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Belling G707SS
by sammy00
When myself and my boyfriend purchased our first house togther the only appliances we had between us could of fit in boot of the car. So once we purchased the house we knew we had quite a bit to spend in kitting out the kitchen. No washing machine, no fridge and no cooker. We hunted around for a while for a cooker as it was only a small ... space so we wanted something compact. Our must have list was for it to be free standing, black, gas hob and gas oven and if possible to oven compartments.
After a look around a few showrooms the Belling G707SS ticked every box. It was available in stainless steel, black or white and unlike others we had found the black was the same price as the white. So the cheapest price we found was £425 from Comet. They would deliver and install so even better.
It was a little cheaper than some of the other cookers but not that cheap that you thought you was getting a basic cooker.
For the first year everything was fine, it fit nicely in our small kitchen with it just being 60 cm. It had the double gas oven (top can be used as a grill), 4 goodsized gas hobs and it looked fab. The hob dials were a little out, so you never quite got the same gas mark more than once and we couldn't set the clock which stayed flashing for the whole of its 2 year stint at our house but as novice homeowners we thought, hey its cheap and it looks ok, we'll stick with it!
Then came the problems.:-
Just as the warrenty ran out, the top oven started turning itself off. Several times I would go to check on the dinner and everything was still frozen let alone cooked. So we got into the habit of just using the top oven as a grill, but soon after this started switching off too.
The belling cooker has a glass lid which can be pulled down over the hob when the cooker isnt in use. The hob has a safety feature whereby the gas will switch off if the lid is down. As you lift the lid up it pushes down a button that allows the gas to work. But what happens when the lid breaks. This broke after a year and a half as the catches are cheap. Now our lid was left open 90% of the time so this breaking definatly wasn't from overuse! We had to prop the lid up to depress the botton by holding it in place with a nail and wedging it behind our microwave. As you can imagine that didn't look great!
Other problems included:-
+ both oven door catches breaking so you had to wedge the doors shut.
+ bottom oven flame started going out leaving gas coming out
+ 2 of the knobs for the hob broke
+ the oven temperature know gave no difference in heat no matter where it was
+the grill stopped working alltogther
All of these problems emerged after 1 year of use and slowely got worse till it was just 3 years old. When the flame started going out leaving gas pumping out we immediatly took it to the tip and got another cooker, but I will never be buying a Belling product again.
In fact as we were shopping for our replacement cooker we saw a couple mulling over the Belling G707SS and advised them not to get that one. I hope they took our advise!!!
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Flavel Oven FBU71X
by blonde_girl774
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a review about one of my bargain kitchen products that I managed to purchase very cheaply from a kitchen showroom. Sadly the warming drawer isn't really a necessity to most kitchens, unlike the product I've decided to review today... an oven! I've currently got a Flavel oven (where do they come up with these ... brand names?) in my kitchen and have had it for over a year now. Luckily I managed to get it at a discounted price due to the kitchen showroom refurbishing some of its kitchen models... which kept my dad happy! Despite not being the best cook in the world (beans on toast is my specialty and if I'm feeling really creative I'll even add a bit of cheese!) I feel I've used it enough to now write a review of it.
An oven is very much a necessity in a kitchen these days (unless you're of the microwave student generation) and therefore I knew we had to purchase one. We originally looked at several different models before settling on the Flavel FBU71X model due to it being brand new but much cheaper than many similar models. The oven is predominately black in colour with stainless steel areas in terms of the control panel and the handles. Visually it doesn't look as hi tech or as modern as some of the other models I looked at but I was reassured by the simplicity of the control panel (for me that's a BIG deal!) and how sleek it looked too. It's advertised as being a twin cavity fan oven and grill in that it has two separate compartments if you like. It's 72cm in height, 59cm in width and 55cm in diameter which I believe is quite a standard size for ovens.
The fan main oven has a capacity of forty five litres and located at the bottom while the top cavity offers a dual circuit grill which has a capacity of 33 litres. Both have double glazed doors which are black around the edges and transparent in the middle area. Above the grill is the control panel which features a five button LED clock (this allows you to set timers and also to set the oven to come on at a certain time - I've yet to master this latter facility!) and three stainless steel dials. On the left hand side is the stainless steel knob to control the grill while on the right two stainless steel knobs which are used to control the oven. Inside the oven are two silver shelf racks while the grill features one shelf rack and a grill pan which came included.
Operating the grill is incredibly easy - I have yet to set the fire alarm off or to horrifically burn anything which is a huge improvement on my previous year's cooking! To operate the grill you simply need to turn the left hand knob to the temperature setting required which is measured from one to six. I find it heats up within about two to three minutes which is ideal as when drunk cheese on toast is a firm favourite of mine, or rather bread and cheese mash! If I had to wait any longer than three minutes I'd be at risk of falling asleep and leaving the grill on all night... I had a bad experience with fish finger cooking when at university! Operating the oven is also incredibly easy, although as there are two knobs involved it can be considered more of a challenge! The first one allows you to select the temperature while the second one allows you to select the oven setting (for example fan oven). It takes a variable time to heat up depending on the setting but I do find it heats up quicker than my mum's older oven and I've never had reason to complain about it. Once it has reached its required heat an indicator light next to the clock will go out so you know it's ready. I also like the fact the oven has a light in (yes I'm easily pleased I know) as I like to check things aren't black!
The Flavel FBU71X oven is currently priced at around £450 but this does vary depending what website you look on. I managed to secure myself a nice little bargain when I paid only £200 for this model as I got it at less than half of the retail price. It also came with a two year guarantee for parts and labour but luckily I haven't had reason to use the guarantee at all... and also haven't managed to give anyone food poisoning!
I've had this oven for over a year now and in that time my confidence with cooking has definitely grown... I'd say I'm now using the oven about twice a week which is a huge improvement on my student days when the sight of an oven and cook book would bring me out in a cold sweat! I've never had any problems with either the grill or the oven, they've always heated up quickly and cooked my food thoroughly (just like a good oven should)! I find them both incredibly easy to operate and imagine that, even without an instructions booklet, I could have worked it out (just)! The clock and the timer feature is brilliant (I know most ovens probably have these but it never fails to impress me) and the automatic turn on feature is also great (I just need to know how to work it and then it'll be even better)! I'd thoroughly recommend the Flavel FBU71X oven to anyone considering a new one as I've got absolutely no reason to complain about it... at the end of the day it's got an oven light and an oven timer as well which is enough for me... cooking food is just a bonus in my opinion!
Thanks for reading!
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Aldi Convection Halogen Oven
by ISOLATION9
Halogen ovens!these seem to be somewhat in vogue at the moment and i think jml were the ones who started it all off,they seem to range in price from £20-£100 and ive always thought one would be a good edition to the kitchen,Well Aldi were selling them on they,re thursday special offer day(you know the one where they sell everything from ... power tools to roller skates),well the price was right at £29.99 which seemed reasonable so out came the debit card and she was mine.
Opening the box it felt quite large and the 12ltr capacity seemed enough for our needs,it also came with some extras in the shape of racks to lay food on and safety tongs as it does get very hot,it took no time setting up at all as easy as plugging it in deciding what too cook.once you have done that you close the lid turn the timer to the desired time,the actual handle on top of the lid is the part that clicks the power on and off.
I must say i have had mixed results with it on some things,sausages and burgers on the rack cook very
quickly and all the way through,things like a small chicken are a diffirent matter and should be done with care as i found it slightly inconsistent,for steaks, salmon,chicken kievs,nuggets and breaded fish its very good and Convenient.
One good point is it dosent take a lot of cleaning just the large bowl and the racks and utensils really,
a couple of small cons with the oven are the lid gets very very hot and i actually put it on top of a plastic chopping board and it melted it,had i put it on top of the power cord when plugged in well you can imagine,another is it dosent cook larger things as quick as pepole say in my experience no where near as quick.
So in summary i would ask did i really need it?probably not just another novelty that may end up in the same place as the juicer and the breville toaster(remember them lol)hey i could write a review about them,better not h,avent used them in years.
im am also not sure of the longevity of this product after the 1 year guarantee,time will tell.
In conclusion a bit gimmicky should have put it towards the holiday fund.
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