Small ovens can be of great benefit: they save space in small kitchens, they can be placed in the office to heat food without microwaves, or they can be taken to the country so as not to suffer there without pies.
We are testing a Gemlux GL-OR-810 mini-oven model with a mold, but without a baking sheet. Nevertheless, we will try to bake and bake something tasty in small portions.
Characteristics
| Manufacturer | Gemlux |
|---|---|
| Model | GL-OR-810 |
| Type | oven, mini oven |
| Country of Origin | China |
| Warranty | 1 year |
| Power | 800 W |
| Volume | 10 l |
| Temperature | 60-250°C in 10°C increments |
| Timer | mechanical, 0-60 minutes |
| Tens | two upper, two lower, straight, open |
| Control | mechanical |
| Thermostat | there is |
| door glass | single |
| Housing material | painted steel |
| The weight | 2.4 kg |
| Dimensions (W×H×D) | 39×27×23 cm |
| Network cable length | 0.9 m |
| Retail offers |
Equipment
The box, as usual with Gemlux, is made of glossy cardboard in turquoise and black. In the background is a blurry image of chefs who are busy preparing food. The wide sides show the oven in full detail, three-quarter view. There is also a medallion in which the power is indicated, and a cartouche with a volume of 10 liters. The name of the company, model and type of device – in the same place.
The narrow sides are also the same. On them – a photo of the mini-oven in the open, a list of marketing advantages (complete set, timer values and operating temperature range) and briefly about the technical characteristics (power and voltage).
Opening the box, inside we found:
- mini oven;
- lattice;
- aluminum baking dish;
- device passport;
- warranty card;
- promotional materials.
The oven is packaged in protective foam blocks and the box is sized so precisely that it is 100% safe to transport. However, it may take four hands rather than two to remove the foam oven from its packaging. In extreme cases, you can turn the box over something soft and gently shake the oven out of it.
At first sight
Model Gemlux GL-OR-810 looks like a toy oven, but its design completely repeats serious large devices. The dimensions and weight make it possible to store the oven in a kitchen cabinet, taking it out as needed.
The body of the oven has the shape of almost a parallelepiped – with rounded corners and vertical walls slightly tapering towards the top. It is made of steel with a matt black finish. This visually reduces the size of an already small device.
Most of the front panel is occupied by a single glass door with a steel handle. It is lightly spring-loaded and securely locks when opened in one position: approximately 30 degrees from vertical. We also managed to fix the door at 45 degrees several times, but this position required several attempts each time before being crowned with success. In all other positions, the door tends to either slam shut or lean back about 100 degrees. The door mount doesn’t seem secure enough to put anything on top of it, and a fully open position greater than 90 degrees will help the owner avoid that. In order for the slamming door not to break against the case, two silicone fuses are installed on it, softening the blow.
Also on the front wall are two round switches made of black plastic with a scale printed around them. This is a temperature controller with numbered positions from 60 to 250 degrees and a mechanical timer from 0 to 60 minutes.
The temperature regulator turns smoothly, without fixing with a click, and although the characteristics of the model indicate that the installation step is 10 degrees, if desired, you can set it in increments of 5. The mechanical timer knob turns quite easily clockwise, and against – with noticeable effort. His work is accompanied by characteristic clicks, and ends with a fairly loud single call.
The side walls of the oven are covered with semicircular holes for ventilation, and the top cover is smooth. The rear surface is made of unpainted steel, with a small flat protrusion in the middle, on which there are plastic stops that do not allow the oven to be pushed close to the wall. There are also ventilation holes and a power cord outlet. At the bottom of the oven there are four hollow plastic legs inside, screws for disassembling the case and holes for ventilation.
Inside the oven wall made of steel with grooves for fixing the grate in three positions. There are four heaters, two above and two below. They are straight and spaced quite widely from each other.
The grate is made of stainless steel and the mold is made of aluminium. The shape is smaller than the inner area of the oven, so it can only be installed on the wire rack. The tray is not included.
Instruction
The Gemlux instruction is striking in its conciseness. The four-page glossy white brochure, without a single picture, outlines how to use the oven safely (this is the longest section), how to set it up, clean, store and operate it (and this section is the shortest).
According to the authors of the instructions, Gemlux GL-OR-810 does not have any malfunctions that the user could deal with himself.
The package also includes a warranty card.
Control
The mini-oven is turned on using two mechanical switches: temperature and time. First you need to set the desired temperature, and then turn on the device by setting the timer.
During breaks – for example, if you need to stir or check the readiness of a dish in the oven – the timer does not turn off, so when setting it, you need to add extra time for such actions.
Normally, the oven will end automatically when the timer has expired. If it is necessary to turn off the oven before this point, the corresponding switch must be turned counterclockwise until it stops. The device will turn off.
Exploitation
Before starting operation, the manufacturer recommends thoroughly cleaning all accessories (in this case, the grate and tray) and reinstalling them. It is recommended to turn on a new oven for 15 minutes, setting the maximum temperature in order to burn off factory dirt and get rid of an unpleasant odor. The manufacturer draws attention to the fact that a slight haze that may appear during the first use is not a malfunction. We acted in accordance with this recommendation. The smell of burnt-out factory dirt and light smoke really appeared, it took a little longer for them to completely disappear – about forty minutes at maximum temperature.
The operating mode of the heaters of the furnace is pulsed. The heating elements turn on and off at the same time, with a frequency depending on the set temperature. During operation, we noted that the actual temperature of the device differs markedly upwards from the set one, and practical tests (see below) confirmed this assumption. This feature should be taken into account when cooking products in the oven for which strict adherence to the temperature regime is important – for example, for baking.
The mechanical timer does not require adjustments and works quite accurately. The end-of-cooking bell can be heard clearly even from another room.
The furnace does not have the ability to control the operation of the heating elements, including only the lower or only the upper heaters: all heating elements are switched on simultaneously. It is worth remembering this when placing food on the grate in order to prevent burning from above or below and to ensure uniform heating of food.
The oven operates almost silently – during operation, only the ticking of a mechanical timer and the clicks of a thermal relay, which turns the heating on and off, are heard. Heating elements do not make extraneous sounds during operation and work without annoying buzz, which is typical for some furnaces of a similar class.
Care
After each use, especially if the stove is put into a cupboard or pantry for storage, it must be cleaned from the inside of food debris. This is done with a damp sponge with a little mild detergent and then just a damp sponge. The outside of the housing should be wiped with a damp cloth.
The grate and mold should be washed with warm soapy water. The instruction is silent about the inadmissibility of doing this in the dishwasher, but we would not do this with an aluminum mold. But the grate can be washed in the dishwasher if it is very dirty.
Do not use an oven that is not completely dry, wash and clean it without disconnecting it from the mains, immerse it in water or clean it with abrasive and aggressive agents.
Our measurements
We measured the power consumption of the oven depending on the selected temperature, and also measured the actual temperature inside the device to evaluate the accuracy of the thermostat. We present the obtained data in the table.
| Set temperature, °C | Actual temperature, °C | Energy consumption for 1 hour of operation, kWh |
|---|---|---|
| 120 | 148 | 0.204 |
| 150 | 176 | 0.252 |
| 180 | 212 | 0.324 |
| 210 | 248 | 0.408 |
| 250 | outside measuring range | 0.480 |
As we wrote above, the actual temperature in the furnace is significantly higher than that set by the thermostat.
The maximum power consumption recorded by us during practical tests was 902 watts.
The walls and top cover of the device get quite hot during operation (the manufacturer warns about this both in the instructions and in the inscription on the top panel). At maximum heating, the top panel of the oven heats up, according to our measurements, up to 96 ° C, the side and rear walls of the device heat up a little less – up to 75 ° C on average. The single-pane glass door has a temperature of about 65 °C, but its handle can be taken without fear – it does not heat up above 45 °C.
practice tests
It is generally accepted that small-sized electric ovens are designed not so much for cooking, but for heating or defrosting ready-made meals. We decided not to limit ourselves to semi-finished products and tried to cook some simple, but self-made dishes in the oven.
Toast and hot sandwiches
We started our acquaintance with the oven with simple toasted bread – this helped to evaluate the uniformity of heating of the oven and the temperature distribution in it. We placed slices of white toast bread in the oven on the middle rack and turned on the maximum heat.
Three minutes later the toast was ready. On the side closest to the door, they were fried a little weaker, but the difference seemed to us not too significant.
The bottom side of the toast did not differ in the degree of roasting from the top – except, of course, for traces of the grill.
Putting a slice of ham on the bread and covering it with cheese, we get a good hot sandwich – a great addition to morning coffee or tea. It will take a little more time to prepare it – about four minutes.
Result: excellent.
Semi-finished products from frozen dough
Despite the fact that the oven is not equipped with a baking tray, we also wanted to master simple baked goods in it. We started with frozen croissants.
We covered an aluminum tray with parchment and placed croissants on it, previously defrosted for 20 minutes. It is recommended to bake puff pastries at a temperature of 200-210 ° C, but remembering that the oven thermostat somewhat overestimates the actual cooking temperature, we set it to 180 ° C.
Puff pastry croissants increase greatly in size during baking, so we placed the rack with the tray in the lowest position.
The result was excellent. After 15 minutes, we took out well-baked, but not overdried croissants from the oven, and the size of the pallet turned out to be quite enough for two products.
The next step in our test was frozen cinnamon buns in sugar sprinkles.
Having thawed the buns, we placed them in a parchment-lined pan on a wire rack, which we set in the middle position and baked for 20 minutes at the same 180 ° C.
Twenty minutes was enough to bake well, but not overdry the small muffin.
Result: excellent.
A pie with cabbage
Now we decided to see how a puff pastry pie behaves in the oven. We chose the classic filling – blanched cabbage with an egg.
We baked the cake at the same 180°C for 25 minutes in the tray set on the rack in the bottom position.
We left the finished cake to stand in the cooling oven for another ten minutes, took it out and cut it.
The puff pastry baked perfectly, and the surface of the cake browned evenly over the entire area.
Result: excellent.
Omelet with cheese and tomatoes
We turned on the oven at 210 degrees and placed ceramic cocotte makers greased with oil in it. While the oven and molds were preheating, beat the eggs with a little milk (one egg per serving) and add finely chopped tomatoes and cheese to the beaten mass.
The omelette mass was poured into molds heated for five minutes and put in the oven for fifteen minutes.
The readiness of the omelette was determined by the degree of rise and the color of the top crust. As soon as it is reddened, you can take it out and immediately serve it on the table until the omelet has fallen off.
A good alternative to traditional scrambled eggs.
Result: excellent.
findings
The Gemlux GL-OR-810 oven will help not only to warm up food, but also to cook it. With it, it is easy to make toasts and hot sandwiches, bake medium-sized muffins for tea or even a small pie. The dimensions of this electric oven will allow you to place it even in the smallest kitchen, in a country house or in the office, and its light weight will make it easy to put it away for storage when it is not needed. The volume of the oven allows you to cook food for one or two people at the same time.
The inaccurate operation of the oven thermostat was somewhat upsetting, but with some skill this problem ceases to be significant. A slightly bigger drawback seems to be the lack of a non-stick baking tray in the basic configuration: this accessory, in our opinion, would significantly expand the capabilities of the oven.
pros
- low price
- good power
- light weight and compact dimensions
- possibility of cooking at high (over 250 °C) temperatures
- fairly even heat
Minuses
- not rich enough
- the impossibility of using the pallet without a grid, the small size of the pallet
- inaccurate thermostat operation
