Convection Ovens

Today’s consumer is highly educated in appliance features but there seems to be one stumbling block and that is convection.  We sell well over 50% of ovens with the convection feature and when the consumer gets them home they use regular bake because “I don’t want to learn to cook all over again.”  I hope this explanation of how convection works and use of the oven will finally put consumers at ease with this wonderful feature.

Convection is simply a fan installed inside the oven cavity which when operating circulates heated air evenly throughout the cavity making every square inch of oven rack space useable.  This function allows the consumer to use 3 racks or up to 7 racks in the oven at one time and have even cooking on all levels, when using top and bottom element convection cooking (see below) one must leave at least one inch of space on each side of the oven to insure proper air circulation.  When using convection to “bake” food the time that used does not change from regular bake and one does not need to change oven temperature (except in European ovens see below).  Simply put:  one can bake 3 lasagnas in an oven at one time but they still take an hour at 350 degrees.  When roasting meats on convection they will cook 30%-35% faster than regular bake.  It is best to use a thermometer or meat probe to monitor internal temperature.  This way when your turkey cooks at 40% faster the element of surprise is gone.  Sounds easy, doesn't it.  Then what is all the confusion?  I think the answer to that is in the manufacturers terminology of the different convection cycles and the two dominant methods of convection baking.

European convection ovens usually offer no traditional bake or highly discourage it.  They have hidden elements under the floor of the oven which are very slow to get to temperature so preheating is about 20-30 minutes.  The convection heaters in the European ovens are usually located outside the oven cavity at the rear of the oven.  These elements are 2400 watts or greater which is a great amount of heat therefore,  preheat time is much less than with regular bake.   By having the element outside the oven they produce less soil in the cavity and therefore need not be self cleaning.  Convection cooking in a European oven usually requires the user to lower all cooking temperatures by at least 25 degrees.  Since the element is so powerful and the European ovens move the air through the cavity with such precision all convection modes need to have the temperature reduced.  This is not so on American built convection ovens.  Even if they have a rear element or have 2400 watts temperature need not be reduced.  We continually experiment with the ovens we sell, almost every Saturday we are demonstrating one or another and we test these parameters.  I have not found any American built convection oven need temperature reduced during any convection mode.

Now that I’ve got that out of the way here are some of the terminology used by the manufacturers in marketing their product.

Convection:  Usually rear element but could be top and bottom elements and fan.

Pure Convection: Rear element

American Convection:  Top and bottom elements and fan

Convection Roast:  Top element and fan or top and bottom element and fan

Dual Convection:  Convection cooking at different fan speeds top and bottom elements

Convection Bake:  Could be either rear or top and bottom elements

With all these modes available what is the best oven?  Having cooked in almost all brands of convection ovens I feel that there is very little difference in performance of cooking.  Some of the others have different features like rotisserie, multi function convection modes which are used for specific food preparation, and other bells and whistles. The ovens and ranges come in a very large assortment of sizes and colors to pick from and almost every manufacturer makes convection products. If the consumer uses the product the way it is designed to be used then I believe that they will be satisfied with any brand picked.