Wall Ovens Reviews

When it comes to wall-oven reviews, we are most impressed by Consumer Reports' neatly detailed methodology, which includes testing ovens for baking, broiling and oven capacity. On the downside, however, many of the recommended and tested models at Consumer Reports have been discontinued in the few short months since their most recent wall-ovens report. Most, however, have been replaced by newer and similar models.

Choice.com.au (an Australian magazine) and Which? Online (a UK magazine) are both similar in thoroughness to Consumer Reports. Although wall ovens reviewed in those two publications aren't available in the U.S., they should be your first stop if you're looking for wall-oven reviews for the U.K. or Australia. The general information on Choice.com.au and Which? Online is helpful to U.S. shoppers, however.

Both Consumer Reports and J.D. Power and Associates compile customer satisfaction and repair ratings based on large owner surveys. These are helpful in gauging long-term reliability. Surveys show there's significant variation in terms of repairs. While most mainstream brands have similar reliability rates, high-end brands like Jenn-Air, Thermador and Dacor are far more prone to serious breakdowns.

Manufacturers continually try to find new angles in speed cooking, which has historically been a tough sell, according to Consumer Reports. Maytag discontinued its line of Accellis ranges -- which used a combination of conventional heat and microwave heating to cut baking and roasting times -- because the company says those models simply never caught on. Some owners apparently felt there was too much of a learning curve with the Accellis.

However, the GE Trivection ovens, including the GE Profile (*est. $2,800 for a single oven, or $3,800 for double) , use a similar concept and are still available. The Trivection combines conventional heat, microwave heating and convection heating (which involves circulating warm air through the oven) to decrease cooking times, and reviews say the Trivection generally lives up to its claims. The GE Trivection is different from previous iterations of speed cookers in that it doesn't convert to a microwave, although it does use microwave technology. It looks much like a regular oven. While the Trivection oven is capable of slashing baking and roasting times, it also costs more than most other single wall ovens.

Although the consumer feedback we read about GE’s Trivection is positive overall, other models perform as well or better and have a larger oven cavity. Therefore, we haven't included the Trivection in ConsumerSearch Fast Answers. In a review at Newsweek magazine, decreased cooking time is the Trivection's only advantage. Editors taste-tested turkeys roasted in the Trivection and three other ovens. While the Trivection cooked the fastest, the meat from other ovens was equally tasty.  ... Continued

Our Consensus Report shows how many times products are top-ranked by reviewers included in our
All The Reviews Reviewed chart.

In tests, most wall ovens perform within a fairly narrow range of good to excellent when it comes to baking and broiling. However, there are larger differences in reliability and capacity. Although homeowners and experts like convection cooking, the necessary convection fan takes up some of the interior capacity, so convection ovens are a bit smaller. In addition, while design and appliance enthusiasts like high-end brands such as Thermador, Viking and Jenn-Air, these brands are historically more trouble-prone than Kenmore, Maytag, Frigidaire, GE or Whirlpool ovens. Electrolux wall ovens have a high-end look, and although we did not see specific reliability ratings for Electrolux, this company also makes the Frigidaire brand, which does have a good reputation for a lower occurrence of repairs.