That is fast for the Miele...I've heard great things about their ovens. I'll check them out. It certainly makes sense re. optimal baking, but if I'm simply baking a frozen pizza...I don't know if I need more time for preheat. Cakes, on the other hand are another story and by the time I'm done with the prep the ovens would be ready for baking...even with 18 minutes preheat time.

If you're just baking a frozen pizza you don't need to wait for the oven to preheat - you can put the pizza in right when you turn on the oven and it will take less time. Preheating is more important when you're baking things from scratch.

"If you're just baking a frozen pizza you don't need to wait for the oven to preheat" - unless you're baking it on a stone, then you do want the stone up to temp before placing the pizza on it.

I'm glad to hear that isn't an issue...I wouldn't know since my old ovens seem to preheat quickly.

I'd love the Jenn-air speed preheat results...usgirl..have you tested the time?

My new Dacor Millenia takes 20 mins. to pre-heat to 425. It's a bit longer than I'm accustomed to, but I got used to it. I wonder, might the long pre-heat times be better at more thoroughly pre-heating than the quick performers? If it takes twice as long to get to a certain temperature, stands to reason that the oven has more time to absorb this heat and to better equalize during this time frame. Wouldn't more equalized temps inside the oven result in more even heating and better resistance to temperature drop-off, i.e., when the door is opened? Just guessing here.

That's the message that I have been getting from the salespeople...but I'm not always sure they know what they're talking about. That's why this website is so helpful.

It sounds like the preheat time is not going to be as frustrating as I've imagined, but it is interesting that the preheat times do vary between ovens.

In the video on the GE website, Alton Brown claims that some oven's preheat cycles are based on times, not temperatures. For an accurate comparison, I suggest that a thermometer be used when measuring preheat times, rather than relying on when the oven says the preheat is done. That's what asolo did in the first test.

"I suggest that a thermometer be used when measuring preheat times"

What kind of themometer, exactly, are you talking about? I have a dial oven thermometer that I used in my test, above, and discovered that it takes several minutes for the thermometer to respond to changes in temperature. So it's pretty much useless for finding out when the oven is preheated, because it lags so far behind.

carterinms, the Miele shows the oven temperature whenever it is different than the set value which includes during preheat. If I leave the door open for a long time loading the oven so the temperature drops, it shows the temperature too.

sshrivastava, the sooner the air in the oven is up to temperature, the sooner it will start bringing the temperature of the walls and racks up. A more gradual rise may mean there is a more gradual gradient between the temperatures so there is less time spread between the air getting up to temp and the walls but the total time for heating the air plus heating the walls will still be longer.

I can chime in for the Bosch 700 series ovens. I have the double ovens in 27". To me, they heat up rather quickly, even when not using the fast pre-heat mode. I didn't have the chance to time it yet, but will do so this weekend. They're usually waiting for me to finish and not the other way around, even when I wait to be 1/2 way done with prep work before turning the oven on.

I've been very happy thus far (3 mo.) with twice a week baking/roasting.

Will provide warm up time on Monday ;-)

Ok mea culpa!
My husband , who loves the new Jenn Air range and who does
most of the cooking, informed me that it heated to 350 in less than 5 minutes.
After reading more on this topic I thought that I had better time it. It actually took 8 minutes from ambient to 350.
Still very good and we love the range although I read on this site some less than enthusiastic comments about Jenn Air

Wow! Eight minutes is the best I've heard! How long have you had your oven?

I tested my GE Profile, which is a decent, middle of the road oven. It took 6 mins and 30 secs to go from ambient to 350. Then I opened the door briefly, closed it again and reentered the setting. it took another 2 minutes to reach 350 again, for a total of 8 1/2 minutes. I almost always do this "double take" because I think the second time results in an oven more true to temperature, as discussed above.

We have 2.5 year old DCS 30" double wall ovens. I would estimate it takes about 15 minutes to heat up when empty. With the pizza stone in, however, it takes significantly longer, like maybe 30 minutes.

I wish I had the space for a toaster oven. Would much rather use that for reheating a slice of pizza or just baking something quick for my son.

But otherwise, we are happy with the ovens and how they perform.

Admittedly, I don't preheat at all when baking a frozen pizza.. just toss it right on the middle oven rack and turn the oven on. I can see the need for, say, cakes, or if you're using a pizza stone.. but really, you might be perfectly happy baking those pizzas in a 'cold' oven.

shknbk, we bought our Jenn air slide in just before Thanksgiving as I had recurrent nightmares about our 20 + year old Jenn Air giving up th ghost on Thanksgiving day. The styling is so sleek compared to the fussy 80's styling of the previous model. I thought I was in heaven with all the features--meat probe is heaven!

usgirl: It sounds like you have a range. What size is your oven and do you have convection?

kats --

My Wolf double ovens are electric. Sorry it took so long to respond.

shknbk

The oven capacity is 4.3 cubic feet and it has convection options for all its functions- bake, roast etc.

Anyone have a convection oven with the hidden bottom bottom element ( as in Kenmore 96549). I am hearing that preheat time can be very long and am curious what very long is. Read one report of 45 min to 400oC. Thinking of buying this unit and would like to know of anyones experience with these hidden elements

usgirl,am another Jennair gas slid in fan! Ours was hooked up in Dec.It does preheat very quickly, even faster with the rapid preheat. love the meat probe etc.After reading a thread here about noisy convection oven fans, I had to check last night to see if it was running it is so quiet! I hope to spend some time Mothers day playing with my almost finished kitchen. Sue

We have a Gaggenau 983. 3 cu'. 7 minutes 23 seconds from 67° to 350°.

We got our Thermador C-series wall ovens partially because they had the super-fast preheat (7 minutes) and full-extension telescoping racks (well, one telescopes out). Interestingly, my now-departed-for-college teens still used the standard preheat...

I use a temperature gauge that I picked up at a regular kitchen store. It can either hang from a rack or is magnetic and can stick to oven wall.

I bought it when all my christmas breads started being incredibly dense and overdone -- found out oven was 75 degrees hotter than it was reporting -- made a huge difference and now I adjust accordingly . . . well until remodel starts -- hired architect yesterday yeah!

I recently bought a new oven and it takes about twenty minutes to heat to 400. I think I exchange it for a better one.

Here is a link that might be useful: Home & Garden Items

Just want to chime in and say that my Miele ovens - the Masterchef and the convection MW - heat very quickly. The oven is 27". I can time it sometime, but in everyday use it has been very impressive, just what I would hope for in an oven.

ricstutor - 20 minutes to heat an oven to 400 is very reasonable - that's not a reason to return it - what kind of oven is it? Many of the ovens that claim to preheat faster have not stabilized when they claim to reach a particular temp.

weissman is absolutely correct. Folks going by the time-to-beep are most likely riding the oven sensor located in a fairly secure and obscure point in the oven. E.g. "most" (i.e. those that I have peeked at) ovens have the oven thermostat high and btw close to the upper elements in the oven. The oven cavity where you do your baking is most likely NOT yet at that set-point and if you open this not-yet-at-temp oven and put a room temperature item in there, it will take even longer for the cavity to actually reach your setpoint.

FWIW: my 700 series 30" bosch oven takes either 7 or 9 minutes (and xx seconds) to beep at the 350deg mark in some mode or the other (bake? convec bake? don't recall). It takes about 15 or 16 some minutes from the start for my electronic thermometer positioned in the center of the oven to register 350deg. There are some transients at this point. By about the 22 minute point, I'm reasonably sure that transients as measured by my shelf sensor have settled out. This is fuzzy because I did this calculus well over a year ago.

So, in practice: Now I just wait for the 25 to 30 minute timer to go off before I put stuff in before I open the oven IF I've got it set for the 350-400 degree range. I give it another 10 minutes if much higher than 400 degrees.

What ever happen to family togetherness and enjoying the meal prep toghther? Why such an affinity with how long your aircraft hanger sized oven takes to heat up????? Slow down and take a look at life around you, turn off the crackberry, don't answer the phone at dinner time, and quit rushing to the gym, soccer, Target sale, whatever all in the name productivity and enjoyment. All that stuff will still be there in a hour, or tomorrow. Do you really need the xtra 10 mins. in your day you loose with an inferior oven's slower preheating? Unless you're an ER doctor or surgeon, there really isn't anything that can't wait. If after all that you still need you heat and eat meals fast there's always the microwave. It cheap, the fastest cooker out there, and requires no preheating. Depending on your locale the phone might be faster.

I agree with antss! All my recipes call for "preheating". While I am preparing the dish the oven is preheating. And if it's a frozen pizza my kids want, they won't starve waiting for the oven to preheat. Slow down! Enjoy the process.

Please, those of you with the quickly preheating ovens:

Is there a SLOW setting? I do a lot of baking which depends on gradually warming from a cold oven. Also, gradually cooling with the oven off and the door open. I'd like to get a lovely new oven with interesting settings, but most important is the ability to NOT heat the oven.

So...do any of these flash warming wonders do slow?

Plllog, surely you jest?

1. You want a slow preheat setting for all that baking you do from a cold oven start? Huh, how do you currently manage that for all that baking you do that requires a cold start and gradual rise in temp?

2. You want a control for gradually cooling the oven cavity with the oven OFF and door OPEN? Huh, that doesn't make sense to me. The heat is going out the door as fast as it can get out. With the oven OFF and the door CLOSED the temp will go down gradually.

FYI - most of these modern ovens will not work w/the door ajar. Most will tell you not to do this also. The fans that cool the electronic on them will not run with the door open and that will be trouble.

The Wolf AG (don't know anyhting about the DF at all) has a switch for the fan. With the switch flipped on in the one position, the fan is for convection; turns off when the door is open or oven is not on. In the other position, the fan works as a cooling fan, and stays on with door closed, open, or even after the oven is turned off (to cool down oven temp during use if you need to lower the temp quickly, or after use to just cool down the oven).

I had to do a search to find this thread again. Thanks to those who responded to my slightly off topic questions.

Teedup1: I do not jest at all! Though I wasn't clear that on the cool down I meant with the oven off.

1. The way I currently accomplish cold start baking is that I turn the OLD oven on without using the preheat setting. A lot of the fancy new ovens I've seen lately, which have features I'd like to use, will only start in preheat mode. I think a fast preheat sounds great if it's optional, but it's a dealbreaker if there's no way to turn it off.

2. Not a control for gradually cooling. Just the ability to do so. It sounds from what Cat_mom said that the Wolf won't work for me because of the cooling fan. I don't want the oven to cool itself when it's off (unless I tell it to--it's okay if it's optional). Sometimes I want to use the oven warmed up but off with the door closed too.

With an old oven, if you turn off the heat and open the door the hot air, that which does the cooking, rushes out, but the heat retained in the walls of the oven keeps a nice warm environment to keep things from falling or getting gummy. Cracking the door open makes it cool a lot faster, because of the insulation, than leaving it closed.

I know I can get an old fashioned oven, or even a reconditioned one that really is old, but I don't want to :) I want an oven which will do everything I want it to, whether it's convection, keepwarm, preheat, slow heat, or cool gradually. It might not exist, but that's what I want.

On the Wolf range (at least AG version) the fan is owner operated, so if you want to turn on the fan to cool the oven down quicker than it would without a fan, you flip the switch on (to cool mode, vs convection mode). When you've flipped the switch on to cool, the fan will operate whether the oven is on or not, and whether you open the door or not, while flipping the fan on but to convection, means the fan will come on, but will only operate with the oven on and door is closed.

Hope this clarifies it. :-)

Thanks, Cat_mom! I misunderstood that the fan would be on and only the position changed. That sounds better :) Can you bake without preheating?

I have the GE Profile 30" Single Electric Wall Oven with 4.4 cu. ft. Self Clean Convection Oven. I just tested it. It took 6 minutes to go from room temp to 350 degrees. MUCH faster than my old Kenmore.

Monogram ZET1 and ZET2 ovens have preheat times of approximately 8 1/2 minutes. The have hidden bake elements. They also have full extension racks that can also be left in during self-clean mode.

I hope this helps.

I have a Kenmore Elite dual fuel slide in, model 4109-3. The oven is electric. It's large, and it takes 36 minutes to get from a standing start to 350 degrees. (I put the oven thermometer in before beginning.) It has a "preheat" setting, but it's not any faster than just pressing "bake," so its not a fast preheat. One thing that drives me crazy, and I wouldn't have bought it if I had known, is the whole time the oven is on (and cooling down) a fan blows a constant breeze out of vents just above the oven door. If you are sitting at my kitchen table it blows on you, and it makes noise. These are the things you don't find out until after you buy!

We have a Bosch HBL5651 (30" electric). It came new with our new house a year ago. PROS: The regular Bake preheats to 350 (with my in-oven thermometer) in 9min. CONS: It is difficult to set an exact time and even the temp with the touch keys (this drives me nuts), the clock disappears while the oven is on, there is NO delayed start or cook time, and ours has been buggy (error messages, electrical problems). We are getting it replaced -- and NOT with another Bosch. That said, we're looking at GE Profile or Kitchenaide. Anyone know how their preheats on double electric wall ovens are?

We have the double oven (one convection) version of the Bosch 500. I think ours takes longer to pre-heat - at least it feels that way. I agree on the frustratingness of setting the right time and temperature without overshooting - I can't believe it passed testing. That said, we haven't had any problems with it, and it heats very evenly. We're happy with it.

i have recently installed a double GE electric wall oven to replace a much older model. Preheating was such a drag and waste of time compared to the old, element exposed model we decided to do the preheat with the broiler element that is exposed. Results are a preheat temp in less than 5 minutes at broil temps and then reduce temp after switching to bake temp below and allow temp to stabilize, taking another 2-3 minutes. oven is hot and temp is reached very quickly. But these hidden bake elements should not be used to preheat as they waste lots of time.

Stan I have an Electrolux oven and it cycles through the bottom, top and 3rd element in back(Euro convection) during preheat. The convection fan runs during preheat to to circulate the heat, even from the bottom element. Takes 7 minutes to preheat to set temp of 350F, but in order to really stabilize for baking, I let it preheat at least another 15 minutes.

I just bought a GE Microwave and Oven Profile Series, and the first time I baked a dish, it was soggy. Turns out when the preheat chimed, it was not ready. In fact, it takes 35 to 40 minutes to preheat to 450. I called a GE appliance service guy, and he said GE Profile has gotten caught up in trying to compete and so its owner's manual on purpose says it takes 10 minutes to preheat, and they set the preheat chime to sound after 10 minutes, but it is NOT preheated. It also has hidden bake elements, and it can't be fixed. My repairman said I have to live with the fact that GE lied in its owner's manual and just adjust my attitude to disregard the preheat chime and just wait 40 minutes before baking.

We moved into a house with a very old oven and an exposed element and it was fabulous. It heated instantly. When we bought a new oven for our pool house, where we stayed during construction, it was very slow to heat due to the covered element. I just read that the way to heat it quickly is to use the broiler for 2-3 minutes, that seems like it would work. I liked the exposed elements but can’t seem to find them anymore.

@heidipay

i think the hidden elements are one of the worst ideas ever. They bake differently and damage of the floor of the oven from excessive heat.

Update 1/14/21: GE decided to ask the same repairman to replace parts in my oven today. We'll see if that works any better. I guess they think it might be defective now.

My GE range (17yo) has a hidden bake element. Broil of course is exposed, and there's a 3rd element at the convection fan. The preheat signal is not based on a timer. It varies per the temperature setting and which mode I use (convection majority of the time). The display also "counts up" the temperature as it rises. I always let it go 15-ish mins longer to insure the temperature is stable ... that the mass of the oven cavity and door material is heated to nearer the target temperature, not just the air in the cavity.