I replaced my 20-year-old oven with a high-tech connected model – and I didn’t expect the tech to be this useful

A few weeks before Christmas, my built-in oven decided it didn’t want to continue any longer. Perhaps it was down to me hardly ever cleaning it, but whatever the reason, it would often trip the power, plunging the house in darkness whenever I turned it on. When it did work, it struggled to get lukewarm. Not ideal when all you have for dinner is frozen pizza.

It’s not like I was that surprised – this was the original oven that came with my house when it was built back in 2006, so we’re talking 20 years of loyal service (only the last five of which were to me, I should add). Still, that’s no good when you’ve got a festive roast dinner for five coming up.

Needing a replacement fast, I ended up down a rabbit hole of oven shopping I wasn’t expecting. I don’t know who already knows it, but I found that ovens have become ridiculously high-tech of late, and not just in “a more efficient fan” kind of way.

As someone who writes about gadgets for a living, I’m more than aware there’s a certain type of “smart” tech that exists purely because it can. You know what I mean – fridges with giant screens that you never really use or apps that replicate physical buttons that react slower than the real thing; cool-sounding stuff that just doesn’t translate IRL. So when I spotted high-end ovens boasting app control and AI features like automatic food detection, I assumed they were nothing but gimmicks.

And so – oven-less and always ready to write – I figured there was no better time to put this kind of tech to the test. I gave Germany appliance giant Miele a buzz. Luckily for me, the brand’s PR offered me the chance to review one of the brand’s flagship smart ovens, the Miele H 7860 BPX.

The promise was basically “best-in-class cooking results”, using features like steam injections, rapid cool-down, a wireless food probe, and even a camera you could watch your food cooking through a connected app – I was desperate to see how well these innovative tools worked in practice. But are they just those typical features that sound cool on paper that you actually never bother using? After living with the Miele oven for a couple of months - and putting it through a proper festive stress test with meat, veg and all the chaos that comes with cooking for other people – here’s what I’ve learned.

Miele H 7860 BPX: a luxury oven that doesn’t shout about it

Let’s kick off with how easier-than-expected this oven was to install, especially since it’s a built-in model. While I got my electrician to hook it up to the mains (which was a ten-minute job at best), I cut some wood to size and made a shelf for it to sit on, so it’d be at the right height under my kitchen worktop. The oven then just slid on top of this, screwing into the sides of the existing unit with two small screws to keep it in place.

It wasn’t until it was installed that I took note of this oven’s impeccable design. This is a seriously sleek bit of kit. I mean, with a £4,529 RRP, you’d kind of hope so. But I have to say , the Obsidian black finish looks like something from a swanky kitchen showroom while feeling minimal and understated. You’d never know of its extensive, cutting-edge feature set just by looking at it. There are no fiddly dials, no cluttered fascia, no weird sci-fi styling. It’s basically a clean slab of glass, a handle, and a large touch display (that lights up when you approach *swoon*).

That last bit is one of those features that sounds minor until you live with it. Called MotionReact, it wakes the display and turns the oven light on when you walk up to it, and it can also silence buzzers if you come back into the room. It makes the whole thing feel more like a modern appliance that wants to work with you rather than against you.

The screen itself is a Miele M Touch display. It’s big, bright and easy to use. I’ve used plenty of premium kitchen appliances in my time, where the interface feels like it was designed in 2009 and never updated. But this is more like using a decent smartphone – the display is clear and reactive and boasts quick –reacting menus, logical categories, and settings that don’t make you feel like you need the manual constantly in reach.

Inside, the oven is equally polished. You get BrilliantLight side-mounted LED light tubes that properly illuminate the whole cavity, not just a sad little bulb in the corner. Then, the shelves slide out like butter, extending completely outside the oven itself on FlexiClip runners, which I’ve found makes it easier to check food, so you’re not almost climbing inside to see if your roasties are done yet, and also helps prevent forearm burns when basting a big old turkey.

The Miele H 7860 BPX comes with a wireless food probe, plus a bunch of trays and racks designed for high heat and pyro cleaning (a neat self-cleaning function that uses extreme heat to burn off grease and food residue). I didn’t think I’d care too much about accessories, but when you’re cooking a roast and you can pull a heavy tray out smoothly with minimal effort, you realise it’s the little things – and also why Miele owners bang on about build quality.

Miele H 7860 BPX: The tech that actually matters

As I dived into using my new oven, it was the techy “smart” side of its feature list that I was most sceptical about. I mean, who can blame me? I’ve reviewed hundreds of gadgets over the years, especially everyday appliances where the makers have thrown screens, WiFi connectivity, and (more recently) AI into the mix, and they don’t usually add any real value. Before I properly dug into this category, I assumed ovens were going the same way. The difference here is that many of Miele’s headline tricks, I’ve found, genuinely change the cooking experience for the better.

The first worth talking about is TasteControl - a feature that stops food from continuing to cook once the timer ends by automatically pushing the door ajar and sucking in outside air to rapidly bring the temperature down. It sounds like a minor feature, but it fixes a very real cooking problem. Well, for me anyway. More often than not, when I think cooking is done with, I get distracted finishing everything else to find the main event is basically a pile of charcoal. This nifty feature buys you some time, and while it’s not exactly magic and won’t undo something you’ve already overcooked, it does help prevent ruining meals.

The second really useful feature is Moisture Plus, which is basically Miele’s steam injection tech. I assumed this would be a novelty, but it works surprisingly well when you realise why it’s important and learn how to use it. Steam isn’t something you want blasting your food the whole time. I’s more like a tool you bring in at the right moment to keep meat tender, stop baked things drying out, and improve the finish on certain foods.

I used it when I’m cooking things that can easily dry out, like a roast chicken. When selecting the option from the menu screen, you just pull out the oven’s built-in wand, bang it in a cup of water, and it’ll suck up a good portion of it ready to heat and release as steam during the cooking process. I noticed the difference the most when using this function for reheating meals, as it makes leftovers feel less like yesterday’s meal and more like something you’ve just cooked fresh.

Then there’s the wireless food probe, which after using a few times I swear is an essential, especially if you cook meat regularly. It did take me a good old day or two to actually find (I had to ask the Miele product manager where to find it as it was that well hidden!). Once you realise its hiding inside the oven door, you simply stick it into whatever you’re roasting, pick the doneness (rare/medium/well-done, etc) or target temperature you want, and the oven does the monitoring for you. It removes a lot of that worry whether something is done or not, and makes timings easier to plan around because you’re not constantly second-guessing it.

The one frustration I’ve hit is that the probe can be fussy in certain situations, especially if you’re covering the food with foil. That can mess with the signal, which is annoying when foil is exactly what you’d use to stop the top from browning too quickly. A wired fallback option would have been nice, even if it’s less elegant. But I guess you can always use Moisture Plus to prevent drying out the food, if that’s what you’re worried about.

I should probably mention the function that gets everyone talking – the camera inside the oven. This was the feature I was expecting to be the biggest gimmick, assuming I’d end up ignoring it entirely. And while I don’t exactly use it on the daily, it has proven its worth during bigger cooks, like when I’m entertaining and don’t want to spend all evening with my head in the oven. It’s also handy for checking on food without opening the door and dumping heat. If I’m being picky, it’s also the most “nice to have” feature here. Useful, but by no means the main selling point.

The app connectivity, via Miele@home, sits in a similar space. It works, and is genuinely convenient for checking cooking progress at a glance, so I like having the option. But it doesn’t feel essential in the way TasteControl, the probe or Moisture Plus features do. If you’re the sort of person who doesn’t want another app in your life, you’re definitely not missing the point of the oven by ignoring it. It is a pretty cool thing to show off to your mates though, if you’re as sad as me, anyway!

Smart Food ID is another Miele oven feature that sounds properly futuristic, but it’s also the one I’ve taken least advantage of so far. Once you switch it on in the app, the idea is that you put in a dish from Miele’s supported list, shut the door, and the oven uses the camera to recognise it and suggest the right time and temperature. It’s a neat party trick, and I can see it being handy if you’re cooking something fairly standard and don’t want to think much, but compared to things like Moisture Plus, TasteControl and the probe, it feels more like a bonus feature and probably something I won’t use that much.

Beyond the smart stuff, it’s worth saying the basics on the Miele H 7860 BPX are excellent too. You’ve got all the usual modes you’d expect (fan, conventional, grill), plus a bunch of extras like baking presets, automatic programmes and special applications (plate warming, for example). The nice part is that a lot of these modes quietly layer in the “smart” features when they’re useful, and the oven guides you through what to do if it’s your first time using them. I found that genuinely helpful once I’d got my head around what everything was for. Because there is a lot here, and you do need to spend a bit of time learning the menus, whether that’s reading the in-oven explanations or watching a couple of Miele’s tutorials on YouTube.

The Intensive Bake function, for example, is great for anything where you want heat pushed into the base, while Eco Fan Heat is good when you’re cooking something simple and don’t want the oven working harder than it needs to. Meanwhile, the Crisp function is amazing for when you want less moisture and more browning to happen (roast potatoes being the prime example here).

Miele H 7860 BPX: the festive stress test

The proper test for me wasn’t a quick midweek cook, it was the kind of meal where timing is everything. I ended up giving the oven a festive trial with a big roast turkey, roast veg and roast potatoes, all going at the same time.

This is exactly the sort of cook where my old oven proved its inadequacy. The heat always felt slightly unpredictable, and the margin for error was tiny. With the Miele, the probe and the connected camera feature took most of the stress out of cooking the bird because I wasn’t relying on guesswork or constantly opening the door. Plus, the heat gets back up to the desired temperature so quickly that opening the door barely affects cooking.

I used Moisture Plus during the cook, but scheduled the controlled bursts only in the first half so it wouldn’t interfere with the crisping of the roast potatoes later on. The end result was exactly what I was hoping for: tender meat that still had a decent, crispy browned finish.

The veg underneath came out great too, and I think that was down to a mix of even heat distribution and the fact I wasn’t constantly opening the door. Between the BrilliantLight interior, the screen guidance, and the occasional camera check, the oven stayed closed more than it normally would, and I saw that benefit in the results.

Is a smart oven worth the investment?

Living with the Miele H 7860 BPX day to day, I’ve come to eat my words somewhat when it comes to me thinking all “smart”, connected kitchen appliances are gimmicks. I genuinely don’t feel like there are any features here that don’t serve a real purpose. But perhaps this oven is a rarity, in that Miele has only added innovation where it can be justified and function in a valuable way. Of course, not all of it is essential, and a couple of features still feel like luxuries, but the core ones make cooking feel easier, more consistent, and generally more enjoyable.

Is it expensive? Painfully. But it does sit in investment territory. If you mostly cook quick basics and you don’t care about precision, it’s hard to justify. But if you cook regularly, you care about results, and you like the idea of an oven that actively helps you avoid common mistakes, I can see why people buy into Miele’s world.