Does anyone have a GE Trivection oven? If so, what’s your opinion?
These have conventional, convection, and microwave heating elements and are supposed to cook 3-5 times faster than a conventional oven. I’m wondering if there’s a catch.
TIA.
edited to change thread subject
I would also be interested in hearing about anyone’s experinces with these, or even with just convection ovens.
Thx,
djm
I don’t have one of these, but I do have a combination microwave/convection oven that allows you to use it as a microwave, a convection oven, or a simultaneous combination of microwave and convection. The problem with units like this is that most of them do not do true convection cooking, in which a separate heating element is provided in the fan. The countertop models more typically bring in some outside air and circulate it with the fan, which creates cool spots and doesn’t give you the benefits of convection cooking.
I’ve never bothered trying the combination microwave/convection feature on my oven, in part because you need to use pans that can deal with both microwave and conventional heating…I have some glass pans that would probably work but honestly I have no need to cook anything faster than it would cook normally. I use the microwave to reheat food, and use the convection oven for baking and roasting. FYI, the broiling feature on these ovens is useless; a conventional oven or toaster oven would work better for that.
If I had to do it all over again, I’d buy separate units: a real, dedicated convection oven and a standalone microwave. I’m always worrying that someone will stick a metal pan into the oven and hit the microwave buttons by mistake, or put a plastic container in and bake it!
We bought a new stove , Kitchen Aid, a couple of years ago but I never have used the convection option on the thing. Heck, I’ve barely used the oven at all- cooking is not something I enjoy and so avoid it whenever possible.
We have had a Frigidaire brand stove for about five years. It has a four burner natural gas top but it has an electric convection oven (220 volts) that does indeed cook much faster than a regular oven. In our experience, we have learned to use the normal recipe times for roasting or baking but we set the timer for about 1/2 the recommended time and then begin checking the progress of what we’re roasting/baking. My guess is that, on average, it saves 1/3 to 1/2 of the normal cooking time depending on the dish.
So, I still haven’t decided on the microwave assist, but I am interested in some broader opinions.
Looking at the repair-history ratings of a “leading consumer magazine”, I’ve noticed that there’s almost an exact correlation between cost and number of “repairs or serious problems” reported. That is, brands like Kenmore, GE, and Amana have much lower reported incidence of problems than brands like Jenn-Air, Thermador, and Viking. What are y’all’s experiences?
I cook A LOT and do a lot of different things in the kitchen – stir-frying, stewing, lots of rice, roasting, lots of breadmaking, brewing beer. So I want something that does everything well: cooktop that has high-BTU burner(s) for beer, and simmer burner(s) for rice (and beer, too, believe it or not). I want an oven that can keep an accurate temp as well as a uniform temp; it would be nice if it cooks fast, too – convection at the least, possibly the microwave assist, too. This all pretty much points to professional equipment, but if the professional stuff is really of suspect quality, then I’ll save myself some money.
There are several factors in these repair histories that make the data suspect. They’re responses to a general call for experiences, not actual poll responses, so there’s an even more serious selection factor going on there than in real polls. Also, someone who just shelled out 7 grand for a stove might be more likely to have a tiny problem repaired or consider something a “serious problem” than someone who got a stove for 400 bucks. Also, there just aren’t that many high-end appliances out there, so the statistics are likely not to be all that great.
Thanks in advance for any input.
The only time I ever used the micr/convection combination, a Pyrex dish did its best impression of a disgruntled ex-employee: it was very messy and very dangerous. Nobody was hurt (except for the potato casserole), and I never did figure out what I did wrong.
The oven was an old Panasonic; they’re likely a lot different now.
Oh, yes, they are much different now. They blow up twice as fast. 
djm
My old gas (propane) stove died this fall – gas company condemned it and placed an ignominous red tag on it. We replaced it with the Hotpoint model recommended as a best buy by Consumer Reports (< $500 US) and have been very satisfied. 2 regular burners, a fast burner and a simmer burner on top, which I love. The oven cooks evenly (I do six loaves of whole wheat bread in a batch), things are done in the time that the recipe advises (on my old stove the advertised time was the time to start checking), and it has a self cleaner and a light. What more could I want?
I have a separate microwave, that I could live without. Basically, I just use it to bake sweet potatoes and reheat leftovers.
As for convection, I’m not sure since my one experience with it in a friends kitchen resulted in pizza carbonera. Not tasty.
Then again, I will confess to being something of a luddite when it comes to cooking gagets. My grandmother was raving about the joys of her microwave 25 years ago, while I was happily collecting and seasoning my cast iron pans.
You alluded to it later on, Charlie, but this disparity could be a result of the high cost of even a minimum bit of repair to a range, which obviously you can’t just haul down to the shop to get fixed but rather need to have a serviceman come to your home to perform a diagnosis and then an eventual repair (which might even end up requiring a second service call). Aside from the cost of the time one needs to spend sitting at home waiting for the cable guy, as it were, the minimum charge for the service call is probably going to be a half hour or more of labor (at probably at least $100/hr rate), and if any repair at all is performed the cost of parts is probably going to knock the total bill up to several hundred dollars. Faced with this, I imagine that most owners of a range selling new for $500 or so will either skip getting the problem fixed (if it’s something they can live with) or instead just buy a new range. The consequence of this is that problems with low-end ranges are probably under-reported, whereas if someone has a problem with an expensive high-end range they will almost surely call it in and get it fixed because the repair cost (even though it may be high) is going to be much much less than the replacement cost.
But then again, it’s bound to be true that the more bells and whistles a product has, the more things there are to possibly break and need repair. High-end ranges offer a lot more bells and whistles than low-end ranges do, hence one would logically expect them to break down more often. (I wonder if the EasyBake oven gets many repair calls? Does your “leading consumer magazine” say?) But if the bells and whistles are what sells you on the high-end range in the first place, I guess you just need to factor that into the cost, huh? Repair statistic comparisons between different brands of high-end ranges would be very useful, though, in deciding which one to buy, as would statistics on the need for repairs covered under warranty vis a vis those not covered. Chances are that warranty repairs are likely to be reported and performed even on low-end ranges, so if you could find stats on just warranty repairs it seems they would be useful (and meaningful) as well.