Getting Your Bakery Heat Just Right
If you’ve ever pulled a batch of pastries or roasted goods out of the oven only to find the outside is like cardboard while the inside is still cold, you know the frustration. It’s that annoying surface dehydration. The heat just isn’t getting where it needs to go fast enough. That’s why we use shortwave infrared (IR) bulbs. Instead of relying on hot air to slowly drift around the food, IR beams energy straight into the surface. It’s direct. It’s fast. The secret is all in the punch. To keep your food from drying out, you can’t just “warm” it. You need a high-intensity burst of heat. We build our bulbs with high wattage and precise voltage so the energy hits hard and fast. Think of it like a sear. You hit that target temperature instantly, which locks the moisture inside. If your wattage is too low, the food just lingers under the heat too long. That’s exactly how you end up with a tough, dry crust that nobody wants to eat. Built to take a beating These aren’t your average lightbulbs. We use heavy-wall quartz glass because bakery environments are brutal. These bulbs heat up and cool down constantly, and cheap glass would just crack under that kind of stress. Inside, we use halogen gas. Without it, the tungsten filament would evaporate and cloud up the glass over time. The halogen keeps everything clear, meaning your heat output stays the same whether it’s day one or hour one thousand. Plus, they’re designed as drop-in replacements. They fit your existing footprints and connectors, so you don’t have to spend your weekend rewiring your racks. A quick word of caution Here’s the thing: these bulbs pack a serious punch. Because the heat density is so high, you have to keep a close eye on your conveyor speed. If your belt slows down but the bulbs are still cranking at full power? You’re going to burn your product. To avoid that, we usually suggest pairing them with PID controllers and thermocouples. It lets you modulate the heat based on the actual surface temperature of the food in real-time. It just takes the guesswork out of the process.