Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very good, could have been great (bear in mind the price), 5 April 2009
If you're spending this much money, you'll want to know what you're getting, so a full review follows. I can compare it with a similar DeDietrich oven which I had before and so give pros and cons.
The Neff is part of a series, this one a combination microwave and fan oven, available in stainless steel, white or black. Its huge advantage is that for the space of one oven you get a large microwave, a conventional fan oven and the possibility of combining both functions for quick cooking. It is ¾ the size of a `full' oven, so could suit a single person or even a small family as a space-saving single oven. It is also ideal as a second oven; in its oven only mode it can make catering for a large group quite easy. It comes with a shelf, enamel baking tin and a plastic trivet allowing metal dishes to be used with the microwave (within certain restrictions).
In the centre of the control panel are buttons for start and stop, and to the left a rotary knob to set cooking time. To the left of this are 5 buttons for microwave power, 90, 180, 360, 600 and 1000 watts. It is a pity there is nothing between the last two; 600 recommended for cooking is a bit slow, 1000 too fast. An 800 watt button would have been useful or, ideally, replace the buttons with one knob letting you choose the power variably in, say, steps of 50 watts (like my previous oven). This would have been more flexible.
The other rotary knob to the right is a `function' selector for the main oven. The buttons from the far right are for setting the clock and programming (both used rarely), fast heating (with the oven, a useful feature which adds the grill to the normal ring element) and a `menu' button which selects between various modes chosen by the function knob. You turn the latter to the right to choose which oven mode you want (fan, convection grilling, fan grilling, grill) then you have to press the menu button to select temperature 'mode' then turn the function knob again to set the degrees you want. This is highly inconvenient in practice; having to select a `mode' just to set your temperature is unnecessarily cumbersome. You also have to use the same procedure to select the grill setting (high, medium, low or half-area).
But the function knob has more! Turn it to the left and you get a range of pre-programmed settings, for example `defrosting', `vegetables' or `poultry'. Then once again you have to press the menu button to get a sub-menu (types of poultry for instance), after which you enter the weight of the food. You can also programme your own settings. All very fancy but, I suspect, once used soonest forgotten. It is also not stated in the manual what sort of function the oven is using; be careful if using metal dishes as it is not clear whether any of these programmes use microwaves.
And this is really my main grumble with the oven. Electronics seem to provide designers with the ability to build in all sorts of pointless features which you will either not use or will restrict you. The temperature, for instance, is variable in steps of 5 degrees, OK, but the only setting below 100 degrees is 40. Not ideal for gentle defrosting of cakes or chicken, for instance, sterilising, or for keeping food warm at less than 100 degrees. Maybe this won't bother you, but if Neff hadn't built in this restriction it would have done everything it does now AND more.
Nor have my grumbles with the electronics finished. There is no display of the exact temperature, just a 6-step progress bar, which you get whatever temperature you have chosen. So you really don't know what temperature the oven has reached at any time. You can set the oven to cook and turn off after a set time, but there is no facility to programme it to turn on by itself. Nor is there a minute minder. These omissions may be significant if this is your only oven. Finally, if you open the oven door for any reason, it stops. This makes it useless for recipes such as cheesecakes which recommend cooking with the door open, and anyway is pointless - when the door is open that is just the time you want the heat to be maintained. Most irritatingly, it does not restart automatically when you close the door again, even in conventional oven mode. It beeps to remind you, so why not just start itself (like my previous oven)?
Apart from the microwave being rather slow, due to the limited power settings, the appliance does perform very well, which is just as well given the price, but it is a pity the Neff engineers were given too much say. Four simple control knobs - much like the cheaper Neff ovens - would have done all most people want, and a lot more simply. I haven't yet cleaned the (stainless steel) interior (ludicrously Neff suggest wiping with a damp cloth!) but a suitable oven cleaner should do the trick; it looks straightforward.
It has to get 4 stars as it does what it does efficiently and built-in microwave combination ovens are few; you'll probably be happy with it overall. But it could have been a great oven if only Neff hadn't gone out of their way to restrict what it can do - a classic example of something designed by someone who does not have to use it. Or maybe just lots of `features' to justify the price? Shop around before buying; I saved nearly £200.
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