Thread: kitchenaid oven - preheat and temp display problem

Thats odd the KitchenAid helpline would say all those incorrect statements, but its typical is the person on the helpline is new or just uninformed.

The tone means the temp should be up to what its set to and ready to start baking.

What kind of a thermometer do you use to check your ovens? The round metal kind with the needle pointer is slow and will not accuatly read correct at first, then it will catch up.

Here's the type I use, its very accurate at all times:
Polder Cooking Thermometer with Timer and Clock


Jake

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. I'm posting the response from kitchenaid below, I'm happy to send you the whole email if that is helpful. Would you be of the opinion that the oven is broken then? I've never heard of the "conditioning" option before.

From KitchenAid,
Thank you for the reply. Unfortunately, we do not have anything in print that I can send to you that explains this feature. This is the only information that was provided to us by our engineering department: One of the features on our ovens is the option of using a shorter oven preheat time. When you program the desired temperature and press start, the oven begins to heat. The ovens have a preprogrammed time for the temperature range selected.
The consumer will see a time counting down in the display. When the time counts down to zero a tone will sound. The tone is an indication that the oven cavity and racks are heated or conditioned. This does not mean the oven is up to temperature. (It is normal for the oven temperature to be 75 - 100 degrees below the selected temperature after the tone sounds). When the tone sounds the consumer has the option of placing their food in the oven at this time or waiting the standard 15-20 minutes for a true preheat.

There is a "rule of thumb" when using this feature. If the bake time of the food you're cooking is more than 25 minutes, then you can expect result comparable to waiting the full preheat time (15-20 minutes). If the bake times are shorter than 25 minutes as in baking cookies and pastries, then we do recommend preheating the oven longer.

From an earlier note:
Thank you for the reply. The first 6-8 minutes are considered the preconditioning time. When the tone sounds, that's basically telling you that you can start preparing the food to go into the oven. Then you can put the food in 10-15 minutes later.

Thats very odd, it sounds like BS to me, since they can't provide literature to back it up.

Jake

I had asked for a contact in their engineering dept. This is the reply I got:

Thank you for your reply. This feature is not only available on this model. This is how all of our ovens and ranges are designed. Unfortunately, we do not have a way for your to contact our engineering department directly nor will the service technician have any information that we don't already have here.

Again, we apologize for any inconvenience this concern may have caused.

Yea, something seems weird.

So you've had this double oven for 2 years and when you first got it everything worked fine? then just recently started acting up? or has this been an issue since day 1?

Jake

Originally Posted by BTraut

When preheating, say to 400, we get tone after aprx 10 minutes that we've always thought meant the oven was up to temp (thats the way it's described in the manual) We found that some of our meals weren't getting done so we checked the temp with a thermometer and found that the temp was only getting up to 200 on the upper and 275 on the lower when the tone goes off.

Penny for your thoughts...

I own a Kitchenaid KESA907PWW that is a few years old that has just begun experiencing the identical problem in the electric stove... set at 400, wait for the beep, put in food, set timer, take out food at beep, eat cold food.

I checked the temp with a new oven thermometer and the temp is 100-125 low when the beep first goes off. If I wait another 15-30 minutes, then the preheat is fine.

The oven is set for convection bake, which is how I always cook.

The funny thing is that the oven never did this before last month!

I have a meat probe that I use on the grill that I will use to double check the oven temperature and post another reply.

Originally Posted by go-rebels

I have a meat probe that I use on the grill that I will use to double check the oven temperature and post another reply.

Test #1, Cold Oven, set conv bake 400F

Time Display Probe
8:39pm (Start oven)
.........200....165
.........250....210
.........300....264
8:47...350....321
8:48...375....354
8:49...385....375
8:50...395....377
8:51...400....375

Brand new oven gage reads 330 (it's in the trash now)

Figuring I need to recalibrate the oven, I set it +20 and run the oven at conv bake for 350, where we most use the oven:

8:57...180....140
.........200....174
.........250....219
.........300....264
.........325....296
9:02...350....343
9:05...350....370

The calibration worked as advertised, but it appears that I didn't need it. I recalibrated the oven back to zero and performed the same test as above:

9:11...188....143
9:12...200....174
9:13...250....228
9:14...300....282
9:18...350....347

It appears as though my testing was not consistent as the oven achieved a thermal "soak" by the time I started the third test. I'll wait awhile and run the last test again using a stone cold oven.

Convection Bake, 350F:

Time Display Probe
.9:57pm (Start oven)
...........LO.....80
.9:58....LO.....84
.9:59....LO....102
10:00...LO....127
10:01..195....161
10:01..200....168
10:02..250....223
10:03..300....276
10:07..350....348

So the oven seems to be running just fine. I think that's what I'll tell the wife!