovens, you will adjust your cooking style to utilize both. My mom has two ovens. DH and I are living with her until our new house is ready. I guess we've been there 2 months so far. I cook dinner once or twice a week and I noticed that I am planning meals that require me to use both ovens. It's a novelty for me, I suppose.

Once we move into our new house I'll adjust to use the equipment I have.

If you buy the double ovens, will you still get a microwave and if so, where will you put it?

try_hard

I have had both single and double ovens and agree that one adapts. Last night I was grilling burgers outside when the propane tank reached its end. My sweet wife was baking sweet potato fries in our one and only oven. We switched the oven to broil, moved the potatoes to a lower rack, and finished the burgers. If we had two ovens (and we will again soon) we would have left the potatoes as they were and fired up the second oven.

As an aside, we had an amusing moment when my wife's sister, who was sitting at the kitchen table, said there was fire inside the oven. I checked and sure enough a spot of grease on the the broil pan was alit. I smothered it with a spatula and closed the oven to cut off the oxygen supply. When I opened the oven again she said "there's still a fire", but this time it was clear she meant the gas broiler. I suppressed my inclination to laugh and asked whether she'd ever used a gas oven. Anyone care to guess her answer?

Go for the double ovens and make them convection. I miss mine and I sold that house 12 years ago. I have 3 Microwaves and use them all. When they first came out years ago I went for classes over a 3 year span so and I really can cook in the Micro. DW does coffee, tea,and reheat. I also have a countertop Convection Oven which I had purchased 20 years ago. It's great and use it all of the time. In this place I am stuck with a electric, free standing, stove. I have hated it from day one! Give me gas any day. I entertain quite a bit and the parties are appetizers and all of that "Cocktail" party type of finger food. This goes on for hours and it is key that the food keeps coming. I do 3 cookie sheets in the Convection, 4 in the free standing range, and the Micros are always running. You can't ever have enough oven or Micro space while entertaining. Good luck!

I really didn't think I needed two ovens since I'd never had two and felt I rarely needed them. However I was only doing a new kitchen once in my lifetime and my KD suggested I might use my kitchen more if I had a nice one. So I decided to go ahead with the double ovens. I'm very glad I did. I didn't realize how much I'd limited my menu sometimes because I only had one oven. I also didn't really want a warming drawer but figured a second oven could also serve that purpose which it has done well.

In our last house, we had double ovens, a MW (no bells and whistles and a 36" cooktop (5 burners). LOVED IT. For nearly every dinner, I used everything. veggies steaming in the MW, bread and a side dish warming in the bottom oven, meat or fish in the top oven or under the broiler in the top oven, potatoes, rice, stir fry, etc., on the cooktop. Everything was done at the same time -- no need for a warming drawer.

Even my mom, who had only ever had a standard 30" oven, now has a Maytag Gemini and has been using the bottom warming drawer oven, plus her convection mw, main oven, and cooktop all at the same time. She was surprised how much she loved it.

I'm now contemplating a 48" range for the double ovens, plus an advantium to act as both the warming drawer and the MW. I say go for the double ovens and a separate MW/speed cooker.

eteinne, your post about having three microwaves gave me a chuckle as I have been asked repeatedly by our designer why on earth I would want a second microwave. Location is a major issue for me. I think having a microwave (and a toaster) convenient to the kitchen table and any adjacent rooms (including the patio) where food and beverages are consumed is a big plus. Our 240V Advantium will be in a location where it will be handy for meal preparation but not for "spot-warming" table items or making popcorn to eat while watching TV.

I use two rarely (mainly holidays--and only have one since I moved to this soon-to-be-remodeled kitchen) but will be sure to get two when I remodel. If space is an issue, you can always store stuff in the less-used oven. I've sort of decided to get two unmatched ovens this time around--a large gas oven in the range and a smaller electric wall oven.

If space is a concern, remember you're going to have to fit in a microwave somewhere anyway.

You could go with the micro/oven combo and get a nice countertop convection oven for small jobs and/or backup baking. They're pretty nice these days.

It depends on how much cooking you do and for how many people at a time. Unless you have a very small house I wouldn't design a kitchen with one oven (and then, only if it were a small range). If nothing else it'll be a poor feature on resale. If you don't really want two full sized ovens, get an Advantium or similar for the MW, which you can call a second oven. A second built in oven is a feature. A built in microwave is a microwave.

Ovens are good!! I keep trying to put in a third :)

I'm sorry, Dave, I accidentally cut the part that answered your questions: My current kitchen just has the one oven and I keep insisting to my mother that I'll cook family dinner (for 25) at her house because it's so hard to do at my house (my new kitchen is coming!). But even for small meals, I plan a lot of salads and cold sides because I don't have a second oven. My current plan is to have a large and a small oven. Which is why I keep trying to figure out how to fit an Advantium as well :) The answer to your "how often" question is if I had it I'd use it all the time :)

I did a kitchen remodel and replaced my double wall ovens with....double convection wall ovens. Look at the price of a built in microwave oven. It's much cheaper to just put one on the counter or on a shelf & when it goes out buy another one. (built in cost is around $500, portable is $35). I've never had an oven wear out, but I've owned several microwaves. As for usefullness, for BIG family meals, like Thanksgiving a second oven is used for baking and warming. It is a luxury to have two ovens, it's oppulent! If you have a small kitchen then you may have to consider how to use your space wisely.

As a practical matter, you'll likely require a dedicated 40 amp breaker (or higher) for a double oven. You won't need this for a single oven.

You may want to consider that, we ordered a fancy double-oven [to replace our single]on ebay & had it sitting in the garage when we learned of this 'little' detail. We were lucky on 2 fronts: 1 - the contractor put in larger (higher amp) wire to the oven from the breaker box, and 2 - we upgraded our breaker box to 200A service from 150A a year earlier. We were very lucky.

I'm getting a single 30" convection under the counter and an Advantium 120 elsewhere in the kitchen. I didn't have room for two full-size ovens. The Advantium will function as a MW and as a second oven - or probably a first oven, since there are only two of us most of the time.

If you figure the second oven is an occasional need, consider what I did. I have a single oven, plus I have a portable 120 volt convection oven that I can put in the kitchen when I need a second oven, or take out for space. Several are available (Toastmaster, DeLonghi, etc.) and they are generally under $200 or so. these are not toaster-ovens, but real convection ovens, just on the small side.

Since it is portable (say 10-12 pounds), it stores easily out of the way, plus you can also take it to parties, on the road, etc.

The link below shows one example.

Here is a link that might be useful: Convection oven

I had been using a single convection oven plus a Panasonic Halogen toaster oven if I needed two oven. Unfortunately, the toaster oven works great but has limited capacity.

The comment about planning for one oven meals vs. two ovens is interesting. When all you have is a hammer.....

I just picked up a double oven unit for my upcoming remodel. The depth of the electric double ovens is around 17" vs the depth of the gas range oven I'm currently using at approx. 18 1/2".

Being old school, I use cast iron skillets and store them in the oven. With two ovens, I'll store the skillets in the least used unit and won't have to unload the oven every time I want to bake anything.

And I got a great deal on a slightly used double unit/ convection on top in white because the seller was remodeling and had to have SS. Weighing $3K vs $300 wasn't a tough choice to make.

I had the same dilemna - I went with the GE convection oven stacked with the GE Advantium 120 oven. And no other microwave. At Christmas (cooked for 30) I did a ham in a tabletop roaster, Turkey in the big oven, and the sweet potatos and green bean casseroles in the Advantium on the staking rack -- all went fine.

For me the question became: "do I build the Church for Easter Sunday" as they say, or use that space everyday single day for pantry storage..... the later won out.

I live in Phoenix and frankly, don't use the oven at all (if I can help it) between May and October. It just heats up the house way too much. I am also not a baker.

One of my friends has a double oven. One day in January she had a terrible smell in her kitchen. She cleaned it and checked everywhere, but couldn't find the source of the smell. She finally opened the second oven and found the decaying remains of some Thanksgiving vegetable. She obviously didn't use the second oven much either.

I probably will only use a double oven on special occassions, but I've always wanted them and if it's possible, I'll have them. This kitchen will be my forever kitchen and I would rather have something I really want that I don't use much than to always wish I had gone for it. I will move the micro somewhere else if I have to ;)

An update. We purchased a Fisher and Paykel double oven for $2600 delivered from an authorized dealer over Ebay of all places. I checked the wiring to our old oven and I was amazed to discover that although it was a 30 amp breaker they had used 8 gauge wire. I installed a 40 amp breaker and we were good to go.

As mentioned in this thread, when you have the option of two dishes that require different temps. and oven modes to prepare you use what you have. Our menus have expanded since we installed the double oven. We purchased a countertop microwave in stainless to match the ovens.

So far the biggest difference is that the FP oven is far superior compared to the Jennair that we had. I never thought that an oven would make such a difference. The same recipes taste so much better. Even a simple dish like roasted new potatoes with rosemary have a creamier texture while still remaining crisp.

Based on my experience I would not hesitate recommending a double oven if you can accommodate them n your kitchen. Thanks for the advice offered....

Hey, Dave, can you point me to your authorized ebay dealer? :)
thanks!

olchik,
You've got mail...

Thanks, Dave!