Oven Symbols: What Do They Mean?

Long gone are the times of ‘broil or bake’ ovens. With new technology giving rise to fantastic gadgets, oven dashboards can sometimes look like Egyptian hieroglyphics. Modern ovens will often have a dial with a dozen different symbols, each designed for a different type of dish and yielding a different result. Here are some common oven symbols to help you make the perfect meal:

1. Convection

A fan with a circle around is the oven symbol for the convection setting. This setting uses a circular element surrounding a fan that cycles on and off. This distributes heat more evenly in your oven, resulting in shorter cooking times and a much more even heat. This setting is great for: Cookies, cup cakes, muffins, or anything that requires having multiple trays on different levels of the oven, as well as everyday meals. This is often the most used setting of any household oven.

2. Conventional Heating

Setting your oven to this symbol is perfect for when you want to emulate a traditional unit. When you have a recipe that does not account for a convection oven, sometimes it’s easier to set your oven to conventional heating instead of adjusting cook times. This setting uses elements on the top and bottom, like a traditional oven. Another advantage of this setting is that cakes and breads rise better in a conventional oven.

3. Grill

When it comes to oven symbols, a zigzag line indicates a “grill” setting. This setting uses the only the upper element, and is perfect for anything you would throw on the grill, such as skewers, bacon, or anything that sizzles. When you want to cook thicker pieces of meat, you will find it difficult to cook the inside without burning the outside. Instead, you will want to use the Grill & Fan setting.

Sometimes you will see a half a zigzag line, this oven symbol means “half-grill”. When set to half-grill, your oven will only use the center of the grill element, so any food you place inside will have to be directly in the center of the rack.

4. Grill & Fan

This oven symbol means Grill & Fan. As you probably guessed, this setting uses the grill to brown the top of your dish, and the fan to disperse the heat, ensuring larger cuts of meat also get cooked inside before the outside is burnt to a crisp.

5. Defrost

If you find this oven symbol on your unit, you’re in luck! This is the defrost feature. When set to defrost, your oven will not produce any heat at all, but instead it will use the fan to defrost your food much faster. The air moving over your frozen food will result is much faster defrosting times than leaving simply leaving it out in open air.

Now that you know what your oven is capable of, play around and see what works best for your recipes! And as always, if you need any household appliance repaired, whether an oven, freezer, or anything in between, you can always call City Master – Appliance Repair Services.