It's a small convection oven. Most ovens are not convection ovens, they're fan ovens or gas ovens. The biggest downside to both of them is that what you're mostly heating up is empty space.
I can practically fill my air fryer with enough food for one person. Clearly more efficient.
Also because of the small size it heats up basically instantly, none of this preheating the oven for 45 minutes before you can cook anything.
It is a bit more complicated than that. The WAY it moves the air is different than in a convection oven, so it "fries" a bit better.
This guy does a great breakdown of how it isn't "just a convection oven"
Air fryers are basically just small convection ovens. If you have an oven then an air fryer does nothing you can't already do. That said, it does cook some things slightly faster due to the confined space. I've found mine will cook a chicken in just over an hour saving maybe 20 or 30 minutes on a regular oven. I guess it also saves energy / money but whether it ever pays for itself is another question.
Mine also comes as an air grill and making hamburgers from frozen patties takes roughly 15 minutes, bonus it doesn't make a mess on my stovetop and most of the fat drips at the bottom.
If only there wasn't a repository of human knowledge that could have cleared everything up before this meme was made:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convection_oven#Air_fryer
And BTW, it's closer to an impingement oven
It is a small fan forced oven. Good for heating up frozen snacks but usually too small to cope with large families and probably not worth bothering if you have a good oven. Since I have a completely shit oven that cooks unevenly, never the right temp, takes ages to heat and heats the whole house up in summer just to make some chicken nuggets for the kids I think they are awesome. If I actually gave a shit about cooking I probably wouldn't bother. If was single I would probably still rate the toaster oven as the most versatile benchtop appliance (though the biggest fire risk) followed by sandwich press but if you have to heat up manufactured rendered chicken waste shaped like dinosaurs for kids they are surprisingly practical.
Anon is clearly smooth brained and in capable of telling the time or doing basic arithmetic
Big oof
It's an Adult Easy Bake Oven
Air fryers have changed the game. My life is different now. I'm a changed man. I fry my food with the air. I will never go back.
I've found that air fryers often make far better results than conventional ovens. Conventional ovens tend to cook things unevenly, will more easily burn some parts of the food, take more time to cook and dry things out.
You'll never get homemade chicken wings as crunchy and juicy as you can get them in an air fryer in a conventional oven.
It is waaay faster and easier to use than an oven.
they are literally just small ovens. They're toaster ovens with a fan. Or maybe no fan at all, who knows. I don't have on, on account of the whole oven situation.
Yeah, I figure it's for all those poor fuckers renting and living in somebody's kitchen, but to add further insult to injury, most of the kitchen appliances have been removed to make room for a "private bathroom" (i.e. a toilet and a shower) leaving you with at most a small fridge and a microwave.
I just use a small toaster oven for small portions or if i need to hwat something up. I got it for free and i dont have to shell out for another "new" appliance that's actually just a rebrand
Mine does both and rotisserie chicken.
I had one of the older style air fryers around 12 years ago. Those were much smaller and not oven like. I think they were ideal for making small portions and especially good for re-heating food the next day.
These newer ones do seem a bit like a smaller, more efficient oven. Again, I reckon it would be useful for a lot of smaller stuff I use the main oven for, but we just don't have the space in the kitchen for one.
