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Just got (beginning of the month) a range with a convection oven. (although can't use it until the 5th of April when the fan will be replaced) Never had one before, and we do a variety of baking, from main dishes to pies and cakes. If I were to use the convection feature for, say, an apple or key lime pie, should I check early to see if it is done? Is there a rule of thumb, do things cook more quickly in the convection oven or are the times the same for most things?
Convection ovens do cook faster because the airflow keeps the air in contact with the food hotter. When cooking frozen french fries they cook 15 minutes faster than the regular oven.
all a convection oven does is blow air around to eliminate hot spots and cold spots, still heats to what ever you set the t-stat to. it might cook quicker than your old oven because of the higher efficiency.
With ours we enter the time on convection as if it were a 350 setting on a conventional oven. It shuts itself off early when the food is done. We rarely use it preferring the top european style smaller oven.
Even on regular bake, ours has a small amount of air stirring around in it.
I like ours, but depending on what's in there, especially on the convection setting, I put a sheet of foil loosely over the top.
Some things want to brown faster or burn on top with them.
If you're doing something with cheese on top--- keep a close eye on it so the topping doesn't burn.
The time seems to always be the same for us when using the convection baking option vs regular baking.
Using an air fryer, which is just a small convection oven, is another story. Things cook much faster.
Mine reduces the temp 25 degrees when on convection. It also cooks about 25% faster even at the reduced temp.
Try to not use the fan when make things that rise. Like creme brulee. Otherwise I love it.
Don’t let your wife catch you baking PCed boolits in it!
Stick with the conventional for baked goods. It shines with bigger pieces of meat, bacon in the oven, etc. But I set mine 25* cooler than I would the conventional setting.
An update on our purchase. The convection oven fan was very noisy, so we called Maytag and a repairman came out. He thought the fan was bad and ordered another. A second repairman came out to install the new motor, it had three separate possible mounting positions, and could not get it to not scrape against the wall of the oven. He showed us the shaft coming out of the back of the oven was not centered on the hole as it should be. He called Maytag, they determined it unrepairable, and we are getting another one. The convection part of the oven is the only part not working, so we are not missing anything we have not had for years. The new one will be coming the end of the month.
Heat transfer and fluid flow was the "weeder" course in nuclear power school. Air is a "fluid" which causes an object to be heated to a desired temperature, the more air flow the faster an object achieves a target temperature. A convection oven with "more" air flow causes things to cook faster. When i use my air fryer it cooks faster than the conventional oven, for how much faster i usually do an on line search, and use the info as a guideline. For meats like poultry or pork i stick with thermometer to verify temperature is sufficient but not overdone.