Lowest oven setting?

[fan-of-fans]

What’s the lowest setting on your oven or most ovens?

We have a 1985 Hotpoint electric with analog dial controls. The lowest marked temperature is 200, but there’s one more mark below that and then the WM/min setting. I assumed the mark below the 200 is 175 and then warm is 150. I used to put the oven on warm if we were grilling out to keep the meat warm while we cooked sides. I never put an oven thermometer in to check though.

I’ve never used a modern oven with digital controls, but from what I’ve read, the lowest is usually 200.

Can’t confirm and I haven’t looked at the newer ranges with dial controls to see how low the scale goes either.

If I remember right, the Caloric gas and electric ranges used to have temp markings of 140-150-160 on the dial, before getting to the 200 point, and seemed to be a rare one to actually mark that range.

 

[combo52]

Lowest oven temperature

Good oven should be able to go down to around 140 and hold it there.

Gas ovens before about 1960 did not go below 250 and the electric range makers tore up gas ovens because you couldn’t get a low temperature. That’s when gas ovens started also go to 140 that’s when gas range makers switched away from a modulated oven thermostat and just started turning the flame off and on gas ovens have never baked well since in general.

John

 

[DADoES]

 
GE Profile, Oct 2003 serial.

170°F is lowest that can be set for regular baking.  The display initially reads 170°F when starting a cold oven for a higher temperature.

The Warming function (or keep-warm if programmed to engage at the end of a baking session) doesn't display a temperature nor is a temperature for it referenced in the user manual.

Proof also doesn't display or state a temperature.  It won't start/function if the oven is above 125°F per the user manual, the display says Hot and shuts off when start is pressed.

 

[brisnat81]

The Miele oven will maintain any temp from 25c up to 280c depending on the mode.

I regularly use 30c for 90 minutes to defrost meat from the freezer

 

[logixx]

With manual controls, I'd say our ovens range usually range from 122F to 482F (50 to 250C) or a little higher. The ovens with digital controls we have at the store go from 86 to 572F (30 to 300C).

 

[hvtech42]

170 to 550F is the standard range in Bake mode for almost every American oven with electronic controls in recent years.

Some models have a Proof mode which goes lower than that. Implementation of this varies by model. In the GE ovens I've had, proof mode doesn't actually engage the heating elements, just the oven light with the convection fan.

 

[henene4]

What the control reads and what is possible are 2 things.

First off, most modern ovens with the typical halogen light can't do much cooler than 50C 122F.
Service literature from us suggests that's about what the heating power from that lamp alone can do.
LEDs of course don't cause that.

Next is what you oven has in functionality.
If you have an oven with convection AND mechanical thermostat, you'll be off either way.
Those usually have a offset baked into the design since the temperature at the sensor is wildly different between static heat and convection modes.
To get the same temp in different modes remotely similar, they middle the results basically.
So the lowest setting on one might be way higher than on the other.

But the setting range here usually is either 30C or 50C up to 275C or 300C.

 

[Marky_Mark]

I don’t remember ever seeing an oven in Europe that had a minimum temp setting really. I thought the temp dials started off around room temp.

My Dacor oven in the US has a minimum setting of 135 °F / 57 °C. This is the first time I’ve experienced an oven with such a high minimum setting. I always assumed this was a peculiarity of my particular oven and I didn’t realize this was typical in the US until I saw this thread. I do find it inconvenient actually — I often want to gently warm plates etc. and the mimimim setting is too high for me.

Following on from what Henrik said, I will have to take some temp readings and see how accurate it is.

 

[Marky_Mark]

Another thing regarding the timer function: all the ovens I’ve used in Europe always turned the elements completely off when the cooking time was up. Whereas my Dacor oven does not do this. Instead, it transitions to “hold” mode and the set temp is then 150 °F / 65 °C. I don’t like this. I would prefer it to switch off completely. I sometimes want to leave a meringue/pavlova or something in the oven overnight or when I’m out. Is this typical of American oven timers? Again, I assumed this was just my particular oven.

 

[combo52]

Low temp oven controls

Hi Mark, decor is sort of a strange company. We don’t consider them a serious range builder, I’ve never seen an oven that doesn’t shut off completely at the end of cooking in the US except when you set it to a key warm setting. But that’s always an option.

Even though the oven lightbulb can add significant heat to an oven you can always turn it off or the manufacturer can design it so it’s off when you’re trying to have a very low temperature that’s really not serious factor.

John

 

[henene4]

Miele combines that keep warm function with its rapid cooldown tech.

It cuts heating a certain amount of time before your set time is up (called "energy saving stage), basen on the total time you set (the longer, the sooner it cuts the elements).
Once time is up, it opens the door and runs the fan at max speed until your keep warm temp is reached.
Then it closes the door and starts keep warm.

You can select or deselect the rapid cooldown and keep warm as you want and alter the keep warm temp as you want IIRC.

 

[DADoES]

 
Re:  Sam/HVTech42 on proofing.  Interesting.  I had not previously engaged the Proof function.  I tried it this morning when the oven is cold.  It does turn on the oven light and convection fan.  The Oven Light On/Off button is locked-out, doesn't function to turn the light off while Proof is running.

 

[48bencix]

Proof setting

GE oven has Proof setting for 80 to 95 degrees.

 

[combo52]

Automatic oven cooled down after baking

Reply number 10, kind of neat, but sounds a little overly complicated to actually open the oven door I assume just partially and then close it again.

It would seem to be a safety hazard to actually open a very hot oven door especially, if it’s installed below counter level with children, you would probably be much wiser to use a fan just to suck the heat out of the oven.

I think very few people use time bake functions anyway.

John

 

[mattl]

My old Electrolux had an option to proof from 85-105, my new Samsung only has a fixed proof setting, at what temp I'm not sure.  I often will proof with just the Halogen lights, works fine.

 

[tomturbomatic]

When gas ovens wanted to start offering the Time Bake feature, they had to offer Hold Warm because the large vents on gas ovens caused them to cool rapidly so unless the cook was there to serve the meal soon after the oven shut off, it would cool too much. With the Keep Warm feature, the oven would cool and the burner would begin cycling on and off to maintain the 140-170F temperature. Electric ranges did not need the keep warm feature because the ovens were so well insulated and the oven vents were so much smaller. I have a 1965 Westinghouse range that offers both plain Time Bake and Cook and Hold. With an electric oven that took some engineering because the oven would hold the baking heat long after the food was cooked so based on the baking temperature and time selected, the control started tapering the heat in the last part of the cooking time selected and then the oven would be able to hold the food after cooking without door opening or fan operation.

Several decades ago, John and I set off on an appliance misadventure on a late Saturday afternoon. I put dinner in my GE oven on Time Bake even though we did not plan on being gone all that long. Due to unexpected mud because of the January thaw, we were gone a Loooong time and if I had not used Time Bake, dinner would have been cremated. As it was, dinner was at a perfect serving temperature after all of those hours being held in the very well insulated self-cleaning oven.

 

[thatwasherguy]

Lowest oven temperatures…

Both of my ovens go down to 170*F. The 2006 Frigidaire range uses a simple up or down selection that stops at 170, while the 2022 Frigidaire wall oven displays the pictured error message any time a temperature below 170 is selected. The wall oven starts picking up temperature on the pre heating display at 100 degrees, however. The range lacks this feature. Both ovens are electric.
Hope this helps,
Thatwasherguy.

 

[combo52]

Lowest oven temperature setting possible

I think most manufactures stayed around the 170 mark because they know it’s not safe to store or keep food below 140 however, I wish given how accurate controls are today that they would get down closer to like 140 or 150, 170 is a little warm to keep food for very long.

John

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Well here are some shots of me attempting single digits, no double digits able to appear…

Apparently 175 degrees must be the lowest the electronics vs. the manual controls are capable of showing as I have to press Stop/Clear to reset during my experiments../

I clearly don’t like the sound of gas oozing out during this shenanigan, so came my last attempt of which it was high time I gave up!

— Dave