Speeding Up Your Deck Oven with IR Heat
Nothing kills your flow like waiting for an oven to climb back up to temperature. You load a fresh batch, the temp plunges, and suddenly you’re just standing there watching the clock while your production beat falls apart. When your main heating elements can’t keep up, we bring in auxiliary infrared (IR) lamps. Think of them as a thermal “booster.” They don’t waste time heating up the air; they just shoot radiant energy straight into the product. It’s immediate. How it actually works Most ovens rely on the heavy thermal mass of the deck to do the work. That’s fine, but it’s slow. IR lamps use electromagnetic waves to hit the product directly. By adding these in, you aren’t just relying on the oven’s “memory” of heat. You get a fast hit of energy that bridges the gap between batches. It keeps things moving. The gear you’ll need We usually go with shortwave quartz tubes. Why? Because they penetrate deeper and faster. But you have to get the wattage right. If you go too heavy, you’ll torch the top of your product while the inside is still raw. Go too light, and you’re basically just wasting electricity because you won’t notice a difference in your cycle time. And please, don’t get sloppy with the wiring. We use R7s or SK15 connectors to keep everything tight. A loose connection is a recipe for arcing, and that’s a quick way to burn out a brand-new lamp. A few things to watch out for Here’s the catch: high-wattage lamps pull a lot of power. Before you plug anything in, check your circuit breakers and your wire gauges. You don’t want to trip the whole shop just to save a few minutes on a bake. Also, keep in mind that quartz glass is fragile. If your oven is in a spot where things shake or get bumped, you’ll need to shield those tubes or they’ll shatter. One last tip: watch your spacing. Put them too close and you’ll get hot spots that ruin the product. Give them some breathing room, and you’ll get a nice, even recovery every time.