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You are researching wall ovens and have an abundance of options. There are probably 40 wall ovens at Yale on display (maybe more including the wall ovens in our working kitchens).
They differ in configuration and convection systems, controls, and technology.
Of course, there is no best wall oven.
You can have some new Smart technology and pay more. You can also buy just simple convection or non-convection wall ovens for much less money.
At a Glance
Reliability and service issues should be considered when choosing a wall oven as well. Just as reliability and service rates are important for choosing a vehicle, you should consider these factors when buying appliances too.
You won't find many appliance blogs with this type of information because they do not service your appliances after they are sold.
Consumer Reports and Wirecutter are good sources of features and differentiation of brands. However, like most appliance bloggers, they cannot provide information on how the wall oven performs in your home.
In 2017, we logged 30,761 service calls and 34,687 in 2018.
Framingham Wall Oven Display
Most Reliable Wall Ovens (at a glance)
- Gaggenau
- Whirlpool
- Miele
- Bosch
- KitchenAid
- Wolf
We will look at the most reliable and not so reliable wall ovens, but first, let’s look at how we calculate appliance reliability.
How We Calculate Appliance Reliability
We have 30 service techs taking 8-10 service calls a day, 5 days a week plus another 110 calls over the weekend.
That equals 30,761 service calls in 2017 and 34,687 service calls in 2018.
Our measurement is service calls divided by sales for the service percentage over the first year.
Wall ovens need repair about 18.4% of the time within the first year, which is higher than average by about 5%. It is also 2% higher than last year.
Most Reliable Wall Ovens
| Service Qty | Shipped Qty | Service Ratio | |
| Bertazzoni | 1 | 15 | 6.67 % |
| Gaggenau | 3 | 38 | 7.89 % |
| Whirlpool | 6 | 71 | 8.45 % |
| Miele | 33 | 303 | 10.89 % |
| Bosch Appliances | 53 | 341 | 15.54 % |
| Kitchenaid | 23 | 138 | 16.67 % |
| Blomberg | 1 | 6 | 16.67 % |
| Wolf | 77 | 451 | 17.07 % |
| Samsung | 4 | 22 | 18.18 % |
| Bosch - Benchmark | 28 | 134 | 20.90 % |
| Thermador | 61 | 270 | 22.59 % |
| BlueStar | 2 | 8 | 25.00 % |
| Jenn-Air | 103 | 363 | 28.37 % |
| Grand Total | 402 | 2185 | 18.40 % |
Which Wall Oven Should You Buy?
Whirlpool is typically sold for multi-unit projects, such as apartment complexes for ADA compliance. You probably will not consider the brand for your house.
It is also hard to know whether the units are occupied or if the individuals living there know to call us with issues so it's more difficult to determine the reliability. Of course, we have said that over the last 4 years.
Gaggenau, usually tops the list for reliability. They may not have the guided controls like others but their functionality is the best provided you learn how to use it.
Miele is a great wall oven because their controls are so intuitive. You can input the type of food, its weight, and then the oven will adjust itself accordingly and cook for you.
You should also consider Wolf. They have a newer, faster blower convection delivery system and new controls in a brand-new oven with an 18% service rate in the first year. Many of their calls are related to noise since blowers are noisier than fans.
Bosch and KitchenAid are simple convection ovens worth considering for reliability. This has been a steady trend for a number of years.
Here are a couple of control interfaces from two of our most popular wall ovens to serve as an example of what these can look like:
Miele M-Touch Wall Oven
Wolf M-Series Wall Ovens
Best Wall Ovens
Final Thoughts
Wall ovens are incredibly complicated to fix even before the advent of these new controls. This video still is kind of funny. I filmed one of our Senior techs simply changing a light bulb in an oven.
Watch what happens.
You can watch how you change a light bulb in a wall oven by clicking this link.
Remember, what is paramount is finding a service company to support you. The technology is becoming more complex so service becomes more of a challenge.
If you add all the service rates, cooktop at 15%, a refrigerator at 29% and dishwasher at 11%, wall oven at 18.4% there is over a 70% chance of needed service just in the first year.
Service has to be part of your buying process. Check reviews of every warranty service agent. New wall ovens may be able to answer to Alexa. That’s cool.
However, a working wall oven is far more important.
What You Can Expect For Service Rates in Your Area
About 88% of the people reading this blog are from outside our market. In fact, more people read these posts from California and New York than Boston.
So here is what you can expect in your area.
These service rates are low for the industry. We are fortunate enough to buy by the container, so there are no warehouse stops for excessive damage along the way.
Warehouse and delivery are incentive to not damage appliances. Most of our warehouse and delivery team has been with the company for a long time, so they are familiar with delivering and storing appliances.
This is not the norm for this industry.
Delivery and warehousing have been commoditized to be cheap rather than good. Your appliances are now manufactured in Korea, China, and Germany with plenty of warehouse stops along the way.
This adds to service rates considerably as techs try to fix unfixable, damaged appliances.
Make sure you inspect every appliance before you sign your receipt from wherever you buy your appliances.
Also, you’ve probably read the horror stories in the comments of this blog of problems after purchase. My answer is the same:
You must hold your retailer accountable for non-working products, especially under warranty.
Frequently Asked Questions:
What is the best brand for wall ovens?
It depends. Gaggenau for reliability and the number of options. Miele and Wolf for functionality. Bosch and KitchenAid for price and value.
Are wall ovens smaller than regular ovens?
Yes, marginally. The Jenn-Air slide-in will give you the most capacity. But all of them can cook your Thanksgiving bird (except steam ovens).
What is the largest oven?
Jenn-Air and KitchenAid in a slide-in. Wolf has the largest wall oven.
Most Reliable Appliances Series
Additional Resources
Confused about Wall Ovens? Get the Yale Wall Oven's Buying Guide with updated features, specs, and detailed profiles of the best brands like Miele, Wolf, Viking, Bosch, Thermador, and more. Over 350,000 people have read a Yale Guide.
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WHY SHOULD YOU TRUST US?
A few review sites have placed this at the bottom of their articles. So here is our take: Our mission is to find reliable products for you to buy. Other review sites may say this as well.
However, we don’t love every product. Quite frankly, it costs us way too much money in repair costs to support less reliable brands.
In fact, we sell fewer brands than most appliance stores. Here is why:
We feel it is our responsibility to repair your appliances after you buy them.
We now have 30 service technicians, each averaging 8-10 calls a day Monday through Friday, plus another 110 on Saturday. That's over 30,000 service calls logged in one year.
The labor rates of fixing an appliance do not come close to the true cost in any product’s warranty period.
That is why no major retailer has a service department. It costs too much labor, money and time.
Our Blog is a bit different than most others you will read. We cannot write glowing reviews of unreliable products.
Hopefully, the bloggers and organizations who write such glowing product reviews for every brand consider servicing these products first. Only then they will understand the consequences of their marketing.
A Note About Pricing
Pricing on this blog is for reference only and may include time sensitive rebates. We make every attempt to provide accurate pricing at time of publishing. Please call the stores for most accurate price.
