Roughly, how long should it take a conventional (electric) oven to reach 350 F from room temp? We suspect our oven is taking longer to preheat. And if so, is this a sign of a bad element…or a bad oven?
- Jinx
I don’t know but you can buy a oven theomometer to check, they are pretty cheap
a) Thanks, but I’ve been there, done that. Oven will eventually reach the right temp. b) An oven thermometer will not answer the question of what time is reasonable!
The quest for the SD continues!
- Jinx
I suspect there is no definitive answer here, but rather anecdotal opinions for every oven.
FWIW, it takes my (electric, seven year old) oven about six minutes to preheat to 350*F from average room temperature.
My electronically controlled oven starts a timer at 6 minutes when set to 350 degrees.
I have a new oven with digital display that says 6 minutes, 28 seconds to reach 350.
My oven takes about 5 minutes to get to what it measures at 325 (when I set 350, it automatically drops to 325 because it thinks it’s better when convecting). But… beware that when using an oven thermometer or counting on the built-in reading, it’s measuring air temperature. As soon as you open the door, say bye-bye to all the hot air. If you’re doing something where pre-heating is critical (like bread or other baked goods), I always leave it for half an hour. That way, the mass inside of the oven itself reaches that temperature. It’s kind of like the same idea as using a pizza stone or other baking stone, or using cast iron for frying. You need that huge mass to reestablish the temperature ASAP when opening the oven door. It’s not good enough to count on just the air temperature.
On the other hand, if you’re going to slow-roast pork butt for 12 hours, don’t even bother preheating.
Mine takes a little less than 5 minutes but it’s a convection oven so tends to heat faster.
If the entire element is glowing bright red while heating, then it’s probably OK. I think heating elements tend to be an all-or-nothing proposition. I’ve never heard of one that just worked a little.
How long does *your * oven take to heat up? The OP doesn’t say.
Mmmmm, pork butt.
About 15 minutes to reach 350 from room temp - I have an older (but not incredibly old) oven in my rental - I just can’t say how old it really is. If I guessed, I’d say 5-7 years.
Don’t know if you’re going Homer Simpson on me or not, but for the benefit of everyone else, the butt’s the shoulder, thankyaverymuch. 
Re: The oven thermometer
If your oven is a bottom of the line model like the one in my apartment, a thermometer is essential. I found that the dial setting is routinely off by 100°F!
In the interest of saving time and energy, if the cooking time is 30 minutes or more, you can put the food in the oven when you turn it on, rather than waiting for the right temp. It won’t make much diff in the time, add maybe 7 minutes, max.
They’re right, you need to find out how far off your oven is. They are all off some. I set my oven 25 degrees F higher than the recipe wants. I have a Chugogosphere 3000*. It’s a fine oven, but the thermocouple is off.
*A fictitious name. I won’t endorse a brand unless they’re paying me to. When that happens, I’ll say so.
My 1995 contractor “good enough” grade Whirlpool takes 6 minutes zero seconds to go from room temp to 350 on its t-stat, which is pretty close to 350 on my thermometer.
Silly aside …
Amen, brother. I refuse to wear clothing with a logo unless said logo owner is paying. (Try buying athletic clothing that isn’t advertising for Nike, et al). Ditto for the dealer name sticker car dealers like to attach to cars they sell. Had a fight or two about those with pushy salesmen.
But I don’t see how providing the name of your oven along with a statement that its t-stat sux, constitutes an endorsement. Mine came with the house & its brand, etc., had zero to do with teh purchase decision. Not much of an endorsement.
Our oven takes about 6 minutes or so too, though we have never compared to a thermometer. My parents have a new oven, a fancy built-in one, and frankly, I think it takes forever to heat up. In the 10 minute range, for sure! OTOH, I’m sure that by the time that new oven says it’s heated up, it’s probably uniformally so.
Even when they’re accurate, some lesser ovens will cycle ±50°, which means your cooking temperature could vary by 100°. One of the advantages of convection ovens is that they circulate the air so that the thermocouple is always pretty accurate. I’m unsure, though, why adding a fan to circulate air costs so much more. Maybe it’s just for us fancy yuppies to pay more.
I won’t endorse a brand, but if I’m happy with something and want someone else to be happy, then I’ll name names. Or if I hate an item, I’ll certainly name names, too. For the record, I have a built-in Jenn-Aire convection oven that I acquired at Sears Appliance Outlet significantly below cost and installed myself during my kitchen remodel last spring. The only complaint that I have is that in probe mode, it won’t let me set targets beyond 180°F, which makes finishing faux-barbeque at 200° rather tiresome (at least I still have a remote probe thermometer that fills the rôle). (This message was written on an iMac Intel 2.16 Gh 24" ;))
My stove is 5 or 6 years old and it takes 6 - 7 minutes to heat to 350.