What size commercial oven should I choose?

A 5-tray oven is not necessarily for a café, and a 10-tray oven is not necessarily for a restaurant. When we size a commercial oven, we primarily base it on how much needs to be produced at the same time – and what the oven will be used for.

The most important thing is therefore to look at the kitchen's peak load. How many covers, loaves of bread, or GN pans must pass through the oven during the busiest hour of the day?

Start with the busiest hour – not a whole day

The total number of covers per day does not necessarily tell you much about the required oven capacity. Two restaurants with 200 covers a day can have very different needs if one spreads the production over many hours, while the other has the majority of the production within a short period.

The same applies to a bakery. The interesting thing is not just how many loaves are baked in a day, but how many must be able to be baked simultaneously.

A good starting point is therefore to ask:

• How many covers, loaves, or pans need to be produced during peak load?
• How long do the typical preparations take?
• Is the oven the kitchen's primary oven or a supplement to other ovens?
• Do several different products need to be prepared at the same time?
• Do you use different types of preparation, such as steaming, grilling, and baking?

5, 7, or 10 trays?

It is tempting to create a fixed rule for how many covers a 5, 7, or 10-tray oven is suitable for. In practice, this is often misleading.

A smaller oven can be the main oven in a small kitchen, but it can also be in a large restaurant kitchen as a supplement to other ovens. Conversely, a relatively small kitchen may need a 10-tray oven if a large part of the production must pass through the oven within a short time.

Therefore, see the number of trays as production capacity rather than a measure of how large the business is.

Should you choose one large or two smaller ovens?

Capacity is not the only thing that matters. It is also important to look at what needs to be prepared at the same time.

If two products require different temperatures, different amounts of steam, or completely different cooking programs, they cannot necessarily be made in the same oven at the same time. In that situation, two smaller ovens can be a better solution than one large one.

For example, if you need 20 trays of total capacity but produce many different dishes, 2 x 10 trays can therefore be more flexible than one 20-tray oven.

Two ovens also provide the opportunity to continue part of the production if one oven is occupied by a long program.

When does a 20-tray oven make sense?

A 20-tray oven is particularly interesting when large quantities of the same thing need to be produced. This could be 100-200 loaves of bread, large quantities of steamed potatoes, or food for several hundred guests.

We see this especially in hotels, event and conference kitchens, larger canteens, and catering companies that produce large amounts of food at once.

However, a 20-tray oven with a tray trolley also requires space around the oven. There must be room for the tray trolley itself – and in many kitchens, also for an extra trolley so that the next production can be prepared while the oven is running.

If the capacity is utilized, the economy can be good. A 20-tray oven typically costs significantly less than two 10-tray ovens. Therefore, the investment can quickly make sense in a kitchen that actually needs the large capacity.

Compact oven when space is the problem

In some kitchens, the capacity requirement is high enough, but there is simply no room for a traditional full-width oven. Here, a compact GN 1/1 oven can be relevant.

This applies especially to small restaurant and production kitchens where every centimeter counts. But there is also another practical reason that is easily overlooked: The oven must be able to get into the kitchen.

Narrow doors, hallways, and entrance areas can make it impossible to get a standard oven to its location. Therefore, access conditions should always be checked before ordering – not when the oven is standing on a pallet outside.

When is GN 2/3 enough?

The smallest professional ovens are also available in GN 2/3. They make sense especially in smaller places where small portions are produced and where a traditional GN 1/1 oven would take up unnecessary space.

This could be smaller cafés, takeaway, and fast-food concepts where the oven is used for snacks, smaller dishes, or individual components.

For a traditional restaurant where the oven is a central part of production, we would normally look towards GN 1/1.

Be careful about sizing based on current needs

We rarely experience a customer ending up with the wrong size oven when the need has been reviewed properly before the purchase. When an oven later turns out to be too small, it is often because the business's needs have changed.

This could be more guests, larger production, new products on the menu, or that the oven gets more tasks than originally planned.

Therefore, it makes sense to think a bit ahead. This does not mean that you should always buy a larger oven "just in case," but known plans for growth or changes in production should be included in the sizing.

Size is only half the choice

It is at least as important to choose the right type and model as the right size. Two ovens with the same number of trays can be intended for very different tasks.

The choice depends, among other things, on whether you need to bake, roast, steam, regenerate, or simply heat products – and how much automation and flexibility the kitchen needs.

See our selection of commercial ovens for professional kitchens, or contact us if you want help sizing the right oven. We base it on the production in your kitchen – not just on a specific number of covers.