I feel as though I should want a double oven but I don't know why I would want a double oven...........

[Cadelaide]

....can anyone enlighten me please?

I'm choosing appliances for a new kitchen (budget end of market) and I'm utterly bogged down in it all. I use the oven often, lots of baking and stuff, have been happy with a single oven.

Sorry. I do find this sort of thing so very boring.

I have a double. I love it.

My top bit is grill (eye level, best thing ever) and mini oven, great for small things.

The bottom bit in fan/conventional depending on what you are cooking.

I would hate to go back to a normal oven now.

I have double ovens (side by side, not top and bottom). The best thing about the second one is that I store my dinner plates in it -which is good in itself as short of cupboard space - but also means the plates are always warm at dishing up time. Also, v useful as a warming oven, place to let meat rest after roasting etc. But I do admit that I have never actually cooked anything in it .

In order to slow roast a piece of meat, and cook splendid roasties that require a really hot oven at the same time.

Or to keep things warm while other things are finishing. V.useful I find.

Hmmm. Thanks for your replies. I'm still not convinced. It's a very small space so a "tower double-oven" is not an option. I understand you can get built-under double ovens but I'm not sure the added cost is justified, in my case.

I have a built under double oven and although I wouldnt go for this model I wouldnt want to go back to a single. Its great for cooking things at different temperatures and for bringing meals together at the same time. Neither oven is particularly big but I like the flexibility it gives.

Ah, you may be starting to convince me now!

Which make/model should I be avoiding then bodiddly?

I have a fan oven, a convection oven, a simmering oven and a microwave/grill oven, plus a grill. I don't really like cooking.

If you ever have family or friends over a double oven makes cooking so much easier.

It is an own brand of a kitchen company in north London so don't worry it is not one you will come across in the shops!

Double oven is really good when doing a slow roast and yorkie puds! Use it to keep food warm if cooking lots of different dishes & it warms the plates. Got ours from tradeappliances online which was the cheapest at the time of buying.

Thanks Heated.

I do believe I am being converted

Ours by necessity is also really narrow - a black Rangemaster 90cm wide - although I drooled over some of the top-of-the-range cooking behemoths!

Excellent advice, thanks waswondering. See I do have large tins and a built-under double would have to have small ovens, wouldn't it?

Time to go and compare oven sizes, i reckon.

As others have said, they're good if you want to cook different things at different temperatures at the same time.

Eg crispy roast potatoes and slow-cooked pork belly.

Or pavlova and roast chicken.

Or alternatively, if you want to cook something strong smelling along side something delicate - like a cheesecake alongside fish pie.

I think there is a lot to be said for a double oven BUT if you have a big family or like to do large joints, it is a tossup whether it's better to get a single large one.

My sis regrets her double as she sacrificed width and now wishes that she had a single, wider oven.

Gosh, the highs and lows of MN, now I'm being pulled back the other way.

'Tis a rollercoaster, no less

I have a falcon range cooker with double oven, agree with others on this thread it is fantastic, very versatile.

However a decent double oven is going to be expensive (£1000+) The budget end of the market is more for show than performance, they are fine if you never really cook but otherwise a waste of time.

I have two single ovens side by side. It's great. They are both big. One is gas, the other is fan assisted electric and we do different stuff in them. I like the gas one for baking and the fan one for getting things done fast.

I have a built under double oven and am struggling to imagine what size of baking tray/tin wouldn't fit in it! There is plenty of room and you just move the shelves around to suit whatever you are cooking. Wouldn't be without it AND I could grill and cook at the same time if I wanted to .

My oven came with 5 specially sized baking trays although others fit in just as well.

check out ebay - how much space do you have? i got a rangemaster for £100. folk are always chucking these things out.

I have a double.

Rarely use the top one as an oven but predictably am today making too many chocolate orange biscuits.

Always assumed we'd have a double oven as that's what my parents have, but we have the same space issue as you, so it'd have been two tiny ovens or one decent sized one. First thought we'd get a microwave-oven as well, and have it on the kitchen surface, but in the end we've just stuck with the single. We do LOTS of cooking (Christmas dinner for 10 kind of thing), baking etc., and it's never been a problem.
I realised my mother only really uses her top oven to heat plates in anyway...

I regularly use both at the same time (eg cakes and roast chicken or casseroling meat while zapping roast veg or keeping the veg warm while the meat/potatoes finish off etc etc). I cook a lot and often for large numbers. I'm sure I could get used to it again if I had to but I'd really miss my double oven.