Wolf M-Series Oven SO30CM/B – Review for 2016

Released at the second half of 2015, the Wolf M Series Oven is a complete redesign of their flagship oven. It’s been a long time coming, as the previous model, the Wolf L-series had been in service, unchanged, for over 8 years at this point. It was, and remains, one of the best convection ovens on the market. So the new M series has some big shoes to fill.

Unlike the L-series, which came in only one style, the new M series comes in three different style offerings. The Transitional, Professional, and Contemporary offerings. These are bold new looks, ready to match up to many of the other cooking products they offer. The Professional style features Wolf’s signature red knobs, while the Contemporary series features a beautiful black glass door with no protruding handle that opens automatically with a soft swinging door. It is a beautiful and classy touch and makes the Contemporary style our favorite in this lineup.

All the new M Series models can be flush mounted now, unlike the old L-series, making for a cleaner design options.

A New Type of Convection

The new Wolf M series Ovens feature a totally redesigned convection system, dubbed the “Dual Verticross” system, it was designed to eliminate the need to adjust your racks. It works by two corner column fans with parallel vertical heating elements which then work in tandem to provide just the right heat and airflow. Preheat time is much quicker with this new system and the heat distribution is uniform regardless of where you place your sheets. This new fan system creates a hurricane of heat within the oven cavity, which no area escapes.

Because Wolf has now removed the large protruding fans from the back of the units and relocated them to the back corners of the unit, the oven capacity has increased to 5.1 cu.ft.  The oven cavity is wider now too! Noticeably wider than the L-series, I can’t imagine a turkey size that won’t fit in this oven.

A New Display

A new and welcome addition is the full color LCD touch screen display that is not only responsive but nice to look at. It comes with built-in “Wolf Gourmet” cooking modes that walk you through step-by-step instructions for cooking various proteins. One of our main gripes with the old L series was the very soft timer alert, which could barely be heard over any regular noise level. Luckily, Wolf heard our gripes and the new M series timer alert is LOUD and audible – as well as configurable with volume and tone settings.

The touchscreen software is really well thought-out as well. For example, the Wolf flame logo glows red whenever the oven is running, gray when it’s not. When you select a cooking mode or feature its words go bold when they’re activated. Its a subtle but really impressive touch that lets your know that your command is being initiated.

A couple of gripes I’m finding is a common theme: the “adjustable” slide out racks are not easily adjustable. It takes 15 minutes and quite a bit of gumption to get one moved into a new spot so think long and hard before you make a move. On the professional and transitional styles the combination of knob plus touch screen control can, at times, be a bit clunky. The smooth glass “Contemporary” style provides the most seamless control experience by far.

The oven interior now comes with two full-extension glide racks and one stationary, with each rack numbered on the side. The temperature probe plug has been moved to the roof of the oven and no longer has the painful metal flap. The fit and finish, both inside and out, is impressive. And it should be, at a retail price of $5,300 it’s easily one of the most expensive ovens on the market. But with its revolutionary convection system and impressive control panel, the Wolf M Series Oven is well worth a look.