Convection Oven - Yes orNo?
July 30, 2015 5:06 PM
Do you have a convection oven, or a convection/conventional oven? What are the pros? What are the cons? Do you use the convection part of the oven for everything, or just some things? Do you have a specific model you would recommend?
We have a convection oven. It's also a conventional oven. Can you get one that's just convection? I thought convection is just an added fan, and with the fan off, it's the same as conventional.
We have a dual fuel range that came with a convection oven. I think most full-size ovens are convection now.
Convection is nice because the fan makes the food cook faster and more evenly. You can usually reduce about 1/3 of the cooking time. Our oven automatically reduces the temperature. (If you put in 350 at convection, it'll automatically reduce it to 325.)
That said, we don't use it a lot. When I bake, it's usually with cakes, and I'm not good enough at baking to tweak the recipes (you need to adjust both time and temperature for convection). We use it for less finicky recipes, like lasagna and pulled pork.
posted by ethidda at 5:23 PM on July 30, 2015
We have a dual fuel range that came with a convection oven. I think most full-size ovens are convection now.
Convection is nice because the fan makes the food cook faster and more evenly. You can usually reduce about 1/3 of the cooking time. Our oven automatically reduces the temperature. (If you put in 350 at convection, it'll automatically reduce it to 325.)
That said, we don't use it a lot. When I bake, it's usually with cakes, and I'm not good enough at baking to tweak the recipes (you need to adjust both time and temperature for convection). We use it for less finicky recipes, like lasagna and pulled pork.
posted by ethidda at 5:23 PM on July 30, 2015
We have one. It's good. Unless a recipe explicitly says not to use the convection, we use it.
The only cons are that it's kind of loud. And the oven should be on its own electric circuit (at least, ours should, according to the installation manual).
The pro is that the oven doesn't have hot spots and cold spots, so everything cooks uniformly. Having had one, I would only get convection ovens in the future.
The exact model we've got seems no longer to be available, but it's a Kenmore Elite. Looking at the models they've got now, all of the ones I see have this sort of oval megaburner on one side of the cooktop that is supposed to serve as two burners or a long skillet burner. We discovered this is a bad feature, and it's better having two distinct burners.
posted by adamrice at 5:24 PM on July 30, 2015
The only cons are that it's kind of loud. And the oven should be on its own electric circuit (at least, ours should, according to the installation manual).
The pro is that the oven doesn't have hot spots and cold spots, so everything cooks uniformly. Having had one, I would only get convection ovens in the future.
The exact model we've got seems no longer to be available, but it's a Kenmore Elite. Looking at the models they've got now, all of the ones I see have this sort of oval megaburner on one side of the cooktop that is supposed to serve as two burners or a long skillet burner. We discovered this is a bad feature, and it's better having two distinct burners.
posted by adamrice at 5:24 PM on July 30, 2015
I have a convection oven and I use it frequently. Mine is by Waring. The only thing I don't do with it is roast or bake anything in glass containers.
Pros: Cooks and bakes faster. Great for toasting. Great for pizza (mine extends in the back for pizzas and has a pizza setting). Less hot than an oven in summertime and the area around it cools down faster. I rarely use my big, conventional oven anymore because this is faster.
Cons: Ethidda is right about having to adjust recipes due to reduced cooking time, this is really trial and error with precise baking. It can be annoyingly loud.
posted by Danila at 5:30 PM on July 30, 2015
Pros: Cooks and bakes faster. Great for toasting. Great for pizza (mine extends in the back for pizzas and has a pizza setting). Less hot than an oven in summertime and the area around it cools down faster. I rarely use my big, conventional oven anymore because this is faster.
Cons: Ethidda is right about having to adjust recipes due to reduced cooking time, this is really trial and error with precise baking. It can be annoyingly loud.
posted by Danila at 5:30 PM on July 30, 2015
We have an oven that does both. The convection option in ours is not loud, and it is simply awesome for baking.
posted by bearwife at 5:44 PM on July 30, 2015
posted by bearwife at 5:44 PM on July 30, 2015
We have a GE electric profile convection oven that came with the house. The fan runs, but .... I don't think it has a heat source on the bottom, and I've undercooked things because they were brown and looked done from the top. But not any quicker than regular oven. So I'm not too happy with ours.
posted by Dashy at 5:57 PM on July 30, 2015
posted by Dashy at 5:57 PM on July 30, 2015
I love to cook and I don't feel one way or the other about convection. I wouldn't pay extra for it and you do have to tinker with cooking times.
posted by cecic at 6:33 PM on July 30, 2015
posted by cecic at 6:33 PM on July 30, 2015
I hate mine but it came with the house. It's terrible for baked goods and really doesn't cut down on cooking time or anything with roasts or pizzas. It's a Frigidaire Professional Series.
The only good thing about the convection is it heats the oven up faster. But then I change it over to regular to cook.
posted by fiercekitten at 6:43 PM on July 30, 2015
The only good thing about the convection is it heats the oven up faster. But then I change it over to regular to cook.
posted by fiercekitten at 6:43 PM on July 30, 2015
The advantage of a convection oven is that the fan results in more even heating, so you can for instance bake multiple sheets of cookies at once without having to rotate them, in exchange for having to adjust the recipe.
If you're making pizza and you're just cranking the heat as high as it'll go, the convection gives you a happy little boost.
There are a couple variations on convection / conventional ovens - a 'true' convection oven has a separate heating element behind the fan so that it's heating the air as it blows it around. Others just use the fan to even out the heat - they say it's not quite as effective.
Disadvantages - recipe tweaking, an occasional face full of hot wind when you open your oven and the fan's on.
Advantages - even heating, more effective use of the heat, and you don't have to use it when you don't want to
posted by ersatzjef at 8:22 PM on July 30, 2015
If you're making pizza and you're just cranking the heat as high as it'll go, the convection gives you a happy little boost.
There are a couple variations on convection / conventional ovens - a 'true' convection oven has a separate heating element behind the fan so that it's heating the air as it blows it around. Others just use the fan to even out the heat - they say it's not quite as effective.
Disadvantages - recipe tweaking, an occasional face full of hot wind when you open your oven and the fan's on.
Advantages - even heating, more effective use of the heat, and you don't have to use it when you don't want to
posted by ersatzjef at 8:22 PM on July 30, 2015
I use my convection oven for everything: pastries, bread, all baking, roasts. I use it a lot and I've had it for about fifteen years. They will pry it out of my cold dead hands. I often fool people into thinking I am good at baking, but actually I just have a really spectacular oven. (It's a Kenmore but it was made by Frigidaire.)
I don't tweak recipes except I check things at the early part of the baking window, and usually they're done.
posted by xeney at 8:35 PM on July 30, 2015
I don't tweak recipes except I check things at the early part of the baking window, and usually they're done.
posted by xeney at 8:35 PM on July 30, 2015
When we had to replace our stove a few years back I specifically wanted a convection. It's a Maytag but I don't know the model. It's only okay and I'm not sure I'd make a point of getting another. It also reduces the temp 25F but I typically punch in the recipe temp +25F since things were not getting done in the specified time. (It's propane fuel so that may be part of the issue.) I do like to be able to put in multiple trays of cookies at once but I don't bake cakes all that often and I don't recall how our old oven worked well enough to say that the convection bakes things more evenly. Ours does have the option of regular baking or convection. I use it about half and half. I always use convection for sweet baked goods.
posted by Beti at 9:28 PM on July 30, 2015
posted by Beti at 9:28 PM on July 30, 2015
They're great for making kale chips. I used to live in a house with a convection oven and since I've moved out to a place with a regular oven I can't quite get the same results.
posted by needs more cowbell at 9:47 PM on July 30, 2015
posted by needs more cowbell at 9:47 PM on July 30, 2015
We only use ours for cooking hotdogs.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 10:45 PM on July 30, 2015
posted by Confess, Fletch at 10:45 PM on July 30, 2015
We have a convection oven as well as a separate conventional oven. We use the convection oven for almost everything, because it heats up faster and works as well as the conventional oven. I even use it to make toast. I only use the conventional oven for baking and for homemade pizza, and that's mainly because it's the larger of the two.
posted by neushoorn at 1:28 AM on July 31, 2015
posted by neushoorn at 1:28 AM on July 31, 2015
I've had convection ovens for 20+ years. My favorite use for it is the alternating grill/convection setting for roast chicken and leg of lamb - the results impresses all my guests. But it is also excellent for pizza, an extra boost, as ersatzjef says.
I use the conventional setting for baking.
posted by mumimor at 2:50 AM on July 31, 2015
I use the conventional setting for baking.
posted by mumimor at 2:50 AM on July 31, 2015
You're getting different answers here, since it's slightly unclear as to whether you're looking to replace your full-sized range with a convection oven or if you're looking to get a toaster-oven-style counter top unit.
I think that, for the counter-top units, you can get a lot of value out of the convection setting. They have a small enough volume of air that even a small fan can circulate the heat around.
The issue with the full sized convection ovens is that, unless you get a really nice one, they aren't circulating air to the extent that would really be necessary for them to behave like true convection ovens. A quick check would be the number of fans. For a full sized oven, you should really have at least two fans; most consumer-grade ovens (even the very nice one that we have) only has one fan.
My opinion is that, for a full-sized oven, I wouldn't shop based on the "convection" feature. Most of the time, the (single) fan that is built in to the oven isn't enough to really circulate the air around. That said, many ovens come with convection settings these days, so use the setting if you have it.
The standard thing that I've heard for convection ovens (from America's Test Kitchen, I think) is that you should use the convection setting for everything except sweet things that rise a bunch. The concern is that the moving air will dry out the top of your baked goods before they have a chance to rise. So convection is fine for bread and cookies, but not for cheesecake and chocolate soufflés.
posted by Betelgeuse at 6:59 AM on July 31, 2015
I think that, for the counter-top units, you can get a lot of value out of the convection setting. They have a small enough volume of air that even a small fan can circulate the heat around.
The issue with the full sized convection ovens is that, unless you get a really nice one, they aren't circulating air to the extent that would really be necessary for them to behave like true convection ovens. A quick check would be the number of fans. For a full sized oven, you should really have at least two fans; most consumer-grade ovens (even the very nice one that we have) only has one fan.
My opinion is that, for a full-sized oven, I wouldn't shop based on the "convection" feature. Most of the time, the (single) fan that is built in to the oven isn't enough to really circulate the air around. That said, many ovens come with convection settings these days, so use the setting if you have it.
The standard thing that I've heard for convection ovens (from America's Test Kitchen, I think) is that you should use the convection setting for everything except sweet things that rise a bunch. The concern is that the moving air will dry out the top of your baked goods before they have a chance to rise. So convection is fine for bread and cookies, but not for cheesecake and chocolate soufflés.
posted by Betelgeuse at 6:59 AM on July 31, 2015
Our oven automatically reduces the temperature. (If you put in 350 at convection, it'll automatically reduce it to 325.)
Oh yeah. This drives me crazy. I hate appliances that think they're smarter than I am. Thankfully, there's a way to turn this "correction" off on my oven.
posted by Betelgeuse at 6:59 AM on July 31, 2015
Oh yeah. This drives me crazy. I hate appliances that think they're smarter than I am. Thankfully, there's a way to turn this "correction" off on my oven.
posted by Betelgeuse at 6:59 AM on July 31, 2015
Betelgeuse figured out best what was going on here. We haven't bought a new oven yet; some unexpected house repair stuff came up first, but I think we might spring for the convection option next time based on all of the answers here. My thanks to everyone.
posted by wittgenstein at 2:55 PM on August 30, 2015
posted by wittgenstein at 2:55 PM on August 30, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:23 PM on July 30, 2015