Why the best bakers are switching to infrared quartz heating
Most ovens just heat up the air and hope for the best. The air then has to warm up your dough, which takes forever. We decided to cut out the middleman. By using quartz infrared tubes, we send short-wave radiation straight into the bread. It hits the crust and the core at the same time. It’s fast. Really fast. And that changes everything for how your bread actually turns out. The secret sauce: Quartz The magic here is that quartz doesn’t hold onto heat the way heavy metal elements do. It hits those scorching target temperatures in a matter of seconds. That’s how you get that perfect “oven spring”—that sudden, beautiful rise—and a crust that snaps without turning the inside of your loaf into a crouton. Plus, we’ve designed these to spread heat evenly across the whole tray. No more wondering why the loaves in the corner are pale while the center ones are burnt. Getting the setup right We use high-purity silica glass because it can handle the brutal temperature swings of a busy kitchen. But a heads-up if you’re wiring these into a big deck oven: these tubes pack a punch. The power density is way higher than your old coils, so make sure your wiring and relays can handle that initial surge of power. The best part? The infrared light is tuned specifically to the water and fats in your dough. The energy goes right into the bread, instead of just wasting heat on the oven walls. The honest trade-offs Look, nothing is perfect. These tubes are powerful, but they’re fragile. They can handle thousands of degrees, but they can’t handle a clumsy technician. One good bump during a deep clean and you’ve got a crack. You’ll also need to rethink your timer. Since the heat is so intense, a recipe that usually takes 20 minutes in a convection oven might be done in 12. You’ll have to play around with your temperature profiles at first. If you aren’t careful, you’ll scorch the outside before the middle is even cooked. But once you find that sweet spot? It’s a total win.