The Fresh Loaf

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Looking for commercial grade convection oven I can use at home.

PheebzPinoyBread's picture
PheebzPinoyBread

Looking for commercial grade convection oven I can use at home.

good morning! I am in need of a bigger convection oven for home use that I can bake 3-5 medium-large pans without having any problems. Ive noticed a lot of the electric commercial grade ovens run on 240v. Also heard that any commercial convection ovens would have problems with our home insurance. Would it be OK to run a propane oven outside the house?

Any thoughts, advice greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

JoeV's picture
JoeV

All electric ovens used in the home run on 240V single phase. When purchasing a used commercial electric convection, make certain it is not wired for 3 phase electrical, unless you have 3 phase in your home. Residential power is single phase. I see 3 phase units on Craigslist all the time, but not too many single phase units.

I do large bread bakes four times each year for a recurring fundraiser, and what I did was to buy a used 30" electric range off of Craigslist and connected it in my basement (I am an electrician). This way I get 8 loaves of bread baking at the same time...4 up and 4 down. If I might ask, what are you doing that requires that much capacity? Sounds like a commercial business you have going from your home.

Doc.Dough's picture
Doc.Dough

A 30" Wolf double convection oven (240VAC 4-wire single phase, 60 amp dedicated circuit) will bake eight  1.5 lb loaves in each oven simultaneously but it is slow to heat up.  A small Rational or a Henny-Penny combi will run on the same circuit if you order it wired that way with a single phase motor and heating coils.  These will heat up at about 1 °F per second.  I think there may also be a 208VAC single phase option.  You could get 12 loaves at a time in either of them.

Chuck's picture
Chuck

As the above posters have intimated, what matters is not the voltage but the phase type. 240V in a home is not an issue if it's single-phase. Your existing stove and existing dryer already use 240V single-phase; you've already got it.

If on the other hand a new stove needs 3-phase electricity (often -but not always- described as 208V rather than 240V), a home almost certainly doesn't have it (and you may not even be able to "upgrade"). You probably can't tell the phase needs definitively from either the number of wires or the voltage (although you can sometimes make pretty good guesses). The information will be in the specs, just read carefully.

"Commercial" ovens often require significant space (a foot or more is typical) on all sides to shed heat, which means they often don't fit into a home very well. That's a big reason why I suggest looking at "large home" ovens rather than "commercial" ovens. For example if a 30-inch home oven is big enough for you, that may be a good way to go. My guess is that insurance rules vary greatly from state to state, county to county, town to town, and company to company. But so long as you look at "large home" ovens, insurance shouldn't be an issue.

Because large home ovens aren't sold all that often, appliance stores tend to not keep them in stock. That doesn't mean they're not available though. Peruse the various manufacturer's websites, or talk with a really knowledgeable salesperson.

A common issue with very large home ovens is the "amount" of electricity they need, called "amps". Very large ovens can overload the wiring -or even the whole breakerbox- in a home. If a new oven is going to use significantly more electricity than your existing one, it might be a good idea to check with an electrician before you buy it.