My kitchen has a Howdens (Diplomat) built-in, gas oven fitted. It is a very poor piece of equipment. My main issue is that it seems to have a fan on the outside of its casing (at the back?) which, when the oven is on, blows air around the casing and out into the kitchen. I assume this is a safety feature to cool the outside of the oven and prevent the surrounding kitchen units becoming too hot.
The result is that when in use, it pumps heat out into the kitchen (usually onto my legs or up my shirt) making life unbearably hot. It seems madness to me to have an oven which is being cooled on the outside and heated on the inside. What a waste of energy and money!
To make matters worse, the oven is made from flimsy materials and so retains very little heat on the inside, (i.e. it has very little thermal mass). For example it takes 50 minutes to cook a few oven chips and anything on the lower shelf simply warms up rather than baking.
My question is; Are all built-in ovens cooled externally in this way? Surely a well made, properly insulated oven would remain cool enough on the outside not to need air blasting around its casing? I'd like to buy a new oven but not if they are all this poor. I would rather rip out the units and install a free-standing cooker.
The result is that when in use, it pumps heat out into the kitchen (usually onto my legs or up my shirt) making life unbearably hot. It seems madness to me to have an oven which is being cooled on the outside and heated on the inside. What a waste of energy and money!
To make matters worse, the oven is made from flimsy materials and so retains very little heat on the inside, (i.e. it has very little thermal mass). For example it takes 50 minutes to cook a few oven chips and anything on the lower shelf simply warms up rather than baking.
My question is; Are all built-in ovens cooled externally in this way? Surely a well made, properly insulated oven would remain cool enough on the outside not to need air blasting around its casing? I'd like to buy a new oven but not if they are all this poor. I would rather rip out the units and install a free-standing cooker.