The History of Neff Appliances
Carl Neff produced his first oven in 1877 in a small town in Germany’s Baden-Württemberg province. He was a master locksmith before turning his hand to ovens, and you could see that craftsmanship in the very first one, built by hand by NEFF and his six partners. Their focus was ensuring their product was well-built and straightforward to use – qualities that NEFF Appliances still hold dear today.
During the Belle Époque, Carl Neff noticed the increasing need in patisseries as the people flocked to them to discuss art and culture all while eating a delicious baked treat. The bakeries were struggling to keep up with demand and NEFF saw an opportunity to innovate his ovens further, now offering commercial NEFF ovens.
Innovation in the kitchen
In 1949, NEFF produced an oven with two separately heated sections. For the first time, people could cook more than one dish at a time. This innovation was an exciting development after the hard and desperate period of the war.
It was during the war that Dr Alfred Neff inherited the company from his father, Carl. He continued striving for the innovation his father founded NEFF on and the company played a large part in the time known as Wirtschaftswunder, or the economic wonder. Soon ‘Made in Germany’ became a proud marker of exceptional engineering.
So, Alfred searched for the company’s next challenge, and soon they branched out into refrigerators and washing machines. Nowadays NEFF offers a vast range of fridges from full American-style to built-ins to compact under-the-counter models.
As time went on, NEFF kept developing and produced more efficient ovens in the 1960s that allowed a family to cook more food at once. Plus, they made available space-saving built-in models for kitchens. You can still combine various NEFF classic or premium appliances either horizontally or vertically to create your perfect kitchen in a small footprint.
Introducing Circotherm…
NEFF continued to innovate in the technology sphere bringing out the Circotherm, a convection oven that circulated the heat, with the intention that cooks and chefs everywhere could cook separate dishes on different racks without the flavours mixing. Then they added interior lights so you could check on the progress of your food, and small rollers to shelves so it was easier than ever to take food in and out of the oven, which led to the Slide and Hide models with doors that can disappear when you open them.
…Easy Clean, Variosteam and Flexinduction!
EasyClean was the next significant technological advance for NEFF, and now they even offer the Pyrolytic self-cleaning model.
But they weren’t finished yet. The Variosteam adds steam to the oven while you’re cooking so you’ll never have a dry roast again. And the Flexinduction hob lets you place a saucepan anywhere on its shiny, black surface and will heat only the area under the pan. It’s like magic!
So much has changed since those first early days in the 1800s when Carl Neff and his partners put together their first oven by hand. NEFF has become a household name synonymous with quality and fantastic German engineering. Their products, always functional, are stylish and beautiful additions to any kitchen, whether you’re cooking a roast for the family in one of their inventive ovens, or just grabbing that first espresso of the day from the coffee centre. Affordable quality is what everyone deserves in the home, and NEFF has brought just that to the masses, sharing technological advances not only with commercial industries but with anyone who has a kitchen.