Oven Doors

It's pie week this week, which means a likely boil-over in my oven...which means a hour cleaning the oven, having images of little gingerbread-eating children pushing me in to said oven.

At this point, I have to ask:

Why manufacturers changed from a side-hinged oven to a bottom-hinged oven?

The side-hinged oven would be easier to open in smaller kitchens- heck, it'd be just like a cabinet!  AND, I can only image how much easier it would be to reach in to the side-hinged oven instead of bodysurfing the oven door to reach the back of the bottom-hinged oven.

I did some looking around and I couldn't find one reason why manufacturers changed- only that it happened in the late 50s.

I did also find that Gaggenau still makes a side-hinged, wall oven....but at $3500, it's tad more than I want to spend.