What these oven symbols actually mean - you’re not the only one confused
Oven symbols can confuse even the best of us, but now the mystery has been solved.
No more shall you guess your way through your cooking, as Redditors who have been scrolling the internet for answers to their cooker troubles can be rest assured that these are the correct symbol meanings.
From car symbols to internet emojis, when it comes to signs, nobody is fluent in the language.
So, when handy little explainer articles are published by pros, we all collectively heave a sigh of relief.
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In this instance, it was Which? sharing its wisdom with the world, and for that, we say thank you.
Over on the forum platform, people were up in arms over a few images on a cooker, and after looking through other threads, this seems to be a common concern for many.
The poster asked: “I need help figuring out what these symbols mean?! They're on an elettrozeta oven in Italy.”
What it showed was a fan, what looks like a grill setting, and then some other completely bonkers ones that even I don’t know about.
Another asked in a different post: “What do these oven symbols mean?”
So, what is the answer?
Fan oven
This symbol is one you might recognise and use most of the time.
Essentially, what it means is that the fan has its own heating element, which is used to spread the heat evenly throughout the oven so you can cook whatever you want in any area of the oven, and it’ll still come out well.
If you see a fan symbol on its own or with lines above and below it, this means it’s spreading the heat from the top and bottom heating elements instead of the back, where the fan is.
Upper and lower heating elements
If you’re using convection, rather than a fan setting, you’ll usually choose this symbol when cooking a meal.
It just means it’s being heated from the top and bottom, without the use of a fan.
Lower heat element
If you see a symbol on your oven that shows a line at the bottom, but nothing at the top, this means that the heating element at the bottom of the oven is being used.
Basically, this is for use for things that need to be placed at the bottom of the oven, like a slow cooked stew.
Add a fan (Getty Stock Images)
Fan with lower heat
If you see an symbol that’s accompanied by a line at the bottom, but nothing at the top, then this means that the heating will come from the bottom, but will be spread around the whole oven to keep whatever is at the top, nice and warm.
However, the cooking happens at the bottom, so make sure you’re keeping your food low if it needs to bake.
Full grill
When you see two zig zags at the top, this means that you’re getting the full grill component, and no fan.
This cooks everything exclusively using the top heating element, and is great for cooking things like bacon, and browning or crisping dishes.
Grill and fan
If you need to cook food via the grill, but want to keep the whole oven nice and toasty, then this is for you.
It’s basically a setting for things like fish, which do well in a grill but would burn at the top and be raw in the middle when on a full grill setting.
Consider this a slow grill.
Grill and lower heat
This grill and lower heating element setting is great for pizzas. It browns the base from the bottom heat, but allows the top to crisp up thanks to the grill.
Part grill
This half-grill setting means that only one of the grill elements gets hot, so that you can use a small section of the oven, instead of the whole thing.
It’s great for cooking small batches of grilled items.
Oven light
This is literally just a light setting so you can see the food or the grime inside of your oven and scrub it clean.
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Britt Jones