Sharon Franke, the author of this guide, tested and wrote about kitchen equipment at the Good Housekeeping Institute (GHI) for more than 30 years.

For this guide, she did the following:

• Sharon tracked down industry sales and trends data from the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, the National Kitchen & Bath Industry, and Yale Appliance.
• She interviewed repair companies in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Texas; representatives from the major appliance brands and retailers of home appliances; and a Certified Master Kitchen & Bath Designer.
• She spent time at appliance showrooms getting a feel for the design, ease of use, build, and sturdiness of some of the most popular models. (She did not do any hands-on performance testing for this guide, but drew on her years of testing experience at GHI.)
• She scanned through reader comments to identify owner concerns, read oven owner manuals to get an understanding of the various features and how to use them, and consulted the wall-oven reviews at Reviewed.

Whether you’re remodeling your kitchen and have carte blanche to pick any type of wall oven or you’re looking to replace an old model with a new one that’s the same width and configuration (single, double, or combo), our picks will probably work for you.

Most of the links in this guide point to 30-inch electric single wall ovens because this is by far the most common type currently sold in the US. However, all of our experts told us that if you have room for only a 27-inch oven, you can confidently choose one of our picks in the slightly smaller size and get similar performance. (Our picks aren’t available in 24-inch versions, which are relatively uncommon anyway, and gas-powered wall ovens are rare.)

You can also buy a double-oven version of any of our picks. Our sources all agreed that in double wall ovens, both ovens are identical (give or take some specialty cooking modes) and will each perform just as well as they would in a single-oven unit.

Another option to consider is a combination oven, which is sort of like a double-oven unit, except that it has a single “regular” oven on the bottom plus a microwave, convection microwave, or steam oven on top. However, keep in mind that if one of the units breaks, you’ll need to replace both of them. To avoid this problem, you could buy a single oven and a built-in microwave independently and install them next to each other.

Ranges vs. wall ovens

A wall oven (almost always paired with a separate drop-in cooktop) can blend in with your kitchen and lend it a sleek, contemporary look. But a range (a combined cooktop and oven) tends to make a bigger visual impact, especially if it’s a bulky pro-style or an ornate European-style model.

You get more flexibility with wall-oven installation, and it’s much easier to load and unload a wall oven installed at waist height than it is to bend or crouch down to work with the low-to-the-ground oven in a range. You’ll find this particularly convenient when you’re roasting a large, heavy item like a turkey.

Even if you are intent on installing or keeping a showstopping range in your kitchen, it’s not unheard of to also install a wall oven for the convenience and the extra cooking capacity.

If you’re looking for a different kind of major cooking appliance, we do have guides to freestanding ranges (electric and gas), slide-in ranges (electric and gas), double-oven ranges, and high-end ranges, as well as guides to induction cooktops and countertop induction burners.

What to know about installing a wall oven

For the most part, wall ovens come in standard sizes, and it should be easy to replace one model with another of the same size. Some mainstream brands offer guarantees with names like Fit Guarantee or Fit Promise, which means that they’ll credit you a few hundred dollars if you need to modify your cabinetry in the course of replacing your oven.

However, every expert I spoke with stressed that installing a wall oven is definitely not a do-it-yourself project. They all said that before you make a purchase, it is essential that you call in a professional to measure and assess the space in your kitchen. If you are putting in a wall oven where one didn’t exist before, it’s especially important to make sure you have the proper electrical connections, and some experts suggested consulting with an electrician.

While any oven will bake or roast your food, there are differences in how well they’ll perform and how convenient they are to use, not to mention how they’ll look. Based on my extensive experience, as well as my conversations with experts and my comparisons of more than 25 single-oven models (as well as their double-oven and combo-oven variants), I think that these are the most important features to look for in a wall oven:

Cooking features

An oven capacity of 5 cubic feet is big enough to accommodate a huge Thanksgiving bird or a half-sheet pan or large cookie sheet, so you don’t need much more space than that. (None of the wall ovens we looked at are large enough to hold a caterer’s full-sheet pan.)

Most wall ovens have an optional convection cooking mode, which uses a fan and usually an additional heating element to speed up cooking and help your food come out crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. Most have a feature that can automatically convert the temperature for a non-convection recipe to one that will work best with the convection fan turned on.

Most wall ovens come with at least two racks, but many models have three. That’s particularly handy for baking cookies or during the holidays, when you’re trying to cram as many dishes into the oven as you can.

Some ovens also have one or more gliding racks on rollers, which are easier to slide out than typical wire racks. This can come in handy when you need to stir a pan of vegetables midroast or take a temperature reading on a chicken, for example.

We think that a high-heat (aka pyrolytic) self-cleaning mode is an essential feature for a wall oven, as they are expensive. While several repair technicians have told us that an oven or range’s electronic components can be damaged by high-heat cleaning cycles, we’re not aware of widespread complaints about this from wall-oven owners. If you’re worried about damaging your oven with a high-heat cleaning mode, just don’t use it. But there is simply no easier way to clean a very dirty oven. Ideally, it’s better to clean your oven more frequently to prevent baked-on stains. Some ovens have a steam-based cleaning feature, but I can tell you from personal experience—having tested several ovens with this feature—that it’s not a replacement for a high-heat mode, and it often leaves you with a whole lot of water to wipe up. Racks that can be left in the oven during the self-cleaning cycle are also a big plus in our book.

Design and aesthetics

A wall oven is often installed at eye level, so the aesthetics are particularly important, and I took the overall look into account.

Stainless steel is essentially a neutral color in a modern kitchen, and every wall oven I looked at is available in this finish. However, I gave a slight preference to models that came in more than one finish because they give you increased flexibility in your kitchen design.

Round, commercial-style towel-bar handles (rather than curved handles) tend to be popular, and they are a defining feature of many upscale models.

And I noted where ovens can be installed flush with the surrounding cabinetry to give the kitchen a sleeker look. If you are remodeling and aiming for a high-end aesthetic, a flush fit is a good feature to consider.

I also put each oven’s controls through their paces to see how intuitive they were. Most wall ovens come with digital control panels. Some also have color screens that keep the oven looking sleek and help enable high-end features like automatic or assisted cooking modes, which can be useful if you’re willing to embrace them. Knobs aren’t as common as you might expect—they’re usually found on higher-end, pro-style models. Some people prefer knobs because they believe knobs make it easier to select the oven settings than digital controls do.

Finally, I checked for oven doors that opened smoothly and didn’t close with a bang.

Reliability and customer service

Reliability and customer service are difficult to pin down. I took into account some reliability data from J.D. Power and Yale Appliance, although neither source is comprehensive.

Over my years of reporting on appliances, I’ve also gathered feedback from repair technicians about the brands they think are the most reliable. While this feedback was highly anecdotal, it was quite consistent when it came to wall ovens.

In addition, I pored over owner reviews to be sure they didn’t reveal any clear, consistent pattern of widespread defects, design problems, or egregiously bad product support.

Less-important features

Almost every wall oven comes with a temperature probe. In theory this is useful, but to my knowledge, not many people actually use it. A broiling pan is another helpful extra, but these days they tend to come only with high-end ovens. Since they’re either rare or rarely used, I didn’t consider these accessories essential.

Extra cooking modes like delayed start, timed cooking, preset cooking programs for specific foods, and Sabbath mode are pretty much standard in every oven. I don’t get the impression that people use them very much, so I didn’t give them a lot of weight. However, some ovens are beginning to include assisted or semi-automated cooking programs that provide step-by-step directions and, in some cases, photographs of the way your food should look when it’s done. An experienced cook might scoff, but I have plenty of experience myself, and I still appreciate when an oven can give me recommendations on things like the right pan to use, rack position, and cooking time (depending on just how rare or well done I want my roast beef or salmon).

Wi-Fi connectivity is increasingly popular, usually as a way to preheat the oven with your phone or a voice command, or sometimes (more helpfully) for diagnosing problems through an app, so a repair technician will know what’s wrong with an appliance before they arrive to try to fix it.

To be clear once again, we did not test the cooking performance of any wall ovens for this guide. These picks are based on experience, research and reporting, and some time spent pressing the buttons, turning the knobs, and opening the doors in appliance showrooms.

The Café CTS70DP2NS1 stands out among wall ovens thanks to its customizable, pro-style design and great reputation for cooking performance—for about half what you’d pay for a similar model from an upscale brand.

The defining feature of the Café is its clean styling, which should look good in any kitchen. It has no visible knobs or buttons, and the 7-inch color display and its touch controls light up only when the oven is on. The round towel-bar handle contributes to its pro-style aesthetic, and you can pick from six brushed-metal finishes for it: stainless steel (to match the rest of the front of the oven), brushed black, flat black, brushed copper, brushed brass, or brushed bronze. The window is large, and the two halogen lights give excellent visibility into the interior. You usually have to pay more to get such a sharp-looking oven.

Cooking performance is another strength. GE Appliances, which manufactures the Café, is consistently cited by experts and reviewers as having a great reputation in this regard. Over and over, dealers told me that GE does an excellent job of building cooking appliances, particularly ovens. And in my years of testing ovens at the Good Housekeeping Institute, I found that GE models always excelled at baking and roasting. Technicians we spoke with didn’t report any reliability problems with recent Café or GE models. And J.D. Power rated GE ovens “better than most” for performance and reliability.

Though the Café doesn’t have traditional knobs or even buttons, it should be easy to become comfortable cooking with this oven. In the showroom, I was able to figure out how to set the oven using the touchscreen without any trial and error.

The Café has a handful of features that make it simpler to use than most wall ovens. For example, it has a glide-out rack, which is a semi-common design that makes it easier to load and unload big trays, or to top a casserole or baste a chicken during roasting.

A flashier ease-of-use feature is the Precision Control cooking assistant, which presents a scrollable list of common dishes on the touchscreen and automatically sets cooking temperature and time based on the food you select. It even gives advice, such as what type of bakeware and which rack position you should use. You don’t have to use this feature if you don’t want to, but it can be helpful, especially when you’re cooking without a recipe. The oven also has a setting that can automatically adjust the times and temperatures from standard recipes so that they’re appropriate for convection cooking.

At 5 cubic feet, the CTS70DP2NS1 is a typical size for a wall oven and can easily accommodate an Easter ham or the big bird, as well as a large cookie sheet or a half-sheet pan. It has several convection modes (using a system that the brand calls True European Convection with Direct Air) to promote even heating, as well as an air fry setting (which is really just another convection mode). It also has the common delay start, timed cooking, and Sabbath mode settings, as well as proofing and warm settings, and it comes with a temperature probe.

In addition to a high-heat self-cleaning setting, there’s a steam-cleaning option, which may be useful for removing a few small spillovers after you’ve baked a pie or lasagna (though not for any large crusty, baked-on messes). During the high-heat cycle, the racks can remain in the oven.

The CTS70DP2NS1’s smart-home features allow you to connect to Wi-Fi so you can control the oven through an app on your phone or by a voice command to Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. If you’re always wondering after you get in the car whether you remembered to turn off the oven, you can check its status with your phone. Note that we haven’t tested the connectivity features and don’t know if the system works reliably, or what kind of network security you can expect. You don’t ever have to connect this oven to the Internet if you don’t want to.

The Café comes with a one-year warranty. It also comes with the GE Appliances Fit Guarantee, which means the brand will credit you $300 toward cabinet modifications if the oven doesn’t fit your existing cutout (it probably will).

If you want the double-oven version of the Café, that would be the Café CTD70DP2NS1. It consists of two ovens that are almost identical to the CTS70DP2NS1, although the lower one does not feature Precision Cooking. This new model isn’t available in an oven-plus-microwave combo unit. If you’re more comfortable with a traditional microwave convection oven, you can purchase the GE Café CWB713P2NS1 built-in microwave and have it installed above the single-oven version of the Café.

This Café model is available only in stainless steel (though the towel bar comes in six accent finishes). Because this is the most popular finish choice, we don’t consider it a major drawback. But a slightly different Café model, the CTS70DM2NS5, is available in a platinum glass finish, if you’d like another shade of silver (and it has a slightly different design in other ways, too).

There are only two oven racks, versus the three that many ovens come with. If you’re an impatient cookie baker, you may wish you could pack in three sheets at once. And at Thanksgiving, when you’re trying to get all of your sides done quickly after the turkey’s been hogging the oven, you may miss the additional rack. However, in truth, cookies will bake more evenly on only one or two racks, and most people cook a huge, multidish holiday meal only once a year.

If you’re working with a tighter budget but still want a good-looking, reliable oven, we think the GE JTS5000SNSS is an excellent option.

Like the Café, this GE has a 5-cubic-foot oven capacity with convection baking and roasting (and a system to convert temperatures when you’re using convection), one roll-out rack, and both high-heat and steam-cleaning options (and yes, you can leave the racks inside). You operate it with a glass touchscreen that “goes to sleep” when it’s not in use, just like the Café’s touchscreen does. Since it’s a GE cooking appliance, the JTS5000SNSS should be a reliable performer, based on the across-the-board excellent reputation the company’s products have.

Unlike the Café oven, this GE model does not have a convection broil or air fry setting, and the convection fan system is slightly less sophisticated overall. There’s no Precision Cooking mode. And the control screen isn’t in full color. The JTS5000SNSS has a curved handle and less stainless steel on the door, so it doesn’t look quite as sharp as the CTS70DP2NS1.

The JTS5000SNSS’s predecessor, the older JT5000SFSS, had solid ratings from owners. The brand has a great reputation, so I’d expect this new model to earn favorable reviews, too.

The double-oven version of this model is the GE JTD5000SNSS, which consists of two ovens that are the same as the JTS5000SNSS.

The 5000 Series isn’t available in an oven-microwave combo unit, but if you want a similar model in that configuration, check out the GE JT3800SHSS, which has a non-convection oven plus a microwave oven.

Plenty of high-end wall ovens are worth the splurge, but my favorite is the JennAir Rise JJW3430LL.

Solidly built, smoothly finished without seams, and available to be installed flush with cabinets, it looks and feels like a luxury model—clearly a step up from the Café. When you open and close the door, you can sense the quality. It has a beautiful, responsive touchscreen control panel that I was able to easily navigate on the first try. It also has a built-in database of recipes, called the Culinary Center, with color pictures of how your food should look at varying degrees of doneness.

A newer version of the JennAir Rise JJW3430IL (our previous and now-discontinued upgrade pick), this model is the same oven, but with small internal adjustments that minimize gaps between doors, vents, and controls to meet updated federal standards. As one would expect, there’s a high-heat self-cleaning setting, three racks (two of which roll out), a temperature probe, and halogen lighting. It can connect to Wi-Fi, and it comes with a two-year warranty.

Although the JennAir is pricey, it still costs hundreds or even thousands less than many premium wall ovens from brands like Wolf or Miele.

The Rise is available only in a stainless steel finish. It comes in a double-oven version (JJW3830LL) and a version with a convection microwave oven (JMW3430LL). It’s also available in another look, called the Noir, which has identical cooking features but more black glass in the design.

This is not a comprehensive list of everything we evaluated for this guide—only what is currently available.

You can’t go wrong with the GE Profile PTS7000SNSS, which has almost identical specs (including the air fry function) to the Café model we love (they’re made by the same parent company). It includes additional Precision Cooking settings, though the main difference is really the look—we’re partial to the more professional look of the Café.

From the feel of the door, you know that the Bosch 800 Series HBL8454UC is a solidly built wall oven. It can be installed flush to the cabinetry for a truly built-in look. Our only complaint is that the lettering on the control panel is small and indistinct and looks old-fashioned, like the kind you used to see on old microwave ovens. Bosch makes excellent cooktops, so if you’re going to purchase one of those and want the matching oven, buy it with confidence.

A good-looking oven with a striking, blight blue interior, the LG LWS3063BD has a convection mode (like our top picks). However, it was not widely cited as being one of the best performers available. One bonus: LG provides a broiling pan.

The Thermador Professional POD301W is handsomely designed for the most part, but we found the control lettering small and not very easy to read. In addition to having a traditional door that drops down, it’s available with a door that swings open either to the right or to the left, and you can install it flush with cabinetry. Nice extras include a rotisserie, a broiler pan, and three rolling racks.

Compared with the Thermador Professional POD301W, the Thermador Masterpiece MED301WS has no knobs, and there’s less stainless steel, so it has a sleeker look.

The most important thing you can do to care for your oven is to clean it after every use—ideally when it is still slightly warm and it’s easier to remove greasy residue. A quick wipedown with a damp rag is often all you need to prevent fat and other food substances from baking onto the surface (or burning and creating smoke that can ruin your meal) the next time you cook.

You should also read your oven’s manual before you use any cleaning products on its surface or interior, and especially before you use a self-cleaning function. (Most require you to remove racks and anything else inside an oven.) Many common cleansers and sponges can scratch or mar metal or glass surfaces, or remove any images or markings on them.

To learn more, read our piece on how to clean an oven.