Great oven but poor advice, guidance, manual and fixing issues let it down
4/5
Unpacking the oven was a nightmare. The picture notes stuck on the front warned of dire outcomes if you didn't support the oven correctly as you took the packaging off (big red crosses if it was not done correctly). Despite this, and the claim that if you didn't do it right they absolve themselves of any liability, there were ZERO hand grips to allow you to lift the oven and follow the guide. Extremely worrying and frustrating. Eventually, with sheets/blankets and sheets of polystyrene under the oven, we managed to get it out of its protective packaging. Whoever designed this process should be ashamed of themselves. The fixing of the oven to the cabinet was similarly poorly designed. To fix the oven there are screw holes drilled through the side of the left and right sides but to get to them you have to remove two covering side strips. To get to the screws for the side strips you have to remove the door (yes really, the whole thing). To remove the door you need to try to figure out where to find a star headed screwdriver attachment of the right size (which you have to guess as the manual gives ZERO help or reference and so it goes on. Eventually, with the help of a web guide (not Neff's) that I found, I noted that 263,349 other people had run into the same problem with the Neff oven sliding door judging by the recorded views the site had received. Once the door and side strips were removed, and the oven was put into the cabinet, you find that the ovens drilled holes do not align with the cabinet size that Neff say you should use. Who designed this for heavens sake? So putting it all back together again and living with hope that gravity alone should keep the oven where it should be (rather than fixing it into position as you should), I set about installing and testing it.
Well this is where things improved. The oven looks good. The sliding door functions well and instead of having to lower it all the way down and push it into the base to get it out of the way, it pretty much does that for you. There is a little risk, entirely through inexperience, that when you close the door you may lift the door up before it has been sufficiently pulled out first. If you do, you cause stresses between the door and the hinges/guides rails that guide the door. The risk is that if you create pressure/friction between the door and its guide mountings, you could cause damage. You adjust to this quickly but I note it for your own 'warranty' protection. A quick but thorough cleaning later (it was not visibly dirty) I tested the oven for the various functions. The images used are not great and somewhat confusing. Having almost identical fan images that do completely different thing is another design issue I would change instantly given the chance. The door seal looked good. The inner light is perfectly adequate. The fast 'heat up' worked well and the stated temperature was pretty close bearing in mind the range you need to allow for 'highs and lows' that you must permit for the thermostat to stop/start. A week of tests later (and I have used it extensively), it performs well. The manual is not great when you try to understand how the trays (especially the grill pan) are supposed to fit into the guide rails at the base. Apart from the opening/packaging/advice and design/fixing issues, which are a one off, the oven is giving me what I need and I am glad to use it. However, with so many users clearly having problems between the manual and the ovens use, someone at Neff ought to take a serious look at the lack of useful help and advice that comes with the oven. I am loathed to knock off a star but my guess is that unless I do this advice will just get lost in the 5 star reviews, which is what I would have liked to give!
Peter North
Reviewed on:
Colour: Stainless Steel
Peter North
Colour: Stainless Steel
Reviewed on: