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Problem cooking in Wolf wall ovens

post #1 of 10
11/22/09 at 1:56pm
Thread Starter 
Does anyone know whether it takes longer to cook or bake in the Wolf wall ovens? I've had the oven temperature checked twice; both times I was told that the ovens are correctly calibrated. I use an oven thermometer as well. It takes so long to cook things and baking is the same way. One time my husband baked an apple pie, he par cooked the crust first so it wouldn't be soggy and then put the pie together and after the alloted time, the pie was still white (although cooked). We didn't want to continue to bake it because the apples would be applesauce!. This is not a one time event. Same with cookies. Cooking chicken and potatoes in the oven takes considerably longer. I now set the temperature to 20 or 15 degrees higher and bake/cook longer. Anyone have any suggestions? My old GE range and oven had none of these problems and this expensive wolf double ovens are driving me nuts:mad:
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post #2 of 10
11/22/09 at 4:35pm
Just a suggestion, and this will depend on which wolf oven you are using, but are you sure you are using the correct cooking mode, ie: bake, convection bake etc? I have not cooked in a wolf, but i used to repair them. And it has come up before that the wrong cooking mode was being selected for a given task. Its an obvious thing, but worth double checking
The cooking modes all do the same thing, heat the oven, but more importantly they determine where the heat comes from ie: above,below etc and for how long.

More simply, your oven may be at the correct temp but you wont get good top browning for instance if you choose a cooking mode that doesn't turn the broil element on at all. (possibly why your pie wasn't browned?)

hope this makes sense.

I may be able to help more if you could decribe your problem a little more clearly. Are we talking 5 min longer than your old oven, 30 min longer...
Also based on your description of "I now set the temperature to 20 or 15 degrees higher and bake/cook longer." this gives me the impression that your old oven ran hot.

what temperatures does your oven thermometer register at 350 degrees in regular bake mode?
covection bake mode?
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post #3 of 10
11/22/09 at 4:45pm
Thread Starter 

problem cooking in wolf wall oven

My oven thermometer reads 350 when I set the oven at 350 and the wolf repair man said my ovens were calibrated correctly. He told me to preheat the oven for at least 30 min. on convection and then change it to bake or roast etc because it would heat up faster. I tried the convection for cooking but haven't really mastered how to use it so I heat up on convection and then turn it to roast or bake. It takes me 30 to 45 min. longer to cook a chicken and potato casserole. It took 20 min. more to cook each of three pies in two different ovens (I have a double oven).
While I understand convection, the wolf ovens are confusing in that there is convection roast, convection bake and convection broil as well as roast, bake and broil! So I'd love to know your take on selecting the correct cooking method. Whatever advice you can offer would be great.
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post #4 of 10
11/22/09 at 4:46pm
By no means am I an appliance expert as you are, but I wholeheartedly agree from a logical standpoint. That's exactly what I was thinking as I read the original post.
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post #5 of 10
11/22/09 at 9:18pm
ah the plot thickens!!!

Well first at the risk of sounding disrespectful, it sounds as though your previous technician doesn't understand how an oven works in general. So lets for the time being forget that he was even there.

Second- Your owners manual is aways right!!.. any information that I, or anyone else gives you is wrong if the owners manual says its wrong!!.. So in order for you to fully understand your oven read the manual ... and call wolf customer service if you aren't sure about something. Wolf/Sub Zero is awesome for this. Plus if there is a known issue with your product they will tell you and get it fixed.

Third- Preheat your oven as per your owners manual.. on your unit it porbably beeps or somthing similar when it is done pre-heating. 30 minutes is probably a waste of energy, especially on your very well insulated unit. And use the appropriate mode for what you are doing. Start in the mode you want to finish in. This greatly affects which direction the heat will be coming from ie: top, bottom, rear of the oven (in convection). If you are baking in convection bake, pre-heat in convection bake. Other wise you will not get the results you want!

Bake- heat from bottom, intermittent heat from top
Convection- fan on, heat from rear of oven only
Convection bake- fan on, heat from rear of oven, intermittent heat from bottom
Roast mode- intermittent heat from top and bottom
Broil- heat from top only
Convection broil- fan on, heat from top only
Convection roast- fan on, heat from rear, intermittent heat from top

And for your reference your oven thermometer (not the display on the oven) should read between 290 degrees (or so) and 410 degrees (or so) when you set the oven to 350. Your oven is constantly heating and cooling, so when you average 290 and 410 you get 350 degrees (290+410=700/2= 350!). Better ovens may have a tighter range (eg 325/375) but will still average 350. Normally you take 6 readings of hi and low and average to be acurate. Some cheap thermometers are not accurate enough for this test!!

Fourth- Most recipes tell you to use 25 degrees lower temp when on convection (as does the wolf manual). Make sure you are doing this accurately.

Fifth - Since you claim that both ovens are acting up in the exact same way, I am now 99% convinced your old oven was hotter than you thought and probably by a lot (30 -50 degrees is not uncommon). Your double oven is exactly that, two separate ovens bolted together. The only actual parts they share is the power cord and the control display. The computers, heating elements etc are all separate parts. So for both to be broken in the exact same way, barring something like a lightning storm, it is nearly impossible. As, lame as it sounds, you may simply need to get used to your new oven because it acts differently than your old one.


Lastly- according to a wolf manual (not sure if it is for your oven without a model number) only your upper oven has the convection feature, and the convection bake mode is "ideal" for pies. There are tons of great tips in there and complete descriptions of all the modes your oven can do. Basically from a cooks point of view, select the cooking mode by where you want the heat to come from just as you would in any other oven. example: heat from top= broil, etc


If you have more questions, or i didn't answer something clearly feel free to ask again.
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post #6 of 10
11/23/09 at 3:04am
Thread Starter 

problem cooking in wolf wall oven

Well first of all let me THANK you profusely. You are wonderful!
You should know I did read my manual, more than once. They are very general and have none of the information you provided. They basically say how to use the convection bake or the bake feature i.e. press button, select temperature. The most information it provides is the position of the rack, that is suppose to be all important (but they say nothing if you are using more than one rack. You can't bake 3 sheets of cookies for example all on one rack in the 3d position. So the manual is basically a how to turn on the features of your oven.
Both wall ovens have both features. I don't know if this means anythng but the model no. is D030 F/S. They have a beautiful blue interior. Anyway, they both have all 6 features and they are both the same size inside.

I have printed out your advice and that advice is stapled in my manual. I will follow it the next time I cook. Thank you so much for taking the time to help. It's been so frustrating and cooking is suppose to be fun for me!
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post #7 of 10
11/23/09 at 5:19am
Thread Starter 

problem cooking in wolf wall oven

My husband read your reply and had two things in response:
In following the recipes for his pies and for baking his bread, in our old oven, the time was correct i.e. the pies were done and golden; the bread was done and golden in the time and at the temperature indicated in the recipes. In the wolf ovens, the pies and bread are not cooking/baking according to the recipe's temperature and times. We are consistently adding 30% time using the bake setting and following the recipes.
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post #8 of 10
11/23/09 at 8:08am
If I was the tech in your home, all of your responses would lead me to the conclusion that your old oven was running hot. Add to this the confusion the previous tech added by having you switch modes after the preheat etc. and you are where you are now.

Unfortunately not being in your home I cannot test your new oven, to see if there is a physical problem, there could be an intermittent problem, a bad convection fan or nothing at all wrong with it. I assume that your old oven is gone so you cannot test it's temperature either.

I don't think there is really any other advice I can give you. Sorry i cant help you more. But, if you have any more questions feel free to ask and i will do my best

I would recommend calling sub zero though... they may have a better answer for you. Also if you determine this to be a temperature problem, you can ask them to help yo re-calibrate it. Basically you'll hit a few buttons to get it to heat hotter or colder. You can usually go 35+ or 35- from the factory setting.
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post #9 of 10
5/27/10 at 2:20pm

I found your comment while doing research to see if others were experiencing the same problems I have with my Wolf built-in. I also have had the technician come out to check temperature accuracy multiple times. Baked goods are underdone and pies turn to mush without browning. I can't brown a loaf of bread without it completely drying out and my cakes are dry around the sides and wet in the middle. . I've had the computer board replaced as well as other parts to no avail. I've contacted the local Wolf rep who said she had never heard of this problem! I bought my oven in November, 2009.Are you still having problems?

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post #10 of 10
9/27/11 at 9:43am

I found these comments while searching online for cooking classes with a Wolf built-in because like the others I am having trouble with many items cooking in my oven.  I have thrown away too many cakes now that are not cheap or easy to do.  I don't want to tell my husband that I would love my old double oven back and take this one out, but I would love to have my old GE back.  I have called Wolf also and have to feel that Wolf reps are hearing this a lot.  I do not recommend this oven!

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