Do Convection Ovens Need Venting? Answered!
A convection oven can always work as a great addition to your kitchen. It is because the convection oven is able to bake foods very quickly and at the same time distribute the heat evenly throughout the food. When, however, your oven emits a strong smell of cooking, the indoor air quality can degrade quickly. As a result, you might be asking yourself: do convection ovens need ventilation to expel smoke or cooking odors?
Don’t worry about it. Today, we will answer this question in this article and help you decide on the venting of your convection oven.
What Is Venting For An oven?
Usually, ovens bake food in a closed area by using high temperatures. In that case, the food keeps releasing cooking odors and greasing particles outside at the time of cooking. In such a condition, you need to circulate the smoky air and greasy environment through venting. And, to be specific, venting refers to the ventilation system for an oven.
Particularly, venting is needed where you cannot circulate air to improve the indoor air quality in your kitchen. In the case of electric ovens or microwave ovens, the food may release a strong smell and smoky air after opening the oven door. If you have a venting system installed in your kitchen, these things will be carried out through the ventilation system.
Do You Need Venting For Convection Ovens?
When you’re talking about convection ovens, you don’t need venting for your ranges. Because they don’t come with vents. Instead, convection ovens work with a different mechanism where they use a fan inside to circulate the hot air. So, there is no need for additional venting for a convection oven.
To clarify, you need venting when the oven delivers smoky or greasy air inside the kitchen and cannot handle the cooking odors. If you take a look at the convection oven, there is no chance of creating such a messy environment. Because the convection oven circulates the warm air evenly in the whole inside part of the oven using a fan. As a result, the air remains steady and doesn’t create any smoke. For the same reason, the food also releases cooking odors in a bearable condition.
It is important to remember that if you don’t use the convection fan when cooking any food, you may not find yourself in the same situation. And, there may be a chance of creating a hostile environment, and you may feel like using a venting system. So, to avoid this, you must use a convection oven fan for baking any food. Though you don’t need venting for cooking in a convection oven, you can use a professional range hood to vent the stove to the outside. This way, you can totally fulfill the need for venting the convection oven.
In addition, a convection oven does not require any exhaust to vent to the outside. Because this type of oven never creates enough smoke that requires it to be vented. However, you can use a vented range hood for outside purposes, not for the oven. In that case, the range hood can collect odors and smoke from the cooktop and improve the air quality of the kitchen. To add more, when you use multiple ovens in your kitchen, we recommend you to use a range hood even if all the ovens are of convection type.
Does A Convection Oven Need To Be Vented To The Outside?
No, you don’t need to think about venting a convection oven to the outside. Because, we’ve already mentioned above that the convection oven uses a fan to circulate the air inside. This fan indirectly works to provide ventilation to the oven. So, a convection oven never requires any extra ventilation system. Anyway, you should always maintain the installation and positioning according to the manufacturer to ensure the clearance for venting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I Put A Convection Oven In A Cabinet?
The answer can be both yes and no. Why is it? Because, the whole thing depends on your convection oven functionality. In most cases, the convection oven comes with some small vents which pass the steam from inside. For this reason, you don’t need additional need for venting the convection oven.
But, when you put it on a cabinet, the vents may be blocked due to the position. As a result, the oven won’t be able to release the steam resulting in a risky condition. On the other hand, you can put a convection oven in a cabinet when the position of the vents is suitable for unrestricted airflow. The best solution is to design your cabinet according to the vents and install the oven afterward.
Why Would I Not Use A Convection Oven?
You should avoid using a convection oven in several conditions. When you need to cook moist foods like custards or quick bread, you must keep in mind that these foods are prone to splattering or shifting. Because of such characteristics, these moist foods can be unevenly baked in a convection oven.
And, they can come out dry sometimes. This happens due to the blowing air of the fan inside the oven. Also, this moving air may create a sand drift pattern on your cakes or cookies, which doesn’t look good at all. So, you shouldn’t use a convection oven for these types of purposes.
In Closing
Obviously, your convection ovens don’t need venting if cooked using the convection fan. If you deactivate the oven fan, the venting may not be possible, and you’ll require a venting system. So, you need to use the fan always to avoid additional venting.
Gladly, the fan runs continuously in most convection ovens throughout the entire cooking process and does the venting automatically. Also, you shouldn’t forget to install the oven in a suitable position where it can perform venting freely.
