I am thinking of going for the Thermador single combi oven. It’s the only steam oven in 30 inches. The step down Thermador range isn’t even convection. But the Miele looks good too.

But, I am also curious what’s going to be in stock. I am just starting this process.

I can't say enough good things about our plumbed Miele CSO. It is one of the most frequently used appliances in our household. The ability to add humidity control at a whim is amazing. I love that I don't have to think about adding water to the appliance, and it seriously reduces the psychological barrier for using steam whenever it is useful. Even the kids use steam all the time now.

Overall, the appliance is very well thought out, and works great. The only downside are some minor complaints about the menu system, but in practice I rarely notice these days.

We use it for reheating, for crisping bread, for blanching vegetables, for sous-vide cooking, for proofing yeast dough, for baking bread, for boiling eggs to perfection, and of course for all the other things that ovens are used for. Even my 8 year old knows how to do these things without me having to supervise her.

We "only" have the XL instead of the XXL. But I find that the size is perfect, as you can pack a CSO much tighter than a regular oven. And we appreciate the fact that it preheats insanely quickly.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit though that we do have a full-size oven in the range that we can use when we don't want to use the CSO. The main use is the amazing broiler (that's unique to this particular model of gas range) and any time I cook particularly splattery food. The Miele CSO has stainless steel interior. That's overall a superior material to enamel. But it also shows every minor stain very easily. So, if I know I'll get the oven dirty, I use an oven that doesn't show grime as much.

@Erika Thornes, that’s the oven we wound up ordering today. Steam/convection on top, convection on the bottom.

@M, We loved the plumbed option on the Meile, but one of the things I want to do in a steam/convection oven is bread, and the Meile cavity just wasn’t big enough for a decent sized loaf..

Really?! How big are the breads that you bake. I regularly bake 1.25kg breads in a Dutch oven, and if I didn't use such an unfortunate round shape, I'm sure I could easily bake two loaves at the same time.

As American consumers, we're conditioned to always look for "bigger is better". But with ovens that's not always true. Bigger just means a lot slower to preheat, and not actually useful for the vast majority of cooking.

I do like that I have the option of a really large oven cavity in my range, but honestly I don't use that much space more than at most once a year, if even that.

I always say, if I had to choose between one large or two small ovens, the latter would win every day of the week. And if you still have access to another larger oven, then absolutely prefer the smaller one for your day to day cooking.

It’s not a pure capacity issue, @M, it’s a length problem. I like to make baugettes and epis, which are 20-22”, I’d guess. My proofing baskets are all in storage, but I’m pretty sure the loaves they turn out are bigger than any interior dimension of the Meile oven.

We spent a lot of time looking a CSO's last year and the Miele (XXL in our case) came out well on top. If I find my notes (long list) I'll post.

We do most of our breads in a gas oven (BS RNB) as we've found this still provides a better overall environment than either a CSO or moisture control electric oven for most breads.

@M My built in microwave went out and I haven't really started looking for one. I went to target and bought one to just heat up my husbnads dinner if need be. I started thinking how I use my Breville convection countertop oven almost every single day and love it. I bought the biggest one that fits a 9x11 pan. That made me think I should should buy a microwave that also doubles as an oven. (have a built in oven too that I never use) It is just the two of us most days and I feel as tho having the Breville and microwave/convection combo would be enough. That said, I went and looked at an appliance center and fell in love with the Miele. Love the steam function but I wondered would I use it for everything that I cook. I don't know that much about them. They had the microwave convection that I loved too. What are your thoughts about not having a huge oven and by that I mean a full size? I don't think I regret it due to the way I cook & how many I cook for. And please, anyone with Miele chime in. Thanks so much!

We are very fortunate to have a Miele SpeedOven, a Miele CSO, and an oven in the Bluestar RNB gas range. There are days when we use the oven in the gas range, but it is mostly a "nice to have", not a necessity.

It has an absolutely amazing infrared broiler, which is more powerful than what you can get in pretty much any other residential appliance. Great for making instant perfect toast or searing meat after cooking it sous-vide. The Miele appliances have broilers too, but they aren't as powerful.

Also, the Miele ovens have stainless steel interiors, which are really sturdy; much better than enamel which can flake off over time. But the downside is that they show any amount of grime very visibly. It I make splattery foods, I prefer the gas range where I don't notice splatter as much.

And yes, in rare situations (maybe once a year), I actually like the oversized oven cavity. And the way we cook, we use ovens quite a lot. So, having three ovens at the same time is actually quite convenient.

That's about it for the benefits of having a large gas oven. If any of the above sound crucial to you, then you wouldn't be happy with a small combination oven.

Now, with that out of the way, let's look at the smaller Miele ovens. We find that 99% of the time both of them are perfectly suitable for our needs. Even when cooking for a family of four, we don't need bigger ovens. And we love how quickly the smaller ovens preheat. Where the gas range might take 20-30min, the CSO is ready in 5min. Those time savings add up.

The CSO and the SpeedOven obviously aren't interchangeable. If you have the budget and space for it, get both. But if that's not in the picture, then a CSO is the more versatile device. Having moisture control at all times is incredibly helpful for so many things. But even just making "lazy" foods such as perfectly blanched veggies or boiled eggs is great. It's such a time saver, when I can concentrate on other tasks while the steam oven takes care of things. It also does a fantastic job heating up left-overs or thawing frozen ingredients, but obviously takes longer than then microwave. I love this appliance. And it is a great oven for regular cooking/baking as well.

On the other hand, if you just want to heat up a cup of coffee, then a CSO won't do that task well and you need a microwave. The SpeedOven is noticeably more expensive than a basic microwave, but it does give you another fully featured oven. This was well worth it for us. And it's a pretty good oven at that. It heats hotter than the CSO. So, if top temperature is important to you, that's something to look at. On the other hand, if you need a good broiler element, then the one in the CSO is a little beefier than the one in the SpeedOven.

As for the speed function, we very rarely find a use for it. We use this appliance either as a microwave or as an oven, and it does a great job at each of these tasks; but we only need the combination function for a small number of potato dishes. I'm fine with that; it's not why we bought it.

In conclusion, I am pretty certain that your household of two people would be fine with either or both of these appliances. I hope I have given you enough background information to decide, as I can't tell which of the two would serve you better though. They are both great, but for different reasons.

@m @nycbluedevil_gw Thank y'all both so much for your help. I am going to research both options and make a decision. My husband said to get whatever I want and in reality I want a built in coffee maker in the microwave spot but there is just not enough room in the cabinet for everything. I have also read that many people don't like the coffee machines. My husband asked me what would you use every single day....the coffee machine or the large oven? He knows me so well. :-) I have thought about the coffee machine, the Miele, and then letting the cabinet company make me a draw or something to full up the extra space. I have options but sometimes that's not good. Thank y'all again.

This is what I want!!!! I am going to go for a single oven and then have this above, I am thinking.

Something like this might work for your coffee machine AND microwave if you decide to do a single oven at a standard height (under countertop l).

I have about a $12k budget for appliances (range, hood, and oven), and really am looking at the Thermador induction range top. Which makes a double oven out of reach. (Trying to keep the remodel under $60k).

I am looking at the Anova precision oven or something like it to use as my microwave.

@Erika Thornes I had thought of the get steam oven bc it would fit in microwave space and then taking out the oven and having the cabinet with shelves and doors on it. This was kinda my idea but my husband wasn's crazy about putting doors in the space of the oven. But I like this look and it would fit a small microwave & maybe a regular espresso maker. Ty for the photo.Also, I am not remodeling my kitchen, it is just that our microwave went out and looking at appliances started all of this. :-)