Comparison Hansa FCCX69493 stainless steel vs Beko FSM 67320 GSS stainless steel

The highest temperature that the oven can reach during normal operation. The minimum value in modern models is 230 °C. However, even this low temperature is considered sufficient for most simple dishes. The average indicator can be called 240 – 250 °C. Such heating is provided by most modern ovens. And the most advanced models can heat up to 300 °C or more. Such capabilities will be useful for some specific recipes that require high temperatures.

Rated power of the oven installed in the stove. Specified only for electric ovens (see above). When determining this parameter, the power of all heaters and other devices installed in the oven (grill, convector, motorized spit, etc.) is taken into account; in other words, this item indicates the maximum power consumption.

This data is useful primarily for assessing electricity consumption, as well as the connected load during operation. But only ovens with similar functionality can be compared with each other in terms of power — for example, two models with convection. Otherwise, the comparison may be incorrect.

It is the method of cleaning the inner surface provided in the design of the oven. In addition to traditional and more advanced steam cleaning, there are catalytic and pyrolytic cleaning. More about them:

— Traditional. This option assumes the absence of any devices that facilitate cleaning: you have to wash the oven manually, using ordinary detergents and cleaning products. Such a procedure can be quite troublesome and time-consuming, but such ovens are much cheaper than similar models with more advanced types of cleaning.

— Pyrolytic. Cleaning with high temperature. Dirt on the interior surfaces of the oven is burned to ash, which can then be easily removed without using detergents. At the same time, pyrolytic cleaning equally effectively handles all types of dirt, both new and old. The disadvantages of such a system are the duration of cleaning (sometimes up to several hours), high cost, and significant consumption of resources (electricity or gas, depending on the type of oven). In addition, during the operation of the cleaning system, unpleasant odours often arise, generated by the combustion of contaminants in the oven.

— Catalytic. Ovens with this type of cleaning have a special coating on the inner surface that breaks down grease on the oven walls. Fat disintegration is accelerated at high temperatures; the oven is thus self-cleaning t...o a certain extent. However, the efficiency of catalytic cleaning is lower than that of pyrolytic cleaning. It is unable to cope with the entire amount of fat on the walls. Therefore, such an oven should be washed from time to time. On the other hand, ovens with catalytic cleaning are cheaper than ones with pyrolytic cleaning. And the cleaning itself does not require additional electricity/gas costs, nor is time-consuming (except for washing/wiping).

— Steam cleaning. Cleaning the oven with heated steam. A certain volume of water is poured into a baking sheet or another container, the container is placed in the oven and the cleaning mode is turned on. Due to heating, the water evaporates, and the heated steam softens the dirt on the walls and partially disintegrates the fat. After the end of the programme, it is enough to wipe the oven with a damp cloth. Such a cleaning requires less time and resources than pyrolysis and often turns out to be more effective than catalytic — steam can soften even old dried-up contaminants. At the same time, these ovens are relatively inexpensive. At the same time, this mode does not guarantee to cope with any contamination. It is possible that after the end of the steam cleaning, the oven will have to be washed traditionally.

Type of tray guides provided in the oven.

— Frame. The simplest guides are made in the form of a fixed grid, and sometimes in the form of slots in the walls of the oven. They are quite practical and inexpensive, due to which they are used in the vast majority of ovens. The main disadvantage of the lattice guides can be called the fact that the baking sheet moves rather tightly in them, especially if the oven has not been cleaned for some time and the guides are dirty.

— Telescopic. Guides in the form of retractable tray support based on telescopic rails. When removing the baking sheet, the mechanism moves apart, and the stand, rolling on a special roller, “leaves” the oven. The main advantage of the "telescopic rails over the classic frame guides is that you do not need to make much effort to install and remove the baking sheet — it will move very easily. On the other hand, such devices are more expensive and more complicated than classic frame guides; as they get dirty, their efficiency drops noticeably, and dirt can completely disable the mechanism. In light of all this, manufacturers most often use telescopic rails not as the main option but as an addition to the frame guides described above. If telescopic guides are initially indicated in the specs of the stove, this usually means that the oven with traditional frame guides is additionally equipped with removable telescopic guides. These advanced telescopic rails ca...n be easily set at the desired level and removed for cleaning.

Many ovens, initially equipped only with frame guides, can be equipped with telescopic rails, purchased separately.

Rated burner power. This parameter allows you to estimate how much electricity the burner will spend when operating at maximum heating intensity. At the same time, the heat transfer power of different burners can be different, and the actual heating efficiency will also greatly depend on the specs of the dishes. As a result, it hardly makes sense to evaluate the operating capabilities of the stove by the power of the burners. It is quite possible to proceed from the fact that the burner will be enough for a dish of the same diameter.

The heating power, the performance of the device and the speed of cooking depend on the diameter of the burners. The larger the burner, the more heat dissipation it has. Also, the diameter of the burner allows you to determine what sizes of dishes are suitable for use on the hob. Indeed, for induction models, this value is critical for high-quality heating. Burners can have the following diameter:

• small — about 145 mm, power within 1200 W;
• medium — about 180 mm, power within 1700 W;
• large — about 220 mm and more, power within 2000 W.

Some hobs use dual-circuit burners that allow you to adjust the diameter of the heating zone. If it is indicated that the diameter of the burner is 180, 200, 220 mm, then the heating zone on a particular burner can be narrowed and/or expanded, depending on the size of the dishes used.

A security measure that allows you to block the controls of the stove. It will be useful in families with small children: when the lock is on, a curious child will not be able to turn on the stove or change settings. To unlock, one needs to perform certain actions, which are easy for an adult and too complex for a child: for example, you need to press two specific buttons simultaneously.

A display on the stove control panel. Usually, it is a very simple one-colour display : 3-4 digits plus a few additional characters (for example, a thermometer icon and a clock icon). However, even on such a display, almost all important information related to the stove operation can be displayed: heating temperature, clock, timer settings, and other relevant data. Thus, the display significantly simplifies the management of the stove and makes it more convenient.

For technical reasons, this function is mainly used in electric stoves; there are also gas models with displays, but they are extremely few.

The energy class describes the overall efficiency of the cooker in terms of energy consumption. Note that we are not talking about actual consumption (see "Connected load" for details), but about the efficiency of the stove, about the efficiency of using the energy that it consumes.

This indicator is especially important for models with at least one electric burner or electric oven/grill. But, if we are talking about a purely gas stove, you can not pay much attention to the energy consumption class. Electricity in such models is spent only on additional functions like auto-ignition or oven lighting,

Initially, the classes were marked in Latin letters from A(the most economical) and then alphabetically in order of decreasing efficiency — B, C, D ... Later, improved classes A+, A++ appeared; the more pluses, the higher the efficiency. Today, energy consumption in class A can be called medium, and in a lower class — high. The maximum indicator found in modern stoves is A++; if we are talking about a model with an electric burner, such a stove is usually expensive, but it pays off by saving electricity during use.