Pizza stone in convection oven

When I hadn't ever used a convection oven, I couldn't have guessed where my original question would lead me. I'm actually no longer using either pizza stone for making pizza. I found a large NordicWare pan that comes with a rack (they call it a crisp baking tray), and a silicone mat that fits the bottom perfectly. Baking two individual-sized pizzas on the rack using the convection feature produces consistently good results; the rack allows air flow underneath the pizzas, for a perfect crust, and the mat makes cleanup a snap. (I find myself using the pan for all kinds of things, such as baking sweet potatoes and roasting veggies. Love it.)

Hi y'all, I too have an ancient pizza stone that lived in my regular electric oven forever. It's so nonstick by now I use it for drop biscuits as much as pizza. Anyway, I too wondered if it will be okay in my new convection over. I don't know why it wouldn't be, but as a precious and useful relic I don't want anything to happen to it. Thanks for starting this discussion. I'll be checking in and will share my results if anything unexpected happens ;-)

This is far from a scientific conclusion, but I promised a report. The range has been here for three weeks, and I've made pizza twice. This is less than my usual frequency, but it's summer, and preheating the oven for an hour at 500F hasn't felt prudent. I used a different stone each time and placed the rack on the lowest setting. The first time it was an Emile Henry glazed ceramic stone, the second a FibraMent stone, on the rough side. I haven't tried the convection function for pizza yet, as I intend a different method for that.

On both occasions, my one complaint was that I had one devil of a time removing two small pizzas. They wanted to slither to the rear of the oven, which was blazing hot; I couldn't extract them without sauce dribbling off the stone onto the floor of the oven, nor without a lot of discomfort--and choice language--in the process. The first round of pizzas, baked on the Emile Henry stone, were unremarkable. Last night's pair, baked on the FibraMent stone, were among the best DH and I had ever had, including when eating out. The bottom of the crust was just the right degree of crispness, and the toppings were lightly browned. I attribute the great results to the stone, the long period of preheating at high heat, and the stone's position being as low as possible (the latter two previously untried). But I'm not keen on the daunting task of removing pizzas from the oven, so I'm not sure what method I'll settle on. For the convection test, I intend to place them on the top rack under the broiler and may use something that allows hot air to circulate all around the pizzas.

To answer my original question, leaving a stone in the oven when baking something else posed no problems. The biggest surprise was that using the convection feature seemed to make food cook more evenly and left no hard-to-clean crusty sauce on the pans. I can live with that.

My pizza stone is over 25 years old and has lived in a number of gas and electric ovens. It is currently in a conventional USA electric oven (no fan) but I'm confident that if I installed a convection oven, the oven's functionality would remain the same.

The main thing with a pizza stone is that it increases thermal capacity. That's a good thing for a residential kitchen oven, regardless of whether it's gas or electric, no fan or convection.

I think you’re going to like the electric oven better than a gas oven. And you can keep the pizza stone in there but you don’t have to. (When I had a gas oven, I kept my pizza stone in the oven so the oven would hold the heat better.)