Air fryers blow significantly more air than a convection oven. Even my Breville toaster oven which is touted as an air fryer clearly isn’t - I find I need to cook foods somewhere between the convect instructions and air fryer instructions.
This I did not know. But besides the time, is there anything the air fryer does better than a convection toaster oven? Does the food taste noticably better? Otherwise, an air fryer strikes me as a unitasker that just takes up counter space. We get a lot of use out of our Cuisinart toaster oven because it can do a lot: bake a loaf of bread, roast a tray of vegetables, or broil a piece of meat. And, oh yeah, it makes great toast!
They usually have bins, which means you can pull the food out and shake it without worrying about burning your hands; or, plate it without touching it.
That's the big difference that I've noticed now that I'm reading about them.
It's got to be more than that, perhaps the bin shape creates a better air-frying environment? Why is there a difference in cooking results between the toaster oven "air fryer" and the bin type?
We got a Breville at home recently and I couldn't understand what the hype was all about, it did exactly what my last countertop oven did even in Airfryer mode.... this is making sense now. We were already heavy users of the old convection only model, so this didn't seem like much of an upgrade. I think the marketing hype is just pushing people to realize a countertop oven of any sort is very useful. (That said, the Breville is very well made and we'll keep it around. It works well, just didn't quite taste much of a difference from what we had before - an older Cuisinart FWIW).
Be sure to use the basket and don’t overfill it. But yeah - I don’t have an air fryer but if I put some frozen French fries or the like in there the air fryer instructions absolutely do not get the food done.
Clearly it’s working for them but it also I think loses them sales from people who would absolutely buy an oven that evenly cooks (if you’re an apartment dwelling baker you know the pain) and preheats in seconds where “air fryer” sounds like it does something totally different.
It’s the same thing with instant pot where they probably lose out a bit by not marketing themselves as a serious electric pressure cooker that can also do other stuff.
Well, I fry food, using heat and air, without soaking it in oil, so why shouldn't it be called an air fryer? I also have a convection toaster oven that cannot do that.