I just got a convection oven two months ago and have been struggling a little with it. It is one of the "good" convection ovens, with the heating element around the fan, as opposed to without the extra heating element. It auto-adjusts the temperature to account for the fact that I'm using it on the convect setting. And I put a thermometer inside and have verified that the temperature is accurate. I've found that everything is taking longer to bake than the indicated time on the recipe. Granted, I've been using recipes that I haven't used a huge number of times, but ALL the recipes are taking longer than suggested. I know I can go back and use some cookie recipes I've been baking all my life but I'd rather not make dozens of cookies I don't want just to test the oven. Can anyone tell me if this is typical, or does it sound like I got a lemon? Thanks!

Convection bakes more evenly, not faster when it comes to baked goods. (especially since you're lowering the temperature)

Darn. Well, at least I can bake more cakes at a time. Thanks for the help!

It depends on your oven. I've had a few convection home ovens and each one has been different. The one I have now will either burn anything I put in or takes forever to cook if it's only a single pan, but if I use all three racks at once it cooks and bakes fantastic.

So, IMHO convection works the best when you have crammed your oven full of stuff, the fan keeps the air circulating so everything you have in it cooks evenly. But if you are using it with a single pan of something you might as well just use your regular oven settings.

My understanding of convection ovens is that you either bake at a lower temp for the same amount of time OR you bake at the same temp as your regular oven in less time. If youve chosen to lower the temp from your regular baking temp then your oven will still take about the same amount of time to bake. Ive noticed in my small convection oven, baking at the same temp, my cakes finish about 7 min earlier than in my regular oven using the same batter/recipe.

I was taught "the rule of 25" to either lower the temp 25 degrees for the same baking time or bake about 25% faster at the same temp but again, I dont have a fancy convection oven, its a "toaster oven/convection oven combo" and I just use it when I have that extra pan of cake batter that wont fit in my regular oven. Truthfully, Ive never noticed a big difference in how the finished cakes come out.

Thanks, guys! I just baked some cream cheese pound cakes today, baking cakes on all three racks, and found that the bottom rack cooked much faster than the top rack. I ended up switching all the cakes around part way through to try and even things out. I think I understand the convection concept a little better now but I might be sending this thing back anyway since the main reason I got it was so that I could save time by baking multiple cakes at once. Without that, I may as well just have a regular oven, like Jen said. Sigh.

Tarabara, there are two kinds of convection, true convection and fan convection.

Maybe this other thread (I put a link of an article there) could shed some light on the subject.

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopicp-7060266-.html&sid=7828d988edbeadd2a126129a235124fa

I have true convection; that's what I was trying to describe in my OP. It's why we bought this particular oven--I didn't see much point in getting the knock-off type.