Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Adventures with my new baking oven...

Hi Everyone,

I was lucky enough to take a wonderful class from Donna Kato a couple of weeks ago. I haven't written about it because I'm waiting to finish my pieces (though you can check out some of the photos and impressions at http://sopcg.blogspot.com/.)

In order to finish the pieces I need to buy a bigger toaster oven. Also, if you're not already aware, Donna recommends raising the temperature to cure her clay to 325F. That's a big jump from the 275F I'd been using and I know that my little toaster oven isn't up for the job.

So I looked around this last weekend. My friend, Janice, loves her Hamilton Beach oven but it turns out that the stores don't carry last year's model and the new one is almost $50 more. So as I was shopping around I came acros a Euro-Pro Bravetti Professional convection oven. It was a clearance model and marked down $60 from $160. It had a lot of features that I liked, including a pizza stone that I thought would make a perfect tile. And if it cost $160 then it must be a decent oven, right?

Brought it home and turned it on. First warning was that it took almost a half hour to reach temperature. Not so much fun. The fan is a bit louder than I would liked initially but it settled down. Seemed to hold temperature for about 15 minutes but then temperature started climbing.

Several tests later and have come to the realization that after about 40 minutes the temperature control no longer works. I have a digital thermometer with a probe that will beep upon reaching whatever temperature I set it to. Even setting the dial to 275 causes the oven to reach temperatures greater than 350. Since Donna recommends curing for an hour as the final bake and since I often forget that pieces are in the oven, I can't afford that continued increase.

So, needless to say, the oven is going back.

The Black and Decker is on sale right now at Canadian Tire for half price. I might try that one out as well and if nothing else works I'll go with the tried and true Hamilton Beach.

That's it for now,

Sandy

1 comment:

2 Good Claymates said...

Hi Sandy,

Just a tip -- I originally bought a Black and Decker Convection oven -- worked great for a while and then later I noticed it was difficult to get the temperature to settle down just right -- it was also easy to accidentally bump the knob and throw everything out of wack. I since bought the Presidents Choice Pizza Back Convection oven (they are around $70 +/- depending on a sale) from Superstore and it is digital and works like a dream!

Carolyn Good