Hi everyone!

I just joined the forum today, but i've been reading for quite some time. I am doing a cost-analysis of opening a bakery in Beijing, where I have lived for a number of years. There are very few good bakeries, and especially bagel shops. One of my friends has his own bagel store back in the U.S., and he has already agreed to come out for a month or two to help us open shop and train employees and myself included.

So here is the question of this topic:

I want to buy a nice oven (yet not go broke) that can cook bagels, at least 12-24 at a time, with steam function. I also want the ability to cook artisan loaves and other breads as pictured on this site as our skill increases.  My friend is currently using the REVENT 726 gas, but it is a bit out of my price range, and I think the cooking capacity exceeds bagel demand over here.

Don't worry about suppliers, I can have family purchase it back home and ship it over if need be.

Thank you all so much for the help! Wish me luck!

I'm interested to see what people think of having a proofer under a deck or modular oven. This is very common in Europe and I'd like to know if its something you'd like too.  Is this something that you'd like?  Please give me feedback and some of your wish lists.  Thanks Kristine

My love affair with my 50 year old GE Hotpoint 40" range has been, literally, on and off these past few weeks. 

I was so excited to get a new 20 inch Fibrament stone (no more stubby baquettes!) but then my bottom element burned up.  So I replaced it (doing the wiring myself) and was back in love again. But then I started noticing that the bottoms of my loaves were not browning up and I wasn't getting good oven spring. And I had been making such nice progress on my bread too. I was so distraought...was it my shaping?  Was the dough too slack?  Could it be  the baking stone???

It finally occurred to me to toss a bit of water on the bottom element. Dead. All the oven heat was coming from the top element (which I thought only came on if set to broil).  What an idiot! What a relief!  I trewired again. Plugged it in, turned it on and POP! The entire range dead. I finally realized it was time to call a professional.  Except for the indicator light it's working again. 

But I'm wondering....should I keep this baby or finally get a new stove.  Are the stoves on the market right now that good?  I was told by a repairman once that they stopped making good stoves around 1960. Is that still true?

Here's what I love about this stove:  Working space between the two burners. Two ovens of useful size. Temps are spot on.  Never have to worry about steam messing with electronic sensors or breaking glass. I can (usually) replace elements and such myself. No hood interfering with my highly needed over the stove cabinet. As vintage as me and my kitchen. 

On the other hand, I could wire gas to the stove for a dual fuel stove (don't want gas oven). I could get convection. Or I could try induction (if it works with Al-clad and cast iron pots). Smaller oven footprint in my small kitchen.  I don't want really want to spend more than 2000 for a stove btw.  

So, TFL'rs thanks for reading this long post.  I'd be very interested in your thoughts. Do you feel passionate about your stoves?  Am I stuck in the 50s?

I know most people have a preference for using either gas or electric ovens.  For those of you shopping for a new or used one to purchase, I thought I'd point out the basic costs of running them so you can weigh out the pros and cons using your local electricity or gas costs.  I'll base this example on the two ovens I use; one is electric and one is gas (LP).

Electric ovens are rated in watts used per hour or KWH (thousands of watts per hour).  So an oven that is rated at 11,000 watts uses 11 Kilowatts per hour or 11 KWH.
The electric company bases their charges on KWH, mine is $.057/KWH.
That means my electric oven costs 11 x $.057 = $.63 per hour to run.

Propane and Natural Gas ovens are rated in BTU/hour (here anyway).  My LP oven uses 60,000 BTU per hour.  It takes approximately 1 gallon of propane to burn 90,000 BTU.  So my oven uses (60,000/90,000) .67 of a gallon of propane to run for 1 hour.  Since propane cost me $2.19 per gallon, my running cost per hour is .67 x $2.19 =  $1.46 per hour.

Of course these are approximates based on the manufacturer's specs, plus different ovens take longer to heat up than others and retain their heat more or less. 
There you go.

-Mark

http://TheBackHomeBakery.com

Hello I just joined this wonderful site a couple of weeks ago and keep on making new discoveries all the time. Thanks for sharing all your experiences.

Or is a Hobart just as good as any other commercial oven. It seems as if Hobarts have a lot of reputation attached to the name, yet I see Blodgett, Bakers Pride etc with similar features and pricing. I sometimes see Hobart listed with GE/Hotpoint, why is that?

Hi all,

Just wondered if anyone is baking in, or is investigating, a used restaurant range? In the last 12 months I've twice blown out the electronic sensors in my not-very-old home Maytag.  I've explored the Viking, Aga, Jenn-aire and KitchenAid models, but wonder if there might not be great value in a used commercial range.  Would appreciate your thoughts.

Sylvia