The Bottom Line
The Southbend line of stoves are cheaper than Blodgett and Hobart. However, they are not worth the money in the long run for a busy restaurant kitchen.
Pros
- It is still running after eight years of hard service.
- It was cheaper to purchase new than many other models.
- The overall heat of the stovetop remains good.
Cons
- Convection switches broke almost immediately.
- Continues to burn through thermocouples.
- The knobs melted off- twice!
- The two convection ovens no longer work.
Description
- The Southbend commercial oven features a six burner range. Presently only five of them work.
- The knobs of the Southbend commercial oven have melted off- twice.
- The griddle on the Southbend commerical stove is very hard to clean.
- The Southbend commercial oven burns through thermocouples like they are going out of style.
Guide Review - Southbend Combination Commericial Oven
The Southbend convection oven features a six top range, attached griddle, two convection ovens and a broiler. In essence it is everything you need for a restaurant kitchen, in one piece of equipment. We purchased this model in 2000 and within six months we has several problems, including burnt out thermocouples and melted knobs. This commercial oven is hard to get parts for and the griddle is difficult to clean. Instead of a side vent, its vent is in the back, requiring the entire griddle (about 100 pounds) be removed to clean it out. We have stopped trying to fix the convection ovens (a main selling point of the stove) because it is so difficult to find parts. Instead, we roast and bake in our twenty year old Blodgett pizza oven, which does the job nicely.
