Oven hob grill Aspire 2 rubbish..recommendations

Pete101 replied on 17/02/2023 13:21

Pete101

Posted on 17/02/2023 13:21

I have a thetford aspire 2 dual fuel oven hob and grill. one burner doesn’t work (checked and a new assembly needed), the grill is as much use as a chocolate watch when grilling, which is irrelevant now as it won’t stay lit, the hob burners that work have lopsided flames but the oven works ok.

so…instead of paying hundreds to get it all working again, ie crap grill and floppy hob burners, time has come to replace it.

i don’t mind a combined oven and grill or oven plus grill just as long as the grill actually functions well. Likewise the hobs, I’ve been living at home with 2 hobs for over 20 years, I don’t need more, just as long as they are controllable, can give high output when required and can fit a frying pan on, that will be fine. An oven that actually reaches temperature and is even would be really nice too!

I have found a Levante, a British made cooker that fulfils my inner chef but nearly choked when I saw the near £3k price tag…

I’ve heard about the Spinflo Neptune but I’m confused as it appears to be made by thetford (who made my current ‘cooker’) which doesn’t fill me with any confidence, but I can’t find reference to it on the thetford website..

I’ve been looking at boat cookers just incase they are made with any more thought or care than ones for motorhomes but rapidly coming to a brick wall…

it appears rather like everything else, cookers for leisure industry are old tech, badly made and twice the price of ‘average’ domestic units.

can any of you cooks give me any pointers on what I could look at please? I’ve got rid of my 3 way fridge to a compressor fridge (and loving it), now need to do likewise for the cooker. A smaller unit would be fine…as long as I could cook a chicken in it, no worries!

Thanks in advance,

Peter

8 replies

Bakers2 replied on 18/02/2023 13:16

Bakers2

Motorhomer

Posted on 18/02/2023 13:16

I'm sorry I can't help at all except to ask have you tried a caravan breakers? Might get lucky that someone else had misfortune. Pricewise it MIGHT be more reasonable....

The Caravan industry seems to demand high prices for any aspect of their products and accessories

JollyKernow replied on 18/02/2023 14:41

Member

JollyKernow

Motorhomer from Devon

Posted on 18/02/2023 14:41

When I had the caravan I took the whole cooker out, capped the lpg pipe and bought a mini electric oven / hob from Argos. Good piece of kit. I made a shelf for it to stand on so it was level with the worktop and underneath was extra storage. I used it like that for 10 years. Just be mindful of power usage and tripping. I sold the caravan last year and put back in the original unit. It was around £120 from memory.

jennyc replied on 19/02/2023 08:46

Member

jennyc

Caravanner from Suffolk

Posted on 19/02/2023 08:46

I can’t help but agree that the quality/ durability of leisure vehicle appliances leaves much to be desired. I think too, that long periods in storage as opposed to daily domestic use, encourage damp and corrosion. Having used caravans for over 40 years, I’ve experienced my fair share of failures. My stock solution to cooker problems is to dismantle the burners and give them a good scrub to remove soot and corrosion. That’ll probably fix your lopsided flame. A wire wool rub over the thermocouple probe may well fix your staying alight problem. Although generic replacement thermocouples are readily available and cheap, their mounting brackets vary widely, so does length and perhaps termination on the cutoff valve assembly. Much depends on your ingenuity in improvising the fit of any replacement.

An electric cooker substitute isn’t as straightforward as it may seem because cooker/ oven supplies are typically 30Amps, which is way beyond the capacity of EHU hookups, and your orange cable too. Add in the load from your compressor fridge and you’re heading for regular visits to reset your trip. We have an oven style air fryer at home, which uses over 4Amps, which might be practical for you, and a camping hob maybe. As for boat kit, in my experience it’s similar or worse than land based cookers in leisure vehicles.

Chrisg1963 replied on 25/09/2023 15:07

Member

Chrisg1963

Posted on 17/02/2023 13:21 by Pete101

I have a thetford aspire 2 dual fuel oven hob and grill. one burner doesn’t work (checked and a new assembly needed), the grill is as much use as a chocolate watch when grilling, which is irrelevant now as it won’t stay lit, the hob burners that work have lopsided flames but the oven works ok.

so…instead of paying hundreds to get it all working again, ie crap grill and floppy hob burners, time has come to replace it.

i don’t mind a combined oven and grill or oven plus grill just as long as the grill actually functions well. Likewise the hobs, I’ve been living at home with 2 hobs for over 20 years, I don’t need more, just as long as they are controllable, can give high output when required and can fit a frying pan on, that will be fine. An oven that actually reaches temperature and is even would be really nice too!

I have found a Levante, a British made cooker that fulfils my inner chef but nearly choked when I saw the near £3k price tag…

I’ve heard about the Spinflo Neptune but I’m confused as it appears to be made by thetford (who made my current ‘cooker’) which doesn’t fill me with any confidence, but I can’t find reference to it on the thetford website..

I’ve been looking at boat cookers just incase they are made with any more thought or care than ones for motorhomes but rapidly coming to a brick wall…

it appears rather like everything else, cookers for leisure industry are old tech, badly made and twice the price of ‘average’ domestic units.

can any of you cooks give me any pointers on what I could look at please? I’ve got rid of my 3 way fridge to a compressor fridge (and loving it), now need to do likewise for the cooker. A smaller unit would be fine…as long as I could cook a chicken in it, no worries!

Thanks in advance,

Peter

Posted on 25/09/2023 15:07

Hi, i had the same issue with the grill not staying lit. There are loads of unhappy people with the issue. There is a youtube clip from a dealer and he said the tap/press the control button numerous times to clean a contact. It worked for me, i have a working grill that never stayed lit from new.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b9o7Ju9fcEE

Chrisg1963 replied on 25/09/2023 15:48

Member

Chrisg1963

Posted on 25/09/2023 15:48

Edit. After pressing the control knob numerous times, ensure that you blow any excess gas from the grill enosure and give it 5 minutes before tryimg to light 💥

MikeyA replied on 25/09/2023 16:27

MikeyA

Caravanner

Posted on 25/09/2023 16:27

We have the same cooker and have found it to be perfectly acceptable.

We also had a problem with one of the rings failing to stay alight and contacted the manufacturers for assitance. The advice was very simple and it was to swap around the knobs. She said that incase it doesn't work she would send out a new packet of control knobs FOC.

Amazingly, swapping the knobs worked and the problem wasn't even moved to another knob. Three years later the packet with the new knobs is still unopened.