Help with 30" duel fuel oven decision...Thermador, Miele or?
shermybeagle
4 years ago
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Wolf Duel Fuel Range or Wolf all Gas Range
Comments (10)I'll explain my post (the 1st response to OP), but I won't get into a debate over which range is best, because feelings run high among some folks, and I respect everyone's individual preferences. For myself only (I have the 30" Wolf DF range), I never, ever Wok cook, so having instant, high heat flames is not, and never will be, important to me. I sautee all of the time, and the heat produced by my burners more than meets my sautee requirements. Likewise, while people sometimes talk about how many BTUs their ranges produce and how they can bring water to a boil in "x" minutes, that has never been important to me. The BTUs on the range I have are more than sufficient for the kind of cooking I do...which is home variety, often at a gourmet (but certainly not professional) level. I wanted a range that had wonderful low burner output and could melt chocolate without burning, could hold a sauce without scorching, etc. And the DF does that beautifully. I like the fact that 3 of the burners on the 30" range have a high BTU (I think it's 15,000 - but don't quote me), and the one in the back has only 9,000 BTUs for its high heat level. All of that works wonderfully well for the way I cook. So, bottom line, I recognize my needs may not be similar to people who are much more professional in the kitchen, who need a range with a higher level of performance. For my wants the DF range (with its wonderful convection oven, which I truly love) makes me ecstatic every time I use it, and produces fabulous meals....See MoreDacor duel fuel 48' range
Comments (21)toomuchremodeling, I hope you don't mind if I answer and making the assumption that all functions work as they are supposed to, the Dacor has some good ideas. I have cooked on both, although I had the 36" range with 2 16" platforms and 4 11" platforms. I like the idea that they utilize the 16 inch platforms on Dacor. That gives you 6 big burners on the 48" Dacor and 8 conventional burners on the Wolf. I really liked the 6 big burners but wanted 2 full sized ovens so went with the 36" range and wall oven. I frequently cook for 20-30. If you cook with really big pans this is a good idea. I liked the burners, they were great for cooking. The Dacor burners seem to set forward a little more than the Wolf and is more comfortable for me. Wolf also cooks well and has very good simmer and most of my pans have fit well. One problem with the Dacor is that the knobs are plastic,so that they can have the pretty blue light, but one broke and I am careful. Wolf is made with heavy cast metal. Maybe someone might be able to talk about the differences in the burners or maybe a sales person might be able to show you. The Dacor oven is supposed to be within 2 degrees of the setting so comparable to the Miele in accuracy. If you turn the Dacor to 350 degrees, it will do that and if you bake something at that temp, you would say this works great, I love it. The problem was for me on the wall and range oven if you opened and closed the oven for batches of cookies or put something really cold there was no way for the oven to kick on and add a lot of heat(like the typical preheat on any other oven), it had to oscillate and would take 1 hour to move 50 degrees. They admitted this was an issue(even a benefit because my food would not burn with the preheat coming on) and sent improved boards to fix it. Well it didn't burn my food because it didn't even cook it. They never could fix either appliance. There is a cooking school of all things near me that has the same issues with their ovens and can't get them fixed and just try to adjust the oven themselves and add cooking time. Hopefully this has been totally reengineered, but I would make sure that it has before you buy it if you are a serious baker. Also be aware that the boards were billed at $1800.00 each time they were replaced. This was under warranty but if it weren't...ouch. A friend of mine had her board go out on an older Dacor oven and her husband replaced it for $35 on ebay. The computer board on the Dacor gives it some additional functions but can be expensive. The Wolf holds a temperature great. I think the Wolf bakes more evenly in convection because it has the dual fans as opposed to the single fan in the Dacor. If you want to raise the temperature by 50 degrees with the Wolf you have to turn it off and then on to get the preheat to come on. I do like the glide rack for the bottom on the Dacor but also like a regular rack because I am always changing them around. Someone told me Wolf is coming out with glide racks too if you like those. I think the preheat is pretty long on both for the oven to stabilize. One other thing on the 48" range is take the pans you use in and make sure they fit in the small side. Some of the 48" ranges allow more room on the small side and leave some room for circulation....See MoreLP Range (duel fuel?) Lacanche, Bertrazzoni, Blue Star...?
Comments (12)I have the RNB30, as there wasn't more space in our kitchen. I would kill for a 48", but that will have to wait until we remodel the kitchen, assuming that ever happens. I reconfigured the burners so that we have two 22kBTU and two 15kBTU burners. I find that I personally don't use simmer burners very often. I use a single 22kBTU burner about 50% of the time. Two 22kBTU burners 30% of the time. And three or all four burners the remaining 20% of the time. Every once in a while, I cook larger dinners, and I really would like to have more burners, though. I can leave a stew or a soup on the 22kBTU burner to simmer slowly, and I can even make things such as sauce hollandaise without setting up a double boiler. But the latter does require a little bit of skill. So, your personal preference might be different and maybe you'll really like the simmer burner. If I was fortunate enough to have a six burner range, I probably wouldn't have bothered about replacing the simmer burner, but as is, I am very happy with our configuration. We've had it for about five years now, and it replaced a Viking that came with the house -- what an unbelievable step up! The 22kBTU burners are awesome. Food cooked in the wok finally feels fried and not just steamed. It still doesn't get quite the same "burned" taste that restaurants manage, but I think that requires a lot more BTU than can be installed in a residential kitchen. Also, I have a couple of pots/pans that kind of require that I heat them up to full heat once, before I can start cooking (e.g. my rolled carbon steel skillet and my cast iron pots). With the 22kBTU that happens in no time and I don't even need to think about it anymore. I use the full size oven all the time. If I had two ovens, I probably would find good use for the smaller oven, but as is I have gotten used to needing a minimum 20min pre heat time; it just requires planning ahead....See MoreMiele 24” Steam Oven vs a 30” Wall Oven
Comments (22)I think you'll be absolutely fine with just a CSO. There certainly are advantages to having multiple (different) ovens. But it's not something you could do without. We are very fortunate to have three ovens in our kitchen: the CSO, the SpeedOven, and a 30" gas oven in the Bluestar range. While I don't use all of them all the time, having three ovens is extremely convenient when hosting large multi-course dinners. It's a game changer in making sure that every dish is ready on time. It's not unusual for me to have a dozen different dishes/sides, and time management gets complex when preparing all of these. But if that's not something you do on a regular basis, then obviously you wouldn't benefit from making this choice, and the space and money savings of only buying a single CSO can go to good use elsewhere. There are a few things that make me use our gas oven instead of the CSO. It has a much bigger cavity. This is rarely needed as I tend to debone all my roasts whenever possible and a deboned 20+ lbs turkey is so small, it would easily fit into the CSO. But when I do need this much space then it certainly is nice to be able to make use of it. Also, it has the most amazingly super-powerful broiler element. It's as close to a commerical salamander as you can get in a residential kitchen. We use it several times a week just for that. Can't get any better toasted bread any other way. Finally, while the CSO and the SpeedOven are a bit of a pain to keep clean, the gas oven doesn't show splatter as much nor does it get damaged by splatter (this is a little bit of a worry with all the complex components in a CSO; I don't want to clog the fan, the steam ports or the drain). So, whenever I prepare particularly splattery food (e.g. roasted pork belly or even just the aformentioned turkey), I prefer the gas oven. But that's mostly a question of using the best tool for the job, and with three different ovens I make a different choice from what you would make. You might just need to spend a little more elbow grease making sure your CSO gets cleaned thorough when cooking more challenging ingredients. On the other hand, there are cases that would make me strongly prefer the CSO over my gas oven. The most obvious one is any time that I am making smaller servings. The CSO preheats within a few minutes, whereas my big gas oven takes between 20 and 45min to be fully preheated. And of course, there are countless recipes where a CSO is the objectively superior tool, as steam injection is so incredibly useful. I am still discovering new uses on a regular basis (e.g. made haggis from scratch for Burns Night a few weeks ago). And I have favorites that I don't know how I ever managed without a CSO (e.g. making a big batch for fresh gnocchi). A downside with the CSO is that it doesn't cool down quickly. This can be confusing. If you are used to cook items by putting them into the cold oven, then cooking times will be very wrong if somebody used the CSO right before you. My family regularly makes boiled eggs in the CSO. Works amazingly well, fool-proof, and you can get the eggs to exactly the hardness that you like. But if the oven is still hot, this doesn't work the same. That's gotten me yelled at once or twice before :-)...See More
shermybeagle
4 years agoshermybeagle
4 years agoZalco/bring back Sophie!
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoshermybeagle thanked Zalco/bring back Sophie!eandhl2
4 years agoBruce in Northern Virginia
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoshermybeagle
4 years ago
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