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It's new kitchen time and I'm trying to choose a cooker. The sales bloke offered us a discount on a Belling one, which looks decent. It has good reviews on most sites, but Belling reviews on trustpilot are just diabolical. Is that just a catchall for every disgruntled customer they've ever had? It's quite a contrast from the other review sites.
My mum swore by her belling. It lasted 30 years and she made awesome cakes. Not sure if that helps. She’s had 2 inferior cookers since. Beko I bought her then something else a bit better. Still talks about the belling.
My mum also loved her Belling, it lasted decades. When it finally died she replaced with a new Belling which was subsequently terrible. This was a few years ago now so they may have improved a bit since them. But don't associate past quality with current
Belling went bust about a decade ago and the name was sold on Mike Ashley style.
A belling cooker is no longer a belling cooker
We've got one, it replaced the Baumatic that came with a new kitchen (it conked out a couple of weeks out of warranty)
It'll be about 5-6 yrs old & still does what it says on the tin.
HTH.
This is what I worry about! Quality Brand X gets asset stripped by a private equity firm and the one that gran had since 1958 doesn't really exist any more.
The other main option is a Hotpoint for about £100 less. But presumably that's also going to be some mass produced generic thing too?
IME appliances are not the place to cut corners on a new kitchen. These are the bits your kitchen is built around. So try and make savings elsewhere.
I dunno what Belling are like now, but we had some in the company rental properties about 10 years ago and they all got scrapped after repeated failures and breakdowns. The warranty people were good and reasonably fast but it was a PITA for the tenants.
We replaced them all in one go and got a good deal on 4 hobs, 4 ovens and 2 double oven dual fuel oven hob combos from Smeg and they have been faultless bar lost knobs, which seems to be a thing with rentals....
we have just replaced one at 12 years old and bought another belling. I had to replace the hinges. also the control unit part of it is a law unto itself. otherwise satisfactory performance.
Just go for whichever Bosch, Siemens, Neff oven you like the look of at your price point. Or if you're feeling spendy then Miele.
If they do fail parts are easy to get.
I've got a Bosch oven which must be getting on for 10 years old. Used pretty much every day and I've only had to replace the heating element. Which was about £20 for the part and 30 minutes to fit.
Edit: Whichever you go for make sure it's self cleaning.
I had a Belling put in my kitchen cos it suited the design.. and er, it cooks stuff.
Been 4-5 years, still cooks stuff. er What were we talking about again?
We had a kitchen fitted in (I think) 2006 which came with a belling oven. It was OK, didn’t last long 5 years or so. Replaced that with a neff one which was still going when we moved out and performed much better.
The belling hob was great and better than our current neff hob which won’t do simmering. It just looked cheap, which to be fair, it was.
Got a zannussi built under double oven on the new house. It’s the worst of all worlds and on the short list for replacement despite only being a couple of years old
We have a Belling oven and hob. It's 21 years old and still works but as others have said, the company is not the same one it was back then.
Don't get tricked into buying a physically bigger oven than you need to either, having something smaller means it heats up a LOT faster and uses a fair whack less energy. I'd be looking at induction hobs rather than gas, as well.
It's part of the Glen Dimplex group.
I had a £3000 Britannia range, part of the same group, fail after less than 2 years. Waited 5 weeks for the repair from their engineers and then on the arranged day they called to say they didn't have the parts.
Complained and got full refund and bought a Rangemaster.
However, if Siemens did Range Cookers I would of bought one of those. Had a Siemens oven in my last place and it was great. Just one of their basic models.
Bought a range style belling for the new kitchen about 6-7 years ago now and it's been fine so far, although gives the feel it is a little cheap here and there while other bits seem more solid.
I'd probably consider one again
My Mum had a Belling. But that was in the 60s.
I joined Which for choosing new kitchen stuff. No stand alone Belling cookers reviewed.
10 built in Belling single ovens. The best review scores are also cheapest. If you have a model number I'll see if they have done it.
My eyes are still watering at the £2000 we are spending on double built in oven, hob, built in fridge freezer, and extractor thingmyjig.
But since the last new kitchen was back in the mists of time we are getting decent stuff.
thanks IRC, but it is a standalone cooker! It's the Cookcentre 60DF for what it's worth.
I've never had top-end stuff but I'm inclined to imagine that this sort of mid-market range is all pretty similar (so long as you don't get a faulty one). The cooker we inherited with the house is an ageing Zanussi and it's basically fine - it's got a few faults now but the oven gets still hot and small fires still come out of the gas rings when you want them to...
We've got a Neff (and had one before that). Had it about maybe 8 years or so now. Looks nice but not sure I would get another. I have a bot of a preference for Bosch as, on the whole, the Bosch appliances we have bought have all been good, solid and dependable. Some are not fans (so to speak) of Neff and refer the them as Naff but that always seems like an easy gag. There is also Miele but they are quite pricey. However, they also have an outlet store which, if you are lucky, can get you something just merely expensive. Miele Outlet
doris5000
Which rate the Belling 60DF at 59% and say
"Which? verdict: Not bad
This cooker isn’t quite as energy efficient as others, but its grill and hob both heat food evenly, and the oven is quick and accurate.
Pros Main oven is accurate and preheats rapidly
Grills well
Hob cooks evenly
Cons Poor at baking a fatless sponge
Energy efficiency could be better
Best gas stoves are rated 62-66% so not far off best.
Best are Leisure CS60GAK £500
and Indesit ID60g £370 https://www.argos.co.uk/product/8197692
Just go for whichever Bosch, Siemens, Neff oven you like the look of at your price point.
They seem one of the last remaining truly mid-market-in-all-ways type brand around. Lot of other brands seem to be same-as-the-cheap-tat-with-mid-market-pricing. We've had good service from Bosch kit, would buy again, etc. Most of kitchen kit is Bosch group, some of which is now 10+ years old and still going (dishwasher & washing machine, both in daily use).
YMMV, obvs.
The plus point I find for stuff from the Siemens group is wide and easy spares availibility.
I actively seek Bosch where possible for this reason.
It's stood us well. Only got rid of our last dishwasher after 10 years service due to it not fitting with new kitchen.
It needed 1 sump pump in that time due to a stay chicken bone passing the filter and jamming leading to burn out.
We’ve got a belling range type gas cooker, the grill’s crap!
We had a smeg cooker from a local discount place about 15 years back. The level of discount was big and it looked really good. Those were the drivers at the time. We have moved twice since and bought new Smegs each time. The latest going in just last week. They cost a bit more but clearly very well made and designed.
we have a belling pizza oven. it’s great
Ours is a 90DFT ? wife loves gas hobs , electric fan oven is hot as a hot thing, side oven good, grill not sure about- we hardly use it, it's eleven years old and going strong. Only thing I've fixed is oven interior light ( pence off amazon). House before had induction hobs which I thought were great for cleaning but wife hated using.