What do these oven symbols MEAN?

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/4979/mysteriousovensymbols.jpg

Sorry to come across all Lexish, but I have inherited an oven and am baffled by the nuances of some of the symbols on the dial. The only one I can identify with certainty is No. 6, which is clearly "fan oven".

The first two must be different grill settings, but which means hotter, three triangles or two zigzags??

3 and 4 and 5 must be non-fan oven settings, but why three of them? It's not a double oven so there's no top and bottom to be turning on separately.

full grill, center grill, lower tray of oven, top tray of oven. all of oven, fan oven

http://answers.yahoo.com/

thought 5 was the 'oven eats your food' setting

I am clearly an idiot.

the last one = "your oven turns into a washing machine"?

ovens baffle me to no end

#5 activates the trash compactor

http://blogs.starwars.com/static/img/image-selector/full/original-trilogy/episode-iv/05.jpg

I thought it was the 'oven generates its own power by wind' setting.

I don't have trays in my oven, really, and have no idea when I would want to turn on one and not the other. I guess I shall just avoid 3 and 4 (and probably 2).

The ones with straight lines stand for "heat applied from the bottom", "heat applied from the top", and "heat applied from both bottom and top". Not sure about the ones with teeth? Can't see the last one properly unless it's the self-cleaning cycle?

think the last one is turning the fan on

So if I've only got one thing in the oven, I could save energy by putting it on the top shelf and only activating the "heat applied from top" setting? Is that the idea?

my idea of heaven that i constantly dream about is genuinely a life in which i don't need to grapple with malicious household appliances

I don't have trays in my oven, really

You don't have any racks in your oven? I've never seen one like that.

these are alchemical symbols representing the cycle of death and rebirth

there is a handheld electronic mixer in our kitchen. i tried to use it the other day and bad, bad things ensued :(

No, I have racks, but not fixed trays. I thought ico was referring to something related to a heat source, which threw me. Laurel's wording makes more sense.

There is a seventh one with just a LIGHTBULB symbol, which I presume is for when you want to show off the contents of your oven.

Nick, it's difficult to cook things from the top, since a lot of what conducts the heat to the food is the dish it's cooking in, and that's on the bottom. Do not suggest trying to bake things from top only. Use top heat for, like, browning something, or melting cheese on top.

Ah, see I would use the grill for that.

A...grill? I'd use a gas-powered open-flame broiler, given the chance.

OK I see where this could get confusing. American ovens don't have seperate grilling parts like UK ovens do. We have a top heat function called broil.

You say grill to an American and they would think bbq.

Right, well I'm talking about the thing that the first two symbols does. The kind of thing you use to make cheese on toast. I realise you don't call that grilling in the States.

So I guess now the difference between 1 and 4 becomes mildly U&K.

It seems like the jaggedy one is obv open flame, and the straight line would be dry heat from inside the walls? That's my strong feeling, but US ovens don't have both in the same space like that so I was confused.

UK ovens have a little compartment in them called the grill right? I'm trying to remember here. We don't have that little compartment in our ovens at all. We just have that top heat function which we'd call broil and use to make cheese on toast. I don't really know what you would bother using that function for if you already have a grill. It seems redundant.

Laurel's interpretation of open flame v heat radiating from within seems likely though.

I'm looking at ovens on amazon.co.uk and they seem...normal? Single ovens have only one enclosure...if yr unit has a second area, that's the broiler. Do you just call that a grill?

IIRC It's like a little shelf right up near the flame inside the main oven compartment.

In the United Kingdom, Commonwealth countries (except Canada), and Ireland, grilling generally refers to cooking food directly under a source of direct, dry heat. The "grill" is usually a separate part of an oven where the food is inserted just under the element.[9] This practice is referred to as "broiling" in North America. In electric ovens, grilling may be accomplished by placing the food near the upper heating element, with the lower heating element off and the oven door partially open. Grilling in an electric oven may create much smoke and cause splattering in the oven.[10] Gas ovens often have a separate compartment for grilling, as a drawer below the flame.

It doesn't have a second area. Some ovens do have a separate grill compartment, yes, but not mine. And many UK ovens run on gas, rather than electricity, so have proper flames, but not mine.

x-post - I guess "in the UK the girll is a separate compartment on top of the over between the over and the stove top oven" and not inside the oven like I (falsely) remembered. I think that is what you were thinking of Laurel and that we would def call that the broiler here. My oven now doesn't have a broiler so I was all confused.

Oh wait that doesn't make sense now either.

Confusing things, they ovens.

I think Plaxico nailed the question of your particular settings though.