Peter Highe Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 After many years of hiring for holidays, retirement approaches and I am contemplating buying a Hymer B614SL. The model has a tech tower with an oven/grill on top of the fridge freezer. This is smaller than traditional British style ovens. I like to bake my own bread. Does anyone have any experience of this oven and would it be capable of bread making? Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 Similalary we are also looking at a new motorhome and the Dometic Tec Tower was the standard option for the UK market. From our viewpoint it was far too tall for the wife to see what she was doing, of insuficient size to do a propper roast and also required yet another hole in the roof of the MH for a venting chimney. We concluded that we would (when we press the GO button) stump up for a proper Smev oven / grill to be installed as an after fit but still done at the factory. The Tec Tower oven is just too much of a compromise after enjoying a traditional cooker in our Autotrail Scout for the last 10+ years. Frankia offer a proper cooker so why cannot Hymer or Niesmann? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 Well, check that the proposed SMEV has a thermostat, and whether the grill can be used with the oven door shut, because ours has no stat and is just about useless, and you have to keep the oven open while grilling (or the flame self-extinguishes) - which roasts all the cupboard fronts and handles above. More boring details for anyone who wants, just say! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 Interesting Brian, Some other friends who have a Smec Oven/Grill in their Murvi say its spot on. I will need to be sure first though. But at 6"2 tall the tec tower is almost too high for me let along Janet at 5"6. and its just too small to cook a proper sunday roast in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted February 2, 2008 Share Posted February 2, 2008 Clive: I thought that SMEV's small grill/oven (ie. the model where the gas burner is in the 'roof' of the appliance) usually got rubbished in motorhome magazine test reports. Perhaps you have in mind a proper larger-capacity SMEV oven with separate burners, though I think that may be what Brian has in his Hobby Van. The oven-unit on a Tec-Tower is a Cramer (Dometic) product and its limitations are IMHO largely self-evident. The thinking behind the Tec-Tower concept seems to be that any gas oven - no matter that its positioning be impractical or its performance inadequate - is better than none when it comes to selling a motorhome (certainly true in the UK market). So, if you are going to offer a damn great tall fridge/freezer (another modern motorhome must-have), why not stick a dinky little oven on top? An exasperating thing nowadays is that an oven (Tec-Tower or separate) is becoming increasingly commonplace on 'Continental' motorhomes as part of the standard equipment. This can leave people like Brian and myself, who would previously have chosen an oven-free motorhome, with little option but to have an oven even though it grabs valuable space and will seldom, if ever, justify its presence. Regarding Tec-Towers in Hymers, an earlier posting may be of interest: http://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=8565&posts=8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cronkle Posted February 2, 2008 Share Posted February 2, 2008 I suspect that we have the same grill that Brian has. In our case there is a slidey thing that pulls out of the front by a few inches that acts as a heat shield for the unit above. Not much, but it does help. It really is only a grill and after a lot of checking I did find a warning somewhere (on the SMEV site I think) saying that it should not be operated with the door shut. This is a smaller unit than the true mini ovens produed by SMEV and due to the configuration of our cupboards the larger unit can't be accommodated in our van. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rayjsj Posted February 3, 2008 Share Posted February 3, 2008 Most users of motorhome ovens(myself included) are under 6ft tall, so, sticking one on top of an already Tall fridge is not only bad design,it's bloody dangerous. They will probably keep on making and fitting them until someone who gets Scolded/Burnt decides to sue them. What a sad state of affairs ? Quite a few 'Testers' have said that they are a suspect design, but none have actually said they are dangerous ? is it just short-arse me ? :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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