HT oven at 120 versus 240?

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Philadelph

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May 23, 2008
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Do people find it makes a difference (enough to matter) in terms of what your HT oven runs at? Do people with 120V Paragons wish they had gone for a 240V Evenheat for some reason? I understand that 120 probably will take longer to get up to temp. but is it really enough to make you need to try to figure out a way to hook up 240V?
 
The reason to use 220V is to be able to use a larger oven, if the size and speed of the 110V is all you need then it shouldn't matter.
 
I could be WAY>>>>>>wrong.....

BUT - all I think I had to do was 1 change a breaker to 220 and then change the outlets it feeds into 220 outlets.

DO NOT DO THAT YOURSELF!!!! but it was an easy add on to get me my evenheat.
 
I use the Evenheat 220V here in my shop. It heats up faster and requires less electricity to do the job. If you are heat treating and tempering all your knives as so many of us do, its the right way to go.:)

The Evenheat is one of the top Oven in today's market. Paragons is other one at the top as well. You will not go wrong with these two units. Hope this was of help to you. Have a great and blessed day. ------:thumbup:
 
The 220 needs two legs, so it would require a double pole breaker and new wiring unless the existing was three wire. The wiring should also be rated for the load.
 
The difference between the two is only the electricity that it uses. 110 does not heat any faster than 240(220). It is the wattage that you have to consider. A 3000 watt oven will heat faster than a 1500 watt oven, it does not matter watt voltage. A 3000 watt oven will require a bigger circuit but that is all. That is a common misconception that many people have. Hope that helps and I just did not muddy the water for you. Good luck with your oven search.
 
The caveat here is that 110V ovens are very limited in wattage. If you have a standard 15A circuit, you can only run around 1500 watts. The speed of the oven will be determined by wattage, chamber size and heat loss. You end up with manufacturers putting as much chamber as possible for a given wattage in 110V because we want to be able to heat treat knives.

Sugar Creek 110V ovens are considered "slow" because they run 13A elements in the absolute largest chamber size usable. The KM-14D has a smaller chamber but also only runs a 1200W element.

The speed advantage with 220V comes from the ability run more watts at fewer amps and run more amps over the wire. If you want 1500W out of 220, it's only going to cost you 6 or 7 amps but you can run up to 25 or 30A on most moderate 220 runs, thus allowing you many more watts per cubic inch, if the manufacturer takes advantage of them.

An oven heating fast doesn't necessarily mean it's doing a better job, so at the end of the day speed isn't really the biggest concern for me.
 
like acrid said. What heats the oven is watts not volts. most(all that I could find online) manufacturers have a wattage rating on their oven that remains the same regaurdless of voltage. ie.. the km-14d paragon is 1200 watts whether it requires 120 or 240 volts for line voltage. Meaning it will heat no faster or no slower no matter what voltage it uses.
 
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