Have had a 27" 500 series Bosch wall oven for almost three years and have been pleased in all respects. Quiet fan and large oven capacity for the size. The oven light goes off each time the door is closed so it has to be turned back on if you want it to stay on during baking. That is a pain, but not a major issue. I do have to rotate items once for even baking. If you want items to brown, convection must be used. For convection, Bosch says to reduce temp by 25 degrees and that has worked for me. Overall, the oven has the feel of a quality product. Although not metal, knobs still look like new. I think they'll hold up nicely long term. I don't tempt fate by using the self-clean feature. The interior walls seem to clean easily so I'm OK with that. I had planned to special order an easy glide rack, but the standard racks are hefty and glide nicely so have decided to stay with standard. You might search online to see if you can still special order. Compare prices through different vendors. Of course this review does not speak to possible issues with current models. I've known a few people who have had durability problems with KA ovens and would not go with them again. I feel your pain going through that headache of appliance shopping. Good luck.

Livvysmom, thanks for the tip on choosing an easy-to-clean interior. All that we looked at were stainless inside, and actually all looked like they were made by the same manufacturer, no matter whose name was on the outside...Dacor, Viking, Sharp, Kitchenaid (older model) and the one we chose, Sears Kenmore Elite. We elected to buy it because it was very reasonably priced and because family members have had good experience with Sears. We're told that their customers service is excellent, and they go the extra mile to ensure customer satisfaction. So I have this huge MW/Conv oven sitting on my counter, waiting to be built in when the Kitchenaid oven arrives next week (also bought at Sears). I have used both the MV and the convection, and so far I'm impressed. But the popovers didn't turn out well....probably my fault, and I'll try them again. One negative....in the convection mode, this unit blows out a great deal of hot air, and I doubt I'd use it in the summer if we didn't plan to build it in, and vent it to the outside, with a fan. It heats up the kitchen much more than a regular oven, for some reason. The "trim kits" that are available would just blow this hot air out the front, so I'm thankful that we have the option of outside venting. I didn't care for the appearance of the trim kits either, and they'd be hard to keep clean. Thanks to everyone for their help and advice. Carly

Thanks for the input. There was another thread here on 24" so I knew I was getting into trouble (it didn't seem revivable and there weren't any comments about DeLonghi performance). The matching issue is more of a style thing--big and clunky with a fat bar on the BS (and DeLonghi) versus sleek and low profile on the Gagg. and Miele. It's a small kitchen and the appliances will be close. Stainless is a good enough match for me and probably preferable to white unless the style is just so far off...uh...anyway. I can probably do without convection and would settle for something a little noisy. I will have a proper sized gas oven in the BS so I just need a backup electric. I currently have a 27" GE cheap no-frills, quite new, and it performs surprisingly well--I would get a smaller one in white with no concerns except that it is quite cheap looking with the squishy sheet of plastic touch pad and it's noisy. On a slightly related subject, is there any reason a wall oven can't be slightly recessed and concealed (when NOT in use, of course) with a pocket door? I was considering doing that with a microwave, and it would certainly open up the wall oven market some. The cabinet will be deep enough to accommodate recessing. And, if I'm looking at ugly ovens that don't match, the Fagor comes to mind. Anyone know anything about the little Fagor oven? It looks so nice, featurewise, but is so inexpensive, something must be wrong with it!

Yes, the Wolf is worth it. Re convection, if it's doing what it's supposed to do (and Rhome410 cooks and bakes for a similarly large family, so should know), you can place things side by side and on different levels and they should all be fairly evenly cooked. There will always be some variation if you have a very full oven and you're using a mode that has direct heat as well as convection. On convection only, it shouldn't matter. Bottom heat with convection shouldn't matter much, but the dishes on the bottom might heat a little faster. What does matter is leaving some room for the air to circulate. That is, try not to squeeze things in so that they're right up against the sides, practically. An inch or less all around, plus an inch or so between pans, and an inch between the top of a pan and the next level up, should be enough. If you're not that full up, you don't have to worry about it so much. If you decide on Electrolux, do check out the cavity size. I believe the Icon is smaller inside than the regular Electrolux. The biggest cavity for the size, I believe, is the Bosch. It doesn't have as good a reputation, however. I don't know if the size matters after your successful pan test, though. I haven't seen much said about Dacor for the last couple of years, so have no opinion there. My own ovens are Gaggenau, but my second choice would be Wolf. A warning on dishwashers--if you haven't bought one recently, you really need to do some research. They've changed a lot. Energy and water savings are prime, followed by quietness, and the washing and drying functions trail behind. Additionally, the major detergents have all changed from phosphate based (some of the smaller ones never were) to enzyme based. These require some food remains be left on the dishes to work. The best regarded dishwashers are Miele and KitchenAid. Miele is generally regarded as the tops of them all, at least in the mid and high range. KitchenAid seems to be the best of the American machines with heated dry. Heated dry in many DW's nowadays doesn't work very well either, btw, and isn't necessarily any better than the Euro Convection dry. I've never heard anyone mention a Dacor DW. I'm pretty sure the Dacor warming drawer is the one that's a little shallower from front to back, which should make retrofitting it easier.