Exactly! I read some air fryer reviews and one of the reviews said the best air fryer is a convection toaster oven, so I thought, “well it’s Costco and if I hate it I can return it and get an air fryer.” I use this for so many things and almost every day. Reheating food is generally better in this than the microwave oven too.
Convection toaster ovens have been around for a long time, but for the most part have been “toaster oven plus a little fan.” Air fryers showed up with an emphasis on I’M BLOWING ALLLLL THE HOT AIR!!! I’ll make frozen mini pizzas in my air fryer and have to stab the pepperoni with toothpicks or they end up God knows where lol.
I have both, but would be willing to just have the toaster oven version if it stepped up its blowing game. Until the day comes when one of the appliances craps out on me, I’ll use both.
I can fit a baking dish in it so I can use it for many of the things I might want to bake in my oven (lasagna, casserole, small batch of cookies/muffins) but don’t want to heat the entire oven for. It fits a standard frozen pizza, I’ve occasionally baked bread or rolls in it. One of my most frequent uses would be the broiler setting where I just want to quickly brown the top or melt cheese onto something.
One of the drawbacks of my current air fryer is that the fan blows so hard I have to make sure that what I put in there is heavy and secure enough not to get blown around. My son was heating something and put a piece of cheese on it to melt. The cheese was definitely NOT where it was supposed to be when it melted.
I’ve only had non-convection toaster ovens and the one thing they did better than my air frier is toast. My air frier tends to dry out the toast by the time it’s properly browned. However I’ve never had a problem with it blowing food around.
What’s the difference between an air fryer and a convection toaster oven. Everybody’s so excited for air fryers but AFAIK, both just blow air around.
Exactly! I read some air fryer reviews and one of the reviews said the best air fryer is a convection toaster oven, so I thought, “well it’s Costco and if I hate it I can return it and get an air fryer.” I use this for so many things and almost every day. Reheating food is generally better in this than the microwave oven too.
Convection toaster ovens have been around for a long time, but for the most part have been “toaster oven plus a little fan.” Air fryers showed up with an emphasis on I’M BLOWING ALLLLL THE HOT AIR!!! I’ll make frozen mini pizzas in my air fryer and have to stab the pepperoni with toothpicks or they end up God knows where lol.
I have both, but would be willing to just have the toaster oven version if it stepped up its blowing game. Until the day comes when one of the appliances craps out on me, I’ll use both.
What does your convection toaster oven do that the air fryer doesn’t?
I can fit a baking dish in it so I can use it for many of the things I might want to bake in my oven (lasagna, casserole, small batch of cookies/muffins) but don’t want to heat the entire oven for. It fits a standard frozen pizza, I’ve occasionally baked bread or rolls in it. One of my most frequent uses would be the broiler setting where I just want to quickly brown the top or melt cheese onto something.
One of the drawbacks of my current air fryer is that the fan blows so hard I have to make sure that what I put in there is heavy and secure enough not to get blown around. My son was heating something and put a piece of cheese on it to melt. The cheese was definitely NOT where it was supposed to be when it melted.
I’ve only had non-convection toaster ovens and the one thing they did better than my air frier is toast. My air frier tends to dry out the toast by the time it’s properly browned. However I’ve never had a problem with it blowing food around.