Product review (5 stars): Great Broiler and Heated Convection!
We didn't know what to think about Bosch when we came across this oven/rangetop (in white), but were immediately struck by the retro look, 5-element broiler, and knobs easily-accesible on the *front* of the range.

The price is quite reasonable for the quality and look. So we took the leap and purchased a floor model. This is a great oven!

It suggests a 40-50 amp circuit breaker. We used a 50-amp breaker with a 30 ft. run of 8-gauge wire and the 3-prong pigtail connector from Home Depot (heavy-duty, $24, slotted -- not the one with an L-shaped prong). It is 30" wide at the widest point and fit into an opening just an eighth of an inch wider than 30". There are leveling adjustments on the legs and comes with a floor mount to slide one of the back legs into to stabilize the oven, which jiggles slightly when the door is opened, without it.

The result is plenty of juice to to heat with. The burners heat up to a glowing red within 5 seconds. Impressive, compared to the old electric range we replaced with this Bosch.

The Controls:

The dials are great. Easy to turn, and for the two burners with multiple rings, allow the size of the hot part of the burner to be controlled.

The oven, timers, and warming drawer are controlled by touch-type controls and a single dial at the back of the range. We had trouble with the Timer button registering a push, but that may be a fluke with this model only. A repairman is on his way to check it out.

To turn on the oven requires 3 or 4 pushes, turns of the dial. Not bad. Get's fast with practice. And it's very nice to be able to set the "done" time and cooking time and have the oven figure out what time it needs to turn on to have the meal ready at the given time.

The warming drawer has two settings, is stainless steel, and may be used independently of the oven, if desired.

We are very pleased with this oven. We like the look (again, we prefer the white) and how it generally operates.

However:

- The buttons are a bit difficult to press, requiring many attempts to get it to "take" (e.g., timer, light, cooking mode)

- The cooktop lights near each dial when hot. Although that might be a useful feature for some, this cooktop is missing any LEDs indicating that the burner is ON. That means, you *cannot* tell at a glance whether the burners are on -- the lights just mean that the burners are hot. So you're constantly having to manually check each one, to see whether the little black line is exactly in the UP position. A simple LED on each burner dial would solve this and it's a surprising omission. The way these burners work, they're either 100% on, or completely off. The dial only dictates the percentage of time that they're on full power. So at a glance, you cannot tell whether the burner is OFF, or just in-between full-glow mode.

- The top is pretty difficult (nearly impossible) to keep clean.

  The smallest amount of food, or even the bit of residue on the bottom of your pots from your previous burners will cause the most horrible-looking black rings to be "welded" onto the cooktop surface. There is a special non-abrasive cleaner that must be purchased to get it off (that won't scratch the glass cooktop like Comet would). Each time a burner is used to heat anything but water, it will leave black marks under the pan that take a few minutes to get off with special cleaner and a razor blade.