To fan or not to fan? (Electric Cookers in General)

Member Name: fred bloggs

Product:	Electric Cookers in General
Date:	28/02/02 (924 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Choice of cooking methods

Disadvantages: A bit pricey

Most electric ovens nowadays are fan ovens, which means that the oven is heated by blowing hot air into it by a device like a hair drier. The advantages of this are that it is cheap to manufacture and to use, since the oven heats up quickly and can be run 10 to 20 degrees cooler for most purposes.

Although generally this works well, and batches of small cakes etc can be cooked evenly, we found that this system was not satisfactory for baking large cakes. This is hardly surprising, as you would not expect to heat an object evenly by blowing hot air onto one side of it. You can of course take the cake out and turn it round, but the cold air may make it collapse.

We decided to search the Internet for conventionally heated free-standing ovens. It transpired that there are two well-known makers who each have a model with both conventional and fan heating. These are known as multi-function ovens, and a Google search will easily reveal details. One model has heating elements in two sides, the other has elements top and bottom. A switch enables you to select the mode of heating, as you cannot use both modes at the same time.

We chose the one with top and bottom heating, and searched for the cheapest supplier using pricerunner. I placed the order one evening, was phoned the following day to arrange delivery, and received the cooker one week later. I even had a choice of morning or afternoon delivery, and everything went very smoothly as planned.

I installed it myself, but don't try this unless you really know what you are doing, and be sure to use the correct size cable. Be sure that the cable is not trapped under the cooker. Now two weeks later my wife has cooked two large cakes with conventional heating. They both cooked evenly and we are really pleased with the outcome.

All I need now is a really effective diet!

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