Bottom Element only vs Top/Bottom Element Baking

[114jwh]

Hi Folks

Wanted to start a thread to get some opinions on this topic. There have been a few threads in the past where the topic was brought up. From what I've read, the appliance manufacturers employed one of two methods for oven baking. Either they used the bottom element with secondary reduced heat from the top element or the bottom element only. These days however, I think almost all use both elements.

I have two stoves in my home, a wonderful 2015 GE Profile induction range and a beautiful Canadian made 1959 Moffat electric range.

Standard bake in the GE involves both the bake (bottom) and broil (top) elements with the bake being the primary heat source and the broil running either at reduced wattage or in short intervals (not too sure but it doesn't get red). The GE has a hidden bake element.

The Moffat preheats using both the bake and broil elements on full blast but once it gets close to temperature the broil kicks out and the bake element is what maintains the heat in the oven. The broil element is open coil and the bake element is the standard calrod style.

Most opinions I've read indicate that ranges with bottom heat only produce poor results for baking but I'm not experiencing that with this oven. I find that there is actually an advantage to using bottom heat only with certain recipes. For instance, I bake bread and buns regularly and although I get beautiful results in both ovens, I find the Moffat produces a slightly better product. I don't get an issue with uneven browning on the top vs the bottom. I also find that I don't need to worry so much about pies over browning on the top and pizza comes out a bit better without the top heat as well.

Cookies and biscuits tend to bake a bit better in the GE in bake mode however if I'm trying to bake multiple racks at once I use convection. Cakes are a bit of a toss up, I seem to get good results in either. Roasting meat is definitely faster in the GE but I do get excellent results in the Moffat as well. Both ovens have a probe and I always use that for meat as they are both spot on.

I've measured temps in both ovens and although I initially had to calibrate the Moffat a bit when I started using it, both are very accurate. I'm a pretty experienced baker but I'm just not observing the poor results that I've read about with bottom heat only ovens. I'd argue that it is actually in advantage depending on what you are baking.

Anyone else have any observations?

Moffat Range

So I found this stove a few months back and decided to give it a home. Moffat was a Canadian company most well known for its ranges. From what I understand, Moffat was acquired by GSW in 1971 and GSW merged with Canadian General Electric in 1977 to form Camco. Anyway, before I picked it up I...

www.automaticwasher.org

 

[combo52]

Electric Oven Performace [ bottom only vs Top and Bottom ]

Hi James, as you have seen either system can and does work, but I would always want to use both elements and I think the overall evidence over the last 100 years of electric ovens bares that out.

 

Approximately 90% of the electric ovens built in the US over time have had full time top heat when the oven is heating, and increasingly even many better gas ovens are adding an electric element around the gas broiler to help with baking and broiling when the gas broiler is in use.

 

I am sure your results are true, but to reach a more definite conclusion you would have to test a lot more range designs, 10 or 20 other ranges with both types of ovens would give a more accurate idea which design is better overall.

 

John L.

 

[perc-o-prince]

I tell people using "bake" with our Miele ovens that they should have bought a GE if that's all they're using. Of course, only select customers hear this!

Chuck

 

[114jwh]

For sure John, I'm only comparing two ovens and definitely see that overall, the GE that uses both bake and broil elements does bake beautifully no matter what I feed it. But, I also don't get noticeably worse results with the bottom heat only. I was pretty surprised at this. I do think that baking with bottom heat only can have its advantages depending on the circumstance while bottom/top would have its advantages with others. Ideally, a newer range where the user could select between the two different methods would be the best! There are also some that prefer the older gas ovens where you would get bottom heat only so I guess its a matter of user preference.

One thing that is different between the two I'm using is the oven height. The Moffat has a deep well so the oven height is a bit compromised as a result at about 15 inches. The GE is larger in height at about 19 inches. I tend to bake on the middle rack so this could reduce the impact of the lack of top heat.

Of all the different stoves I've used over the years though, these two are definitely my top two.

I think Canada was also a bit different than the US on market share between range manufacturers. I bet Moffat had at least 50% of the market share of electric ranges in Canada in their day, at least the west coast - they were everywhere. At any given time I can go on Craigslist and find at least one 1950's white 40" Moffat for sale and several from the 60's, 70's & 80's. Any of the other brands are nowhere near as common on the used market, specifically electric ranges though.

I have a couple Westinghouse too but haven't experimented with them yet. An early 1950's and a late 1960's. Curious to see how these do. Not sure how they bake as I don't have any experience with Westinghouse.

 

[norgeway]

Well...im an expert on this!!!

I have had many old ranges, the Kenmores in the 40s thru the 80s which baked with bottom heat only, it depended on what you were baking, pound cakes and anything that took a fairly long time did ok, but layer cakes etc that didn't bake but 30 minutes or so, never got brown enough, on the other hand, the 47 Norge and 48 Kelvinator baked with bottom heat only and were fine , but overall, The very BEST baking ovens are the old Frigidaires, GEs and Westinghouses that used top heat, The 55 Norge was fantastic too, it used a open coil element around the outside of the broil element that heated red with the bake element, early Frigidaires and Westinghouses had this as well as Philco, more complicated and costly to build, I feel this was the best setup overall.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Well, in this case, it would really mean BROILING, and with these french fries, I would merely save having to turn each one over, while giving them all an even crispness:

-- Dave

 

[tomturbomatic]

My Amana with the microthermal oven is great for doing French Fries under the broiler for crispness with microwaves for cooking them through in 4 minutes.

Ovens that only used bottom heat for baking like the electric ranges sold by Sears usually had a Preheat setting on the selector switch and if you put food in the oven as soon as the temperature was reached and the selector set to Bake, it could enhance the top surface appearance of the food, but things like biscuits almost had to be baked on Preheat to get them to brown properly.