If you're weighing up a refurbished combi oven for your kitchen, you're in good company. Rational dominates the UK's resale market for a reason — it's the brand most commercial kitchens already trust, and a well-refurbished unit can save you thousands over buying new. But "which model" and "which supplier" are two very different questions, and getting either wrong can mean paying over the odds or ending up with an oven that's the wrong size for your service.
This guide walks through both: which second-hand Rational ovens make sense for different kitchen types, and what large-volume venues should be looking at when buying refurbished.
Which Second-Hand Rational Oven Should You Buy?
Rational's resale market spans everything from compact 6-grid units for cafés to 20-grid roll-in models for production kitchens, and prices climb steadily with grid count, production year or features.
Here's how the entry-level pricing breaks down on refurbished units:
- 6-grid Rational SCC - from £2,750+VAT. The sweet spot for small kitchens, cafés, and pubs that need reliable capacity without a large footprint.
- 10-grid Rational SCC - from £3,250+VAT. A natural step up for mid-size restaurants and care homes running higher covers.
- 10-grid Rational SCC White Efficiency - from £4,250+VAT. Worth the jump for busy kitchens that want to cut water, energy, and detergent use per cycle.
- 20-grid Rational SCC with Care Control - from £4,750+VAT. Built for hotels, production kitchens, and schools cooking at real volume.
- 20-grid Rational CM (CombiMaster) - from £3,750+VAT. High-output capacity for kitchens working to a tighter budget.
For most single-site restaurants and cafés, a refurbished 6-grid SCC hits the best balance of capacity and cost. If running costs matter more than upfront price, the White Efficiency range earns its premium; It uses meaningfully less water, energy, and chemical per cook cycle than older SCC and CombiMaster generations, and CareControl's automatic descaling takes one more job off your engineers' plates.
Best Refurbished Combi Ovens for Large Hospitality Venues
Hotels, banqueting suites, production kitchens, and multi-site caterers are a different buying decision entirely. You're usually looking at 20-grid or 40-grid roll-in ovens built to cook in volume, service after service.
Here's how five refurbished 20-grid options stack up:
| Model | Power | From (+VAT) | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rational CM 201 | Gas or Electric | £3,750 | Lowest-cost 20-grid entry point; manual-control workhorse, 37kW load |
| Rational SCC 201 | Gas or Electric | £4,750 | Where gas supply isn't available; 37kW/54A three-phase |
| Rational CMP 201 | Gas or Electric | £4,995 | Daily high-volume use with precise humidity control and multiple fan speeds |
| Rational SCC WE 201 | Gas or Electric | £7,250 | Lowest running cost long-term, thanks to White Efficiency + CareControl |
Our take: for a venue running multiple services a day, the Rational CMP 201G is the strongest all-round choice; at a mid-range £4,995 _ VAT, this unit offers programmable multi-stage cooking suited to consistent, high-volume output.
If lifetime running cost is the priority, larger hotel groups doing continuous service, budget for the Rational SCC White Efficiency 201G. It costs more upfront, but the water, energy, and chemical savings per cycle add up fast at that scale.
And if budget is the constraint, the manually controlled Rational CM 201G gives you the same 20-grid capacity for roughly half the price of the White Efficiency model.
For the very largest operations (contract caterers, central production units, hotel groups) 40-grid roll-in models like the Rational CombiMaster Plus 40-grid do come up refurbished, though these are typically sold price-on-application given how rarely they hit the resale market. Worth a direct conversation with your supplier rather than assuming a listed price.
What to Look for When Buying Refurbished
Not all "refurbished" listings mean the same thing, so it's worth knowing what to check before you commit:
- How thoroughly was it serviced? A proper refurbishment should go well beyond a wipe-down. Our process incluides a 57 point checklist that is followed throughly.
- What's covered under warranty, and for how long? Three months' parts cover is standard across the market, so use it as your baseline rather than a selling point.
- How is it delivered? Catercombi only deliveres on a kerbside pallet, apart from rentals that are delivered by our team.
- Is stock genuinely available, or price-on-application? Some sellers only quote by phone. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's worth knowing upfront if you're trying to compare options quickly. At Catercombi, all prices are fully transparent.
At CaterCombi, every refurbished oven goes through a 57-point PPM check before it leaves our Canterbury workshop, comes with a 3-month parts warranty as standard, and can be on next-day pallet delivery across most of the UK.
Why Buy Refurbished Through CaterCombi
The refurbished combi oven market varies a lot from one seller to the next. Some list prices openly, others require a call before you know what you're paying; some hold broad stock across brands, others specialise narrowly or sell whatever happens to come in. Here's what sets CaterCombi apart:
- Transparent pricing, no phone call required. Every model on our site is listed with a clear from-price, so you can compare grid sizes and specs before you ever need to speak to us.
- Genuine choice. We hold 80+ refurbished ovens across 10+ brands at any time, not a narrow slice of stock, so you're picking the right oven for your kitchen rather than the only one available.
- Proper refurbishment, not a quick clean-up. Every unit goes through a 57-point PPM check, so what you're buying has actually been tested and serviced, not just wiped down and photographed.
- Fast, reliable delivery. Next-day pallet delivery means you're not left waiting weeks for equipment your kitchen needs now.
- Local, established, and easy to reach. Based in Canterbury and trading since 2013, we're a phone call or short drive away!
If you're still comparing options, the questions worth asking any refurbished supplier are the same ones above: is the price upfront, is the stock genuinely available, and was the oven properly serviced before resale. We're happy to stand behind our answers to all three.
Refurbished Rational combi ovens remain the safest bet in the UK's second-hand market simply because of how widely available parts, service knowledge, and resale stock are. For most kitchens, matching grid size to genuine covers — rather than over-buying "just in case" — is the single biggest factor in getting good value. And if energy and water costs are a real line item in your kitchen, White Efficiency models tend to pay their price premium back faster than people expect.
Prices quoted exclude VAT and delivery, and reflect published pricing at the time of writing.
