To put a wall oven through its paces, our experts use a combination of calibrated time and temperature measurements that size up how evenly an oven distributes heat for baking, broiling, and self-cleaning.
Our test engineers bake over 400 cakes and 2,400 cookies each year, looking for the models that do the best job baking on multiple racks. We also measure the usable capacity of every oven, meaning the space from the bottom rack position to the top, to see how much space you’ll actually have to bake and roast—many manufacturers include unusable space below the bottom rack when they provide information on oven size.
Finally, we make the oven as grimy as possible to test the self-clean cycle, baking on a proprietary mixture that includes shredded cheese, tapioca, and pie filling. We run the self-clean to see how effectively each oven converts the baked-on gunk to fine white powder that can easily be wiped away. The best need only a simple wiping. The worst require lots of scrubbing and still don’t come fully clean.
