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Whether you’re redoing your kitchen or replacing your old appliances, cookers and ovens are essential. Depending on your living space and personal requirements, you can choose between a freestanding cooker, built-in single or double ovens, or if you need additional hobs or extra ovens, a range cooker could be the right choice for you.

Our experts at the Good Housekeeping Institute baked, boiled, roasted, fried and grilled their way through 18 cookers and 38 ovens to help you find the right one for you.

Before you buy a new oven

The options

Single ovens

Single ovens are a great choice if space is tight, if you tend to cook for one or two or don't spend too much time cooking. Single ovens are about 60cm tall and can be slotted under the counter or at eye level. Remember, though, you won't be able to cook and use the grill at the same time.

Double ovens

For family cooking and entertaining, a double oven may be a better choice. These offer more versatility and are good for families. There are two types of double oven available. There are double built-in models, which measure about 90cm high and are built-in at eye-level, and the smaller double built-under model, measuring 70cm high, which are built-in under the counter.

Built-in double ovens are usually roomier than the smaller, double ovens built under the counter. You may be better off with a larger single oven which will generally offer more space for your Sunday roast. When it's an under-counter model, double doesn’t necessarily mean double the size. Some models come with a very small second oven - more suitable for grilling than cooking larger dishes. You may find you’re better off with a large capacity single oven. Double ovens are also decreasing in popularity, so you’re less likely to find new models on the market. If you have a larger family with plenty of mouths to feed or enjoy hosting dinner parties, you may find two single ovens to be a more suitable option.

Smart ovens

Using wi-fi or Bluetooth, you can connect to these newer ovens using a smartphone so you can control it either from another room in your home or remotely. Depending on the model and specific features, you can operate the oven from a distance - you could switch it on and off or adjust the settings from the comfort of your sofa, or you could preheat it on your way home from work.

You can programme a smart oven to save your settings for next time so your cooking programmes are custom-made just for you. Smart ovens also feature preset cooking functions for different foods, so the hassle of selecting the right setting and temperature is out of your hands at the press of a button. They can also still be used manually like a standard oven.

The GHI's top ovens Joint Best Oven Neff N70 B27CR22N1B Built In Electric Single Oven £739.00 SHOP NOW At first glance, Neff's oven boasts minimalist-elegance. Its digital control panel is easy to use, coloured and high-resolution. We were spoilt for choice when it came to its 12 useful oven functions, including the unique time-saving “CircoTherm” fan (that ensures the desired temperature is achieved quicker and more evenly than in a conventional oven), conventional heating, and the choice of a full or half grill. It also has special functions for bread baking, dough proving and low-temperature cooking. The quadruple-glazed door remained a cool 32C even with the oven set at 200C. Joint best oven AEG BPE842720M Built-In Single Oven £869.00 SHOP NOW This is a versatile single oven with plenty of features, we found the LED digital display clear and intuitive to use. The thermostat is very accurate and we were impressed that the oven door stayed a cool 33C even after operating at 200C for over an hour. The grill is very fast and browns evenly across the grill rack. The interior light system together with the large viewing window makes it really easy to see food while it cooks. There are plenty of functions and it has a “SenseCook” feature that can be used with the food probe to make sure you get your food cooked exactly to your liking. Runner-up oven Gorenje BOP747S32X Built In Electric Single Oven £629.00 SHOP NOW This oven from Gorenje produced fantastic results when baking, roasting and grilling. On our baking tests it cooked fairy cakes evenly with an equally even rise, and the fruitcake had a great colour. We were also impressed by the roast dinner as it cooked a golden and moist chicken and lovely potatoes as well as having plenty of space to cook an apple crumble at the same time. The internal thermostat is accurate, deviating no more than 3.7C to the allocated setting, and the doors remained just 33C in use, even with the oven set at 200C. It is easy to see into the oven thanks to the large viewing window which allows you to see the full width of your food while it cooks. Best Smart Oven Samsung NV73J9770RS Single Oven £1,199.00 SHOP NOW This multifunction oven from Samsung comes equipped with an intuitive and easy to navigate LCD touchscreen display. There are a generous 14 cooking functions and an extensive 80 auto cook programmes, which we think is slightly excessive as most will probably never get used. The thermostat is true to temperature and there is also a steam setting for baking and roasting with the addition of steam. The control panel is a flat LCD screen which is easy to clean and avoids children tampering with the controls thanks to the child lock feature, and the oven also has wi-fi connectivity and an app which allows you to control some functions from your phone.

Installing a built-in oven

Installing a built-in oven is relatively straightforward, as they’re designed to fit inside your kitchen cabinets, but it will require more than simply slotting into place and plugging in. Many electric ovens are just too powerful to plug straight into a wall socket. You can check this with the manufacturer for guidance.

You’ll need to make sure the oven is the right size for the cavity you intend to use and that the surrounding space will allow you to fully open the door. You should also check the cavity is near the power supply you want to use, be it gas or electricity, and have enough space around the power supply to be properly installed. You’ll also require a platform strong enough to support the oven’s weight and with enough clearance to meet the safety guidelines of the manufacturer.

For peace of mind and your own safety, we recommend your oven is installed by an electrical engineer or Gas Safe registered engineer, depending on the power supply.

Before you buy a new cooker

There’s a lot to consider when choosing a new cooker . While most are quick and easy to install, the type of cooker you get will be largely determined by your kitchen’s fuel supply, whether it’s gas, electric or dual fuel with a gas hob and electric oven combined.

Freestanding

Freestanding cookers are simple to install and more affordable than built-in ovens with separate hobs . Designs can be just as stylish, and they have a large enough capacity for entertaining groups of family and friends. Just slot in and you’re ready to go.

You’ll also need to take into account your kitchen space. A freestanding cooker simply needs to fit in a space between your cabinets and work surface where there’s a fuel supply. The type of cooker you get will be dictated by the fuel supply in your kitchen. You can choose between gas or electric, with a small number of dual-fuel cookers available with a gas hob and an electric oven. Electric cookers require installation by a qualified electrician, as they need to be wired into a 30amp socket (a conventional electric socket is only 13amps) and gas should be installed professionally by a Gas Safe registered engineer.

Single vs. double oven cookers

Consider whether you need a cooker with a single oven or double oven. Single ovens tend to be at the lower end of the cookers price range. Although they are roomy inside, they usually also have the grill within the same cavity, so you’ll have less cooking space than you may expect. You also won’t be able to use the grill at the same time as the oven, so they’re not as versatile as a double oven. Some single ovens also have a storage drawer at the bottom, which is useful for keeping roasting and baking trays, but you’ll lose cooking space.

If you’re a busy cook, cookers with double ovens are the best option although they’re in the top price bracket. You’ll find the top oven has a grill as well as housing a conventional oven – some gas ovens will even have an electric grill in the top cavity. A second oven can also be used for warming food and plates. Cookers with double ovens are a better option if you’re cooking for a family as you’ll have the benefit of the roomy oven, plus the extra cooking option with the separate grill.

With both single and double oven cookers, the standard dimensions are a height of 90cm, a width of 60cm and a depth of 60cm, but you can also find smaller cooker widths of 55cm and 50cm. Range cookers are much wider, with a width of 90cm or more. A cooker with an eye-level grill is about 150cm tall, so make sure you have enough space before you start looking at different models. You may also wish to choose a colour that fits in with your kitchen décor. Black, white, cream and stainless steel are the most common options.

The GHI's top cookers Joint Best Cooker/Best Dual Fuel Smeg SUK61MX9 Multifunctional Dual Fuel Cooker £734.00 SHOP NOW This single cooker from Smeg is dual fuel with an automatic gas ignition for easy lighting and the power output from the burners range from a more gentle 1.0kW to a powerful 3.5kW, useful for a range of cooking needs. Meanwhile, the oven is electric and comes with seven functions, including a grill, static cooking, fan assisted and eco settings. It also has a vapour clean cycle that uses steam to clean the oven's interior, reducing time spent scrubbing off burnt-on food residues. It produced fantastic baking results with well-risen, light and fluffy cakes and the grill was speedy and evenly grilled a full tray of bread. It’s worth noting the oven door reached a height of 51C when the interior was running at 200C for an hour which is not ideal if children are around, although we were pleased to observe that the oven’s thermostat was exactly true to temperature. Joint Best Cooker/Best Gas Oven Hotpoint HUG61X Ultima Gas Cooker £470.00 SHOP NOW This double freestanding cooker from Hotpoint is spacious and practical with a four-burner gas hob and two gas ovens, with the top oven housing a gas grill. The four burners emit power ranging from 2-3 kilowatts, making it fuss-free to cook different dishes simultaneously, and the automatic gas ignition makes it a breeze to operate. The glass hob lid can be opened up and used as a splash guard to save your kitchen walls being splattered with food deposits and it’s simple to wipe clean after cooking. The gas ovens produced fantastic baked treats, giving us moist, well-risen and evenly baked batches of fairy cakes and a rich fruit cake with a crunchy crust. The grill worked fast and proved faultless when it came to even grilling coverage. We love the two large glass viewing windows, allowing you to keep an eye on cooking progress without having to open the doors. Runner-up cooker Indesit Advance ID60C2XS Electric Cooker with Ceramic Hob £376.00 SHOP NOW This electric cooker from Indesit is a dual fuel freestanding electric cooker with ceramic hobs. It performed well, scoring top marks for evenly browning batches of fairy cakes in both the top and main ovens. It also produced a well-risen fruitcake in both ovens with even browning, crunchy crust and a soft and moist filling. This cooker also coped well at full capacity in the main oven, having no problem at producing a succulent and golden brown roast chicken, crisp potatoes with soft and fluffy centres and an apple crumble with a crunchy crumbly crust and juicy filling. The responsiveness of the hob to reduce milk from boiling point to a simmer was less impressive though, taking four and a half minutes for the temperature to reduce after switching off the hob; although it took a speedy five minutes to boil water from cold on each of the hobs. Best Induction Cooker AEG CIB6740ACM Double Electric Cooker £949.00 SHOP NOW This double electric cooker with induction hob from AEG is equipped with all the features you could possibly want in order to cook up a storm in the kitchen; plus the highly spacious capacity of 112 litres will make you a winning dinner party host. With a range of different cooking modes, including conventional cooking, full and half grill and fan cooking, as well as some more unusual yet useful settings including steam bake, browning and fan baking; there isn’t much this cooker cannot do. What’s more, we found the performance fantastic; in particular at baking well-risen batches of golden brown fairy cakes, crunchy-topped fruit cakes and at cooking a full roast dinner with all the trimmings which fit comfortably inside the main oven. We were disappointed with the uneven grilling performance in the top oven, but were pleased at how cool the doors remained, even with both ovens running simultaneously; with the hottest readings at just 37C and 42C respectively. Best Range Cooker Leisure PR100F530K Dual Fuel Range Cooker £1,129.00 SHOP NOW This range cooker from Leisure is sturdy, intuitive to use and performed well. There’s plenty of cooking space thanks to the two large capacity ovens and an additional smaller capacity oven with a separate grill; so if you have a large family or are partial to hosting dinner parties this is a great choice. However, the two main ovens operate as fan ovens only with no other functions available, so they are not as versatile as a multifunction oven. The five-burner gas hob has plenty of options in terms of burner size so you can comfortably cook a range of dishes simultaneously, and they rapidly heat water to a rolling boil so you don’t have to spend time waiting around. In general, all three ovens cooked and baked well and most of the thermostat temperatures were at an acceptable accuracy, even when all ovens were in use at the same time, ranging from 2.2C to 8C off their set temperatures.

How we test ovens and cookers

If you’re updating your kitchen, a new oven or cooker will be one of your most important decisions. After all, you’ll use it almost every day and it needs to cope with everything from Sunday roasts, quiet suppers or hosting a dinner party.

Every oven and cooker is put through a series of cooking trials, from roasting to baking and grilling to see how they fare and to find out how they perform in real life. The best ones can do all of these tasks without a problem.

Our rigorous oven tests cover temperature accuracy and their grilling, roasting and baking capabilities. To test this, we cook a full roast dinner including a chicken, roast potatoes and apple crumble. We use the grill to see how evenly it toasts a full tray of bread, bake batches of fairy cakes and even a rich fruit cake. We look at how hot the oven door gets when the oven is in use, how well our cakes rise, if our potatoes crisp up and if cooking on multiple shelves at the same time affects the results.

With cookers, not only do we put the built-in ovens to the test but we also test the performance of the hotplates . This involves timing how long it takes to boil water on the different cooking zones, the heat retention of each hotplate, whether the heat emitted from the cooking zones is evenly distributed, and how easy the hob is to clean when splattered with cooking residues.

What to consider when buying an oven or cooker

Gas, electric, induction, ceramic... what's the difference between them? How does each affect cooking performance and fuel efficiency? What pans will you need? We have all the answers. Whether you’re a fan of steaming, simmering, griddling or frying, there's a hob for you.

It’s important to think about what type of cookware will be suitable for the hob type . Many manufacturers put symbols on the bottom of their cookware to show which hob or heat source they will work with. What may have worked on your old hob now may not work on your new cooker, for example. If in doubt, ask an assistant in-store or look at the product specifications if you’re buying online.

Fuel types

Electric ovens

Fan-operated

Most electric ovens have an internal fan to circulate heat more evenly, so the temperature is consistent throughout the oven. In fan-assisted ovens, the air is heated by electric elements in the top and/or bottom of the oven with a fan at the back. With fan-assisted ovens, there’s usually the option to have the fan switched on or off depending on what you are cooking.

In convection ovens, the heating element is wrapped around the fan. The advantages of fan-operated ovens are:

Cooking is quicker

Preheating is usually unnecessary

Colouring is even, but usually paler and less glossy than food cooked in a conventional oven

Repositioning shelves is unnecessary, as is swapping trays halfway through cooking

Good for multi-shelf baking due to an even distribution of heat

Cooking times and temperatures are less than traditional ovens – follow the manufacturer's instructions carefully as they vary depending on the brand and model

Foods with strong flavours can be cooked in the same oven without flavours mingling or transferring

The food surface may be drier and less crisp

Conventional (static)

These are less widely available now and generally found in basic models. Electric elements are in the sides or top and bottom of the oven. These also have zoned heating, meaning the top of the oven is usually hotter than the bottom. Some top and bottom elements work independently, which is ideal for base crisping or browning the surface of some foods.

Multifunction

This type of oven is a combination of a fan and a conventional oven, providing you with maximum versatility. Each function can be used separately or together depending on the type of food you are cooking. In some models, the grill can be used with the fan, giving a similar effect to a rotisserie. A multifunction oven is ideal for batch baking and traditional cooking.

Gas ovens

Conventional gas ovens

The temperature in the middle of the oven relates to the selected gas mark. The top shelf is slightly hotter, the lower shelf slightly cooler and the base cooler still. ‘Zoned heat' is ideal for cooking complete meals where dishes require different temperatures. Gas is a more moist form of heat than electric, which is particularly noticeable in baking. The result is a glossier appearance of your food on the outside and a moist texture on the inside.

Imported gas ovens

Many built-in gas cookers sold in the UK come from Europe originally. The burners are concealed under the base of the oven, so food is crisped from underneath. They are ideal for pizzas and pastries but don't be tempted to use the base plate of the oven as a shelf. Cooking techniques are similar to fan cooking, heat is more evenly distributed throughout the oven, and cooking tends to be quicker.

Dual fuel

There are also a growing number of dual-fuel cookers available on the market, with a gas hob combined with an electric oven. You will find two top performers in our roundup of the best cookers to buy.

What are the different types of hobs?

Gas hob

Gas is still the most popular choice with home cooks, who like that the heat is visible, easy to control, fast, responsive and can be used with all pan types. Most gas hobs have mains rather than a button ignition, with many igniting as you turn the knob, taking away the need to press and hold an ignition button simultaneously. Gas hobs can be dismantled for easier cleaning, but they can still be time-consuming to keep looking their best. Go for a hob with a variety of burner ratings that will suit different types of cooking. You'll need to get your hob installed professionally by a Gas Safe registered engineer.

Gas on glass hob

If you're a fan of gas but get fed up with mess and spillages that are difficult to clean off a traditional gas hob, this could be an option for you. Gas burners are mounted on top of ceramic glass, making the surface much easier to clean. But the glass does mark with fingerprints and grease. The burners can also be awkward to clean. They don't heat up as quickly as burners on an electric ceramic glass hob too, but you will get the precision heat and control of a normal gas hob.

Electric ceramic

With electric ceramic hobs, the heating systems are hidden underneath the tough ceramic glass surface. Patterned zones on the glass surface indicate the size and position of the heat source. All have a safety device that prevents the ceramic glass from overheating. The smooth and easy-to-clean surface makes them a popular choice. However, heat distribution around the bottom of the pans are not as good as when cooking on gas.

Induction hobs

Induction hobs heat the pan directly via a spiral copper coil beneath the glass surface, which transfers energy directly to the pan. The coil is not activated until an iron-based magnetic pan is placed on to it, so the glass itself doesn’t need to heat up for cooking. When the pan is removed, the hob cools, reducing the risk of burns. Induction hobs are becoming increasingly popular as they are easy to use, highly responsive, very energy efficient and quick to clean.

Please note: You may need to check whether it's a good idea to get one if you have a pace-maker fitted because of the powerful electromagnetic field used. You may also find you need to discard some favourite old pans and invest in new, magnetic-based ones to use your hob. An indicator light on the hob will start flashing if it’s not the correct type of pan or it will simply not heat up. The only suitable ones have a magnetic material in the base, such as cast iron or stainless steel. Pure aluminium or copper pans will not work unless the base is bonded with a magnetic metal.

For more information, take a look at our expert guide to buying pots and pans .

How to clean your oven

When it comes to cleaning , we’re all guilty of paying less attention to the inside of our ovens than the rest of the kitchen. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Wrong. Grease and little pieces of burnt food in the oven can absorb the heat and make the oven less efficient. In keeping the glass clear, it also means you can take a sneak peek at your bakes during the cooking process.

Worry not, as with the right tools and techniques, cleaning your oven can be effortless. Click here for our thorough guide on how to clean your oven - and keep it clean.

Is it worth getting a pyrolytic oven?

Pyrolytic cleaning is an automatic cleaning function, using a combination of pressure with very high temperatures to convert grease and food residues inside the cooking compartment to ash, which then collects on the floor of the oven. This can then be swept away when the cleaning is done. Depending on the programme, this process lasts between one to three hours.

During the cleaning cycle, heat surrounds every corner of the oven cavity. Most ovens with this function ensure residual heat is enclosed during the cycle meaning the temperature of the oven door should remain cool during use, just like in normal operation. In addition, the door automatically locks when pyrolytic cleaning is activated and cannot be opened during the cycle. The door will only unlock when the cycle is complete and the internal temperature has returned to a safe level.

Catalytic liners

Alternatively, some ovens have catalytic stay-clean liners instead that transform the oven into a self-cleaning machine when set at high temperatures. They should never be cleaned manually and the liners may need replacing during the lifetime of the cooker. Depending on the oven, you also might have to service the liners by putting the oven on its highest heat setting for about an hour.

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