Turkey took 2 hours longer in oven with no bottom element
I suspect that your oven has a hidden bottom element as I've never seen an electric oven w/o a bottom element.

Regardless, in a working oven the whole oven should be near the desired temperature. It will be a lot closer to even throughout the oven if you have a convection oven.

Since the oven took much longer than expected here are a couple reasons that could affect the temperature and/or cooking time.


Was the turkey completely thawed? A turkey that isn't thawed takes a lot longer to cook. And don't think that fresh turkeys are ready to pop into the oven. They can be cooled to 28F (I believe) and still be called fresh. They aren't frozen solid but they aren't ready to cook as is.
Check your oven with an oven thermometer. Ideally you use an oven thermometer every time you cook but certainly use one until you understand how accurate your even is calibrated. And then every few months afterward. You might find out that setting the dial to 350F gives you an oven at 300F.


I remember using a pan that was too big for the oven (it covered almost all of the rack) and burning the bottom of the dish. The heat couldn't reach the thermostat so the lower element never turned off. Not what you were experiencing but shows what can happen in non-convection ovens.

If you can provide more information (make &amp; model), which rack position the turkey was on in the oven and the size of the turkey, you may get a better answer.