What oven/cooking appliance combination to go for (thread no. 7 million, I know)

[ToriTheStoryteller]

Kitchen being redone. We are a household of 3 (one a young teen).
Cook from scratch most nights plus baking once a week, due to allergies and health-related diets: almost always in single oven. To be honest, double is only used if batch cooking a load of cakes or three trays of biscuits.
Microwave used every weeknight to reheat dinner due to different work patterns/kids clubs etc.
Slow cooker used once a week to batch cook for freezer.
Breadmaker used once a week.
I'm thinking of buying an airfryer.

Kitchen isn't going to be enormous and we need to save every penny possible!

Based on all that, I'm considering not bothering with a double oven at all. Is that mad?
If I use the double, it's only full because I want to not waste heating all that space, but it's so rare that I actually need a double.

So if I had a single oven with grill, plus a microwave in a tower, then I was going to have space next to the hob for whichever small appliance (air fryer, slow cooker etc) I need that day - and those would be in a cupboard next to the hob so easy to use.

It feels like it would be enough: even if we had 2 families for dinner, a chicken or curry fits in the slow cooker, roast veg in single oven and rice on the hob, etc.

What do you think?

Family of 5 here. Cook and bake every day. Microwave but no air fryer or slow cooker.
everyone told us wed mind not having a double oven but we never have. I don't think we could do a mega turkey and roast potatoes together but that's a blessing not a loss in my view (not a big turkey fan…)

I live on my own and enjoy cooking and baking I have a Samsung dual cook oven. Same size as a single oven but can be used as a small oven with one shelf or normal single oven when the divider is removed to give you 3 shelves. Ideal for multiple trays of cookies or when I have family here. It has 2 fans so also has the ability to cook each oven at a different temperature, although I've never needed to do this yet.
I also have a built in microwave above it which saves on counter space and I use to cook most of my veg, heat up my batch cooked meals and make things like chilli and Bolognese sauce etc .
Because my small oven heats up so quickly I have resisted getting an air fryer .
Might be worth a look for your needs.

That's kind of how I feel. It's been such a standard set up for ages to have at least a double, even a double and single, but that was before people moved towards smaller, much more efficient and flexible appliances.

I've been watching Sort Your Life Out and it's similar to how they talk about people who move to a bigger house, filling it with more stuff. I'm thinking if the kitchen area is kept smaller, to prioritise the dining/sofa area, then I can make do with a single oven, micro + portable appliances.

The Ninja 15 in 1 does everything you need (air fryer, pressure cooker, slow cooker, bread, yoghurt). So a single oven, microwave and one of these Nijas would have you covered for your requirements.

If you are going to get an air fryer then jusy go for the single oven and microwave. I do most of my oven cooking in the air fryer (including baking), amd only use the oven for what I cant fit in the air fryer, eg pizza, large joints of meat.

We are also renovating and will be going from a double to a single oven. Never use the top oven, it just stores baking trays! We do have a good sized air fryer which is used regularly. Microwave and slow cooker too.

This one but it shows as out of stock, it was £250 when I bought mine 3 years ago. It really does do anything and everything. I'm not a keen cook so don't use it to its full potential, but I chose this model because it can do everything.
Perhaps they have different models now as an air fryer multi cooker appliance.

ninjakitchen.co.uk/product/ol750uk-base-zidXBASEOL750UK?tracking=searchterm:Foodi

I only ever used the top of double ovens three times in my life so they are not particularly useful in my experience. I don't like cooking but I cook a lot and we entertain for family gatherings quite a bit.

I only have a single oven and have never regretted not having a double. (No problem doing a turkey and roast potatoes - the turkey out, wrapped in foil and elderly towels to rest, then roast potatoes in on high means juicy and still hot turkey and properly crispy potatoes.)

Wow, thanks for all this feedback. It's easy to get stuck in a mindset of thinking you need X, Y and Z in a kitchen, so I wasn't expecting to hear from so many who are happy with a single oven + other small things.

It's a good point about the Ninja actually, our slow cooker is the biggest one from Lakeland so if I'm going to pay for an air fryer, then if it can do a chicken or a big batch of curry, i could sell the slow cooker!

My kitchen was renovated 2 years ago I went for a single oven + microwave built in because , like yiu, I also cook using a pressure cooker, breadmaker, slow cooker and airfryer. I cook every day and am very happy with our choices

That dual oven sounds great, the ability to have more than one shelf in the space of a single oven would be very handy as I make biscuits most weeks...one tray of them wouldn't last long with my empty-legged boy.😂

I have two single ovens side by side and use them both. It works better than a double oven and a half jobby which I had for years and never used the side oven.

Apart from a free standing microwave I have nothing else.

5 ring ceramic hob with a large central oval. I looked at induction but woukd have had to buy new saucepans and the ones I have are exceptional quality, were wedding gifts and I didn't want to part with them.

I can cook a casserole on low in the oven, bake bread if I made it and roast and grill. I see no need for a slow cooker or air fryer.

Just moved and had a new kitchen. As others have said top oven wasn’t used except for storage. I couldn’t reach it tbh!
Now I have my newly installed Neff slide and hide with Neff microwave above. Love the combo!
My twin drawer air fryer sits on the worktop ( more flexible than my big Ninja) and my slow cooker lives in one of my ( many) drawers for use a couple of times a week.
To create extra space I made a dog feeding station in the area between the kitchen and extension. Like a butcher’s block type cupboard with a wooden chopping board on top. It doubles up as a place to pop recyclables before taking them out.

I have just designed a kitchen for my new house. It will have a Bosch single oven in a tower, with a cupboard above at eye level which would easily fit a microwave. At the moment we use a Sage mini oven. The single oven will do everything we want. The model I ordered wasn't in stock so the retailer sent me an upgrade which also has a steam setting, so you can get very versatile ones. I bought Bosch because I prefer a white oven.

My current oven is a double, but as pp said, the top oven just gets used for baking trays!

This is all really useful, lots of ideas to investigate too. That's my Saturday sorted.😂

I have an oven and a half oven combo. I use the half oven every day - the big one only on occasion. I’m happy to recommend the setup. The half oven takes so much less time to preheat and cooks really well.

Just going through this as redesigning layout for kitchen.

If you get a combi microwave, you can use it as a small oven, as well as grill and as microwave, or any combination thereof - Panasonic seem to work well for me.
My plan is a single oven - looking at Neff slide and hide, and the microwave above, I also have a Ninja Foodie slow cooker which sears and cooks all sorts as well. Not got an air fryer as I have no worktop space spare, and think it'd be redundant. Only times I feel like an air fryer might be useful is house full of teenagers wanting chips - but then even those are limited by the volume, our combi microwave is just as quick IMHO.

I also got side opening doors for the ergonomics. Very happy with that, too.

When we did our kitchen, I put in a double oven (well, one full size, and one half sized with a grill in it too), but more out of convenience than necessity. If lots of people came for dinner it was handy to have two separate areas for different temperatures, but nothing that isn't insurmountable with a single oven.

Now I have an air fryer, I use that a good amount. Also, it's just me now, and I haven't really got back into having people round yet, so the oven has barely been used, as everything gets cooked in the air fryer.

My only regret was putting an induction hob in, but that's another thread.

@HappiestSleeping oooh I'm interested to know what was the regret re the hob. I can't decide what to go for: I know induction is more efficient but that means paying for new pans and we can be quite clumsy (I've heard of people cracking them accidentally).

I love my induction hob. So easy to regulate the heat and simple to clean

I had a gas hob before, and as the advert said, it was easily turn off and onable. Very easy to relate heat.

The induction hob is awful. We bought a quality make, and have the correct supply, but it's awful. Anything that spills turns all four hobs off, if I lift a pan for too long, say during a stir fry, it turns all four hobs off. It's infuriating. I'm learning to live with it, the major discovery is that I can place a tea towel between the pan and the hob which solves the first problem. Also, pans do make a difference. I've just bought a set of Ninja stackable pans, and they are great improvement compared to the previous, supposedly induction compatible pans. I won't ever have another one though, and am going to return to gas when I get around to it.

When I redid my kitchen last year I had to change away from a gas hob and chose induction. Its great, I love it but I have some lingering regrets at parting from with my lovely pans which had been wedding presents. I parted with them by passing them on to DC who don’t have induction hobs. The hob itself is amazing - as close to gas control as possible.

I replaced my double oven with a large capacity single oven and a large capacity combination microwave. The combi also has air fryer settings as well as convection/fan oven settings. This is in use near daily both as a smaller oven and a microwave.

I already had an air fryer which I still have and was bought for me by one of the DC after DH died. I wasn’t eating properly and they correctly realised that part of it was I had struggled to adjust to cooking for one, wouldn’t use a large oven for single portions/small amounts etc. As a single person I found the air fryer aka very small oven far more useful than I expected as its perfect for small amounts.

Overall I was planning a kitchen for two adults and regularly visiting adult DC and I’m now a single adult with regularly visiting DC. When I originally put in extra ovens I had a houseful of teens and multiple ovens were in common use. The single oven now really only gets used when they are visiting.

@C8H10N4O2 sorry for the loss of your DH. It's a good point about the future though, which is why I'm not getting awed by huge spaces or the lovely symmetry of big side by side ovens. DS could be here until he's 30 but equally he could be gone by 18. I don't want it to suddenly not work for us when life shifts!