Reading the 'Hobby' thread on this page I was reminded of a discussion I sometimes have with a mate. I would much rather have in my van a built in microwave at below counter height than an overhead m/w and give up my oven. He has a Hobby and would gladly swap his built in lower level m/w for a conventional oven!
I think I'm right in saying that all/nearly all UK vans only offer a conventional oven at lower level. Would anybody else prefer a m/w there or is just me?
------------- Tackling life the Western District way
Much prefer the oven though we have a micro wave as well but,a lot of things dont seem to "cook"right if thats the word in a micro wave like pies..they seem to come out soggy instead of "crisp" ?
A microwave is a handy addition but I like the fact we have an oven. Another benefit of the caravan over the tt we had before. The oven means I can cook all the family favourites, including roast!
I suppose it depends on what you normally cook at home and intend to cook when away.
When we had our MH conversion done, we asked for a mw instead of an oven. It is actually a mw/grill. But as we are away in France mainly in better weather, the intention is always to cook outside on a suitcase gas stove, which we do. However last spring it was too cold and wet to stay outside much, and we ate a lot of ready meals, heated in the mw. We don't do roasts or pies whilst away. I think we did jacket potatoes which we crisped under the grill. I make toast in there too.
We have the normal oven but to be honest we've only used it a couple of times it gets more use as a cupboard we wouldn't have or need a microwave on holiday as we tend to do most of the cooking outside and very rarely use ehu
Bought a Bailey Orion and scoffed at the idea of a microwave as standard equipment. But was worried about having a 3 ring gas only hob as our old van had 3 gas and 1 electric but no microwave. How wrong i was! The microwave is so much more usefull than the electric plate on the hob. It can defrost almost anything, cook beans or veggies, soften potatoes before they go in oven for jackets, heat milk for hot chocolate, heat a bowl of soup, reheat left-overs, cook rice etc etc etc. I honestly thought it would be a waste of space but its used more than our trusty electric hob plate. However i would never give my oven up to have a microwave. They both compliment each other, but if you can only have one it would have to be the gas oven . Micro speeds cooking up but oven can cook almost anything even off the electric pitches.
------------- Why am i doing this instead of camping??!!
It is but they tend to be quite big and heavy compared to a basic microwave, also quite power hungry.
Personally, a microwave is much more use to me, but as I don't have a lot of space in my dinky motorhome and it has neither built in, I carry a mini oven which is a lot smaller and lighter than a microwave.
I think the main problem with vans with built in microwaves is, as Merry says, the fact that they put them so high up - when I see them I always wonder how many accidents there are when people have to lift heavy things full of piping hot food down from above their heads. I think they look very dangerous.
------------- Caz
If you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, just keep going till you go round the bend.
When we got the van, and intended to use ehu, the first trip out we took our Remoska, a small electric cooking pot.
We use it all the time at home, but only used it once in 3 weeks in France. So didn't bother again.
Quote: Originally posted by bordercaz on 05/3/2013
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I think the main problem with vans with built in microwaves is, as Merry says, the fact that they put them so high up - when I see them I always wonder how many accidents there are when people have to lift heavy things full of piping hot food down from above their heads. I think they look very dangerous.
Yes, the over head ones bother me for that reason too. Maybe they are more of an issue for shorter people?
Good points that people make re it depends on what sort of cooking you do. I live in my van for six months of the year and haven't switched the oven on yet. I use my microwave and Remoska from home and that combination works great for me. But I can see it might be different if I was cooking for a tribe.
------------- Tackling life the Western District way
I would have an oven over a microwave anyday. The oven in our current van is pretty useless so we invested in a remoska which does everything I need. I haven't wished I had a microwave in the three years I've had a van once :)
The new van has one though. Not sure if I'll use it or not at this stage
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Topic: Ovens/microwaves
. Micro speeds cooking up but oven can cook almost anything even off the electric pitches.
