Does wattage amount of convection element matter?

16 years ago

I am trying to decide between two ranges, an LG 'true convection' which has an 800W element behind (or in front of) it's fan, and a GE 'true convection', which has a 2500W 3rd element. Does the element size matter?

With the GE, on convection bake it is only the convection element that goes on (after preheat, where all 3 elements are on), wheras on convection roast it is the broiler element (3800W) that is on and just the convection fan (and the 2500W convection element is off).

If the salesman explained it correctly to me (or I understood correctly) it is relatively the same thing with the LG (different store and salesman). I would think I'd getter better range of heat from a 2500W (GE) than an 800W (LG). One stove I came across that touted itself as True Convection had only a 300W element with it's fan. I am confused, as I like the 800W stove a bit better since the oven is a bit larger than the stove with the 2500 element.

Can someone shed light on the importance (if any) of the wattage size (I'm not electrically intelligent, except to know not to stick a utensil into a toaster to dislodge something UNLESS it is unplugged!).

PLUS, wouldn't just convection (without this 3rd element) be just as good at circulating the heat around the oven as would an oven with the fan AND the 3rd element? And, as I mentioned earlier, on the convection roast setting the 3rd element doesn't get used, just the broiler and the fan. It's just with baking that the 3rd element is being used (and with preheat). Or can I also cook food with convection bake? I'll go now and let some answers roll in, I am confusing myself!

Thank you!

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Comments (2)

jcthorne
16 years ago
The various modes of heat application do cook differently. Browning etc. are different.

As for the wattage of the convection element, the larger element will preheat faster. After that the larger element will recover much faster in temp after food is added. Small items like cookies may not matter but larger more dense items like roasts, or a number fo baked potatoes will. This assumes that either has been sized to maintain oven temp once reached and they likely are.
capecodcook
16 years ago
I think the idea behind true convection is that if you just use a fan to blow around the heat generated by the normal bake element on the bottom and load the unit up with three racks of cookies, the sheet on the bottom closest to the element will still heat more since it is right on top of the heat source. With the extra element behind the fan and out of the way, and all others off, heating should be more even. Probably make a little less difference with a roast.

I go with Mr Thorne (whom I hanen't seen around here in a while) in that the larger element is better for recovery. This would be true even for cookies since opening the door and putting in three sheets of cookies would bleed a lot of the warm air out of the cavity and it is the warm air that is cooking everything. So the faster you can heat it back up the better especially for cookies that don't bake very long anyway. And keeping it hot while trying to cook 4-5 pounds of cold roast would be an issue as jc says. 300-800 watts just doesn't sound like enough.
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