75-250 is indeed a pretty large range. But not too unusual to do that. According to https://www.ysi.com/water-hardness that would be somewhere between soft and slightly hard (no particular endorsement; this was just the first site that I found online). I don't think you'd go horribly wrong by telling your oven to treat this as "medium". Worst case, it prompts you to descale the unit more frequently than strictly necessary. That'll waste a little money on supplies. But if in doubt, that's better than wasting money on repairs. I recommend you buy the descaling tabs in bulk. They regularly show up on Amazon and other online services. And they definitely get cheaper if you buy a bigger package. You'll need two per descale cycle. I usually need to do so every six to nine months. But that might not be the same for you. We use the steam oven very frequently, but we have very soft water. Also, you absolutely want to make sure you have tabs on hand, when the unit needs it. You don't want to find yourself in a situation where you can't use the oven for a few days while waiting for supplies.

The Advantium won't do that for you either, really. You can warm frozen food on speed cook mode but some of the limits of microwaving apply. The smaller the serving, the better it works. Family sized portions take longer, and you have to work harder to make sure the interior is fully and evenly cooked. There is a loss in quality when you take short cuts. Some people can use a speed oven to cook many things as well as they could in a standard oven, in about half the time. That's cooked from raw. With anything frozen, especially if it's large and dense, you'll have a much better result if you thaw it first. From there, speed cooking could cut the time for warming. And the Advantium isn't bad at defrosting. I have both a Gaggenau combi-steam and an Advantium, but I don't have the time pressures most of the time to need to speed cook. If I had to choose one, I'd choose the combi- and a basic model microwave, because there are things that I like to microwave. You could probably do all of them in the combi-steam though. Part of the reason I have an Advantium is for the third oven space it gives as a convection oven. And I thought I'd use the speed feature more. Gary (Dodge) has posted a lot in the Appliances forum about things he makes in his Elux speed oven. Do a search for his posts to learn more. This post was edited by plllog on Sun, Jul 20, 14 at 16:20

I find dual fuel to be mostly a marketing gimmick and not really relevant in practical use. I cook and bake in both gas and electric ovens, and it is easy to adjust for both. Gas is naturally drier, as the oven has to have a vent. But that can easily be compensated for by putting the food into an enclosed container (e.g. a Dutch oven). Electric ovens are naturally higher humidity, but not really enough to make a big difference. On the other hand, the CSO has very precise control for humidity over a very large range; and it also has very precise temperature control, which is great for things like sous-vide cooking, yeast proofing, yoghurt making, ... Also, the CSO has a stainless steel interior, so it doesn't suffer from the issues with flaking glass bits that lots of other electric ovens seem to experience, no matter the manufacturer. I personally love our combination of the best-in-class Bluestar gas range, and the best-in-class Miele CSO. These two appliances are very different and thus complement each other perfectly.

> Is cleaning it a big deal? If I were to answer it would be from my point of view, in the bigger context I do not often use the oven with things that splatter, and so little cleaning experience. I do steam a lot and have to descale every few months. I'd refer you to three things: 1. The long and insightful Miele Combi steam oven owners' thread, has loads of real life usage and comments on cleaning. Helpful when I first go into it. 2. The owner's manuals, available from the Miele USA website for each product model. Main thought here is follow the instructions to the letter, the interiors have a specific surface treatment (Perfect Clean or whatever they call it) and require specific steps to clean. Don't use shortcuts or 'home brew' remedies! The surfaces really are easy to clean if you follow the instructions. 3. Attend some of the 'clinics' (a.k.a. training sessions) at any Miele experience center. I found these very helpful, I was new to combi steam cooking. The sessions are not just for cleaning, lots of great tips, insights and usage demos. Alternatively, if you cannot attend look for youtube videos on how to clean (Look for the Miele ones, not the people touting shortcuts and home remedies.) P.S: One more insight. Right after typing the above I cleaned a 'Universal Tray' that was used twice today. That tray comes with all the 24 in ovens, has a so called 'prefect clean' surface -- not intended for cleaning in a DW, so hand washing -- and true it it's name it took under 60 seconds to clean off baked on oil and other brown food residue. The perforated trays and pans, which is almost all of them, do not have a Perfect Clean surface are intended to be cleaned in a dishwasher.