# Smev Ovens



## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

Hi,

Our Smev oven doesn't seem to get very hot, the top shelf seems ok for warming, but the middle and bottom didn't even heat through a meat pie after half an hour, still stone cold in the middle, and no it wasn't frozen.

anyone got the same problem, or had it and sorted it, any polite suggestions welcome, except those suggesting drilling out the jet please.

Cheers Kev


----------



## JockandRita (Jun 1, 2005)

Kev_Behr said:


> Hi,
> 
> Our Smev oven doesn't seem to get very hot, the top shelf seems ok for warming, but the middle and bottom didn't even heat through a meat pie after half an hour, still stone cold in the middle, and no it wasn't frozen.
> 
> ...


Hi Kev,

We weren't too impressed with our Smev oven and grill either. Camper UK informed us that it would be built to German spec, and unlike us Brits, the Germans don't cook much in their MH's.
Trying to cook a slice of toast takes forever. Apparently the UK spec ovens and grill are much more efficient. 8O

We find that cooking times are almost twice that of a normal domestic oven.

HTH,

Jock.


----------



## 104477 (May 13, 2007)

Hi Kev,
We usually let ours warm up a bit first prior to putting anything in, it seems to help. I sorted out the Smev numbers to electric and gas oven equivalents for Rapide 561 see below.

Position---- Degrees C ----Gas Mark 
1------------130 -------------three quarter 
2------------160 ------------ three 
3------------180 ------------ four 
4------------200------------- six 
5------------220------------- seven 
6------------240 ------------ nine 

Also make sure you have the required valves fully on, if they are not their may be an inline obstruction.
Hope this helps, Rob.

PS: Jock we do toast in ours no problems, just rotate the slices to get an even colour but after letting the temp get up for 3 mins first.
Edit to put in dashes @cos spaces don't work!


----------



## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

We had Smev ovens in the last 2 vans we had and, while they were not up to domestic oven standards, they were much hotter than yours sounds. We could cook bread and pizzas using the maximum settings. The insulation was pretty poor and they got cold quite quickly after being turned off but that's another issue.

Not a lot of help but it does sound as if yours is faulty.

G


----------



## jocie (Dec 24, 2006)

Hymer UK fitted a Smev oven to our new Hymer 544 we got from them in June 2000 and it has always been a bit slow. My wife nagged and nagged me about it but it was only after the warranty period that I examined it properly and came to the conclusion that it was a German spec and that the jets probably should be bigger.


----------



## drcotts (Feb 23, 2006)

After having a useless oven in our old glendale for 13 yrs we were amazed at the smev oven in our autocruise. Its just as good as the one in the house. Its a full size oven and grill mind you. We did our entire christmas dinner one year no problem. My wife loves ours.

Phill


----------



## sersol (Aug 1, 2005)

*"they got cold quite quickly after being turned off but that's another issue." *
I'm confused here (thats not hard) but are ovens not supposed to get cold when turned off :? :? :? :? :? 
Gary


----------



## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

sersol said:


> *"they got cold quite quickly after being turned off but that's another issue." *
> I'm confused here (thats not hard) but are ovens not supposed to get cold when turned off :? :? :? :? :?
> Gary


Indeed they are but, if they get cold very quickly that is a sign that the insulation around the oven is poor. If the insulation around the oven is poor then heat is lost more quickly when the oven is on. If this happens then a) you cannot run the oven at a very high temperature and b) you are having to use more gas to reach and maintain a high enough temperature.

A well-insulated oven- such as the one we have at home- will cool down quite slowly. This means that it is more economical to run as I don't use so much gas to maintain the temperature throughout the cooking period.

If you look on the bright side then you could argue that you are heating your van but we have more economical ways of doing that.

G


----------



## Carper (Aug 15, 2007)

Hi

We have a German Smev in our Hymer and would say that though cooking does take a little bit longer, its not too bad. we have done oven chips, pies and shepards pies etc in ours without any problems. Toast...now that is a different matter :roll: 

We (Mrs Carper :lol: ) had to adjust cooking times as she is used to using a fan assisted oven at home, but soon got used to it

Doug


----------



## JockandRita (Jun 1, 2005)

drcotts said:


> After having a useless oven in our old glendale for 13 yrs we were amazed at the smev oven in our autocruise. Its just as good as the one in the house. Its a full size oven and grill mind you. We did our entire christmas dinner one year no problem. My wife loves ours.
> 
> Phill


Hi Phill,

That's because it was built to UK spec. :wink: 
Jock.


----------



## 104477 (May 13, 2007)

I can't believe that Hymer put ovens that are not up to par in their 'vans!

The numbers on the Smev dial bear no relation to either gas or electric domestic ovens, see my earlier post, ours is in a French build and works just fine.

A question for those in the know is bottled gas at a pressure greater or lower than that of mains gas in the UK?


----------



## TR5 (Jun 6, 2007)

At the point of use:
domestic gas pressure regulators (on top of your meter) are set at 21mbar, whch is lower than the gas pressure from a regulator on bottled gas, butane (blue) being set at 28mbar and propane (red) at 37mbar.


----------



## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

As they appear to be built on a two tier principal, does anyone know where I could get a UK spec Smev oven.


Kev


----------



## Rapide561 (Oct 1, 2005)

*Smev*

Hi

During the summer I used a Smev oven in a Burstner motorhome for about a month. It took a little bit of getting used to mainly due to the heat setting using a 1 - 6 rather than a 1 - 9. I cooked a variety of foods and it was OK.

Russell


----------



## geordie01 (Apr 20, 2006)

having finaly got sick of waiting for our smev oven to cook things i disconected the bulkhad 30 mb regulator and installed a 37mb bottle mounted regulator and the tranformation is great, toast in 5 mins instead of 20 mins and oven chips in a fraction of the time.much easier tha rejetting the burners.


----------



## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

geordie01 said:


> having finaly got sick of waiting for our smev oven to cook things i disconected the bulkhad 30 mb regulator and installed a 37mb bottle mounted regulator and the tranformation is great, toast in 5 mins instead of 20 mins and oven chips in a fraction of the time.much easier tha rejetting the burners.


That needs a bit of looking in to, ours is bulkhead mounted, the type to switch between two bottles, not checked the pressure though, hope it will work for us as it looks impossible to remove the oven to gat at the jets, it's a shame I can remove them from the inside of the oven, like stove ovens in our last camper.

Kev.


----------

