September 8, 2023 - 7:32am
Hearth oven, Deck temp vs Thermostat temp
I recently aquired a Bakers Pride electric hearth series oven. It origianlly was fitted with a heavy sheet steel deck. I've replaced the steel deck with an inch and a quarter granite deck. It has both upper and lower elements.
Using an infrared thermometer I measure the stone deck temp to be about 50 degrees F higher than the thermostat temp. I've verfied the thermostat temp with an oven therometer. For any of you that bake in a hearth oven, my question is which temp do you use for your bread bake, deck, or oven? I appreciate any thoughts, suggestions, and comments about your experiences with this type equipment. Thanks. Jim
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Over what timeframe are you measuring?
Ideally you are looking for both to be about the same with the stone helping minimise the oven fluctuations.
Remember the stone temp moves like a tanker, the air temp is super nimble so it depends where the oven is in the heating cycle as to what the difference in temperature will be. As the temp falls, the oven is trying to get the stone back up to temp. To do this, most oven thermostats will be designed to heat the air slightly higher for shorter period to give enough energy to get the stone into its temp range. This means the element doesn't have to run constantly.
One thought, i don't know what the charge from steel to stone does with your ovens control cycle.
The temps I reference are after preheating the oven for about an hour. After preheating, the deck temps always seem higher than the oven/thermostat temp.
It could be a number of factors, and you won't know with out some further testing.
Excuse the below, but you have really hit a decision tree...and to find the issue/solution you need to follow the various leads to resolve the issue.
OVEN SETTINGS - it could be your oven is designed to run your lower element hotter for some reason, perhaps it uses the base as the primary temp element (this may have been affected by your change to stone base)
CHANGING THE BASE - the change may have interfered with any number of factors. Including how close the hot stone is to the temp sensor, air flow from the lower element, changing the length of heating times may not work with the oven's thermostat setup.
STILL too early for the set temp. For large mass slow heat ovens, at higher temps, it can be unto 2hr for everything to get in balance. It may just need longer time and more measurements.
One way to hone in on the issue, is to go back to the original deck and see what the temps are. If the deck and air revert to equal, then your change is the culprit and you need to figure how or if you can mitigate. If the deck/air still has a delta, then that is probably the way your oven is. Then it becomes a question of is that normal or is it a service issue?