Friends have a similar cooker (not sure of brand) where the stove is gas but oven can be either gas or electricity run. It too is terrible and seems to cut out during the cooking period or if used with the stove top running. We have recently put in a 900mm westinghouse cooker WFE916SA and it seems fine so far (roast, cakes, muffins etc.) It has gas stove top and electrical only oven.

Ha! That makes more sense, Amy. We have just done our kitchen with 40cm each side of a hob in the benchtop. We were worried that 40cm wouldn't be enough bench space and put all our kitchen stuff out to measure if it would fit and work. Still weren't sure but didn't really have another option. Now, using the space, there is plenty of room. I'm not sure about the window issue but the space either side should be okay :).

I would highly recommend AVOIDING a siemens oven. We bought a normal oven, along with a combo steam oven, about 6 years ago. The whole time we kept getting faults on our steam oven and after every fix the error would come back, or a different error code would pop up. After 3 years the top heating element fell loose because the screws holding it in place completely rusted and left a hole into the oven cavity. The oven had to be replaced, which was a nightmare to organise, but we eventually got them to agree/organise. Another 3 years down the track and we have had the same issue with the rusted cavity top! I have since found other reviews stating the same issue. We had issues with our siemens gas cooktop also, however in fairness, after a service technician fixed those it has performed well enough. You would expect, paying so much, that an oven would last more than 3 years. We designed our new kitchen around these appliances, and our other oven will now not match a new steam oven. They have offered us a refund of our originally paid price, which is far less than what the oven costs now. I'm extremely disappointed, we will be left substantially out of pocket and with an oven that does not suit our kitchen. Aside from that, their ovens don't even cook well - things don't seem to crisp up as well as they used to in my much cheaper previous oven. Don't be fooled by the sleek design like we were.

I ordered the model that has the shift control to navigate through the menu. I read too many negative comments about the touch control. Also, when playing with the touch control in the store, it seemed difficult and not very responsive. Will get to use my new ovens in a few months. I usually like to have the latest gadget but I think I made the right decision. All the other features of the NEFF I like.