new oven element changes cooking times?

builder22

builder22

builder22

Soldato
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14 Dec 2005
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just had to replace the oven element for the third time on a Siemens HB2405GB since moving in to this flat 6 years ago...(I do leave the oven on for longer than necessary, which prob doesn't help)

each time I've replaced it the cooking times seems to change...

without going through my various thoughts on why, could someone who knows confirm the reason for the change or if I'm just imagining it??
 
third party - Espares this time, but if it's up to temp when putting the food in then surely shouldn't be noticeable?

maybe I'm underestimating how long it takes to heat up/cool down
 
builder22 said:
third party - Espares this time, but if it's up to temp when putting the food in then surely shouldn't be noticeable?

maybe I'm underestimating how long it takes to heat up/cool down
Click to expand...
We had the same with our old neff mate. We got elements off Amazon. Some were decent, but others would take nigh on half an hour to preheat, and they wouldn’t keep temp properly.
 
robfosters said:
We had the same with our old neff mate. We got elements off Amazon. Some were decent, but others would take nigh on half an hour to preheat, and they wouldn’t keep temp properly.
Click to expand...

but why does it make a difference once up to temp, just the times it switches on/off trying to keep whatever temp it's set at?

again maybe imagining it but seems like need to set the temp to different levels with each element to get the same result

feel like I'm missing something here :p
 
Differ by elements have different wattages, my oven has three different ones available, 1600w 1800w and 2200w. So depending on th one you bought will either increase.or decrease cooking times.
 
The wattage shouldn’t affect cooking times, once the oven is heated up, it takes a fraction of the power to maintain the temperature (well a decent rated oven anyway). It will impact how quickly it heats up though. As someone else said, the element will turn turns on and off to maintain the set temperature and that’s controlled by the separate thermostat.

If the element is takes 30 mins to heat up an oven and can’t maintain temperature, it’s faulty.

You could also have a dodgy thermostat, have you checked if the temperature of the oven resembles what temperature you have set? It will wonder around a bit as the element switches on and off but it should always be int he right ballpark.
 
builder22 said:
but why does it make a difference once up to temp, just the times it switches on/off trying to keep whatever temp it's set at?
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Say thermostat clicks on when you are 10° below desired temperature. Say original element can heat 1 degree per minute.

Thermostat clicks on, element turns on, food spends 10 more minutes at "suboptimal temperature".

Say replacement element is weaker and can only heat at 0.7 degrees per minute. Thermostat clicks on, element turns on, food spends 14 minutes at suboptimal temperature.

This happens several times during a cooking session. So overall there's just that bit less energy going into the food in a given time period. I'd also expect slightly lower peaks of temperature, though that's probably not relevant unless you're grilling something where direct heat crisps up the food.

I've heavily simplified the numbers and variables but the basic idea is, less heating power means more frequent dips below temperature.
 
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