My Beko DC3511 Oven- It's hot! (Beko Cookers in general)

Member Name: ButterBear

Product:	Beko Cookers in general
Date:	30/05/07 (855 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Simple to use

Disadvantages: No child saftey features, super hot grill

When my husband and I got married we did it the old fashioned way, we lived separately until the day of the wedding and then got our own place together. This is all very nice and traditional but not always practical as we would obviously need household appliances for our new home but would have nowhere to store them until we found said home. We were lucky with the oven that we did not have to buy one, a neighbor of my granddad was moving to a care home and would not need many of her belongings, among the things she would no longer need was a brand new Beko DC3511 oven, she had purchased it before falling ill and had never got round to using it, with her blessing my granddad claimed the oven for us.


Beko-
"Beko plc is one of the top 500 largest companies in the world and also one of the top 10 home appliances manufacturers in Europe with over 40 years experience in the manufacture of home appliances and televisions. Beko Plc is located in Watford, Hertfordshire, with the responsibility for all sales, marketing distribution and product support activities for the UK and Southern Ireland" -thetwenty20cup.co.uk



The Beko DC3511-
The oven is classed as a dual compartment, electric range, convection oven. It measure approximately 35-23-19 inches.
The Oven has a separate grill and oven compartments and has 4 electric heating elements on the hob all controlled by the dials on the front of the oven.

(A convection oven heats the air that is circulated around the oven by an embedded fan, they do not usually have hot spots and therefore cook more evenly. Convection ovens cook faster and at lower temperatures than other ovens)

The oven compartment has an inner measurement of 16-13-16 inches, it has a 47 litre capacity, 7 height levels but only 2 wire shelves. Its heat settings start from 80 degrees and go up to 240.

The grill compartment has an inner measurement of 16-7-16 inches with a 23 litre capacity, it has 4 eight levels, a wire shelf and comes with a grill pan that has a removable wire rack and a detachable handle for easy cleaning. The grill can only be turned on if the door is open, the dial will not even turn to a heat setting if the door is closed, the grill has heat levels from 0-6, 6 obviously being the hottest will use the whole of the grills heating filament.

The 4 heat elements are in 2 sizes of 8 and 6 inches width, the 2 front elements (one of each size) are marked with a red "hot spot" this means they are the 2 elements that heat quicker. The heating elements have heat settings, controlled by the dials, from 0-6 with 6 being the hottest setting.

The oven has solid metal doors, it also has an indicator light to let you know if any of the compartments or heating elements are turned on. It is a 2400watt oven and is available in white or silver/grey colour.

Price and availability-
The Beko DC3511 is available from Dixons and Curreys and no doubt other online retailers. It is available in the price range of £160.

My experience-
I have had the oven for over 3 years now and so far I’ve had no technical problems with it and had no need for repairs. It's a very simple oven with basic features; there are no fancy settings or options here.

The heating elements have stayed in great condition, as has the overall appearance of the oven. Obviously that is partly down to being taken care of but also, I feel, because it is a good oven. The inner compartments are also still very clean and here I will admit that I’ve not cleaned them(other than the grill pan) so that's purely due to it being a great oven, even the silver rails used as the height levels for the wire shelves are still sparkling!

I think it would have been better with more safety features, while I appreciate it wont turn the grill on if the door is open I do not feel this is a very child friendly oven, the oven door is too easily opened by small hands and there is no ability to stop those little paws from turning the dials either.

The grill is a nightmare! It works well, don't get me wrong, just a little too well, I mainly use it for toasted cheese sandwiches and potato waffles as everything else goes in my George Foreman grill, but you have to be really careful with the heat. The grill heats up very quickly and will burn your food as soon as you turn your back, even on lower height levels and lower temperature settings it still get incredibly hot incredibly fast, this also has the major risk of burning yourself on it too. You have to be very careful when using the grill and certainly don't let any little ones near it when it's in use.

The oven looks simple, I have the white model and it looks great, as sparkly white as the day I was given it, it's not over fussy but obviously that has a lot to do with its limited features. One minor complaint I have about the oven is that the oven door being metal means it's quite noisy when opening and shutting, otherwise I’m more than happy with it (just keep a watch on that grill!) and considering I was given it for free, I can't complain.

I have found a great site should I ever need spares or repairs on the oven- Partmaster.co.uk stock spare grill shelves, oven shelves, baking trays and heating elements all at great prices.

Summary: A good little oven, just watch out for that grill!