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I just bought a KitchenAid oven which, has both convection and conventional settings with a convection conversion setting. I have been baking for over 40 years, and nothing I have made in this oven is edible. I am using the conventional feature (as with a typical conventional oven) to make breads, quick breads, cheesecake, etc.

I have had 5 technicians out who say that my temperature is correct. They have calibrated the temp up and calibrated it down. Nothing works. I have had to increase the baking time on the recipe by double (or longer), and at times, I still have raw liquid dough in the center. I am not doing anything differently from the 40+ years of baking these recipes.

What is the problem and how do I fix it?

Anastasia Zendaya
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jkhcast
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    Are you baking recipes from cookbooks and similar, or are you baking your own recipes which have worked in the past? Going purely from what you describe, it could be that your recipes are matched to your old oven which was miscalibrated, and so don't work for a correctly calibrated oven. – dbmag9 Mar 09 '22 at 12:37
  • If your food is taking longer than you would expect to bake, maybe your old oven ran quite hot without you realizing? Maybe you can try raising the oven temperature and see if that helps – Esther Mar 09 '22 at 15:59
  • I once owned a convection oven and it was great. There was nothing different about it if I didn't turn on the convection feature. See fuzzychef's answer. – JimmyJames Mar 09 '22 at 21:55
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    what is actually going wrong with the bakes that makes them inedible? Is food undercooked, overcooked, raw, burnt, cooked unevenly, or something else? The cause of any of these problems would be different – Tristan Mar 10 '22 at 09:36
  • Dumb question... any chance you have something wrong with the units? Like, you're used to degrees Celsius but this is in degrees Farhrenheit? – Joe M Mar 10 '22 at 10:06
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    i have been baking with these recipes for over 40 years. so i have used SEVERAL ovens. I cant imagine every other oven was incorrect and this is the correct one. There is no one reason it is inedible. Typically i am baking at 50% or more longer than the recipe typically takes. Everytime i make something it is hit or miss. And this is set at Farenheit which is what i have always used. I guess i count this as a $1300 loss and go back to a basic conventional oven with no bells or whistles. What a waste. – jkhcast Mar 10 '22 at 13:08
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    *Model number please.* I have an idea that I might be able to flesh out into an answer if I could find the manual – Chris H Mar 10 '22 at 13:38
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    How do you usually cook? Do you preheat the oven, or do you start from cold? Did your old oven have exposed elements? Does the new one? Ovens with embedded elements don't radiate as much during preheat - if your recipes are relying on going in cold and getting a big initial broil-blast from the bottom radiant element then an oven with embedded elements won't work the same way at all. – J... Mar 10 '22 at 17:40
  • @dbmag9 Either that or the old oven didn't have a proper seal. This will cause the oven to cook faster as it needs to keep the burner on to maintain temp. Although, reading the comments it looks like it was more than one oven so maybe doesn't apply here. – mchid Mar 10 '22 at 18:23
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    As the techs have checked the temperature, this appears to be baker error. – paulj Mar 10 '22 at 20:51
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    Please come back and update what the eventual outcome is of this-- I am unreasonably invested in your situation. – Alexander Nied Mar 11 '22 at 15:12
  • model number is KitchenAid KFEG500E – jkhcast Mar 12 '22 at 12:10
  • Having looked at the manual, I'm even more inclined to think that it's trying to be too clever and failing – Chris H Mar 13 '22 at 18:12
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    Is the oven wired correctly? These draw a lot of power. In my country we use three-phase 440V/16A for kitchen stuff. I think the USA uses 120V, which might simply not be able to supply enough power? – Patrick Mar 21 '22 at 14:54

3 Answers3

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The first thing to do is buy an oven thermometer to see what temperature your oven actually is. Technicians have no real way of knowing what the temperature is when you are using it; what you need is hard data. Oven thermometers are very cheap, and it will give you a better idea of what's going on. Put one in your oven and then turn it to the temperature you want, then see what temperature it actually gets to.

Next, read your oven's manual thoroughly to make sure there's not something you're missing. One of my ovens wasn't working--I set the temperature and mode but it wouldn't heat. I thought it was broken before I figured out it wouldn't work if the clock's time wasn't set. Don't ask me why it was designed that way, it doesn't make sense but there it is. Some ovens have a start button and won't change the temperature unless you press it.

scohe001
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GdD
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  • My Neff also won't turn on without the clock set. I suspect it's to do with the timer for the auto turn-off feature (which I never use, just the reminder timer - a timer for preheating would occasionally be nice though). Also look at how long it takes to reach that temperature, and when any indicator that it's preheated changes state (probably with the thermometer near the middle). – Chris H Mar 09 '22 at 13:07
  • Mine's a Neff as well, I don't know who thought that was a useful feature. – GdD Mar 09 '22 at 14:02
  • I've had other ovens with timed shut-off, and never used it on any of them. From there it's lack of thought rather than anything else - product designers (I'm not inclined to call them engineers) not imagining that users won't set the clock, because the manual tells you to. But then the light from my oven clock is bright enough to find my way round the kitchen at night and it flashes when not set so I have to set it to avoid the annoyance – Chris H Mar 09 '22 at 14:19
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    I'd argue that it's worthwhile for him to get an "expensive" oven thermometer, like a ThermoWorks, just to be sure. Cheap thermometers are often, themselves, inaccurate. – FuzzyChef Mar 09 '22 at 18:11
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    @FuzzyChef - I agree that good gear is often a worthwhile investment. (I own a ThermaPen and although it was expensive I've never regretted the purchase.) However, for a really basic "reality check" an inexpensive oven thermometer would probably be sufficient. Or, get two different inexpensive ones to compare and if they both give reasonably close readings then keep one and give the other to a friend or family member. (I've "gifted" a few fridge/freezer thermometers over the years.) – Gord Thompson Mar 09 '22 at 20:28
  • When I set my new one to broil, it gets to 500 degrees and turns off... W.T.F? That's not *broil*. That's *baking* at 500 degrees. Digital sucks so bad... gimme a knob, and just do what I say. – Mazura Mar 09 '22 at 22:15
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    @Mazura my 0% digital electric oven will turn off the element even while the knob is set to broil (presumably if it overheats) – fyrepenguin Mar 10 '22 at 07:02
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    I have read the manual. i have talked to KitchenAid. I have had technicians come out. One spent an hour here with the oven on so they could check the temp as it cycled through. I have used a thermometer on my own. This is not the problem. My question is if anyone has experience using one of these convection/conventional ovens and if they know if there are specific items that can be adjusted to make them work more like a typical conventional oven. ie; set at higher/lower temps, longer/shorter baking time, or a combo of both? Specifically for BAKING. – jkhcast Mar 10 '22 at 13:04
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    @jkhcast, you need to know what the actual temperature inside the oven is. If you have a thermometer what does it read? When you set it to a temperature does it get to that temperature? – GdD Mar 10 '22 at 13:08
  • A thought prompted by the discussion about clocks: be sure you're not setting a mode that turns off automatically, i.e. anything involving a timer. If you can't avoid such a mode, set it to run for much longer than you need, like 2 hours, and abort it when the food is done. – Chris H Mar 10 '22 at 13:39
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    I had a fan oven which had a metal grating over the fan opening, so you could use the oven to roast meat without the fan getting dirty. The grating had to be removed when using the fan function. If I forgot I got inedible cakes. Really bad design. – RedSonja Mar 10 '22 at 13:41
  • @jkhcast - My mom has the same problem in the new house. We've done the thermometer thing; it's what it should be. Old house had convection, so she'd learned to deal with that, some. Her new commercial grade six-burner turns cookies into pancakes tho. Prob too hot. Forget about thermometers; ***you* have to learn your new oven**. And basically how to cook, again. "there are specific items that" *you* need to adjust for. Mostly pastries, which is why *baker* is a profession on its own.... Cook a chicken in 30m; no one complains. – Mazura Mar 10 '22 at 21:41
  • @fyrepenguin - every gas stove I've ever used that had *broil* after *500* on the knob, was a setting that tells it to ignore the thermocouple, and so it will fire until you turn it off or don't pay the bill. - Now I have to open the door on the over to broil stuff. Luckily it's still winter. – Mazura Mar 10 '22 at 21:49
  • Interesting, @Mazura. Mine sure has has the broil after 500, but when I left it on for a bit (was sequentially broiling a few things) and when I went to put in the last one, the element was off. After a little bit with the door open sure enough the element turned back on. And mine definitely isn’t a new oven, either – fyrepenguin Mar 11 '22 at 00:36
  • OP says "Typically I am baking at 50% or more longer than the recipe typically takes." - IME it's too hot [too much *heat transfer*, rather] and takes half the time (on my mom's that is - mine's *just above* bottom of the barrel, which is the prob. During covid, all the cheapest, stupid, *good* ones were out of stock). I'm not 100% on when/if they will "ignore the thermocouple" - that's just been my exp. But you have electric, so IDK. @jkhcast - yours gas or electric? Let's see that model number. – Mazura Mar 11 '22 at 00:47
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My suggestion is simple: return the oven. It's likely that you purchased a defective oven. Many countertop ovens have manufacturing defects, and the easy way to handle this is return-and-replace. I suggest also browsing online reviews for the model you purchase, as some countertop ovens are defective-by-design.

FuzzyChef
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    Yes. The longer you wait, the harder this becomes. – JimmyJames Mar 09 '22 at 21:53
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    Also, just because you had a good experience with a brand in the past, it doesn't mean you will have a good experience now. The unfortunate reality is that corporations consider brands to be assets and sometimes they 'burn' them. That is, they take a brand known for it's quality and start slapping it on bad quality items and mark them up. In business terms, this is called a 'value add' from branding. – JimmyJames Mar 09 '22 at 21:59
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    Why do you assume a countertop oven? At that price, it is likely a range or wall oven, and is something you can’t just pickup and tote back to the store. – Debbie M. Mar 10 '22 at 00:32
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    Because the OP called it a "paperweight". – FuzzyChef Mar 10 '22 at 01:38
  • $1300 countertop oven would be quite the feat, my excessively large Breville was $600... (And probably a better oven!) – Joe M Mar 10 '22 at 10:08
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    i cannot return as i have had for over a year. And this is not a countertop oven. And when i said 'paperweight' i meant it was a useless $1300 product. Not that it didnt weigh anything.????? – jkhcast Mar 10 '22 at 12:59
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    Original question says "i just bought a KitchenAid oven..." and "my new convection/convention oven" but it's over a year old? Something's not adding up here. – barbecue Mar 10 '22 at 22:25
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    @barbecue probably easy to explain - they spent a year trying to get it to work, assuming it was something stupid they were doing wrong. I could see myself doing the same thing. – Mark Ransom Mar 11 '22 at 01:17
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    Or the OP simply never really used the oven seriously. – user2617804 Mar 12 '22 at 01:16
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Not a full answer, but some steps to troubleshoot/may help:

  1. Hang a manual oven thermometer in as close as possible to the place as you would normally put your food. Make sure you read it through the window without opening the oven. You may have to move your racks so that you can get the thermometer to the same height as you food would be at. Do a dry run of cooking your most basic recipe--preheat, open and close the oven exactly as you would normally, etc., just without food and keep notes of what the thermometer says (start, end, and maybe 4-6 times evenly spaced through the process). Let your oven cool completely, then same process again, but with convection mode on. If you have a friend or relative who will let you repeat the process in their oven, do that, too. (Manual thermometers are extremely cheap, so you can also get several and hang them in different places.)

  2. Buy a box cake mix (yes, yes) and prepare it exactly as specified on the box, cook at exactly the time and temperature specified, etc. Weigh it before and after cooking to calculate moisture loss. Take notes about the doneness in various spots: edge, one third of the way in from the edge, center, top, and bottom. Report back here.

  3. Try putting your food in a Dutch oven inside the oven, turn convection mode on. If you don't have a Dutch oven, you can put your normal dish on a cookie sheet with an oven safe bowl covering it, or you can use foil (but make sure the foil is fully encasing your food and secured so it doesn't get blown around). (It might be worthwhile to sacrifice another box cake mix here just for consistency, so you can compare the same doneness points as from step 2.)

Thoughts: Convection oven is basically the same as a normal oven+fan, but of course there are options even with normal ovens.

Normal ovens usually have a significant temperature gradient from top to bottom (hotter at the top), the fan on a convection oven distrutes the heat more evenly. If the power is the same, with the fan on it will be--compared to fan off--cooler at the top and hotter at the bottom. Since most people tend to cook closer to the middle or bottom, for most people the convection mode will be hotter (at the same power) than conventional. However, some convection ovens try to adjust the power for you based on mode, so the power might be different for the same temperature setting depending on if the fan is on or not. (This might also be a place where things can go wrong.)

The exact shape of the interior and the arrangement of the heating elements/burner can also cause hot or cold spots in an oven...you only really care about the spot your food sits at.

Some ovens also have options re: which heating elements are on (top, bottom, both). Convection ovens may have fan speed, etc., options, too. It may be worthwhile to cuddle up with the manual and list out all of the options which your oven has, then try each one from a cold oven with the temperature set the same and thermometer in the same place, note temperature as intervals that make sense for the types of recipes that you normally cook. (It can also be helpful to do this for the minimum and maximum temperatures which your oven supports, so that you know the full range actually available.)

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