Better efficiency but more importantly it heats almost instantly. Thing is like magic. No preheating for 5+ mins.
Plus having a second oven is fucking awesome. I’m out there on thanksgiving with an oven full of turkey, baking dinner rolls on the side like an absolute gangster.
The oven that comes with your stove is huge and it takes forever to preheat. I remember mine used to take like 20 minutes to preheat. For a lot of things that doubles the cooking time.
A toaster oven has way less space to heat, together with the fast convection makes it heat up almost instantly and also evenly. It’s just such a huge quality of life improvement.
I wish we had space for either one. Assuming an air fryer can grill cheese as well as a toaster oven, I’d be fine with just the latter though. I miss my toaster oven.
If you have the money, I’d definitely recommend a toaster oven with “air fryer” capabilities (air fryers are just convection ovens… with more convection). However they are more expensive than just an air fryer. Air fryers are also smaller so that can be a big pro if you are limited on space.
Grill cheese in an oven? Gotta use a stovetop for that.
Or a grill. Ya know, 'cause it’s grilled cheese.
Our oven literally broke (screw you fridgidaire btw) and we made thanksgiving dinner in the air fryer/ toaster oven. Even the turkey! Came out great!
You bought an oven from a company called ‘Frigid Air’ and are mad that it broke? What were you expecting?
It sucks how immediately after Thanksgiving it’s illegal to cook turkey or bake dinner rolls. It’s particularly annoying that it’s like, a global rule even though Thanksgiving is a US thing.
Where did the recent air fryer trend come from anyway?
Clearly you don’t own an air fryer
Ok, sooo it’s not like a deep fryer and I feel like I can’t be the only one to learn that lesson. I battered up some cod, set it for 15 minutes, and ended up with flat fish pancakes. It’s really a mini convection oven.
Yeah it just turns out that convection ovens make great bagged frozen fries.
I wish my normal oven was a convection oven so I didn’t need an air fryer.
I have a fancy oven with convection but it takes a while to heat up and often I just want a couple servings of fries.
I wish my normal oven was a convection oven so I didn’t need an air fryer.
Here, pretty much everybody has a convection oven. I wish I understood why air fryers are so popular here.
I’ve heard one argument: “Mine can stir the fries”
It’s really a mini convection oven.
Yes but more so. I don’t think there’s any objective criteria but where a convection oven blows hot air over food to brown it all around, sn air fryer blows more to crisp the food
And for me the convenience is key. Like a microwave, just click a few buttons and wait for it to beep
My only problem is the lack of recipes. A few processed snack foods have directions, but I’m still figuring out how to vobvert instructions for real food. “subtract 20° and 20% of the time” is inconsistent
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
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
From what I’ve seen in the comments it’s “Americans discovered an alternative to a microwave”.
Yeah that’s what I said before I got one too.
Air fryers are the shit.
We have a Ninja hybrid type. That thing is AMAZING almost equal to the value of a microwave
Also got a Ninja one, but we got the thing with dual baskets so you can optionally cook two foods at different temps. Really makes getting those tendies and fries much easier.
Biggest disadvantage is that you have another bulky piece of equipment taking up counter space. Best option is to get a convection oven with an air fryer setting. It’s even more convenient because it doesn’t take up additional space and you don’t have to move it in/out of storage. It’s always there ready for immediate use.
Air fryers dont heat the entire house 5 degrees. Also they are like 15x faster to make food for 1.
That just sounds like a shitty oven tbh. Modern electric ovens also have strong fans and can potentially draw much more current from a high-voltage outlet.
That’s not great when you’re paying for the power
Air fryers are excellent at cooking up enough food just for 1 or 2 people, ovens are excellent at cooking up a family roast
There’s a good reason they are popular lol, I can have a side of chips ready in 15 minutes flat versus waiting for the oven to heat up then waiting another 15 minutes for my chips to be ready. Plus heating up an entire oven just for 1 serve of chips is just inefficient
There is a good reason why they’re popular, but it’s mostly due to the foodie trend. You can cook one meal for one in an air fryer, or like two dozen meals for one in an oven (meal prep, divide, freeze).