Air fryers seem to be all the rage these days, so I’m curious to hear from a no-BS crowd like HN: is there a meaningful difference between a small convection oven and an air fryer?

No, not really. I personally find a regular non-convection toaster oven to be good enough (and much cheaper).

Here's the technical aspects I see no one talk about:

(1) Air fryers have much higher air flow than a convection toaster oven and the chamber is more aerodynamic resulting in better air flow around the food.

(2) Air Fryers have a basket, convection toaster ovens may or may not have one and buying an aftermarket one is surprisingly not cheap.

(3) Air fryers have a hair-dryer design, with a fan blowing onto a heating element. The convection oven has normal top and bottom heating elements with a fan blowing the air around on the side.

I find that the air fryer does do a better job at reheating (refrigerated or frozen) fried foods such as tots, fries, fish sticks and chicken tenders. But the trade off is that it's not as good at toasting and roasting things like waffles, bread, quesadilla, pizza or vegetables.

Thanks, this is exactly the breakdown what I was looking for.

Apparently! https://www.americastestkitchen.com/guides/air-frying/the-be...

(disclaimer: I don’t have one, but America’s test kitchen/cooks illustrated tend to be pretty reliable with their advice I find…)

edit: see also https://www.americastestkitchen.com/videos/4115-air-fryers

I saw this argument over on Twitter earlier today too, and I’m not sure where’s its originating... frankly, does it matter? Buy the one that has the form factor you want and cooks the way you want to cook. When I see “counter-top convection ovens” they are large things that take up a ton of counter space, but have limited functionality and capacity. Meanwhile, the “air fryer” I bought is a lid on my Instant Pot, which means I’ve got 6 quarts of space to “fry” things they way I want. It’s been a fantastic addition for us to quickly whip out fish and chips without gallons of oil and mess.

Edit: Suppose I should mention I have an in-wall convection oven in my kitchen as well. It does “fine” but frankly sometimes I’m cooking for a large enough group that I need both the convection oven and the Instant Pot air fryer going at the same time. Plus, my convection oven takes forever to come up to full heat, so often the “Air fryer” is a better choice in terms of capacity and time.

I would say it matters insofar as anyone wants to apply understanding of the fundamentals of cooking to new tools.

Should I expect to use an 'air fryer' to do things I can already do with other tools—like toast bread or roast/bake something small, even though none of those is 'frying'? What are important considerations / differences relative to the small convection oven I already have?

If air frying is a fundamentally new cooking technique, then I may not be able to apply a wealth of cooking knowledge & intuition when using it, other than basic food chemistry. If it's a rebranded convection oven, then I can decide if a different form factor is worth it for things I already know how to do.

Does that make sense?

> “Air fryer” is a better choice in terms of capacity and time.

These are exactly the features that make it so effective for me. I love convection ovens but the air fryer is almost always more convenient with better results for the kinds of foods I'm cooking with it.

I thought there wasn't, so on a recommendation from wirecutter, we bought that cuisinart toaster oven that is also convection. It toasts up our tater tots nicely, faster than the instructions on the tater tot bag. But if air fryers are actually different I'd like to know.

We roast Brussels sprouts in our air fryer (instant pot add on) and it takes much less time than using our convection oven. Perhaps a smaller convection oven would be faster, but it makes a huge difference for us. Cleanup is a little more burdensome though — the slits in the basket are tricky to clean thoroughly.

Yep. Best investment I made this year.

Why not just cook with healthy fats like extra virgin olive/coconut oil?

Because a little bit of oil adds a lot of calories.

(And is the evidence about coconut oil conclusive? Last I heard it may or may not be good.)

A tablespoon of olive oil is 120 calories. Unless you are completely sedentary, or are using 15tbsp a day, it’s a negligible amount.

> Unless you are completely sedentary,

This is Hacker News. Of course he's completely sedentary

120 extra calories a day is an extra 12 pounds a year. Combine that with your metabolism slowing down as you age and as the years pass you might find yourself expanding.

Also, the amount of oil you avoid by moving from deep frying to air frying, depending on portion sizes, can be much more than a tablespoon.

(Obviously, metabolism is more complex than this. I'm discounting the effects of adding fat on satiety, absorption rates, etc.)