brachl, I called Gaggenau. Info is not easy to get. Finally, after being placed on hold a long time, I was asked if I was interested in the 30" non-plumbed ss, 30" aluminum or 30" ss so I guess that is what will be available in the 30". I asked if there were any specs and told 'no'. Asked to speak with a supervisor and got nowhere. I was told July 15 projected delivery and maybe specs in June/July. I really did not enjoy my experience with Gaggenau on the phone and actually am thinking even more seriously of going with the TurboChef double after having the phone experience with Gaggenau. They are just not very nice and for the cost of their appliances, they should be infinitely more gracious. My appliance store was also no help in getting any firm information on the 30". Would love any further info--especially on specs.

Hi! In my experience, it's more important to have it near the prep area than the cooktop, but if you're making things on the stove, I can see how it would be inconvenient if you have a barrier island between you and the steam oven. Have you been to the Kitchens Forum and shared your layout? The folks there might be able to help you find an arrangement that works better. I'd be more concerned about the ease of browning something on the stove and then putting it in the oven, than feeding the steam oven. It's really better if it's only a few steps to the ovens with nothing between. It can't always be done, but it's better. 1. I don't think you can install it below counter, and if you can you'll probably need a straight down drain (like into a basement). Also, because of the steam, I'm not sure that's a good height for it. I wouldn't want to bend to look in and open the door and all. 2. I needed a third oven for entertaining. I did get a speed oven. If you're entertaining by the score, and don't want or need the third oven and don't want to give it the wall space, and if you have storage space, and if you find yourself with inadequate oven space, you can get a roaster oven or a catering oven and just bring it out for when you need the extra capacity. On top of the dryer is often a good place for a spare oven, for instance, because who's doing laundry while entertaining mobs? Different ovens in different places for different functions should be fine. This frees you to put them at optimum height, and to have them not match with impunity. That's harder when they're stacked. The microwave is the most important one to have at point of use. 3. Yes. There is really no difference. Because the units are designed to be able to stack with the regular oven, to the point where the controls line up and make a visual statement, they make the 30" steam oven to go with the 30" oven and look good. Inside, it's the same thing as the 24". If they weren't so heavily designed to stack, I would have put them side by side and gotten the 24" combi-. It would look really silly though, with the controls on top of one and on bottom of the other.

These are ovens not sci-fi marvels. If you have a cold house and a cold kitchen and a cold oven, it can take a lot time to heat up. Because it's cold. And the oven is only heated when the oven itself is hot, not just the air in the cavity. That's why so many older recipes say to start at 425° F for the first fifteen minutes. They don't really mean it. They mean if you set it to 425° when the preheat light goes off, it's really at 375°, and after fifteen minutes of trying to get back to 425° after you open the door, you're really back at the 375° that you wanted to be cooking at in the first place. I find that Gaggenau is better about that, though I will still start the oven early to get it good and hot and even. I can't remember if the combi- set up has an option to have fast preheat or not. I don't like it because I do cold start baking. My six year old combi- takes about 15 minutes to get fully to heat for regenerate if it's starting from dead cold. That's in a mild climate and warm, by most people's standards, kitchen. If it's been used within the previous 24 hours, it's more like 10. If there's a fast preheat option, and you have it enabled, it could be five, for all I know, but I doubt it could be less than that just on a logical basis. Once the oven is hot, regenerate takes about 10 minutes for a full plate of food. So, here's the thing--I would never use it to reheat a bowl of oatmeal or a small dish of pasta. Those are things that do really well in the microwave, and only take two minutes. What microwaves do best (I'm assuming a really good microwave here--some cheapies can't really do any of this well) is heat a single, compact item. That is, warm a sandwich, melt cheese or butter, warm up a single piece of meat, a potato, a dish of cereal or pasta or soup or stew. What a microwave can't do is heat up a composed plate evenly or well--or even one of those frozen dinners that are supposed to be microwavable. What it doesn't do well is heat up a casserole dish of whatever, or several portions of food, or several different foods at once. What the regenerate cycle on the combi-steam (or approximations thereof) does best is warm up a plate or two of food, like the supper that went cold because an important call came in just as you were starting to eat. Or leftovers. Meat, starch, vegetables, all on one plate, all being warmed through gently without any drying, petrification, overcooking, or any of the other issues that come with it. Better than if it were kept in a warming drawer--the food tastes fresher. What the combi-steam also does well is heat up multiple sandwiches, or pieces of meat, or whatever. Things the microwave might do well on one of but can't possibly hope to do four of evenly and well. When you look at it that way, heat up times really don't matter. If the only difference to you between the two makers is this factor, I'd start by seeing what the companies say about heating times. Do they have accelerated oven heating? Also take your best kitchen thermometers to showrooms where they have them working, and test the before temperatures of the oven walls and air, time the heating, and check the after temperatures. I would guess that they're probably about the same, unless one has accelerated preheating and the other doesn't.

@JJ Mekai . Hi. For what it's worth, I decided on the Gaggenau CSO instead of the Miele. Three reasons. I preferred the two-knob controls -- which at first can be intimidating, but once you learn what's what, very easy to use. I knew I was not going to use the Miele pre-programmed recipes. The second reason was Gaggeenau having the broiler "under glass." As NYGuy says above, cleaning the broiler unit on the Miele would be a real pain. I took one of the Miele CSO classes; the instructor was touting her "invention" of wrapping a damp paper towel around a fork and sticking it every which way along the broiler element to clean it. I have read, though, that the new models have a detachable boiler unit for easier cleaning. Finally, I got a very good deal on a scratch-and-dent model that came with the complete warranty. That still made the Gaggenau more expensive than the Miele, but I got the side opening door and self-cleaning feature as well. Have been very happy with the choice, especially for baking bread and cooking veggies using steeam. Pizza also cooks well. When we've had lots of people over to make pizza, I put a pizza stone (not Gaggenau's version) on the bottom rack, heat the oven for an hour and then also use the broiler. Works as well as the regular oven, even without having bottom heating. Like anything new, there is a learning curve -- and I am still learning. My only regret is not getting the Gaggenau wall oven. There I went with the Miele purely because of price. It's been fine, but I miss the knob controls and the side opening door. As in so much of life, compromise rules the day!