Although it seems a tangent, bear with me: I recently purchased a stick blender for my mother's birthday, the one I gave her years ago having bitten the proverbial dust. I started research on Amazon, only to find similar sorts of problems with this small appliance as those outlined in the original post here, i.e. so many brands either got glowing reviews or horror stories for the very same product. Quality seemed to be a roll of the dice, no matter how much you paid. I finally chose a popular brand, knowing that the blender could suddenly tank, but also knowing that reviewers said the customer service was outstanding. So, if we're left with mediocrity from the more accessible electric wall oven brands (like Bosh or Electrolux vs the costy Wolf), which have been most responsive when people have had a problem? Kitchenaid seems to have failed roundly in this respect over the past few years, so even if they've solved their problems, they aren't the brand for me. Comments from the trenches?

There is both an electric and a gas oven in my kitchen. My gas oven is ''old-fashioned'' (I believe someone referred to it as analog, because it has a dial, rather than a digital temperature selection) and the thermostat cycles quite a bit to work at keeping the heat at a particular temperature. It isn't as accurate as the electric, there is no window or light to view what's going on in there, and the gas oven takes longer to bake exactly the same thing as the electric oven. There is no convection with a gas oven, like with an electric, and if you've used a convection oven, you'll know what the advantages are. (I always preheat in convection mode, because it's much faster; I bake my pizza on convection as well as bread.) I know about this because I've tested both my ovens extensively. Yes, Velodoug knows exactly what he's talking about. I have a gas range mainly for the cooktop, and the oven for those times we lose power; typically in the winter during storms. It's my second oven, and a reliable ''back-up''. (No...Just like Doug, I don't turn it on in the summer months either.) My electric oven is better insulated, has a window so I can check progress without opening the door, and because the temperature is digital, it typically ends up where I want it to be. With a gas oven, you regulate a recipe by sight and smell, not by time the recipe states it should be done. If you're hanging out in the kitchen all day, or using your old gas stove to heat the room (like I used to 30 years ago), No Problem. It's Done When It's Done. Your Nose Knows. In the electric oven, my pizza recipe turns out the same every single time, and I know exactly how long to bake it to get consistent results. Not so with the gas oven. That doesn't mean you won't get good product; it simply isn't as accurate and doesn't bake the same way. You tend to get moist heat with gas, and there is a natural convection, but side by side, I'll go with electric every time. I wouldn't spend that kind of money ($7K) on any gas oven (mine is also a Lacanche), over a Gaggenau for what you want to use it for. (I don't have experience with other pizza ovens, so I only know about what I'm using. I thought you were asking for experience, not just opinions.) Typically, I preheat my oven to 550 degrees before putting in a pizza, which is done to a golden brown with perfectly charred cheese and a golden bottom crust in 8 minutes. I use my oven heavily for everything. Good luck to you. I know it's daunting to spend serious money on appliances that don't do what you want them to. I hope your next appliance will give you everything you want from it.

It was not my intention to highjack the OP’s thread, but am learning so much – I hope others are as well. wekick, thank you for the links and additional explanations, you’ve been so helpful. plllog, thank you for offering up so much information on the use of convection ovens, as well as… The trick is to mark out some time that you can use learning your new oven, rather than freezing up because it's different and foregoing some of the features. Thank you for that statement. I’d downloaded the instruction manual and read about the induction and convection uses/features and have been quite excited, but this thread caused some trepidation for me. I want to try and use these features, not be fearful of them. I hope with time I can make use of the convection in areas it will be beneficial, and now understand time, experimentation, and patience will be my friends. I used a dial thermometer in my current ‘regular bake’ oven, so will use it in the convection to help adjust for time (although I admit, my eyesight isn’t what it used to be, and will now have to open the darned thing to see the thermometer, loosing heat!) – I feel sure I’d not have thought of that as it’s not been used in some time and sits in a cupboard! plllog, I am embarrassed about the pâte à choux – I think it rude to correct people’s pronunciation or spelling and that was not my intention! I sincerely apologize. Trust me, words escape me all the time! For the past year I had forgotten the word ‘joconde’ (which I always spell jaconde) and in attempting to describe it have had to be creative. For the life of me I still can’t remember the name for ‘that thing’ I spread the batter with, making the indentations… not that anyone asks. I rarely say mise en place except to myself and where it’s written in my recipes, and never say maillard reaction now… I am met with the dreaded “oh, so you’re a snob’ look, and quite frankly, can’t blame my friends! “Get things ready” and “gonna brown that” just works better around these parts! Still, I like using correct terminology to myself, at least when I can remember it!

“ In terms of safety, I always wear some form of foot covering in the kitchen so dropping something on my foot because I am standing in front of the oven is really not a rational safety argument.” “Rational” means based on logic and reason. Wearing “some kind of foot covering” is not the same as having a steel door between sloshing liquids or pans dropping. To be comparable to a steel door, your foot covering would need to be covering a big part of your leg, not permeable to hot liquids and heat resistant. You would need a steel toe to protect against a heavy pan dropping. A shoe that allows hot liquids to get in would be worse than no shoe at all because it holds hot liquids next to your skin and the burns are worse. Now you may decide that that level of safety is not what you want for some other reason but it is a factor some people will want to consider. “I am much more likely to drop or drip something from the stove - or a microwave oven and there are significantly more dangerous elements for free roaming babies and pets than not having an oven door blocking access :-)” Continuing to follow a rational thought pattern, these are separate issues and would each need to be addressed separately. I would want as many safety precautions as possible, but I worked many years in critical care and saw all the things that people never thought would happen. Just because there are other dangers doesn’t mean that the the door as a barrier is not significant. It’s not like you are limited and can only pick 3 out of 5 dangers to do something about. The point here is to bring this up as an additional consideration to what you said about the ergonomics. People can read the posts and decide what is relevant to their family. Not everyone has to do the same thing.