September 19, 2021 - 1:04pm
typical oven temp range & recipe target temp?
I have two questions regarding electric temperatures and baking recipes:
1) what is considered 'good' for the temperature range an electrical oven can maintain for a given temperature and is that range typically a constant or does it change and you move from the minimum temp an oven is design to maintain to a maximum? For example we have a late 90's GE electric wall oven. If I set it at 450F....the temperate min max range is ~445f to 505f and when I set it to 170f the temperate range is ~160f to 210f.
2) when a recipe calls for a specific temperature to set the oven at, is the author expecting the oven to maintain that target at the min, average, max or something else?
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Where/how are you seeing that variation? Is it in difference places in the oven (upper/lower/mid or left/right/mid, etc...) or is that in a single place over time? (And, if so, where.)
I can't speak for authors but I would imagine that, whatever the allowance for oven temp variance (as all will vary a little as the elements cycle,) they would not be expecting quite so wide a range.
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I placed a probe from a Thermoworks Smoke thermometer about 3" diagonal in from the left front corner of a rack set 1/3 the way up from the bottom. I ran the test for a 3-4 hours at the 170f setting and the low stayed at 160f while the max went to 220f.
I've looked for articles or appliance reviews where a tester did any sort of systematic measuring of temperature uniformity of electrics wall ovens but I've found literally nothing.
That seems a little close to the edge - does the temperature in the centre fluctuate as much?
In many US electric ovens, the oven will briefly turn on the upper element, along with the lower element, to _maintain_ temperature, even after the pre-heat has been completed.
This can be tricky to observe because, during "maintenance heating" (ie, after the set temp has been initially attained) the upper element comes on for __shorter durations__ than the lower element. But... importantly, the "on" duration (of the upper element) is enough to add some heat to the oven, but not long enough for the element to turn orange/red in color and be "noticeably" on.
Example: while the lower elelemt may come for 30 seconds during maintenance heating, the upper element may come on for 5 seconds, turn off for 10, then on for 5, then off again.
Therefore, if there is nothing physically in between the probe and the upper element, the probe is picking up _radiant heat_ from the upper element. And that radiant heat is higher than the air temp.
Yet, if the obect shading the probe is too large, it could interfere with internal air flow and air-temp distribution.
That your probe is registering a -5 F to +55 F swing, hints that it receiving radiant heat from above.
Perhaps try placing a dark obect like a pie tin, small cookie sheet, or 9" cast iron skillet, or a section of aluminum foil (shiny side up) on a rack above the probe, in the horizontal center of the oven so that air flow not disturbed much, but importantly, sized and placed so that there is no "line of sight" between the probe and any part of the upper element.
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I am reminded of a story by Dan Ayo, where he suspected this "upper element coming on during maintenance heating mode", where he laid on the floor, and based on either visual clues from the lower element or relay-clicking noises from the oven, aimed an IR temp gun at the upper element and verified that it was coming on.