The National Committee on Household Equipment Research under the leadership of the Bureau of Home Economics, has been working' for several years on test specifications for various household appliances, so that the several investigators in the field may be able to follow similar methods in testing equipment and have a basis for comparing results. Since research in the field of household equipment is of comparative recent date, very little data are available. It is necessary, therefore, to test the performance of appliances before test specifications can be set up and agreed upon. The present investigation was carried on for the purpose of obtaining necessary data for setting up test specifications for the electric roaster.

The electric roaster is an appliance which provides many of the services of a range at much lower initial cost, with the added advantage of occupying comparatively small space and deriving current from a convenience outlet.

The roaster is a recent addition to household equipment. There were, therefore, no established methods for testing it. Since the roaster is similar in many ways to the electric range oven it was considered feasible to used standard oven tests as a basis for developing methods for testing the roaster.

The following discussion is divided into two parts. The first is a description of procedure followed in checking the empty performance of certain roasters to determine desirable tests methods. The second part records results of actual cooking operations.