Wall oven + cooktop versus range questions

4 years ago

Our Kitchen Aid wall oven chose last night (with sixteen guests) to die. I had just cleaned it two days ago and before that it had worked, but it may be original to the house (1989). When I turned it on to bake at 350, the lights on the panel came on, but it didn’t heat.
Questions:

One thing that I have not liked about this wall oven is how it has seemed to accumulate grease as well as vent smoke/odors into the kitchen (compared to the Jenn-Aire range I had at my previous house). Since we no longer have kids at home, I think I cook less, yet this oven has seemed to get much dirtier much more quickly than my former one. I have not seen much about venting a wall oven. The microwave is built in above it, if that makes any difference. We live in Florida, in a ranch with the kitchen in the middle of the house (I.e., no outside walls). There is a vent over the cooktop, but it doesn’t work particularly well either. I assume that is because of age but may be because of lack of capacity. So, are wall ovens not typically vented to the exterior?
My husband is currently at work trying to see what might be the problem. To what extent is this oven worth fixing? Apart from the venting issue, it has always worked ok, not great, but not worth replacing up to now.
Do wall ovens usually exhaust more odors/generate more smoke than ovens in the one piece ranges (combined cooktop and oven).
We have already replaced the fridge and dishwasher, but the kitchen layout is functional for us and we would rather not embark on a full scale kitchen renovation. On the other hand, I’d hate to install a new wall oven and have the same smoke/odor problems. Both microwave and cooktop still work...maybe not perfectly, but well enough.
Any suggestions on what to try in terms of fixes, fix or replace, what brands/models to look at if we do need to replace it, venting suggestions (as well as what kind of specialist would do venting work—HVAC, plumber, electrician?).
Thanks for your advice!

Featured Answer

jwvideo

4 years ago

last modified: 4 years ago

First thing I would check is whether the broiler element still works or not. If the broiler still works, then the problem is likely nothing more than a burned out bottom heating element. (I'm assuming we are talking about an electric KA wall oven.) That's easy to diagnose (often you can see a break in the element). A replacement is not very expensive (under $75 when I did one for a friend's KA range oven last fall) and swapping in the new one is quick and easy even with minimal DIY skills. Look for youtube videos for "kitchenaid oven + lower element replacement" and remember to shut off the breaker for the oven before starting on the job. More expensive if you need to or prefer to hire an appliance repair service, but should be much less than the cost of a new oven.

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Comments (7)

Helen
4 years ago
My understanding is that wall ovens now vent in the front. Older wall ovens used to vent to the rear. My friend has old Thermador wall ovens which vented to the rear and she needs to replace them and has found that she has not been able to find ones that vent to the rear. She is considering a model that has some kind of catalytic purifier built in which is supposed to minimize grease and smoke venting into the kitchen.

I think stoves have ovens that vent to the front as well. When I was researching appliances in anticipation of my current remodel, I read that some people disliked their stoves because if they were using the cook top and the oven simultaneously they would receive blasts of hot air from the front vents. I have no personal experience with this.

I changed the configuration of my kitchen when I remodeled and went with an induction cooktop and a Bosch side opening wall oven with microwave drawer below. I haven't noticed any issues with excessive grease or whatever coming out of the oven when I use it.
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I think you're asking how other people made the choices they did? Here was my reasoning for what I'm in the process of having installed: 1. Having had a propane boiler installed, we could now have a gas cooktop. My DH wanted a 36" cooktop 2. I wanted to have an electric oven, because I prefer it for making bread etc. 3. Having had a 24" for the last 10 years, without causing too much trouble, and a variety of 24" ovens in the UK for 20 years before that, I had absolutely no need for a 36" wide oven. Nor a 30" oven. 4. I had no need for double ovens, and based on your comments, it sounds like you don't either. 5. Space is limited, so the oven is to be mounted below the cooktop. 6. fuel efficiency is important to us, so, again, a 27" oven makes much more sense than a huge one. (And I managed to cook Thanksgiving Turkey quite happily in that 24" oven! - like most Brits, we have them for Christmas too, so I've never accepted that argument for a huge oven. It just takes planning) Based on all of that, we opted for a 36" Bertazzoni cooktop, and a 27" Bosch oven, mounted below. That's how we reached OUR choices - YMMV!
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Shannon_WI
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
it may also be the ignitor, aka Hot Surface Ignitor, aka HSI. The HSI costs about $50 online, if you are handy and think you can replace it yourself. Just don‘t touch the HSI with your fingers, you have to wear gloves or the natural oils on your hands ruin the HSI. The tricky part is making sure to buy the right one for your oven. If you have the model number of your oven, you can usually find the parts diagram online and you can locate the part number of the correct HSI. Or, get a repair person for $100-150 repair, very common, a wear-and-tear item.

Your hood over your cooktop is not exhausting the air well for 2 reasons. It doesn’t have enough cfms, and/or the duct from the hood to the outside is too narrow.
kaseki
4 years ago
Wall ovens are usually not serviced by a hood over them, so they tend to put their entire effluent load into the kitchen air when opened. I have some registers above mine with a separate external blower, but the flow rate is far too modest to make up for not being able to capture the cooking fumes as soon as they are released into the room.

Ranges, on the other hand, when opened spill their fumes just below the area that the cooktop hood is collecting from, so more of the effluent will be immediately captured and removed. This is all relative, because neither situation is particularly desirable from an odor and grease removal point of view.

Perforated ceiling systems may be helpful in commercial cooking where a hood is not ideally placed for capture. Otherwise, large area hoods have to be used.
sheilajoyce_gw
4 years ago
I ordered a set of electric double wall ovens when our tract house was built in 1979. They vent to the rear through the exterior wall of our house. I love the wall ovens, and did not go for a full plus a half oven but insisted on double. The other option was one oven with a wall microwave, which I did not want. I do the holiday meals for our family, and double ovens are necessary. In fact 3 ovens would be nice. I have a large kitchen with lots of counter space, so I put our microwave in a " dead" corner. One concern with replacing double ovens is finding a good fit for the space you have in your wall.
DavidR
4 years ago
Thirty years is a pretty good run for an appliance, but I'd still try to fix it. An oven of that age is built more solidly than anything you can buy in most appliance stores today. It might well outlast a new one.
Lynne Om (9A, New Smyrna Beach,FL)
Original Author
4 years ago
Thank you to everyone for your responses. DH Mike took it out of the cabinet and after testing various parts believes that the problem is in something called the thermal fuse, which apparently has a tendency to fail after the self-cleaning cycle, so we have ordered a new one of those from on-line. Many thanks to those of you who gave me feedback on the venting. The oven appears to vent through the front. I’ve cleaned everything as well as I could while it’s out of the cabinet and will look into the fan over the cooktop with more attention once we have the oven issue solved. We’re putting buying anything new on hold until Mike determines whether or not he can fix the one we have. I would probably kill for an old Thermidor in working condition. :-)

Wall oven + cooktop versus range questions

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Helen

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Wall oven + cooktop versus range questions

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Helen

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Lynne Om (9A, New Smyrna Beach,FL)Original Author

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Lynne Om (9A, New Smyrna Beach,FL)
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