Oven vent losing heat?

[OliverN]

I was making pizza the other day, and of course, I've heard that the trick is really to heat your oven up as hot as it will go.

My oven, although it has a dial up to 500, had trouble getting above 400-410. I noticed for the first time that, under one of the rear stovetop burners, there is a direct opening above 3 inches in diameter of some sort of vent, where I can SEE directly into the oven!

I go to all this effort of keeping the door open for only seconds to prevent heat loss and then I discover there's a huge hole in the top?!? On top of that, it heats any pan thats on that burner, which sometimes catches me off guard.

Why is this thing here? It seems incredibly inefficient... And would plugging it be a bad idea?

[JoshRountree]

I was making pizza the other day, and of course, I've heard that the trick is really to heat your oven up as hot as it will go.

My oven, although it has a dial up to 500, had trouble getting above 400-410. I noticed for the first time that, under one of the rear stovetop burners, there is a direct opening above 3 inches in diameter of some sort of vent, where I can SEE directly into the oven!

I go to all this effort of keeping the door open for only seconds to prevent heat loss and then I discover there's a huge hole in the top?!? On top of that, it heats any pan thats on that burner, which sometimes catches me off guard.

Why is this thing here? It seems incredibly inefficient... And would plugging it be a bad idea?

←

All I've ever had is electric ranges so that's all I can speak of, but every one I've seen has this vent. I think it's there for a reason, and has caught me off guard a few times too. Now, I don't put anything on the top unless I intend for it to get heated up.

I imagine it's there to let the oven breathe, if you will. If it was entirely sealed pressure might build up.

I just thought of this though, what about ovens with the self clean feature? Seems like ovens that aren't vented to the outside world have this vent, probably for the pressure build up I mentioned before.

See below.

Edited February 24, 2008 by JoshRountree (log)

[Anna N]

I have an electric oven and it is self-clean and it has the vent - It's a little over an inch in diameter. All the ovens I have owned have such a vent.

[tsquare]

I believe the vent is so that moisture can escape from the oven. Can you imagine cooking a roast in a sealed container? That would be steamed rather than roasted. Water vapor would create condensate that would collect on the walls of the oven and puddle on the bottom. Not exactly a great cooking environment except for a few items.

Same concept for the hood over your cooktop and the fan in your bath - less to do with removing odors than removing excess moisture from the house. Too much moisture creates a good environment for mold to grow.

[OliverN]

I believe the vent is so that moisture can escape from the oven. Can you imagine cooking a roast in a sealed container? That would be steamed rather than roasted. Water vapor would create condensate that would collect on the walls of the oven and puddle on the bottom. Not exactly a great cooking environment except for a few items.

Same concept for the hood over your cooktop and the fan in your bath - less to do with removing odors than removing excess moisture from the house. Too much moisture creates a good environment for mold to grow.

←

Hmmm... Lightbulbs going off.......... If that is the case,

Say I was pre-heating my pizza stone... there'd be no harm in blocking the vent, right? I could heat it to 500, add my pizza, remove the plug and voila?

What do you think?

[jsmeeker]

my electric range has the vent.

But what about built in wall ovens? Do they vent??

[tsquare]

my electric range has the vent.

But what about built in wall ovens? Do they vent??

←

Yes. Built into the frame - along the bottom flange is typical.

[scubadoo97]

The vents in a wall oven can easily be seen in this picture. Although not shown on may of the double ovens on this site the vents are there. When I had a range I would use the vent under the back burner to keep things warm if I had the oven going.

http://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadison/FEB24S2A.html

[Peterh]

Before you blame the vent for the oven not getting hot, check your door gaskets. Perhaps they're shot. Also, do you have a good oven thermometer to confirm how hot your oven really is? Oven thermostats are notoriously inaccurate.

[qrn]

The thermostat controls how hot it gets , so blocking wont let it get any hotter

Bud

[Chris Hennes]

The thermostat controls how hot it gets , so blocking wont let it get any hotter

Bud

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Thanks for the reality check, Bud. Excellent point. So the solution is to re-calibrate your oven. Dunno how yours works, but my oven dial has a screw on the back of it that I can use to physically change where the various temperatures are. Or, just turn the dial up as far as it will go before going into "broil" mode, if that's how yours works. If it still doesn't hit 500, then consider more drastic measures.

[jsmith]

The thermostat controls how hot it gets , so blocking wont let it get any hotter

Bud

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Small correction, the thermostat controls how hot the oven gets assuming it is possible for the oven to get that hot in the first place. If the oven light is constantly on, and it's still not reaching the proper temperature it's not the thermostats fault. An extreme example would be trying to reach 500 degrees with the door left wide open. In this case it would be due to the venting and not the thermostat.

Look at the oven light (the one that indicates when it's heating). If it's on the whole time then your oven isn't capable of reaching that tempurature. If it turns off at 400 degrees there is a calibration issue. That said, my oven has a hole as described and can reach 500 degrees no problem (and it's a pretty crappy oven).