When it comes to Kitchen Appliances, where do I start?

With over 10,000 large kitchen appliances from the top brands, we are faced with a minefield when it comes to starting the process of choosing new appliances. The first consideration is why you are buying the appliance. If the purchase is driven by the need for a replacement, eg. your oven has just broken, the process will be different to if you are having a new kitchen installed. When an oven or fridge freezer breaks, then we have to get a replacement, pronto! It is simply not possible to live without these popular, essential kitchen appliances, so factors like availability, size and shape and cost come into play. Cost will be important as we never plan for things to break, and an unexpected purchase can hit us hard, espcially if it something like an American Fridge Freezer or Range Cooker that has failed.

The other time we buy kitchen appliances is when the time comes for a completely new kitchen! It's an exciting time, and this is something we budget for, so the situation can be a bit less stressful. There will still be some big decisions to make however, because we need to select the right products that we can potentially live with for the next decade, so getting the right functions and features is paramount. Many designers will now offer the change to style your living area around a feature, perhaps a set of built in oven, microwave and steam oven all in line. This sort of arrangement can have an effect on the units you choose, the matching appliances and also how much you can spend on other necessities like a cooker hood, hob and fridge.

Which brands of Kitchen Appliances suit me best?

If you have an existing cooker you would like to replace, then it would be normal to have the same manufacturer for the new one. Quite often people will have the same make of extractor and hob to match an oven, so again this will influence the selection. When swapping all the kitchen appliances in your house, then you can now have a choice of over 30 mainstream manufacturers of appliances to browse. There are 3 main categories where we would place the brands, including top-end, mid-range and budget. The best quality category would have names such as Miele, Bosch, Neff, AEG and De Dietrich. In the mid-range we would mention Hotpoint, Fagor, Smeg, Electrolux and Whirlpool. For the lower priced cheaper appliances, choose from Indesit, Baumatic, CDA and Beko. When you decide on your price limits for your appliances for kitchen, then you will find the most suitable make.

How do the Kitchen Appliances get fitted? Is it difficult?

Unfortunately, most kitchen appliances are not the sort of products that we could fit ourselves. The most obvious appliance that gets replaced is an oven, and the difficulty of changing one over depends on the configuration of the existing one you own. A single oven will quite often be 13 amps, which means it can just plug into a normal socket in many cases. As the oven is in a carcass, or housing, they mainly just slide out and the new one can slide back in. It is a very different story if you have a double built in pyrolytic oven. These appliances are usually 45 amps and need to be hard wired, meaning that a corgi registered engineer is required. Island cooker hoods are another difficult kind to install, as they go on the ceiling, and the wiring needs to be fed through to an electricity point. They also have ducting in many cases, which will run through under the upstairs floorboards into the nearest wall to vent outside. We would certainly recommend that when it comes to fitting kitchen appliances, you leave it to the experts!

Kitchen Appliances warranties, what do I need to know?

Over the years the warranty periods from the lading makes of kitchen appliances has increased, as the quality of the products gets better. Also, the different companies offering the products are in a direct fight for sales, and this is reflected in the increasing terms for the guatntees on offer. Neff, Bosch and Siemens Kitchen Appliances, part of the BSH group of companies, all have a 2 year spare parts and labour warranty as standard, although you have to register this by the internet or in the post. AEG have a similar warranty, but a selected range has 5 year coverage, so keep an eye out for the special offers. De Dietrich are well known for the 5 years they offer for parts and labour on many mainstream models, and this is a major pull for people spending thousands on appliances. Indeed this sort of extended warranty would cost hundreds of punds to buy seperately to the kitchen appliances for insurance purposes.

Baumatic and CDA, as they grow in image in the UK, are now offering 2 years for labour and 5 years for parts on kitchen appliances from the 2009 catalogue. Be sure to check the websites or brochures for the respective marques to know what you get before you go looking for the best price.

Gas Kitchen Appliances

While the World seems to be going electric, there will always be a want for Gas kitchen appliances. There are obvious benefits to gas appliances, mainly the traditional style of cooking, and the rustic feel to putting a wok of a large fierce blue flame to sizzle your dinner to perfection. That sort of feel you will never get from an electric induction wok, thats for sure! Gas ovens are sought after from a generation of consumers who are used to having different temperatures in the cavity. This means they are used to having food on the lower shelve that would normally take longer to cook- for example pies and pastries. This stops the food burning as the temp is lower in the bottom of the oven. Also, baking cakes would require a high temperature so they would usually be placed higher up and removed earlier. When you are used to this sort of system it must be hard to get used to a fan assisted model that has an even heat all around.

Delivery of Kitchen Appliances

No matter what you have delivered to your home, beit a toaster, fridge or range kitchen appliance, the delivery will be a big consideration. Even small kitchen appliances have an impact on our busy schedules, we need to take time off work or get someone else to accept delivery and sign for the goods. Large appliances have an even greater impact on how we arrange to accept the purchased items- vehicle access is going to be an issue with many of the bigger appliances, as is the packaging and the actual access to the property.

It is so important that you investigate some key points before you buy kitchen appliances. Firstly check the sizes, width and height as well as depth. Then compare these to the door frames for not only the front of the house but internally as well. After this remember that you will need to check for damages, and make sure you inform the retailer immediately, or risk having to pay for the repair yourself.