My range is on it's last legs and I am styarting to look for Black Friday/Pre Black Friday deals...I found the range I thought I wanted but then saw for $75 more I can get one with a convection oven...not sure if I would use this feature or if it worth the extra few bucks?

I have a combination standard/convection oven, and honestly, I've never found the convection part to be of any use. In some cases, it takes longer.

Supposedly, the only real benefit is "evenly" heating food.

I'll go the opposite direction in the second response - absolutely worth it.

In normal day-to-day use not so much. But if you ever have a lot of things you're trying to cook at once, or multiple sheets of cookies, etc. the even distribution of heat will allow them to all cook at "normal" and even speeds no matter where they are in the oven.

If all you ever use your oven for is a single tray or casserole of food at a time, perhaps not.

No.

our customers who baked on a weekly basis , really like the feature,

those that baked once a month, not so mush, no advantage

It makes tater tots a little crispier. Haven't really noticed much else.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:
I'll go the opposite direction in the second response - absolutely worth it.

In normal day-to-day use not so much. But if you ever have a lot of things you're trying to cook at once, or multiple sheets of cookies, etc. the even distribution of heat will allow them to all cook at "normal" and even speeds no matter where they are in the oven.

If all you ever use your oven for is a single tray or casserole of food at a time, perhaps not.

That made me think, thank you...we do not cook a ton but when we do and have multiple things in oven that could be handy.

I also see that the range I am looking at also comes with a 5th warming burner on top which might be useful.

Only if you do a lot of baking.

quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
It makes tater tots a little crispier. Haven't really noticed much else.

Crispy tots should be enough of a reason!

Absolutely, but not for bakery or pizza. We use ours for tots, fries, nuggets and things like that. Adds a crispy outer layer.

quote:

Originally posted by Kevmo:

quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
It makes tater tots a little crispier. Haven't really noticed much else.

Crispy tots should be enough of a reason!

If you fry tater tots in oil like God intended, they are always crispy!

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:

quote:

Originally posted by Kevmo:

quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
It makes tater tots a little crispier. Haven't really noticed much else.

Crispy tots should be enough of a reason!

If you fry tater tots in oil like God intended, they are always crispy!

Amen!

absolutely worth it,

Convection helps significantly with bread, pastries, etc in eliminating the overcooking from the bottom, you know where the cookies are hard as rocks on the bottom and done right on top.

It provides a much more even cooking process, for $75 go for it.

That small of a price delta is worth it for an appliance that will hopefully last at least a decade.

This goes back to "Heat and Mass Transfer," generally one of the least-loved courses in an undergraduate mechanical engineering curriculum.

When you put something in an oven, it is generally cooler than the air in the oven (that's kind of the point, after all).

In the absence of air movement in the oven, the air around the cooler food cools down, as some of its heat goes into the food. The temperature difference between the air close to the food causes some slow, small-scale air movement to occur (cooler air is heavier than warmer air), so over time, some heat enters the area around the food as the cooler air around the food is displaced by warmer air from elsewhere in the oven. Some heat also enters the area around the food via conduction of heat from the warmer air in the oven to the cooler air around the food. How quickly this happens is highly dependent on the shape of the food and obstructions like pans and so can be very uneven (ever baked/roasted a whole chicken and had the breast nicely browned but the sides and areas around where the legs and body meet not browned at all?).

By sticking a fan in the oven and keeping the air moving, you basically prevent the layer of cooler air around the food from forming - as soon as the air cools down (having transferred some heat into the food), it is whisked away and replaced by fresh, warmer air from somewhere else in the oven.

Effectively, between a non-convection oven and a convection oven cooking at the same temperature, the air really close to the food is actually hotter, and maintains a more even temperature across the surface of the food, in the convection oven.

So a convection oven cooks more evenly, a little faster, browns more evenly, and browns more quickly than a non-convection oven.

This is why you'll often see recipes intended for convection ovens say to cook 25-50 degrees hotter if you're using a conventional oven instead, and recipes intended for conventional ovens say to cook 25-50 degrees cooler in a convection oven instead.

As another side note, the reason a lot of frozen foods say not to cook in a toaster oven, and you generally don't get as good results baking in a toaster oven, is that a conventional toaster oven just doesn't have enough air inside it to maintain an air temperature close to the food as high as a full-size conventional oven does. A convection toaster oven, however, does a GREAT job cooking frozen food or baking small batches of things. I use a Breville convection toaster oven all the time, almost always on a convection setting, because it preheats so much faster than a full-size oven.

quote:

Originally posted by Kevmo:

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:

quote:

Originally posted by Kevmo:

quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
It makes tater tots a little crispier. Haven't really noticed much else.

Crispy tots should be enough of a reason!

If you fry tater tots in oil like God intended, they are always crispy!

Amen!

Not disagreeing, but it’s not an argument I’m gonna win with the wife.

I liked ours when we had it. New oven doesn't have it and life's not terrible.

I would probably pay the 75 if I was in your shoes.

Maladat, thank you for the thorough explanation!
We have a convection option on our new one and I always use it- for the reason he explained. My old oven was better, though. With this new one I can’t seem to get the bottom crust on my pies to cook throughly. Also seems to brown a bit more on 1 side vs the other. Might just be me, but I had the old oven down pat, and this one is still working me through it’s kinks.

Depending on the amounts you cook, an air fryer is basically a mini convection oven replacement, but it cooks a lot faster than a regular oven because it heats up so quickly. For the aforementioned Tater Tot's, my air fryer with a little spray oil has them crispy and properly oily in 13 minutes start to finish. Never even use the regular convection oven anymore unless cooking really large quantities.

Worth it not only for cookies, but also roasting - aka turkeys, rib roast and tenderloins.