Baumatic B77BL

I have recently moved into a property with a Baumatic B77BL gas hob and it is lethal. The central pan support is a different height to those for the other 4 burners making it impossible to be able to take something out of the oven and be able to rest it on top whilst you baste or check what's cooking. Worse still the pan supports do not seem to provide an even surface for pans and on several occasions the pans have actually toppled off the hob spilling whatever is cooking. This is despite checking that the stands are firmly in place before use. I can't believe nobody has been seriously burned as a result of this - avoid at all costs, especially if you have children around.

The supports are not practical as they only have 4 points of contact.

Even if you have a flat pan, the weight of the handle can topple it if the handle is not directly above or in-line with one of the support points. This is a safety hazard. I spoke to their helpline and they say no-one else has complained about this! I do not agree. The supports need a bit more metal around the circumference...this is why you usually have round or bigger square supports which are continuous at the outer periphery. How are you ever going to use a normal wok (curved base) on the middle plate?

It is a good design apart from this critical failure. They should provide a different type of support ring!

I called baumatic customer care to report my gas hob was whistling. As this is a gas appliance I am reluctant to use it until i know it is safe to do so.

Baumatic first offerred me an appointment eight days away, this was not acceptable, they offerred a contractor to attend on the thursday 4 days away (still not a platinum service but better than the 1st appointment offerred)

I arranged a full days annual leave - their

I have a BG68ss 5 ring hob and have contacted baumatic as pans are unstable on the 2 front rings. They say no-one else has complained. I think the problem is the supports slope on the fron quartet of these 2 rings. I've had several narrow escapes when pans have started to move. Has anyone else cpmplained to Baumatic about this, if not please do and lets see if we can get something done

1) The pan supports do not support saucepans very well. Pans can easily tip over. I have found that you have to position your saucepan/frying-pan in such a way that the handle is actually in line with one of the cross-lines of the support.

2) The rubber feet on the pan supports do not stay fixed into the holes, so you have to hold them in place whilst putting the pan support back into place after cleaning. Very tricky if you have to hold all 4 in place! The rubber feet easily come out when washing the supports (and easily go down the plughole), they are cheap to replace but the charge for p&p is ridiculously high.

3) I cannot get the pan supports clean - dare I use oven cleaner on them?

4) I have the hob fixed into a normal depth worktop with a tiled wall backsplash. However the positioning of the larger of the 4 normal burners (not the wok burner) does not allow me to use my largest frying pan because the pan rests against the tiled wall. But I guess that if the larger burner was towards the front of the hob, the heat could melt the control knobs.

5) It is extremely difficult to keep it clean, the glass top shows every little spatter, streak and water mark

The pan supports are frankly dangerous and many a frying pan full has ended up on the floor. When our grandson tipped up a pan while cooking - with our supervision - we decided to change it. Baumatic said they did not realise there was a design problem but I reckon that noone there can actually have used it.

Do not buy this hob!

The Baumatic B77BL looks ab fab. Very trendy & expensive looking. Very very difficult to keep clean. You have to wipe it with wet cloth then polish it with a soft dry cloth & window cleaner everytime! The worst thing tho is that the wok burner jets melted the surrounding silver/metal ring on 2nd use, now unusable!

Baumatic B77BL is a nice design and igniters always worked well. However the pan stands are frankly dangerous - pans frequently fall off and i would definitely not recommend this product.

The Baumatic B77BL is a very modern looking hob that functions as a gas hob, the nobs look nice and are good quality as are the gas heat rings but the pan stands which are cast iron which is questionable are very poor quality, I would not recommend this product as the stands are not stable.