Electric Ovens

[leeleer]

I'm new to Baking Forums - here for some advice on electric ovens. My Bosch is 16 years old. It's temperature varies mercilessly - if I set the convection oven to 350degrees and leave it to preheat for 20 minutes it cycles from 385-365-345 over a period of 45 minutes. Once it gets close to 350 and stays there for a while I quickly open it, set the cake in and close it. Immediately the oven temperature drops to 320degrees then makes its way back up to 353 then drops again to 340. I did the toast test where I put 6 slices of bread on a rack in the upper third of the oven and 6 on a rack in the lower third. After ten minutes the toast on the upper rack was golden. The bread on the lower rack was not toasted on top and burnt on the bottom. Clearly my convection isn''t convecting. I know these are two separate problems - my question is have others had this variable temperate experience? How do you deal with it? I've been to a couple of appliance stores who say that new electric ovens behave similarly to this. Also they're no longer built to last more than ten years unless you spend upwards of $10,000 for a Wolf. They all said the Bosch continues to be the best in class above Kitchen Aid, GE Cafe, LG, etc. Help!

 

[retired baker]

how do products bake, if they come out burnt or raw I'd call it a dud, if they come out ok then don't look at temps.
Temps will jump around until it zeroes in and stabilizes.

 

[Bakingtime3]

It is normal for ovens to vary in temperature during baking. The temperature sensor measures the temperature and cycles the heating element on/off to maintain the pre-set temperature within a certain range. I have heard that +/- 20 degrees is normal variation for ovens.

Convection ovens involve the use of a fan to move the air around and tends to speed up the baking process. Have you tried baking with the convection feature OFF and see if it makes a difference? Some recipes aren't designed for use with the convection feature and you might have to make certain modifications to get the best results.

I have a GE double oven that works great (does NOT have convection). Which oven rack position to use you will learn from experience. I always bake on the middle rack or the one directly above/below that for best results. I ignore the oven position stated in most recipes since I have no idea what type of oven was used. My lowest rack position tends to cause the bottom of most items to burn before they are done, so I never use that position when baking.