Force 10 Oven Not Getting Hot Enough To Bake

[Trim50]

We have a beautiful Force 10 (4) burner stove and oven. We just moved aboard a few months ago and have since started using the oven for cooking. We have found that the oven doesn't get any hotter than 250 degrees F which makes it difficult to bake. I've checked the propane pressure and there isn't any issue. We have plenty of propane pressure to run all four burners and the oven at the same time. It simply seems like the burner in the oven doesn't put out enough BTU to heat beyond 250F. In addition, it takes forever to get to 250F.

Has anyone else experienced this issue with a Force 10???

http://www.force10.com/63451.html

Jeanne can now say I told you so

[JeanneP]

Do you have the aluminum heat plate installed at the bottom over the gas element?

My Force 10 seemed to have little to no insulation - I, too, had trouble bringing the temperature up hot enough, and it never got as hot as my ENO oven.

Is there a chance that the thermometer is not working correctly? Have you tried using a regular oven thermometer to check the temp? Are you sure that the thermometer is in Fahrenheit, not Celcius? (I know, silly question, but one never knows).

You have a propane gas supply, are the burners for propane? CNG burners don't work for propane, and vice versa.

Have you contacted Force 10? I don't know if there is a difference in burner size for the various ovens, but that might be something to consider.

[Trim50]

I just talked to Force 10. My plate at the bottom is stainless and not aluminum. We have tried with it in and out to see which way it gets hotter. Force 10 guy says it needs to be in and in contact with the flame. I'm not sure why they would switch to stainless steel from aluminum for this piece since stainless is such a poor thermal conductor...it acts more like an insulator in the bottom of the oven.

Anyhow, we did place a cooking thermometer in the oven to check the actual temp...and it is hardly reaching 250F. Force 10 guy says it is likely the regulator or the orifice.

Yep..it is a propane stove.

[MMNETSEA]

Did the Regulator come with the stove ? If not What Regulator do Force Ten specify ?

JET size ??

[Trim50]

No, he was speaking about the low pressure regulator on the propane bottle.

[MMNETSEA]

Ken

Talk to Bill Here

Richard

[Trim50]

Great link!!!!! Thanks again. I must say you are the resource king!

[svjacaranda]

Did you get this resolved? We have been away from internet for the past few months. More remote cruising. We have had similar problems. In fact we have a 4 page word doc with all the problems with our Force Ten oven. If you are still having problems let me know and I can share some of our solutions with you. Ours is finally working after about 3 years.

Regards

Chuck

SV Jacaranda

Baja California, Mexico

[Lighthouse]

Hi Chuck

Please share the information here for the rest of us anyway. Thanks in advance.

[Trim50]

Originally Posted by svjacaranda

Did you get this resolved? We have been away from internet for the past few months. More remote cruising. We have had similar problems. In fact we have a 4 page word doc with all the problems with our Force Ten oven. If you are still having problems let me know and I can share some of our solutions with you. Ours is finally working after about 3 years.

Regards

Chuck

SV Jacaranda

Baja California, Mexico

When we placed the stainless plate in the correct location, it did seem to increase the peak temperature, but it took forever to get to temperature.

I would really like to see your list of issues and solutions associated with your Force 10.

[Trim50]

Well, it seems that I was finally able to fix my oven problem by installing a new regulator. The oven now jumps up to 450F in about 10 minutes.

I also took the time to run a propane line up to my BBQ grill so that I don't have to stow those little bottles onboard anymore. This project took the entire weekend tracking down all those damn fittings needed to neatly go through the deck and switch between tank sources.

I'm very pleased with the result...two birds with one stone per say.

[Lighthouse]

Mmmmm! The regulator is so often the source of these sort of problems. Good that all is now OK.

[Trim50]

Lori is very happy now that she can cook bread. She has been practicing her onboard cooking skills and is doing a fine job.

[Fantasia]

Hi

I asked a Force 10 supplier at a Boat Show who informed me that the insulation breaks down and therefore the oven does not get hot enough. It is possible although difficult to replace the insulation although we haven't tried yet.

Karen

[osirissailing]

I have been using my Force 10 - 3 burner with oven for 10 years - As stated above the Force 10's and I believe all other marine stoves/ovens do not contain any insulation. Salt air atmosphere would play havoc with any kind of fiber insulation. It always takes 10 to 30 minutes for my oven to reach temperature although once there it seems to hold fine.

For baking however, there is an old sea-wives trick for these marine ovens. Measure the inside dimensions and take them to a local cemetary / graveyard monument place. Have them cut a 1 inch thick piece of marble or other stone that can take heating without fracturing - to the dimensions of the inside of your oven. I then insert the marble slab into the oven when baking and the stone acts as a heat sink/regulator to keep the maximum area inside the oven at the proper temperature. Without the stone slab the temperature gradient inside the oven is dramatic from really hot just above the burner to cool out near the outer wall of the oven.

[JeanneP]

Originally Posted by osirissailing

graveyard monument place. Have them cut a 1 inch thick piece of marble or other stone that can take heating without fracturing - to the dimensions of the inside of your oven. I then insert the marble slab into the oven when baking and the stone acts as a heat sink/regulator to keep the maximum area inside the oven at the proper temperature. Without the stone slab the temperature gradient inside the oven is dramatic from really hot just above the burner to cool out near the outer wall of the oven.

Actually, our Eno stove was insulated, and worked far better than our Force 10 stove did. Easier is to buy a pizza stone - it's a clay baking stone designed for cooking processes (pottery, really). Then you can bake bread the old-fashioned way.

[Tonyb]

Originally Posted by Trim50

We have a beautiful Force 10 (4) burner stove and oven. We just moved aboard a few months ago and have since started using the oven for cooking. We have found that the oven doesn't get any hotter than 250 degrees F which makes it difficult to bake. I've checked the propane pressure and there isn't any issue. We have plenty of propane pressure to run all four burners and the oven at the same time. It simply seems like the burner in the oven doesn't put out enough BTU to heat beyond 250F. In addition, it takes forever to get to 250F.

Has anyone else experienced this issue with a Force 10???

http://www.force10.com/63451.html

Jeanne can now say I told you so

Hi,

My Force 10 was driving the wife mad, thought about using it as a spare anchor. In desperation I took the burner apart, removed the jet and looked at it under a microscope! Found that the inside of the jet was coated in what looked like carbon. I carefully cleaned it using a dressmaking pin, re assembled the burner and lit the oven. It went over 200deg in less than 5 mins and once up to temp, held it ok with gas turned right down.

I'm a new member and thought that if you haven't already thought of it, the jet might be the problem. That is if you havent already

got rid of the cooker .

[Barny192]

Hi All.

As a 40 year vet of gas appliances of all kinds......... I would like to give you all a few tips on your Force ten oven problems. Or any oven problems come to that.

1st. All regulators on your gas bottles have a vent to atmosphere. This vent is usually a fine gauze filter to stop ingress of dust and dirt in a normal environment. Being out in an often damp or even worse, wet locker in a salt laden atmosphere is just begging for that little vent to get blocked with salt crystals. If it is blocked the regulator cannot work properly and in some cases will lock up at a low gas rate. therefore not suppling enough gas pressure at the oven. Clean it with warm soapy water and a nail brush.

2nd When we cook in the dinky little ovens (especially at sea) sometimes the cooking spills over and on to the burner. As these burners are quite small any amount of holes blocked can result in a considerable loss of heat output, so put your head in the oven....... Turn it off though Elmer......... and take a look at the burner, if any holes are blocked clean them out.

3rd and final.... No 1 suspect THE JET. During the process of producing LPG/Propane there is quite a bit of oily residue left over. This is mostly filtered out but often, and I do mean OFTEN, some gets through into your refill bottle and either gums up the regulator or makes its way through to the jets on your appliances. Several years ago in Brisbane I had a spate of these where over 60% of all the bottles in Wynnum Manly marina were affected.

If your hotplate burners are all working correctly and there is no visible drop in flame hight when they are all turned on, then chances are this is whats causing your oven problem.

It can also be the oven thermostat being out of calibration but this a lot less likely than the above.

If you can manage to get the jet out DO NOT CLEAN IT OUT WITH A HARD PIN OR NEEDLE OF ANY SHAPE SIZE OR DESIGN! Use a single strand of SOFT copper wire from a spare piece of flex or even a hair from a suitable paint brush. Leave it to soak for an hour in ........... Coke a Cola and it will be very clean. The tolerance on these jets is critical and you would not believe how soft they are and what damage your pin can do!

Once the hole is enlarged the jet is useless and can cause serious damage to your burner and the oven itself.

Hope this helps someone along the way someday.

Happy Cruising all.

Ozznightman.

[Lighthouse]

Thank you for posting that VERY useful information - it is much appreciated by all.

Thank you for taking the time and making the effort and we hope to see much more from you here.

Thank you!

[oyster65]

Sitting here quite hangry.
force ten 5 burner, works fine on top, oven's pathetic.
minimal flame, takes ages to warm up at all, even then it can't melt cheese.
have cleaned the gas splitter with alcohol, and dried using just air from a dive tank. no joy.
for reference, there's a new regulator and solenoid on it, working just as they should be, so it's not that. Loads of gas coming through on the hobs. new line from valve on front of cooker to oven some 4 months ago because of a crack. Never much use since then, such a pathetic amount of gas coming out.

pulling my hair out. hungry. any tips greatly appreciated.