Commercial Combi Ovens

What a combi oven actually does

Three ovens in one cabinet. Convection circulates dry hot air for roasting and browning. Steam cooks vegetables, fish and rice without tying up a burner. Combination runs both at once, which is where it earns its keep: humidity holds moisture in the food while the fan puts colour on the outside. Less shrinkage on a joint, and even cooking on every shelf.

6 rack combi ovens: for the kitchen with one oven

Six shelves at 1/1 GN and the smallest footprint in the range. It suits a site running one service at a time: a gastropub, a café with a hot menu, a care home, a small hotel. Where floor space is tight, it sits on a stand in the run rather than taking a bay. See our 6 rack combi ovens.

7 rack combi ovens: a shelf more for a busier service

One more shelf in a similar footprint, which counts for more than it sounds when a full section plates at once. Seven racks suits a busier à la carte kitchen, a carvery, or a site where one oven carries lunch and dinner with no reset between. Browse the 7 rack combi ovens.

10 rack combi ovens: the standard for multi-service sites

Ten shelves is the workhorse of British catering: hotels running breakfast, conference lunches and dinner off one pass, or schools plating several hundred covers in a short window. It wants real floor space and its own supply, but it takes the queue away from the oven door. See the 10 rack combi ovens.

20 rack combi ovens: built for volume, not for à la carte

Twenty racks is production equipment, not a bigger restaurant oven. These are roll-in machines: a loaded trolley goes in whole, which is how central production kitchens, banqueting operations and large-scale contract catering move volume without handling every tray. Think cook-chill, hospital and stadium catering. For one restaurant kitchen it is more oven than the menu will ask for. Our 20 rack combi ovens cover Rational and Retigo, electric and gas.

Programmable cooking and consistency

Your best chef is not on every shift. The oven stores the stages for a dish, the operator selects it, and Tuesday lunch comes out like Saturday night. A core probe cooks to internal temperature rather than to the clock, which matters when no two joints weigh the same.

Boiler or injection steam

Two ways of making steam, and the choice affects running cost and servicing. A boiler makes steam in a separate vessel: steady, high volume, quick to recover when the door opens all day, and a vessel to descale. Injection sprays water onto the fan or element, making steam in the chamber with fewer components and less water. The Retigo packages on our largest rack size are injection.

Self-cleaning, water treatment and scale

Automatic cleaning cycles run overnight, removing a job nobody volunteers for. The real running cost is the water. Steam comes from your mains supply, and in a hard-water area the calcium goes into the boiler, onto the elements and over the chamber walls. Untreated, scale stretches cook times and eventually finishes the steam generator. Every Rental+ plan includes Planned Preventive Maintenance (PPM), so that work is written into the agreement rather than billed.

Power and water requirements

A combi needs three things before it arrives: a supply, a water feed and a drain. Larger electric models want three-phase, smaller units may run single-phase, and the rating sits on each listing above. Gas models still need an electrical connection for controls and fan. Have your electrician and plumber confirm the site before delivery day.

Combi oven or convection oven?

If you are not steaming, you may not need a combi. A commercial convection oven does dry heat well, with no steam generator and no water treatment to think about. Choose the combi when moisture control is the point: less shrinkage, regenerated plated food, bread baked with steam. Our commercial ovens range covers both.

What a Rental+ plan covers

Every plan includes inclusive service & maintenance at no extra cost: call-outs, services, parts and PPM. If a machine cannot be fixed, we replace it. Multi-year rental by weekly direct debit, no upfront capex, and one plan can cover several sites. Getting started runs a soft credit check, then a security deposit and direct debit, then delivery. Forty-six years and a nationwide engineer network sit behind it.

See our inclusive service & maintenance or Rental+ plans explained, build an indicative figure in the basket with no payment taken, or request a quote.