The Ultimate Ilve Nostalgie Review – Pros & Cons You Should Know

Traditional European ranges are a beautiful focal point for the kitchen. Some well-known luxury brands include La Cornue, Lacanche, and Officine Gullo. While we’re obsessed with these brands, spending $10K+ on a range is not always in the budget. Made in Italy, the Ilve Nostalgie range can give you classic European style, without breaking the bank. They come in a wide variety of colors and widths, and are priced from $2.5-5K depending on the size. Our favorite is the 36” Dual Fuel White Range with brass accents. This Ilve Nostalgie review discusses the pros and cons of the range, and will help you decide if it is the right range for you.

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Our Ilve Nostalgie Review

Pros

Appearance

Oven door glass adds practicality

Ilve ranges have a glass window on the oven doors. This may sound like a basic feature, but most European made ranges do not have this. La Cornue, Lacanche, and Officine Gullo all have solid doors. While this looks nice, it is not as functional if this is the oven that you are doing most of your cooking in. Not being able to look through the glass means that you have to open the oven (letting heat out) every time you want to check if your food is done.

Special Features: Griddle, pizza, and convection settings

The range also has a double burner, which is great for distributing heat consistently or when trying to quickly boil water. There are nine oven settings, each with different features. My favorites are the pizza setting (where heat comes from the bottom so that the cheese doesn’t burn) and the convection/fan setting (this works well for roasting vegetables or baking cookies since it keeps the air circulating, making everything cook evenly). There is also a rotisserie setting with spickets that spin – perfect for making a rotisserie chicken!

The range has an optional toe kick, which can be purchased separately.

Critiques

Ordering process

The Ilve Nostalgie range can take a long time to get in after ordering. Therefore, if you are building a home or remodeling, order ASAP! Do not wait until the kitchen is ready for the range. Depending on the season and retailer, it may take months to arrive.

Since Ilve is not an extremely common brand, you may have trouble finding a retailer to see the range in person. Because of this, you will most likely need to order it sight unseen, which can be nerve wracking for a large purchase!

Knobs vs. electronic controls

Functional issues and warranty claims

With this 36″ Ilve, we quickly found that the oven was cooking everything much faster than it should. This is something that many people in the comments have also encountered. After checking the temperature with an oven thermometer, we found that it was heating 50-100 degrees warmer than what it was set to. We learned that the Ilve Majestic can be recalibrated, but the Nostalgie cannot.

We also found that the burners needed a bit of adjusting. The main issue was that the double burner took some time to light, and all of the burners had a hard time re-lighting after having just been turned off. When a technician came out for our warranty claim, he was able to take off the top of the range and adjusted how much air was able to get in. If you allow for more air to get in, the burner lights more easily. We also found that it helps to not have a pot on the burners when trying to light them.

In the process of filing a warranty claim, we learned that Ilve (an Italian company) subcontracts their United States marketing and customer service (including warranty claims) to a company called Superior Marketing. We filed a warranty claim with Ilve/Superior Marketing, and they sent out a technician (through a smaller, regional third-party repair company). The technician successfully adjusted the burners the day he came out and determined that the best fix for the oven was to replace the thermostat.

The thermostat had to come directly from Ilve, so it took about a month from when it was ordered to when it was installed. However, the range still burned hot afterwards. After lots of testing, I realized that it burns at the correct temperature when it is in convection or quick heat, it is just the other settings that are far too warm. I am not sure if that was the case before the thermostat was replaced, but it is the case now. I reached out to Ilve after encountering this and they sent the repair company back out. The company was able to confirm that it was indeed still burning too hot, and said that it was potentially the actual heating elements rather than the thermostat. They said that they could relay this back to Ilve, but ultimately it was up to them on what to do next. After that, I was unable to get Ilve/Superior Marketing to email back or discuss what next steps would be. I try to mostly use convection since the temperature is correct in this mode, but I haven’t fully given up on trying to figure this out.

FAQs

How to clean your range

For the range top, we recommend this range cleaner. It does a great job of cleaning any splashes or spills that have been cooked on by the burners.

For the griddle, we would not advise the use of chemicals, as food is prepared directly on it. Instead, pour water onto the griddle while it is still hot (preferably right after cooking on it), then use a metal griddle spatula with a flat top to scrape any food debris off. We recommend this one – it works great, and is dishwasher safe.

Is the Ilve Nostalgie the same as the Hallman range?

Summary

The Ilve Nostalgie is a beautiful range that will be the focal point of your kitchen. They give you a similar look to La Cornue, Lacanche, and Officine Gullo ranges at about a quarter of the price. Unfortunately, the heating elements in the oven do seem to burn hot, and the customer service is not the best. However, I personally still would purchase this range or a Hallman again. Now that I am aware of the heating issue, I have adapted and am able to cook everything properly. If your number one priority is a consistent, top quality range with zero issues, then Ilve might not be the range brand for you. If you are willing to compromise a bit for the aesthetics, then you can purchase an Ilve knowing what to expect.

Are you planning a kitchen remodel, or in need of any other design help? Know that we now offer virtual design services!

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