Fan forced oven cooking temp confusion!

[Nelle]

How do fan forced ovens work? How does 160* with a fan end up cooking food in the same time as 180* without a fan? I've never had a fan forced oven before so it is all a bit new and magical to me.

I have an oven thermometer, and when I have the oven on 160* fan forced, sometimes the temp is 160* or 150*...is it really a 20* difference, or should it only be a 10* difference?

Are there fan forced ovens that allow for the fan forced/non fan forced conversion? Like, if I set my oven to 180* because that's what the recipe says, a fan forced oven will set the temp to 160* with the fan, even though the dial says 180*?

I am so sorry about the mumbo jumbo I am speaking...I just can't figure out my oven...maybe I should check the seals or something too...how do I do that?

[Netix]

Lol, I have a fan forced oven too. Some of them have a switch to turn the fan on or off, but mine doesn't, so I don't know how they go!

As a rule, I drop the temp by 20 degrees automatically. If a recipe says for 180, then I turn the dial to 160. I don't have an oven thermometer, so I don't really know what it is doing, but that works for me. I have noticed in some recipes that give you all the different temps, that the one for ff is generally 20 degrees under.

Hope that helps!

[Tinks]

A fan forced oven keeps the whole oven at an even temp whereas a non fan forced one has different temperature zones from top being hottest, middle then bottom being coolest. That's pretty much the difference.

My oven is fan forced but I find it oven cooks way too slow when I put it on the fan forced temp the recipe suggests so I always go with the normal temp.

You'll get used to it after you use it a few times. The best way to gauge how your oven cooks is to make a few cakes.

[LimeSlice]

How do fan forced ovens work? How does 160* with a fan end up cooking food in the same time as 180* without a fan? I've never had a fan forced oven before so it is all a bit new and magical to me.
A fan forced oven works by forcefully circulating the hot air in the oven around the food, thus cooking it faster and harder - hence the need to drop the temperature (wind burn if you like lol)
A normal convection oven works on the basic premise that that hot and cold air are different 'pressures' as the two collide and mix, they swirl around the oven, thus cooking the food in a speedier fashion than, say, coals in the ground or a fire, because the air is coming from all directions, not just the direct heat on the bottom.

I have an oven thermometer, and when I have the oven on 160* fan forced, sometimes the temp is 160* or 150*...is it really a 20* difference, or should it only be a 10* difference?
Then the thermostat in your oven is not terribly good. You will find though that even in ff ovens, there are "hot spots" (when you cook a pizza there may be a side that always goes darker if you don't turn it, etc) so the temp will vary throughout the oven. This should be minimal compared to a regular oven though...

Are there fan forced ovens that allow for the fan forced/non fan forced conversion? Like, if I set my oven to 180* because that's what the recipe says, a fan forced oven will set the temp to 160* with the fan, even though the dial says 180*?
No - the temp you set is the temp you set.


HTH

[Nelle]

Thanks guys. I think maybe I can make the oven work without the fan? I'm not sure...I think it's hard to tell because the oven warms up heaps quicker when the fan's on, so if I turn the oven on without the fan it doesn't feel like it's warmed up within 5-10 mins, whereas if I turn the fan on, it's well on it's way after 5 min. Maybe I'll turn it on now and see.

And yeah, I just need to bake more probably. I made a white chocolate cheesecake last night, and forgot about it so probably got to it maybe 5-10 mins after the timer went off, and I think I still ended up giving it an extra 10min. Guess I'll just have to find a cake recipe I like, and make the same one at different temp settings to find the oven's sweet spot...

ETA: Thanks Lime!

With bikkies things tend to go alright, it's just cakes and cheesecakes and tarts that give me the nerves a bit! But I suppose the more experience I get the less harrowing it'll be. My old oven had temps like a rollercoaster so this is the first sort of decent oven I've had.