Infrared ovens -- good or bad?

[Guest guest]

I'm considering replacing my unwieldy electricity hog of a convection oven

with a much more efficient FlavorWave infrared oven, and while it

supposedly uses a much lower section of the spectrum than microwaves and

thus, I'd think, should be completely safe, I'm concerned about the

vagueness of the promotional literature and the seeming lack of any kind of

health data on this kind of cooking.

Any thoughts? Pointers? Advice? Words of warning? Since I'm an

impatient type (and since I have some food coming that would be perfect for

this oven) I'm likely to run out and buy one tomorrow unless someone can

come up with a good reason not to.

TIA,

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[Guest guest]

Being impatient means you don't waste your time right? It seems like

infrared heating is closer to natural (sun) heating - logic would imply it

wouldn't hurt the food like a microwave. (which is completely un-natural)

A web search turned up lots of commercial applications - like paint drying

on car parts, but not too many food applications. Did see one pizza oven

though.

I wasn't able to find out if the infrared ovens are steady-state radiation,

like the sun, but I believe they are. That is the main problem with

microwaves in that they are high energy, alternating state radiation that

damages food.

I think the technology might be ok, but some of the ovens I looked at had

plastic enclosures. The inside of the oven would still get hot, so you might

get some outgassing. Might be ok, since the food doesn't touch the

enclosure.

One other nagging thought before bed....all the FlavorWaves and others like

them seem only to be sold on websites that specialize in info-mercial

products... " As Seen on TV " Sure you can get some good stuff on TV, but the

majority of it is junk. (please, don't tell me how great your Ab-doer

works!)

Let us know how the oven works ;-)

B

Infrared ovens -- good or bad?

> I'm considering replacing my unwieldy electricity hog of a convection oven

> with a much more efficient FlavorWave infrared oven, and while it

> supposedly uses a much lower section of the spectrum than microwaves and

> thus, I'd think, should be completely safe, I'm concerned about the

> vagueness of the promotional literature and the seeming lack of any kind

of

> health data on this kind of cooking.

>

> Any thoughts? Pointers? Advice? Words of warning? Since I'm an

> impatient type (and since I have some food coming that would be perfect

for

> this oven) I'm likely to run out and buy one tomorrow unless someone can

> come up with a good reason not to.

>

> TIA,

>

>

>

> -

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

>Any thoughts? Pointers? Advice? Words of warning? Since I'm an

>impatient type (and since I have some food coming that would be perfect for

>this oven) I'm likely to run out and buy one tomorrow unless someone can

>come up with a good reason not to.

I'd love to hear if it is any good. I had a convection oven once and loved it,

until someone put it in the dishwater to soak :-( (You would think the

dangling cord would kind of give it away, that it wasn't waterproof!).

To my knowledge infrared is ok -- it's basically a type of light, you get

some from the sun too, and from bathroom heat lamps.

I haven't seen much info on those FlavorWave gismos though.

Heidi S

[Guest guest]

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>Being impatient means you don't waste your time right?

Hmm, that's probably a matter of perspective. <g>

>I wasn't able to find out if the infrared ovens are steady-state radiation,

>like the sun, but I believe they are.

As far as I can tell, they are, but I asked here because I haven't managed

to find any definitive information about consumer ovens. Still, I'm

thinking I'm going to take the plunge and try it.

>I think the technology might be ok, but some of the ovens I looked at had

>plastic enclosures. The inside of the oven would still get hot, so you might

>get some outgassing. Might be ok, since the food doesn't touch the

>enclosure.

That's a good point, and something to consider. Unfortunately, the

FlavorWave people seem to have saturated the net so thoroughly that I can't

seem to find out if there are any competing brands, or whether radiant heat

infrared ovens are new to the consumer kitchen space.

>Sure you can get some good stuff on TV, but the

>majority of it is junk. (please, don't tell me how great your Ab-doer

>works!)

Oh, I agree, and I'm not going to buy it if I can't return it, but as you

say, it is sometimes possible to get good things on TV, so who knows.

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[Guest guest]

Heidi

>I had a convection oven once and loved it,

I have a regular convection oven, but while it's a very good unit, it takes

up an enormous amount of electricity (15 amps, or half the paltry supply in

my entire apartment, which is very inconvenient) and, like all ovens except

supposedly these new infrared types, it overcooks the outside of the meat

while often undercooking the inside. If the FlavorWave works as advertised

(a big if, I'm sure) I could get a nice browned exterior without a thick

layer of overcooked meat and a too-rare core.

>until someone put it in the dishwater to soak :-( (You would think the

>dangling cord would kind of give it away, that it wasn't waterproof!).

Yikes! I'd say I can't believe someone did that, except there's always a

bad day when anyone will do something stupid.

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[Guest guest]

Have you seen this site on flavorwaves:

Flavorwave-Hearthware-Oven-Users/

( I believe it's run by flavorwave but it might help)

I also looked at jet stream ovens.

On either of them I could never decide if they were worth it.

(Since then I moved to eating my meat mostly raw and stopped

researching it).

Lynn

[Guest guest]

Lynn-

No, I hadn't known about that. Thanks! The people there seem quite happy

with their ovens, and they do state that the group has no affiliation with

the manufacturer or any vendors, so it's possible that they can be relied upon.

>Have you seen this site on flavorwaves:

>Flavorwave-Hearthware-Oven-Users/

>( I believe it's run by flavorwave but it might help)

>I also looked at jet stream ovens.

Hmm, interesting, that seems to accommodate larger items than the FW. I'll

have to look into it. Thanks.

>On either of them I could never decide if they were worth it.

>(Since then I moved to eating my meat mostly raw and stopped

>researching it).

I've been eating more of my beef raw, and always liver raw, but I'm not

sure I'd ever be willing to eat birds uncooked. Maybe I should, but I

doubt I ever would.

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