Convection Oven vs. An Air Fryer (What’s The Difference?)

Is an air fryer just a convection oven? What are the main differences between an air fryer and a simple convection oven? There are many misconceptions when it comes to comparing an air fryer to a simple fan-assisted oven. Let’s take a closer look at both the appliances and explain how and where do they differ.

1. Air Fryers vs. Convection ovens
2. Why should you choose an air fryer over a convection over?
3. What are some disadvantages of an air fryer? (compared to a convection oven)
4. And what are the disadvantages of a simple convection oven? (compared to an air fryer)
5. The conclusion – should you choose an air fryer over a convection oven for your kitchen?

Air Fryers vs. Convection ovens

A convection oven is a kitchen appliance that differs from a simple oven only because of its additional element that is crucial for its proper operation – a built in fan.

While a traditional oven cooks food by raising the air temperature around the food, a convection oven not only rises the air temperature, but also moves the air around the inserted food product, making use of the convection effect to prepare your meals faster and make them more crispy.

An air fryer is a countertop kitchen appliance that works on a similar basis to a convection oven, however:

• It’s designed for optimal air flow in the main chamber / around the basket in which the food is placed.
• It features a smaller cooking chamber and has proportionally a larger fan, and that paired with the design ensuring the perfect internal air flow lets you emulate the deep frying effect without actually having your food submerged in hot oil.
• In general it’s much smaller than a typical convection oven and can easily fit on your countertop.
• It can often prepare many kinds of food much faster than a typical convection oven.

Why should you choose an air fryer over a convection over?

The smaller size of an air fryer’s cooking chamber paired with the optimized internal air flow lets the air fryer emulate the deep frying process without the use of cooking oil. This is great great not only for health reasons, but its also good for your wallet as recently the prices of cooking oil are on the rise.

The streams of hot air are guided in such a way that it’s possible for the food to come out crispy and browned, much as when you’re actually deep frying your food submerging it in cooking oil. You cannot achieve this effect using a simple convection oven.

How Do Air Fryers Actually Work? – Quickly Explained!

Of course cooking oil is always a little bit better heat conductor than a high pressure stream of hot air even in a tight enclosed space, so the food qualities will differ when you compare for example air fried chicken wings and chicken wings that have been deep fried. The effects are surprisingly close though!

In comparison to convection ovens air fryers are:

• Usually much smaller (easily fit on the countertop).
• Faster & more convenient.
• Equipped with a removable basket that makes an air fryer super easy to clean.
• Capable of emulating deep frying when preparing meat dishes, french fries etc.
• In perfect conditions more energy efficient.

Note: an average air fryer can easily fit on your countertop besides your oven or a microwave, however air fryers that are made with larger families in mind (over ~4.20 quarts or ~4 liters) can get pretty big so keep that in mind.

What are some disadvantages of an air fryer? (compared to a convection oven)

Well if we’re talking honestly about air fryer disadvantages, a few things can be said about air fryers when comparing them to standard convection ovens:

• An air fryer will generally fit much less food than a small convection oven.
• It’s not advised to stack food inside of an air fryer or place it in large heaps, as it might obstruct the air flow and make the food not cook evenly – you have to keep that in mind when placing the food in the basket.
• Although the air fryers aren’t really that loud, the air fryer noise is quite different from the noise that a typical convection oven makes and it may be a bother for some.

And what are the disadvantages of a simple convection oven? (compared to an air fryer)

Again in terms of convection oven disadvantages, a few things come to mind:

• First, the convection oven will in general take longer to cook your food (mainly because of its larger cooking chamber).
• On average, a convection oven will be much bigger than a typical air fryer.
• If you’re not using a proper metal pan or a tray with your convection oven, its internal parts can be often more difficult to clean.

The conclusion – should you choose an air fryer over a convection oven for your kitchen?

Well to be honest in our humble opinion you shouldn’t really pick one over the other. There are some kinds of food that are much harder or less convenient to cook in a convection oven and are really simple and fast to prepare in an air fryer (such as quick frozen french fries).

On the other hand, there are many dishes that cannot be prepared in an air fryer and can only be made with the help of a simple convection oven (most pastries, all the things that have to do with wet batter and so on).

Air Fryer – What Not To Cook – Do Not Put These Things In!

An air fryer is a wonderful, useful and efficient appliance that is meant to compliment your existing kitchen equipment, it can reduce your cooking oil usage (by a lot!) and make preparing many meals much faster, however in the end it cannot really replace a standard convection oven, just as a convection oven cannot do all the things an air fryer does with ease.

We would therefore advice you to try the air fryer out if you’re curious and you already own a traditional oven or a convection oven. We promise you won’t regret it!