Leading manufacturers innovate with rack oven controls

When deciding on whether to purchase a new rack oven, bakery owners often seek out labor-saving features and advanced control systems that will ensure consistency and reliability. There’s a serious shortage of skilled bakers in the marketplace, and leading oven manufacturers are responding with equipment innovations that eliminate costly variables.

For example, the Oven-2020, the next generation rack oven from Belshaw Adamatic, has an intuitive touch screen that displays images for each product. The baker uses a single tap on the product image to set up the oven for a pre-programmed recipe. “That saves setup time, reduces the chance of error, and gives all bakers extra confidence,” said Michael Baxter of Belshaw Adamatic’s sales and marketing team.

Temperature stability is another feature built into Oven-2020. The heating system modulates the supply of gas to the burner, rather than having it go through repeated on-off cycles. This results in a smoother, more stable temperature within 5°F of the set point.

Aiming to reshape the world of baking, the Revent One26 round single rack oven features a sliding door that opens up for a better work environment for the baker, reducing the chance for burns and scratches. A new wider opening creates safe passage when handling racks, and the operation is managed with the intelligent control panel. A new compact steam system simplifies cleaning and service. Revent also offers the One39 round mini oven, which is ideal for cramped spaces. It features the same triple glass sliding door and touch screen control panel as the Revent One26.

The Baxter VersaOven, a new innovation in cooking equipment, combines the best features of steamer, rotisserie, convection and combi ovens into one space-saving design. Built to offer the cooking advantages of rotisseries, rack ovens and combi ovens in one convenient and consolidated package, the VersaOven features a rotating interior oven rack for even cooking results, and a self-contained steam system that generates more steam than a standard mini-rack oven.

Given that snacking is such a major trend in the consumer marketplace, MIWE has developed the MIWE gusto:snack convection oven, which allows bakers to cut costs and save space. The Quick Serve function whips up oven-fresh hot snacks — from grilled baguettes to crispy sandwiches — at point of sale within a matter of minutes. Intuitive navigation with the new MIWE go! touch control prevents users from making errors.

Baxter of Belshaw Adamatic said their overall goal is to make the Oven-2020 a pleasure for bakers to use. The reduced startup and recovery times, the easy bake program selection, the even baking from top to bottom, and other convenience features all help to reduce stress in the bakery, so bakers can enjoy using a dependable, user friendly rack oven, and reduce energy consumption at the same time . That’s what earned it the Blue Flame Product of the Year Award from the Gas Foodservice Equipment Network, he said.

“Oven-2020 transfers heat much faster than other ovens,” Baxter said. “It takes only eight minutes to go from room temperature to baking temperature and maintains as well as recovers heat extremely fast. There’s no heat exchanger in Oven-2020. Instead there’s a new swirl burner system, sending a twisted jet of heat directly to the oven, instead of through the walls of a heat exchanger. From the beginning, Oven-2020 was designed for high energy efficiency.”