Heard my neighbor say air fryers are just convection ovens and it got me thinking

I was taking out the trash last night and my neighbor Dave was talking to his friend about how air fryers are just mini convection ovens with a fan. He said he could make the same crispy fries using his regular oven on convection mode for 20 bucks less. But I've been using my air fryer for about 3 years now and I gotta say, it does heat up way faster than my big oven. Like I can throw in some frozen chicken tenders at 400 degrees and they're done in 10 minutes flat. Has anyone else tried both and noticed a real difference in cook times?

2 comments

2 Comments

allen.amy4d ago

Your neighbor Dave isn't wrong about the basic technology being the same, but he's missing the key difference. Air fryers have a much smaller cooking chamber and the fan is way more powerful for its size, so hot air circulates like a tornado in there. My big oven on convection mode takes a good 10-15 minutes just to preheat, whereas my air fryer is ready in maybe 2 minutes tops. Also, air fryer baskets let the heat hit the food from all sides because of the mesh bottom, but sheet pans in a regular oven block a lot of that airflow underneath. Try doing frozen mozzarella sticks in both and you'll see the air fryer wins on time and crunch every time.

riverf342d ago

Right? Same here, my regular oven can't even come close on frozen fries.