Fortunately, I have a relatively large pantry (vs. a much smaller kitchen). So when I got the Miele Speed oven, I just moved my old Sharp microwave and my ancient, beloved, toaster oven into the pantry. Now, about 8 months after the remodel, I still use the toaster oven for toast, having never even tried to toast in the Miele. And the pantry's microwave gets used to do something quick (like melt butter) while the Miele is pre-heating, or baking, or whatever. Though these things only happen occasionally, its been often enough that I haven't seen my way to tossing out either old oven. The drawback, of course, is that there are 5 ovens in my little kitchen/pantry area, which seems excessive. And I suppose the pantry has less counter space for canned beans or whatever... As for the Miele's combination mode, I've only begun to explore this by using it to reheat things like casseroles -- Alton Brown's "Cauliflower Say Cheese", last night. Master Chef expects me to know how much these things weigh, which is a struggle, but last night's guess turned out just fine. Oh yeah, if you select Defrost mode, the Miele speed oven will heat in the range of 75 to 125 degrees. This setting is useful for cooking "raw" foods at 104. I did think about a steam oven as well, but there really was no way to fit it in there.

I just linked to a picture I found online; however, my speed oven interior looks exactly like the picture. My cookies, not so sure..... Wall ovens, when they were introduced in the 1950s, were often really installed in a cutout in a wall. Nowadays they're almost always put in cabinets, but the term stuck. My Advantium 240 was installed in a new hole cut in the kitchen wall, reclaiming what previously was utterly unusable space above a staircase, which previously was open to its landing and 7 to 10 feet upwards, with sliding doors covering it. I reappropriated it for the kitchen in the adjacent room, as the bottom of that unreachable storage closet was only 50" above the kitchen floor. I would have preferred it a half foot lower, but free space in this tiny kitchen (which didn't have room for a dishwasher before renovation) was too good to pass up. As for how much I value the "regular" oven we're putting in, it too will have a drawer under it - and the oven itself is already under the counter. I got the smallest oven I could find - 24" wide, 24" tall - and it leaves room for a 6"h drawer underneath. I didn't want to waste space on an appliance that will rarely get used.

We have a SpeedOven and a CSO. As others have said, the CSO is amazing. I'd absolutely get it again. The SpeedOven is not as life-changing. As a first approximation, think of it as putting both a regular wall oven and a microwave oven in the same space. That's of course a nice thing, and it was the main reason why we bought it. It saves space in the kitchen. But that's also an expensive way to go about doing this. So, not everybody will make the same decision. A SpeedOven in principle has unique cooking methods where it can use both oven and microwave simultaneously. I see the theoretical appeal, but in practice I find there are few dishes (e.g. scalloped potatoes) that benefit from it. Where a SpeedOven is obviously a full microwave replacement, a CSO is a different beast. It can do 70% of the tasks that a microwave does, and it probably does them better, albeit a little slower. Some households will have no problem getting rid of their microwave after they bought a CSO. But most households will have one or two activities that still work much better in a microwave (e.g. heating up a glass of milk). If you tell us all the activities that you use your microwave for, we can tell you whether you can get rid of the microwave and solely rely on a CSO or whether that will end up in frustration.

I want to start by saying I have the same feelings. It's something I think about now and again, so I'm more sharing where I've gotten to in thinking about it and lite shopping. I 'm thinking it would be either the Breville Air Fryer Pro (about $400) or the Anova Precision (about $600). They are both countertop. Neither has a microwave. Either one would do a more competent reheat but not as fast as a microwave. Why is much the same reasons - waiting for preheats. Also for killing off other countertop gadgets. Also wanting more control. We pretty much use our microwave for the same reasons - reheating leftovers and reheating coffee. If the ovens do a better job of reheating food, then I'm down to reheating coffee and using it to steam milk for lattes. As far as I know (1,000 youtubes later), both are lovely creatures for baking of any sort. The Anova has steam and sous vide-like features. The Anova has a larger oven cavity. The majority of features on each are about the same. They both make toast. Have normal bake, convection bake, probe bake, air fry, dehydrate, broil and 10 other things. Either is thousands less than a built-in doing about the same thing. Whether it's built-in or not, they both strike me as things that will be on the shorter side of 10 years of life. It's also a different kind of commitment with a built-in because of cutting into a cabinet and the plumbing. I bake stuff - not cookies or sheet cakes but low volume breads, deserts and dinner for two so either would be good for me. I think I would like a steam oven. I think it would be the more useful addition but I don't know for sure and the concept of committing $3k-$5k to one built-in is scary. One of those Youtubes showed a countertop euro convection microwave air fryer (seriously!). They ditched the turntable in favor of a pricer flat surface on the bottom and the oven also has racks. It was made by Cuisinart of all people, but it's only available in Europe. The ones in the US are much worst - kinda crazy gismos like having a mini rack on legs on the turntable. All of the countertop ones I looked at were def. odd. Someone else will be able to talk about their actual experiences with built-in speed ovens since lots of those exist. Good luck with your decisions. Mine look like I'll finally decide in 2024.