So - What kind of oven does everyone use/prefer? Commercial? Convection? Deck? Thanks for input/comments!

Lily

Just giving your post a bump.......I too am interested in what ovens people use. Having a commerical kitchen built on to the house with an addition this spring.

I have 2 commercial Deck ovens. LOVE them!! They are large enough to fit a2 6" pans, 2 10" pans and 2 14" pans in EACH oven. They bake even, you can open the doors to check on the cakes without risk of them falling or temp. dropping much. They bake without drying anything out. But, we just sold our store and are moving our Cake business into a smaller commercial kitchen attached to our home. The deck ovens will stay with the business. So, I've been doing lots of research on the convection ovens. I'm looking at a full size or a double stacked 1/2 size. They seem to get good reviews and look much more reasonable to move around (compared to the ovens I have now).


I'll be watching to see what everyone prefers.

BUMP ** I would like to know more information about ovens too!!

Thanks and Blessings

I pretty much like my Deluxe Convecta-Ray Ovens. As the name suggests, these use a combination of convection and radiant heat. I'm not a convection fan for baking and these are "modified convection" so air circulates, but less vigorously. The only down side is that the racks are not adjustable because there are elements above and below each rack to keep the heat very even. This is a fair trade for the fact that I mostly do not have to rotate items or switch shelves.

I have three racks in each of my ovens and each rack will hold a full sheet pan 18 x 24, so I can bake a lot at one time. There is a four rack version of this oven and also a six rack. The four rack is the same size with less room between racks. If you only do 2" cakes it will work, but if you ever do other things (ie the mini 3-d stand up bear) you'd want more room between the racks. (Though you can take out a rack completely if you need to)

Nothings perfect, but these do pretty well. If you have questions, Russ at Deluxe Equipment is always willing to discuss....

I have deluxe oven which I like a lot. Especially since I don't need a hood with this oven. Saved me a lot of money.

I actually purchased the Deluxe ovens because I was told they wouldn't need a hood. After a three month battle the health department made me put in an exhaust hood anyway, because I have two ovens due to being a kosher kitchen. I pretty much never turn on the hood and the temperature never goes up more than a degree or two in the kitchen, even on the rare occasions when both ovens are on. Nothing like making the small business owner spend an extra $8000.00 for a hood the manufacturer, the mechanical engineer, and the contractor all said I really don't need.

Were did you purchase your ovens? How much space does it take up?

I have a Deluxe Oven I purchased on craigslist. After I got it some part went bad. I called up Deluxe and got a replacement part. They have great customer service IMO! I have been using the oven for 3 years now and love it!

Thank you, everyone for your replies, it leads me to another question - Do you make icings that require cooking - if so, do you have a "regular" oven with stove top or just a stove top in your shop?

In a retail shop that is not solely a bakery - coffee, and desserts other than cake, does anyone use a "household" oven/stove? Recommendations?

Thank you all so much!

Lily

I have a residential conventional oven as one of the ovens in my bakery. Almost all of my icings are cooked, and this range gives me the stovetop I need and I use it for cheesecakes. My HD allows residential ovens, but some don't. Just check first. I did have to have a hood, but the good news was a residential hood could be used.

Another idea, Williams-Sonoma has that $300.00 single burner that is cool to the touch and can be fine tuned from melting chocolate to candy making. That is on my expansion list.