Systemic I would have thought there would have been lots of innovations introduced in that 18 years but not that impressed.
Had the same assumption and a similar disappointing experience. For its main function, I don’t feel my current oven is any better than it’s predecessors.
While older ovens had a top and bottom element and a fan, programs were limited to their on/off combinations. Now ovens add more and more “programs” by stupidly limiting the temp range and nothing more (limit the temp to low and it’s “Slow Cook”, limit more and it’s “Keep Warm” or “Meringue”. On the basic program you can’t go to the full temp, you need to go to “Bread” or “Pizza” to reach the full temp of the oven, etc.). So instead of having the full range of temperature on few simple programs, you have to move between those programs to be able to choose the temp you want, with no added benefit.
The oven itself isn’t more accurate, the cooking isn’t more even, the materials are not better than past ovens I had.
Wouldn’t buy an oven without pyrolytic cleaning for what it does, but on the other hand really disappointed with it. While it does a good job on much of the interior, mine does nothing for the glass door and also leaves an uncleaned area on a small strip around the perimeter of the opening. Also, the racks and rails are stainless, so also needs doing by hand. So it’s a good function, but leaves a lot to be desired.
Systemic Couldn’t resist that. Looking at a Neff.
Mine is a Neff, and I regret getting it. It has the Slide & Hide door. I shamefully admit it helped to sway me towards that oven as I was desperately looking for justification to replace a Siemens oven which was great (but didn’t have pyrolytic cleaning). I find the sliding door not only a gimmick with no real advantage, it’s also significantly more difficult to remove for cleaning (and it needs removing, because self-clean doesn’t work on it, and the sliding function means it’s very inconvenient to clean without removing. On the Siemens, removing the door was effortless and took no time at all).
The Neff only has four racks (compared to five on my previous, and I believe most other ovens), I’m not sure if this is because of the sliding door or just a design choice. Very often I fine that the missing rack is limiting the hight flexibility, and I struggle to fit all I want in the oven because of that.
While the oven is fine, function wise it doesn’t offer much over older ovens I had, and also has drawbacks as described. If I had to buy an oven today, I wouldn’t get a Slide & Hide Neff (unless in a very narrow kitchen where you don’t have enough space to open the door and move around it).