I understand the anxiety of buying a new appliance. I had a very bad experience with the first set of appliances I bought(not E-lux) but they ended up buying them back after after months of misery and poor customer service. I learned a few things. I would consider who you buy from. Read online reviews and check with BBB. Find out who will service the appliance. We bought a range from Sears a few years ago and the range had a large piece of enamel flake off the top. It also had a burner not work. I called them to fix it and they fixed the burner but refused to fix the enamel. I had the warranty that was supposed to fix anything for a year but the tech told me Sears buys the appliance without the warranty and it is up to them if they want to honor the manufacturers warranty. Some companies have a two week return policy but check the conditions. I bought from a small regional chain for this reason. Buy with a credit card and you will have some recourse at least in the first couple of months. Open the box immediately and make sure there are no obvious defects. Only accept an appliance in the box, no exceptions. Get an oven thermometer and put your oven through its paces immediately when you receive it. Use the self clean several times during the warranty period. Buy the extended warranty from a reputable company for as long a time as you can for any appliance with electronics. Get all the terms in writing and a written receipt with all terms immediately when you give them your money. I have cleaned my Electrolux several times and it has been fine. Initially when I bought it, the enamel was flaking. Electrolux replaced the whole oven-no quibble. Any appliance can have problems but it is how they treat their customers that makes loyal customers.

I've had my convection oven for about 4.5 years now and I love it. Mine is GE too. The convection cooks at a slightly lower temperature and for a slightly shorter time. I always enter the temperature noted on the recipe, so if the recipe says 350, I punch in 350. The convection automatically sets the oven at 25 degrees less. So, 350 = 325, 425 = 400, etc. And I usually figure on cooking everything about 10% less than the normal time for the recipe. I would have cooked the Cornish hens in my old oven at about 425 degrees for 45 minutes So, you should enter 425 for the temp, the oven will heat to 400; and you should figure on the hens being done in about 41 minutes or so. It took some testing and experimentation for me to come up with the 10% and YMMV so you should just get in the habit of checking on things earlier than normal till you see how long things are taking to be done. Best things about the oven: Browning is beautiful; and I love putting three cookie sheets in at one time and having them all done perfectly instead of having to put in one at a time.

The convection steam oven can be used just like a normal convection oven though it heats up much quicker. With our family of four we use it the most of all the oven's (have a 30" Wolf below it and a 36" BS range). Almost anything we do for a dinner can be done in the steam oven rather than heating up and dirtying one of the larger ovens. It roasts meat and chickens the best of any oven using convection humid mode. Bakes bread excellent except for high heat baking (only goes to 445), use it for cookies, dutch/german pancakes, makes an excellent crust on any food. Don't get caught up in the 'steamed food' mindset, it's all convection oven when you want it to be. We do use the steam mode for veggies (we'll never micro them again), sometimes fish, though I do prefer fish baked or fried. It makes excellent rice and I've even done pasta in it (though not as handy as I like checking pasta in a pan for perfect doneness). It's the only way we make rice now. I've made custards in it, works great, no water bath. Reheating food is great, again no more micro for that. There are a lot of modes that make food more convenient to prepare. My DW likes to make hard boiled eggs in it (obviously not boiled), she just leaves them in the paper carton and steams them, got to be careful taking them out if not on a cookie sheet as the paper gets pretty limp. I made brown sugar (turbinado) bacon in it last weekend and it turned out awesome, nice and crisp in about 25 minutes. Like I mentioned we use it a LOT. It's a bit pricey for a rice cooker, or a micro replacement but for all the other things it does I would lose my 30" Wolf over the steam oven anyday of the week. For me the only limitation is the heat range as max is 445 but I do make cast iron pan pizza in it and it turns out wonderful. For normal pizza I crank the BS to 'beyond' 500, some breads want a higher heat. It doesn't have a broiler so having at least one oven with one works great. I have the Wolf CSO so do fill the water reservoir manually but that's maybe twice a week at the most and takes all of a minute. We've had ours over 2 years and still haven't used it to it's full potential. Once you get it you'll understand how great it is, it will inspire you to cook differently and more conveniently with better results over a std oven or microwave. IMO there s/b one in every kitchen, it's more of a workhorse than any other appliance.

It was not my intention to highjack the OP’s thread, but am learning so much – I hope others are as well. wekick, thank you for the links and additional explanations, you’ve been so helpful. plllog, thank you for offering up so much information on the use of convection ovens, as well as… The trick is to mark out some time that you can use learning your new oven, rather than freezing up because it's different and foregoing some of the features. Thank you for that statement. I’d downloaded the instruction manual and read about the induction and convection uses/features and have been quite excited, but this thread caused some trepidation for me. I want to try and use these features, not be fearful of them. I hope with time I can make use of the convection in areas it will be beneficial, and now understand time, experimentation, and patience will be my friends. I used a dial thermometer in my current ‘regular bake’ oven, so will use it in the convection to help adjust for time (although I admit, my eyesight isn’t what it used to be, and will now have to open the darned thing to see the thermometer, loosing heat!) – I feel sure I’d not have thought of that as it’s not been used in some time and sits in a cupboard! plllog, I am embarrassed about the pâte à choux – I think it rude to correct people’s pronunciation or spelling and that was not my intention! I sincerely apologize. Trust me, words escape me all the time! For the past year I had forgotten the word ‘joconde’ (which I always spell jaconde) and in attempting to describe it have had to be creative. For the life of me I still can’t remember the name for ‘that thing’ I spread the batter with, making the indentations… not that anyone asks. I rarely say mise en place except to myself and where it’s written in my recipes, and never say maillard reaction now… I am met with the dreaded “oh, so you’re a snob’ look, and quite frankly, can’t blame my friends! “Get things ready” and “gonna brown that” just works better around these parts! Still, I like using correct terminology to myself, at least when I can remember it!