Yeah I really don’t get the point my yousemate has one and he insists it cooks certain things better than an oven, but its really just the same and it just seems like a mindless fad people are following that’s being pushed to sell useless tat.
I’m guessing it’s mostly driven by people renting tiny bedsits where the only cooking facilities they’d normally have room for are a microwave and a kettle. The fad seemed to blow up during the pandemic when everyone’s nearby restaurants were shut, so they’d have to live on instant meals and pot noodles. Be a game changer for those folks.
It’s probably cheaper to run than a regular fan oven because it’s heating less space. Otherwise yeah, it’s just a small oven.
Its basically a convection oven with higher air speed. The faster you get heat onto the surface of food the crispier it gets.
frier > industrial convection oven > air frier > convection oven > oven
Also because it’s so tiny you don’t have to wait 30 minute for it to hear up
My aunt who has been interested in cooking for decades swears they are great. I have yet to do research but I think there’s more to it than “smol oven”.
No, it’s not an oven. It’s a convection oven, which has existed for decades but never caught on until they were rebranded as air fryers.
What’s really strange to me is that every oven and every toaster oven I’ve ever owned has a connection setting. So people are buying these huge space-consuming appliances to do something that they can already do with what they have in their house.
Believe me, I thought the exact same thing until we were gifted one, so i get the skepticism! The convection bake setting on my oven is just not even comparable to a $75 air fryer.
As another commenter posted, air fryers use a much more intense airflow. It’s nuts just how much faster and crisper things like chicken thighs and frozen snacks come out compared to the oven.
Not every oven has a convection setting. I’d go so far as to say most rentals don’t. Every (electric) oven does have a broil setting. But for some reason you seem to think buying a toaster oven (a small broiler) is fine but an air fryer (a small convection oven) is strange? And an air fryer is “huge”? Are you confused about what an air fryer is? It’s like once square foot of countertop space at most.
The convection is much stronger than on a regular oven, as someone who has a full sized convection oven, toaster oven with convection, and air fryer.
Also you would have to use a mesh or rack with a cookie sheet on a lower shelf to expose the bottom of the food to the moving air in your oven without drips sticking.
If you’ve tried both, you would see what I mean.
A convection oven is a normal oven. “Convection” means it radiates heat and it flows through the oven by convection currents - hot air rises and cold air falls. As opposed to a microwave oven. You probably mean a fan-forced oven - they have been standard in the US since the early 1970s.
In spite of what the words “convection” and “oven” mean on their own, a “convection oven” refers to an oven with a fan to circulate the air. An air fryer is a small convection oven.
https://www.allrecipes.com/article/what-is-a-convection-oven/
I’d argue it’s better than a convection oven. I think it’s the placement of the fan and the higher air flow rate that differentiates the two.
My parents and SO’s parents have name-brand convection ovens but they’re no where as good as a dedicated air fryer. We’ve tried the same recipe (potato roasties) across them all and they achieve vastly different results.
Wait. People don’t have convection ovens in the US? I think every home over here has been equipped with one since the 1990s or something.
Yeah they’re not very common in the US unless the kitchen was renovated for a “home chef” type. The average oven you go and just “pick off the shelf” in the US doesn’t have convection. I don’t know anyone with a convection oven, I’ve only seen home cooks/chefs on YouTube with them.
Convection has been standard for ovens for over 10 years. My 13 year old KitchAid oven from a big box store has convection. It wasn’t even promoted until air friers became popular.
Also all microwaves with bake feature are convection ovens. Again it was normal, but now they put big “like air frier” stickers on them to let people know.
It’s not just a convection oven, it’s a particularly small convection oven. Due to the size, the air blows faster and the heat requires less energy. It’s absolutely brilliant for certain applications and it should be recognized as such.
Generally (in the US) the term convection oven is used to refer to an oven that forces hot air around with a fan, instead of an oven with the radiant heating elements.
Someone else commented that all ovens are convection and the correct term is “fan forced”… which might be technically correct, but that’s just not how the terminology is commonly used at least in the US. Some newer ovens have options clearly labeled “convection” that turn on a fan, sometimes in addition to the radiant heating elements.
The main reason I think people like convection ovens or air fryers is because the air circulation crisps the outside without overcooking the inside and without all the fatty oils required in a traditional deep fryer.
Same here, in the US. Natural gas dominates where I live, and I’ve only seen it for electric ovens.
It’s also still a “new” feature, in the context of major appliances lasting decades. My new oven is convection but I don’t remember it being a reasonable choice 18 years ago when I last did, it maybe that’s just natural gas
And even today, this was a “premium” feature. Most low to midrange appliances do not seem to have it
Fascinating. What country? The only non-convection oven I’ve ever seen in Germany was the fire fueled oven my grandma had, and I’m pretty sure that thing was pre-war.
Most ovens in the past 15 years have convection. People didn’t notice the button on the oven until air friers became a big thing.
Actually closer to a sub category called impingement ovens.
Wikipedia:
Another form of a convection oven is called an impingement oven. This type of oven is often used to cook pizzas and lightly toast bread in restaurants, but it can also be used for other foods. Impingement ovens have a high flow rate of hot air from both above and below the food. The air flow is directed onto food that usually passes through the oven on a conveyor belt.
Low fat is for better health. It’s not exactly a bad trend and you seemed genuinely confused.
Low fat is NOT better for health. That’s a myth that the sugar industry has been peddling for almost a century now.
Why is this even a meme? Omg why do can openers exist? 9 inch angle grinders already exist. We had a kids toy lolol
My theory - they got popular in the US because everyone was still microwaving stuff like it was 1980 because their electricity is girly 110v so they can’t have good ovens. The air fryer is an improvement on both those things
In modern countries with 240v, everyone bought an air fryer cos the yanks said they were amazing, and now they’re scared to admit they fell for marketing hype and it’s just the same as their fan oven that they’ve had for 20 years except it heats a bit faster and they can’t fit stuff in it
From what I’ve seen in the comments it’s “Americans discovered an alternative to a microwave”.
Hate to break it to you, but most oven ranges in the US are 240V. They have 240V into the home which gets split into -120V and +120V lines with a neutral in the middle for regular appliances. Bigger appliances can get wired up for the full fat 240V experience
I’m guessing its more to do with the size, ovens in the US are massive! Probably double the volume of a regular EU oven
Decent air fryer : $300
Air frying capable oven (lower range) : $600
Good air frying capable oven : $1500+
