Ovens

sandie3

Hello everyone, apologies if this isn't in the right thread, but I wasn't sure what heading it would come under.

Im interested in knowing if anyone else has had the information given to me by a cooker company. Having purchased a new double, fan assisted oven last August and having very poor results with any type of baking, I have been told by the company, that its "normal" for any oven to have a +/- 15 degree "tolerance", therefore I should adjust my oven temperature accordingly. My previous ovens have been fan assisted as well.
Has anyone else ever been told this please? I have never ever heard this before, and having had so many failures when baking cakes, its very disconcerting. Whereas I always baked cakes at a temperature of 140/160C I'm now baking them at 200C and still getting failures, Ive used the same mixes for many many years and have never had problems in the past. The only thing that's changed is my oven.
I would be very grateful for any "feedback" you can give me.
Sandie

fluffnutter

I think you do need to get used to a new oven and adjust recipes accordingly. I also think that there will be tolerances although I couldn't say whether +/- 15 degrees is reasonable. However, a 40 - 60 degree difference seems a lot.

Is is just cakes? Unless you're following a specific recipe it's all a bit open to interpretation anyway. Have you tried cooking, say, a ready meal to see whether this remains uncooked at the end of the specified time?

Get an oven thermometer and find out precisely what temperature your oven is running at. If it's significantly different (more than 5 - 10 degrees) then you've got grounds for complaint, I reckon.

shaun_from_Africa

Get an oven thermometer and find out precisely what temperature your oven is running at.

Something like this:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stainless-Steel-Oven-Thermometer-Stand/dp/B000QDEH3W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369142488&sr=8-1&keywords=oven+thermometer
will cost you just under £3.50 delivered.

If the oven temp is showing as well under the set temperature, you may be able to position the thermometer so that you can take a picture of it and the temperature selector switch on the same photo and give this to the seller of the oven.

sandie3

Many thanks for your replies. I have tried other things in the oven, frozen pizza,s for example used to take 15 mins in my other ovens but this one takes 30-40mins. the box instructions say 12-15mins. Tiny roast potatoes that have been "par boiled", take at least an hour instead of the 40mins before. The cake recipes I use are ones ive used for many many years, and have never let me down in the past, Im over 60, so not a "newbie" lol.. I have tried an oven thermometer and its reading 20degrees lower than the oven is set at. On using the top oven recently, both my Hubby and I could put our hands inside it when I opened the door to put food in, after it showed it had reached the temperature set, 180C, it was that cool.
As I had never heard of oven variations in the past, I thought I would see if anyone else had heard this.
Thankyou once again
Sandie

paddyrg

Maybe it's a duff element in there somewhere? A cheap thermometer may be inaccurate as well, but it starts building a case for an engineer to come and test it - especially if pizzas take 40 mins instead of 12 mins, etc.

paddyrg

Ok, so here's how to tell. Turn off everything electrical in the house, especially immersion heater, etc. Turn on oven to full. Run down to meter, and see how quickly the dials spin - take a stopwatch and be accurate, do it over a few minutes, maybe count the dial revolutions in 5 minutes for instance. Then do the sums, come back here if needs be. If you come here for the sums, please add a photo of the meter. If we calculate the power Used is maybe 1200W and the oven is rated at 2400W, it would prove a Duff element, for instance.

sandie3

Hi Paddy, thankyou for your reply. Im afraid I cant do what you suggest with the meter, we don't have the "old" type any more, the one we have is digital so theres no dial to look at. The company who made the oven, is sending a senior engineer out to look at it tomorrow, so we will wait and see what he says. Having spoken to friends about this, no one I know has ever heard of ovens having such a difference in temperature. With baking cakes, in particular, its extremely important to have a constant temperature. I have thrown away loads of cakes that have failed since having this oven, and as I make a lot of them, both for myself and other people, I am getting very frustrated about it.
Thanks again
Sandie

mattyprice4004

I still think a thermometer will be a good investment, handy for any future issues too.

fluffnutter

sandie3 wrote: »

Many thanks for your replies. I have tried other things in the oven, frozen pizza,s for example used to take 15 mins in my other ovens but this one takes 30-40mins. the box instructions say 12-15mins. Tiny roast potatoes that have been "par boiled", take at least an hour instead of the 40mins before. The cake recipes I use are ones ive used for many many years, and have never let me down in the past, Im over 60, so not a "newbie" lol.. I have tried an oven thermometer and its reading 20degrees lower than the oven is set at. On using the top oven recently, both my Hubby and I could put our hands inside it when I opened the door to put food in, after it showed it had reached the temperature set, 180C, it was that cool.
As I had never heard of oven variations in the past, I thought I would see if anyone else had heard this.
Thankyou once again
Sandie

There's temperature variations and then there's having to cook a 12 minute pizza for 40 minutes.

Sounds like they're fobbing you off and it's time to go back and open a can of whoop-ass.

Where did you buy it?

mattyprice4004

fluffnutter wrote: »

There's temperature variations and then there's having to cook a 12 minute pizza for 40 minutes.

Sounds like they're fobbing you off and it's time to go back and open a can of whoop-ass.

Where did you buy it?

Proof from a thermometer with pictures would be incredibly handy in proving the issue.

sandie3

Thank you for all your replies. Manufacturers Engineer has called today and said theres nothing wrong with the cooker having done thermometer readings. As far as they are concerned, that's the end of it, but Im keeping my "options" open.
Thanks again for all your help
Sandie