GE Profile JB968

I have to say first of all that I am just finishing my first week with this range after 14 years with my old GE. I am also new to convection and solid top. I also will not write a review that looks like sales literature directly from GE. I do a great deal of baking of all kinds, particularly cookies, so the boasts of convection baking on multiple racks was a big seller there. Also lured by boast of even cooking on multiple racks without convection due to their even heating throughout oven cavity, and same even with conventional baking.

So far:
Love: cooktop, extra oven on bottom rather than on top on some brands. Baking coil is hidden - will make clean up much easier! Control panel is easy to use, very light touch which is great but took a little getting used to.

Hate: convection seems to not perform as advertised, or at very least, having to have more than manual for training on how to use. Burner diagrams by dials are confusing. Rather than just showing position of burner, they show whole configuration. Wish they would put lower impact controls on electric stoves, maybe touch pads rather than knobs!

First, the solid top is a breeze to clean. Used to have the coils and it never looked clean no matter what. Even what looks to be permanently baked on comes off with little effort. Unfortunately, there is a flaw in the caulk around the cooktop which, according to GE, needs service. Ugh. Defective on delivery.

I have never been able to boil pasta water so fast - wonder why we waited so long to replace as far as the cooktop is concerned! Things cook more quickly and at a lower temp than the old range so we have had to back off on heat and time a little. I think that is due to the old range just being old and tired, but something to watch for as you start cooking on the new.

Only reservation is that we have two young teenagers and are a little concerned about the solid top. We are treading very lightly and still being very gentle, perhaps overly so.

I had good cookware to start, so I didn't have to purchase new. If you have lightweight, inexpensive cookware, it might be an issue.

Now, on to the oven. I made my first batch of cookies using the multi rack convection bake feature. I believe I followed the instructions precisely but had very poor results. In fact, I had better results with my 14 year old standard GE. One thing the manual talks about that some are not aware of is that it is not recommended to use cookie sheets with a lip (what I call a jelly roll pan) as the lip can interfere with the air circulation. I bake exclusively on baking stones which have no lip and heat more evenly by far. There were so many issues I don't know where to start!

First, the suggested time on the cookies is 6-9mn which I always have to adjust up a bit due to the stoneware. Not knowing how the convection would impact that, I set it for the 6mn and watched closely. At 9mn they had barely started to spread and looked much like they did when they went in. I added time in 2 mn increments and finally stopped timing at around 17mn. They were still not done. When they were finally done, I had three racks of cookies all to varying degrees of doneness. All of the cookies towards the back of the oven were very overdone, particularly those on the top rack. Those on the bottom rack were somewhat underdone. What really saddened me was that the back edges of the cookies, particularly those towards the back of the oven, were all noticably very overdone. The front edges of the same cookies were visibly lighter. It was like the back of the oven was much hotter than the front.

This was also apparent when I tried to roast a whole turkey breast. Again, I set the controls to convection roast to the temp it suggested on the turkey. The oven nicely set it down to the proper temp. I had the turkey on the broiler pan w/grid, and on the suggested shelf. I did not use the probe, but rather a professional temp probe (just like Alton uses:) ). When it reached suggested internal temp, I was amazed at how terrible my bird looked. Not only was the side towards the fan over brown, but so was the end to the right as you are facing the oven. The front of the bird and the left side were hardly brown at all. The doneness of the meat followed suit. Top back side overdone and dry. Front lower nearly underdone. Again my ancient GE would have done a better job, and I cringe to think about how even more pronounced this would have been with a whole bird!

Needless to day, I have contacted GE for help. I am what I would say is a very experienced cook, and am capable of reading and understanding directions and manuals. Unless I have missed something here, or am just not savvy to the ways of convection, the oven is either in need of repair (and it was installed one week ago today....) or it does not perform as they stated and I have a highly overrated $1500 range in my kitchen.