October 27, 2011 - 9:17am
Steam in home ovens - how many have you destroyed?
Just wondering how many home ovens other bakers have been through. My death toll is about 1.5 so far. We bought a second home oven this summer and it seems on the verge, hence the .5.
Any experience with repairing these? The one that is dead is a very cheap model, although in the 5 to 10 yr old range. I think both the temp probe and element are shot. The top (broiler) element still works and can heat up the quarry tiles and make nice pitas, at least. Any guestimates on price to for parts being less than another over? I'm sure i could find something comparable for under $150 on CL.
I'm glad the first oven made it as long as it did. Running a home oven 16+hrs straight at high temps with steam surely is not what it was designed for!
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The current one has non-functioning light & thermostat & I keep the warped door closed by jamming a curtain tension bar between the door and the kitchen island.
I'll stick to the dutch oven method with my next oven!
I have a simple GE electric in-wall oven. It is about 20+ years old(inherited from parents) and besides occasionally replacing the bottom heating element, seems no worse for the wear. I have replaced the bottom element twice in the 10 years I have been with it. Very easy to (self)replace, at a total cost of about $20 or less. Also, very easy to replace the light bulb, for a total cost of less than $1. Already have a spare bulb, but I expect the bulbs will last over 10 years in use.
Been steaming the heck out of it for the 2+ years of heavy bread/pizza baking. Again, seems no worse for the wear, but I imagine the steam may help slowly corrode any internal wiring. Hope it lasts another 10 or so years.
I'm still on the same oven, although I've had to repair my oven timer once(a relay burned through a solder joint). Since then I've bought an additional timer so that I have no baking downtime.
This isn't a plug, but I've used a local service to repair both my oven timer, and my aunts oven timer for a reasonable cost. It might be worth checking out with all the steaming we do.
http://www.appliancetimers.com/
I use appliancerepair.com or repairdepot.com for parts that I have broken/worn out in my ovens. It's very easy with the older simpler ovens as they have very few moving parts. Just be sure to unplug the oven before proceeding.
but the temperature is still all over the place....
is this an easy swap out like the element?