5 essential oven features for home bakers, according to our expert tests
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A reliable oven that is quick, effective and easy to use is one of the most important ingredients for home bakers.
Whether you're chasing the ultimate sourdough crust or a perfectly risen cake, delicious bakes rely on consistency – and not all ovens deliver it.
To mark World Baking Day on Sunday, we're shining a spotlight on our rigorous tests of more than 50 built-in ovens each year. Read on to find out which essential oven features we assess to help you choose a trusted model for baking at home.
Best built-in ovens: find the perfect oven for your kitchen with our Best Buy recommendations and expert buying advice
1. Heat distribution
An oven that distributes heat evenly is crucial for delivering consistent results.
Well-distributed heat prevents cakes from collapsing and biscuits from burning around the edges, by eliminating hot and cold spots. It can also reduce cooking time, energy consumption – and the number of cakes that don't quite go according to plan.
Our experts put built-in ovens through rigorous lab tests to find out which spread heat evenly throughout the whole oven cavity. To uncover the best and worst models, we bake a cake in each one and measure how well it rises, plus how evenly it browns without needing to be turned.
Our expert says:
'One of the most important things we test is how evenly an oven supplies heat over the course of a bake. To do this, we bake a simple fatless sponge cake to see whether the oven maintains a steady temperature throughout baking or if it fluctuates, which can lead to an uneven bake.
'Afterwards, we inspect the cake's colouring, how evenly it rises by measuring height variation, and whether there are any tears, dips, or areas that have collapsed. These features tell us how stable the heat supply has been.
'When the heat supply fluctuates too much, the cake's internal temperature may not stay high enough for the structure to develop properly. The resulting cake can look baked on the outside but still wet inside – or end up cracking and sinking because the surface has set much earlier than the centre.'
Ruby Gordon, Which? scientific adviser
We've rounded up three popular built-in ovens from our expert tests. To compare more brands and models, head straight to our built-in oven reviews.
- Beko Pro AeroPerfect BBIE12401AMP - SQUIRREL_TEXT_50019636
- Neff B64CS71G0B - SQUIRREL_TEXT_50017640
- Bosch S4 HQA574BS3B - SQUIRREL_TEXT_50019637
Looking for more cooking appliances? See our freestanding cooker reviews and range cooker reviews.
2. Temperature control
An oven's temperature accuracy is essential when baking, as it helps transform raw dough, batter and cake mixes into delicate, fluffy and delicious bakes.
But not all ovens rise to the temperatures they claim. Some models provide inconsistent results and leave bakers with raw, burnt or dry food.
As part of our expert tests, we record how accurately an oven sticks to its set temperature. Which? Best Buys stay very close to the set temperatures, but the least accurate ovens can overheat by more than 30°C – a huge difference for baking, where precision is key.
Our expert says:
'To understand how evenly an oven spreads heat inside, we bake trays of shortbread strips on the upper and lower levels at the same time.
'Shortbread is ideal for this test because differences in colour reveal if heat is being spread evenly.
'We measure this using a digital colour reader to assess variations in browning on the shortbread, once it's baked. We use these results to calculate average browning deviation, which tells us how well the oven is circulating heat.
'A higher deviation indicates hot or cold spots leading to uneven results – burnt bottoms, pale patches and charred corners. Whereas a low deviation means the oven distributes heat evenly around the cavity to produce consistent, uniformly baked shortbread with little colour variation.'
Ruby Gordon, Which? scientific adviser
Oven temperature conversion table: use our guide to get your bakes spot-on every time
3. Speed of heating up
The speed of an oven's preheat is about more than just convenience – it can make or break a bake.
Many recipes rely on precise timing to achieve perfect results. Some ingredients, such as baking soda, release gas immediately upon heating, while whipped eggs or creamed butter can lose incorporated air as time passes.
If an oven heats slowly or spends too much time at low temperatures, batter and dough can sit around too long, losing their optimal structure and rise.
Fast, reliable preheating also ensures the oven reaches – and maintains – the right temperature throughout the baking process. If it doesn't, cakes may spread or sink, breads can struggle to rise and delicate pastries may dry out or collapse.
Our expert preheat tests help home bakers find ovens they can rely on for consistent results.
Our expert says:
'We test how quickly ovens preheat for the simple reason that no one wants to be kept waiting unnecessarily, especially when they're hungry.
'We time how long each oven takes to reach two commonly set temperatures. The quickest ovens will only need a couple of minutes to reach 180°C, while slower models will need four times as long.
'A speedy preheat is a welcome convenience. Some people might not mind waiting a bit longer for their oven to heat up but, for many it's a useful feature.'
Ruby Gordon, Which? scientific adviser
Oven symbols and controls explained: find the right setting to bake your biscuits, cakes, loaves of bread and more
4. Ease of use
Baking is a precise, multi-step process so the last thing you want is an oven that's difficult to use.
An oven should make whipping up tasty treats feel seamless, rather than adding extra stress in the kitchen.
That's why we assess each oven's ease of use. We ask an independent panel to rate how straightforward it is to operate, as well as how easy it is to load the oven and check on food while it is cooking.
Our expert says:
'We collect a range of information on ease of use. Our checks cover both the practicalities – like whether there's enough space to cook a family meal – as well as how intuitive and easy the oven is to operate.
'Our convenience tests are carried out by a panel of three cooking experts who dig into both the functional aspects and the small but important details which can make cooking feel either effortless or frustrating.
'It can make a big difference day-to-day if you can't figure out how to set the timer, the temperature markings are unclear, or the door either snaps shut or needs to be prised open.'
Ruby Gordon, Which? scientific adviser
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5. How easy the oven is to clean
Even the most enthusiastic bakers don't want to spend hours scrubbing burnt-on grease and grime.
That's why we test how easy an oven is to clean manually and whether self-cleaning functions, such as pyrolytic cleaning, actually make a difference.
At the lab, our testers carefully carefully check cleaning performance to help you find a model that's easy to keep spotless.
Our expert says:
'How easy an oven is to clean can have a big impact on day-to-day use.
'To test this, we simulate the grease and grime that naturally build up over time by baking a mixture of chicken, fat and water on to the oven walls and floor at high heat.
'This lets us see how effective self-cleaning functions actually are and whether they leave behind any stubborn residue – sometimes this can be more work to remove than cleaning manually.'
Ruby Gordon, Which? scientific adviser
How does a self-cleaning oven work? We explain all you need to know about the functions that take the hassle out of cleaning
What other features should home bakers look for in an oven?
Some ovens come with features aimed specifically at home bakers, such as proving drawers for dough and specialist functions designed for pizza or pastry.
While Which? doesn't test these modes, they could be useful if you regularly bake and want more control over particular recipes.
As with any extra oven features, it's worth treating them as an additional perk rather than the primary reason for your purchase. The most important factor is choosing a model that has performed strongly in our independent tests.
Not sure which oven is right for you? Compare all of our built-in oven reviews and discover more oven features to look for
