Convection Microwave vs. Gas Oven

[gregdennis53]

We are about to pull the trigger on a larger RV. Up until now, every RV we have owned has had a gas oven as part of the cooktop assembly. The model we are considering does not offer a gas oven as a factory option but comes with a nice gas cooktop and a convection microwave. Installation of a gas oven as an "after market" item looks to be complicated and expensive (and will sacrifice a lot of storage).

I do not know if this is the right place to ask this question, but can you cook blueberry pie, or biscuits, or cinnamon rolls, or bread in a convection microwave oven? Is it as good as the food cooked in a regular propane oven in an RV? We have friends with convection microwaves in their RVs but I think for most of them cooking = heating up coffee or maybe a bag of gourmet microwave popcorn or a frozen TV dinner.

Help appreciated, and feel free to move this to another forum category if I posted it incorrectly.

Happy Camping and Happy Thanksgiving.

Greg

[ron_dittmer]

pnichols wrote:
Ron, just curious ... how's the noise and vibration levels of your built-in Onan? I don't think that I've ever heard you mention it.

Our Onan is mounted under the floor right behind the driver seat. We get NO vibrations that I can recall and we sit right above it. I do store heavy items in the bench seat there which might neutralize what little vibration might get generated. Inside, the noise is acceptable when the window is closed on the driver side.

The only serious complaint my wife has with our convection microwave is the height it is mounted. She is 5'-2" and needs a stool to keep an eye on her cooking. She also said once or twice that she wishes it was a little bigger. Our convection/micro is smaller than the ones installed in more recent years.

[Desert_Captain]

"Having a usable built-in generator sure helps to make our Class C ready for anything anywhere anytime."

X10

While we use our generator very little {4 KW with 84 hours after 7 years} having it built in and ready to fire up as needed is priceless. Our 2012 Nexus came with a Generac, in 2013 they switched to Onan. When I asked why they said their concerns were for the limited parts availability from Generic down the road.

Ours has been trouble free, two minor services in 7 years and happily there is a commercial generator sales and service outfit right here in Tucson {Simonson Generators} that has been great for parts and service.

Noise and vibration is minimal, about like my old Honda 2,000's and it burns half a gallon or less per hour. We spend at least 65 percent of our time off of the grid and with two deep cycle group 27's can easily sit for 3 or even 4 days and still have power. We just don't use much DC.

I recently replaced my old flooded house batteries at 5+ years old with a pair of AGM's which will generate a lot less maintenance {but no, they are not Maintenance free - no such animal exists}.

:C

[pnichols]

Ron, just curious ... how's the noise and vibration levels of your built-in Onan? I don't think that I've ever heard you mention it.

We love our built-in Onan generator. Winnebago installed it right so it's not a problem to use it for short or long runs. We once ran it nearly all night for A/C so we could sleep when drycamping in the heat and humidity of the Deep South during the summer.

Having a usable built-in generator sure helps to make our Class C ready for anything anywhere anytime.

[ron_dittmer]

I personally feel that a small rig with space limitations, a hanging combo unit gains you a slew full of much needed drawer space.

With our compact rig, we would not have this storage (more pictures here) if we had a conventional stove/oven unit.



Our stove top is under the Corian covers.


Our micro/convection combo unit is above the stove hood. A table top gas grille outside supplements well enough. But if you bake a lot, then a standard oven would be missed with our compact setup.

[justin34]

If you want in cheap, wait for Black Friday Sale

[Rolin]

All of our other RV's had a gas oven which we loved. Our current MH came with only a Microwave/Convection. Really, really miss the gas oven but love the extra storage in our small MH.

The bottom line is that we only use the convection oven when we are plugged into 120V. If we are boon-docking we may fire up the generator to use the Microwave for a few minutes but running the genny for 50 minutes to cook a pie or casserole is not practical for us.

It has changed our meal planning....have to plan ahead. Wish we had our gas oven back.

Everyone has different requirements....Microwave/convection only way work great for you.

[memtb]

Having both is nice....couldn’t live without the gas oven! In our class c, we have the oven and a conventional microwave. When/if the microwave goes bad, it will be replaced with a, wait for it........microwave!

[Scottiemom]

A convection oven is a regular electric oven with a fan to circulate air. That is all. It will bake everything better because of the airflow. . . no hotspots in your oven.

When we embarked on fulltiming I thought I had to have a gas oven, even though I had mediocre results with the ones I had had in RV's. I have never missed it. The convection is perfect. It doesn't heat up the coach like a gas oven does and bakes anything I want.

Dale

[pnichols]

Happytraveler wrote:
I have both a gas oven and convection microwave. I rarely use the gas oven in fact I use it mostly for storage.

There ya go!! The ultimate setup ... have them BOTH in your RV.

IMHO, flexibility is the name of the game in an RV that one wants to have able to deal with any requirement anytime anywhere - on the grid or off the grid.

[DilanYah]

I am also looking at the convection microwaves without the turntable, they seem to have a little more space and are set out more like a normal oven which could come in handy. Just found some
https://www.cookwared.com/reviews/best-convection-microwave/reviews online but still cannot decide which brand to go for.

[gregdennis53]

Thank you to everyone for the great (and fast) advice. You have given me some things to think about (gas oven vs. microwave / generator). I hope to see you down the road and maybe offer you a fresh baked cookie.

Happy Camping and Happy Thanksgiving.

Greg

[Edd505]

Another plus for the convection is far less heat inside while in use. Gas over when it's cold out, convection when it's hot.

[Nutinelse2do]

I had the same hesitation when we changed coaches a few years ago.

Every RV for 25 years had a gas oven, which I absolutely loved.

I was planning on changing the convection to a gas oven, but DH recommended I try the convection for a while before we changed it out.

There is definitely a learning curve, but I have learned to love the convection oven. There was some trial and error, temp, and time adjustments, but now I would never change back.

We are full timers, and I cook at least 5 days a week, everything from Turkeys to pastries.

Love the extra, much needed storage drawers underneath the stovetop.

I am able to run it headed down the road, and dry camping with our 2k PSW Inverter. We have solar for battery recharge so it’s not a worry for us, but without a larger inverter, you will need genny power.

Give it a try before you decide to change it.

[pnichols]

Ductape wrote:
The convection cooks better and is much more capable than the gas oven. If you want quiet boondocking just make sure you have plenty of battery capacity and inverter capability. Lots of larger units will have that built in as standard these days. Baking for an hour on battery power is not a problem in our MH.

Wow for us ... running a 1400-1800 watt convection oven for an hour or more off RV batteries in a typical non-expedition-grade, but small, RV out in the middle of nowhere probably isn't going to happen. That seems similar to using one's RV batteries to power an electric heater when drycamping.

We've learned how to use our RV's propane oven, but we don't expect to live in our small RV like we live with our modern home kitchen either. We don't even use the convection oven in our home's kitchen - just our kitchen's microwave, electric oven, and electric warming drawer. 🙂