Convection ovens

[Kismet]

I''m in the market for a new freestanding gas range and it seems the convection feature is very popular (with the manufacturers at least.) I was wondering if the loss of depth due to the convection unit affected you all that much. Looking in the oven, it looks like you lose an inch or two of depth due to the fan but I couldn''t tell how much (if any) depth you lost due to the convection unit itself. This will be the only oven in the house so I''d like to get something that''s pretty usable in most situations.

Any recommendations on ranges would be helpful as well. My list of features:

30" - must have
Keypad rather than just up/down arrows to adjust time/temp. - must have
5 burners - nice to have
warming drawer - nice to have
color is still up in the air but it will be either white or stainless

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Mine seems fine. I didn''t realize it has a loss of depth.

The one you''re looking at has convection and regular settings, right? Some foods don''t cook up right in convection. For example, tator tots don''t end up as crunchy on the outside. We have a double oven set up. Top has a convection/regular oven and the bottom is just a regular oven.

 

[Kismet]

Date: 9/21/2009 2:25:13 PM
Author: MC
Mine seems fine. I didn''t realize it has a loss of depth.

The one you''re looking at has convection and regular settings, right? Some foods don''t cook up right in convection. For example, tator tots don''t end up as crunchy on the outside. We have a double oven set up. Top has a convection/regular oven and the bottom is just a regular oven.

I wasn''t really looking at convection ovens at all but after spending an hour with the salesman at Sears and going through what they offer, he came up with only one 30" free standing as range with a keypad, 5 burners, a warming drawer and no convection that came in either white or stainless (GE Profile PGB90.

So now I''m wondering if I said no to convection too quickly. You make a good point about the convection feature being usable at will. I''ll keep that in mind. Thanks!

 

[andex23]

You don''t realize the lack of depth. Unless you are currently cooking with a pan that takes up the ENTIRE shelf rack on the oven, if the rack is 2inches skinnier, you won''t notice.

I can talk about ranges/appliances all day...so I apologize now if this gets too long.

The point of the "Convection" oven is that there is a fan in the back that will circulate the air within the oven chamber. Most (I''m pretty sure I should use the word "all" but want to reserve just in case I am wrong) ovens that are convection ovens are really just a "regular" oven AND a "Convection" oven. The convection just turns on the fan portion. The sales part of the convection is that it takes less time to cook using convection (5-10 minutes less depending on what you are cooking), you can cook at a lower temperature (save electricity/gas because you don''t have to have such a high heat--25 degrees less), and you can put more than one thing in the oven (cookies and a casserole). Things to know about the convection part. If you are cooking something with a lid, you don''t use convection. No turkey in a bag, etc. The idea is that the air swirls around the food. (You wouldn''t use the convection to cook cookies in a brownie pan because the sides of the pan would stop the air from swirling.)

I have recently (within the last 2 years) purchased a convection oven (Jenn-Air Pro Style). It is actually a 30" slide in range. Info about slide in vs freestanding. Freestanding is exactly what the name suggests. It is a totally free standing range. If it were on the end of a counter, there would be metal panels on the side (although now most building codes do not allow for a range to be on the end of a counter). Often freestanding ranges have a "backsplash" where sometimes the controls are located. A slide in range is almost the same as a freestanding except it is designed to "slide in" between two cabinets. It does not generally have a backsplash. This is often what you would see if the range were installed in a kitchen island. You can put a freestanding range along a wall, as long as you have a flame-proof backsplash (tiles on the wall, etc). Why tell you all this? Because I think that you''ll find that a slide in will offer you the features that you want (the keypad, mostly). Because you are doing a cooktop and oven (hence the term "range" there often isn''t a keypad on the front like a built in oven would have. 30" is the standard size for almost all frestanding ranges. slide in ranges come in 30, 36, 48 and others.

5 burners--normally, you''ll find only 4 burners on a 30" range. 5/6 burners come on 36" ranges. My question to you is, if you are trying to cook 5 things at once and use all 5 burners, do you still have room for the pots on top? Maybe my pots are too big, but it''s hard finding space on my 30" for 4 pans, much less 5. What I would recommend is continuous grates. That is so you can slide your pans from one burner to another burner. Sometimes, the pan, with all the food inside, is too heavy for me to lift (and it''s probably hot too). With the continuous grates, i can slide the pan from one burner to a burner that I wasn''t using to help "cool" the food.


here''s a link (hopefully) of the range that we purchased when we remodeled our kitchen 2 years ago. It also comes with a warming drawer at the bottom. (the only down side is that you can''t use the warming drawer and the oven at the same time...so I just leave the drawer off and use the oven and pretend that it keeps the food in the drawer warm (which it does pretty well)).

http://www.jennair.com/flash.cmd?/#/product/JGS8860BDP/

Hopefully this was helpful and not too much information overload.

 

[ksinger]

Great advice above. We have a free-standing gas Kenmore Elite with 5 burners, convection, and CONTINUOUS GRATES. Can''t stress the continuous grates enough. Love gas, love the range. Got free standing because it made our kitchen remodel a bit cheaper: too much extra work/materials and too hard to get in and out.

Good luck finding the right range! Happy cooking!