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What is a Double Oven?

Janis Adams
Janis Adams

While often differing greatly in size, all double ovens offer the same convenience of having two ovens within the same kitchen appliance. The reason behind this two-fold double oven is that different foods cook at varying temperatures, and more than one oven affords the cook greater ease in preparation. Double ovens traditionally employ the convection cooking process.

The convection cooking process, largely favored by chefs, is one where a fan is used as part of the heating system within the oven. This offers more consistent temperatures throughout the oven and therefore more evenly cooked and browned food. The reason for this is that the temperature within the convection double ovens are the same at any given location within each of their specific confines.

Woman baking cookies
Woman baking cookies

Double ovens come in a variety of options, styles, and colors. Some are freestanding or stand-alone units, while others are built-ins, which often will either have the ovens stacked one on top of the other or side by side with a cook range above them. Those with stacked ovens most often will have a smaller oven on top of a larger unit, simply for the reason that fitting two full-sized ovens in a small kitchen space can prove to be problematic.

Along with offering the same type of oven, double ovens also can be found in what is known as the combination double oven. These combination ovens offer the traditional true convection oven along with an integrated convection microwave oven. This double convection combination allows for true speed cooking and added versatility not found in two ovens of the same kind.

Some of the manufacturers of double ovens include GE, Kenmore, and Frigidaire, among a host of others. The only prohibitives when choosing a double oven over a traditional oven are the extra space required to house the double oven and the higher cost, which can begin at a minimum of double the price of conventional ovens. These type of ovens can be found in gas, electric, or in dual power.

Often double ovens will have the added convenient features of a keep-warm setting and a delayed start timer. Another popular feature is the self-cleaning option, favored by many. Along with those more traditional features, some manufactures offer a bread-proofing setting and a temperature probe. While double ovens offer additional space, they also offer traditional features seen in most single ovens.

Discussion Comments

julies

My double convection oven has so many features, I don't think I will ever use them all. One feature I have never used is the ability to save and create recipes right inside the oven control panel.

But even with all the fancy features, I think the one I most enjoy is that both of them are self cleaning. Once you have a self cleaning oven, you get pretty spoiled. I do keep a can of oven cleaner around just in case of an emergency, but love using the self cleaning feature.

SarahSon

There are many things I enjoy about my GE double oven, but one of my favorites is that each oven has its own set of controls. It is nice to be able to set different temperatures and each oven even has its own timer.

It took a little while to get used to all the knobs and settings, but once you do it is really nice. On my oven, all the controls are at eye level along the top. This way you don't have to bend down to set the controls on the lower oven.

The height the ovens are placed at is nice too, because there is no bending at all for the main oven that is used most of the time.

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    • Woman baking cookies
      Woman baking cookies