Inside The Muffin Man's Head: Deck Ovens Vs. Convection Ovens

Bakers rely heavily on using the proper equipment to achieve their desired results. Commercial kitchens are all equipped with several different ovens to achieve the perfect results for all of their baked goods. When it comes to choosing the right oven though, some people are confused about which is better, a deck oven or a convection oven.

Deck Ovens vs. Convection Ovens

A deck oven is ideal for many uses because it maintains a consistent level of heat. It is great for baking large amounts of goods in a short amount of time thanks to conduction heat. The greatest benefit to using this oven is that it measures the heat meticulously so that baking times can be easily modified if the door is opened or anything else affects the temperature.

A convection oven is a very common model that is found both inside and outside of commercial kitchens. This style of oven is most well known for the even heat throughout the unit, thanks to a fan. Having an even distribution of heat allows whatever is baking to heat evenly. It is also able to add steam which gives bread a nice shine afterward.

Proper Uses

A deck oven is ideal for a bakery that is going to focus primarily on baking a lot of bread. These ovens also have the option to add steam to give bread shine, but deck ovens are able to recover much better from it. They are much bigger and hold temperatures well which helps ensure a perfect result time after time.

One of the most important things to decide is if you will need different temperatures all at once. There are two different models of deck ovens and they're based off of the type of energy they use — gas or electric. Gas deck ovens are typically limited to just one temperature for the entire oven. There are ways to work with this, especially if you are mass producing a lot of the same products at once on a consistent basis. The electric models can have different temperatures for every deck which is great if you are doing a lot of smaller batches.

Convection ovens are ideal for other products that require a wide range of temperatures. If you typically are switching from something like meringues that require a low heat to then baking hamburger buns, a convection oven is more versatile. Bakeries that specialize in pastries and as well as breads prefer to have one of these oven to help them switch between different batches more easily.

If you are looking to add another oven to your commercial bakery, carefully decide on what your specific needs are and talk with a manufacturer, like American Baking System. This will help you to make the most informed decision between these two popular oven styles.

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