January 12, 2015 - 11:52am
Baker's Pride Countertop Oven
I recently picked up a Baker's Pride counter-top deck oven on ebay; it's a DP-2 model and has full control over top and bottom heat, but I'm not getting satisfactory results - the heat output seems to be overwhelmingly biased towards the bottom, which means that I can really only use the oven with the bottom heat set at '1' while the top heat is set at '10' - anything else results in a burnt bottom and a pale upper crust.
I'd imagine that he balance can be tweaked assuming that there is some adjustabilty in the 'stats to allow for calibration etc but I'd be curious to know if anyone has any experience of these ovens or has had success / headaches with them before I start to improvise....
Glenn.
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I have not used that model, but have used a few diff models of BP pizza ovens. In general, the location of the sensors was not idea for the pizza ovens , and it sounds like you have a similar problem, the sensor for temp in the oven is too close to the stone, so it shuts off too early. On the ones I used, I very carefully removed the sensor from the tabs holding it in place and wedged it into a different location. I assume your model uses a capillary sensor - a very thin metal wire that runs directly from the thermo to the sensor. If you break the wire it can't be repaired, but usually it is long enough to let you move the sensor around a bit if you are very careful.
I understand what you're saying, but in my case the bottom element seems to be staying on for too long. As standard, the sensor is about two thirds of the way up the side wall of the oven chamber, so maybe moving it down towards the stone may help (although the temperature gradients inside the chamber may mean that this is counter-productive).
I see in some of the bakers pride literature that 'brick lining' is available as an option and 'increases the intensity of top heat'. Have you ever seen / used one of these 'brick lined' models ? I presume it amounts to a second stone, fitted below the upper element, but I'm not sure how it could intensify the upper heat ?
Glenn.
Glenn, I went back and look at the wiring schematic for your oven, you only have one thermostat and two potentiometers which in theory adjust the balance between top and bottom heat, so my suggestion won't help. I have never seen a brick lined model. You do have the corderite decks, correct? BTW, the manual says that if you have that problem, you need to set the temp 50 to 75 degrees lower than desired, then once it hits that temp, load your loaf, and turn up the temp. Doesn't seem like a great solution to me, though it will work a little, since the stone will take a bit of time to increase its temp.
Yes, I have corderite decks, with just a perforated metal screen shielding the upper element. I went digging throughout the Bakers Pride website and indeed found the instruction you mentioned (reduce temps, then increase when loading oven) and I can see schematics for DP-2 models, but none for the variant with potentiometers for top & bottom heat -if you've found one, could you please send me a link to same ?
One other point of interest is that my oven seems to be equipped with 'Hi-Heat' thermostats which go right up to 800 F or about 450 C which of course is excellent for pizza. I don't expect this to be the root of my problems though, since the balance between top & bot heat should be unaffected.
Thanks,
Glenn.
Glenn, page 7 of the pdf, there are a number of symbols that are not labeled, the pots should be two of those. I would guess one is wired in series with each element, but can't be sure. http://www.webstaurantstore.com/documents/pdf/155px14.pdf
Thanks for that - I can see the two unlabelled components beside the 'stats, but I think that they are the pilot lights on the front panel.
I think I'll have to open up the control panel and have a look - it will be interesting to see if there are any adjustments which can be made to the potentiometers etc by way of calibration.
Another avenue I might try is to fit a piece or corderite or similar below the upper element, in place of the screen which is currently there. Not sure how or why this would affect the top/bottom balance, but the brochure does suggest that 'brick lining' will 'intensify the top heat'.
I also need to get some more steam in there - I've got one of those little hand held steam cleaners and I think if I was to plumb it up to the oven, it should provide a good supply of steam on demand. Anyone else tried one of these for this purpose ?
Glenn.
Glenn, I have the smallest Cadco, and have hooked it up to inject steam using a hand held steamer. Fortunately for me, the Cadco has a round vent at the rear, and it was pretty easy to get a piece of copper pipe plus a coupler that fit right into it. I ran the pipe to a tee , one side of the tee goes up and has a wooden plug so that I can vent the moisture, the other side gets routed to the front, and has a cap on it . I take the cap off and shoot about 15 to 20 seconds of steam, then put the cap on, then wait about 5 minutes, and open the door, and remove the plug at the back to allow it to finish without any steam. I am still playing around with it. The Cadco uses convection heat, unlike the BP, so there is always a fan on. I put on a deflector to cut down the air movement, but I think my preference would be no fan at all, so I have been experimenting with setting the oven very high ( 572 F ) with a stone and a piece of steel, then loading the bread, turning off the oven, steaming, then when I am done steaming, turn back on the oven at 400. I usually only bake a few loaves on the weekends, so it is still a work in progress. I used the BP's for pizza. I had the PX 14 and the 18 inch 2 stone pizza oven ( the current model is the p18, mine was much older and ran on 120 volts ), and I also had a chinese single deck pizza oven with separate sensors and thermostats for top and bottom, so I have played around with that type of oven before. I don't think corderite will help the top heat, though another option is to try fibrament, or other stone with lower conductivity for the bottom deck, so the bottoms should take longer to brown.
I'm looking at buying one of these - way way reduced, so a smoking good deal, but, do they work for loaf pans? At 5.5", is that enough clearance?
Thanks!!