Food & Drink

Please recommend a Convection Oven / Halogen Cooker / Infra-red Oven

  • Last Updated:
  • Mar 30th, 2016 12:31 pm
Tags:
None
Deal Expert
User avatar
Apr 21, 2004
58648 posts
24637 upvotes

Please recommend a Convection Oven / Halogen Cooker / Infra-red Oven

The older models from decades past were called turbo broilers but I guess they now called differently.

http://buykitchenstuff.com/turbo-ovens/

The blog suggests Morningware Infrared Halogen Cooker which get pretty good reviews on amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Moringware-HO1200 ... roduct_top

Another glass oven is made by Secura. Are there any other brands that stand out? My wife just noticed how easy it was for a friend to make roasted pork (similar to those suckling pigs in Chinese restaurants) and wants one really bad. LOL.

TIA.
18 replies
Deal Expert
Aug 22, 2006
31271 posts
17295 upvotes
Who's the freakin' genius that called them "Turbo Ovens"?
They are in no sense of the word "Turbo". I'll elaborate later.

That said, gremlins aside, they do have a use and I do own at least 10 (counting the dead ones)

My vote goes to the Secura you mentioned on Amazon. I've owned 2 and they're both still running after more than a year.
MUCH more than I can say about the Flavorwave.

Both models worked very well, but only one model tends to live past anything beyond 6 months.
Granted, I haven't owned a Flavorwave since the original models, so they could be better now. The Secura is a really good value and the differing features make it stand out over the Flavorwave so I wouldn't go back even if they were better.

Elaborating later, I said that they were in no way "Turbo".
Sure they use less energy, but the tradeoff is that they use less energy. That means food can't cook as fast.
Through years of testing, I've quickly come to realize that it's actually SLOWER to cook in one of these ovens.
In addition to cooking slower, it also cooks MUCH less evenly when loaded with food. You've probably seen the commercials. Layers upon layers of food cooked to perfection. Yeah. It's not happening. Anything on the bottom does not cook. It barely gets warm. Especially if the top contains something that covers a significant part of the rack like a butterflyed chicken.
A meal consisting of chicken and potatos (on the bottom) usually ends up taking about 1:20 to cook: 30 minutes one side, 30 minutes other side and 20 minutes for the potatos since they're basically raw.
Compared to a full size oven, you're looking at 20 minutes preheat and 45 minutes for a butterflied chicken. The full size oven wins out by 15 minutes.
HOWEVER! Accounting for resting time, they are pretty much identical. The chicken in the "fake" oven rests while the potatos finish cooking whereas the resting time has to be added to the end for the oven. So at the start of the meal, the cooking times are fairly similar.
Most food follows this time frame. Anything lost to a fast "preheat" gets lost due to the longer cooking times, which are compounded if you're trying dual layer cooking.

So why do I still have 10 units? Easy. NOTHING beats the quality of heat that comes out of an oven for reheating.
The only thing I use my microwave for nowadays is (re)heating liquids or nuking some frozen veg. To reheat food it goes in my fake oven. Sure it takes 10 minutes instead of 5, but it's consistently heated through.

They also make a wonderful 2nd oven when your primary oven is full of food (eg during the holidays)

Bottom line: They do work, but you can't send it to completely replace an oven. It's not faster. And as with anything that's "green" nowadays, it costs more to be green than the product will save over a lifetime. Especially this type of units lifetime as they are basically impossible to service.
It takes A LOT of oven use to recoup $150 worth of electricity. Thanks to Wolfram Alpha which can answer ridiculous questions like how many kilowatt days are in $0.10/kwh, you have to run your oven for 62 days straight or 1 hour per day for 4 years to recover the cost. Oh and I'll guarantee you that it won't last you that long.

Holy novel batman.
Deal Expert
User avatar
Apr 21, 2004
58648 posts
24637 upvotes
^ Thank you Death_Hawk.

I guess the major concern for these is quality as well as evenness of heating. Surprisingly, that blog mentioned these things heat food (likely particular types) more evenly that standard convection ovens. Thanks for sharing your experience so at least we know the manufacturers make it sound so rosy.

For smaller households, maybe the portions to be broiled (if that is the term) may be small enough to allow even cooking but I'll pass along the info to my wife
=====
For anyone else who have these things, would love to hear more advices/experiences
Member
Jan 11, 2006
237 posts
8 upvotes
I've been looking at the Nuwave oven but it appears to be junk as many people complained about its broken dome. Where can you buy the Secura in Canada?
Deal Expert
Aug 22, 2006
31271 posts
17295 upvotes
alanbrenton wrote: ^ Thank you Death_Hawk.

I guess the major concern for these is quality as well as evenness of heating. Surprisingly, that blog mentioned these things heat food (likely particular types) more evenly that standard convection ovens. Thanks for sharing your experience so at least we know the manufacturers make it sound so rosy.

For smaller households, maybe the portions to be broiled (if that is the term) may be small enough to allow even cooking but I'll pass along the info to my wife
=====
For anyone else who have these things, would love to hear more advices/experiences
They're relatively even up top, but the thing just doesn't get enough heat for the convection to make a difference.
To go back to the chicken example, in my convection oven there's no need to flip my chicken during the cooking process.
Using the "fake" ovens, if I don't the top ends up overcooked and the bottom is dead raw.

It's the same problem with the dual layer cooking. There's just not enough heat output to properly cook things.
The heat it does give off is even. It's just not enough. This is the reason I vastly prefer this to my microwave for reheating. The entire top layer of whatever you're cooking is heated quite evenly. But since it's a single meal rather than a whole chicken, the heat can penetrate well enough to not require turning.

Portion size is of the utmost importance. While you CAN cook a turkey in one of these (if you use the extender ring) it's significantly longer than an oven. Anything larger than a large chicken or a couple of bones of prime rib is better suited to a real oven.
digital99 wrote: I've been looking at the Nuwave oven but it appears to be junk as many people complained about its broken dome. Where can you buy the Secura in Canada?
You can't. At least not that I've seen.
Besides... Amazon US is about the easiest place in the world to order from, so next time you're vacationing in the US, ship it to your hotel.
Deal Expert
User avatar
Apr 21, 2004
58648 posts
24637 upvotes
^ Thanks Death_Hawk, you have convinced me not just use the oven. :)

What kind of bakeware/ovenware do you use in your convection oven? I'm familiar with those glass pyrex or equivalents but it's very hard to clean them when food or sauce gets burned. Maybe there are other materials out there that are easier to clean? Is it usually safer to heat/cook/bake food in glass containers rather than metallic ones (chemical leaching / I know Aluminum is really not linked to Alzheimer's Disease but I just want to play safe)?


LOL, pardon me as I have never cooked or baked in my life so I'm very green when it comes to these things.
Deal Fanatic
May 18, 2009
7863 posts
2841 upvotes
Richmond Hill
Im interested in one as well. Anyone else here has 1 that they can recommend? Was what death_hawk said is true that it is not turbo and does not cook evenly?
Deal Fanatic
Sep 4, 2009
6575 posts
726 upvotes
You want one without the plastic bowl. If it has glass bowl then you can move on with other features. Plastic bowl will always crack - it's a matter of time.

The halogen lamp/coil breaking is the next concern. You can buy that off ebay for about $20 or so. Might be easier to buy extended warranty on this, provided the shipping charges aren't excessive (better if there is a return depot in Toronto).

I'm using the Rosell from Newegg, it's one of their subsidiaries and you can return it at their markham depot if it's in warranty. It seems to be ok after a month. I only use it for making fries and hash browns - any recipe that has a lot of liquid in it will not work for this type of oven because it only cooks the top half centimeter or so of the surface of the liquid.

You should look at the recipes for this type of machine and decide if it is what you imagined it to be. This isn't a replacement for an oven because the recipes that work on this machine is limited. Also keep in mind a very large chunk of your hydro bill actually consists of fixed costs (transmission costs etc) meaning your variable costs that you can save by using this machine is more limited than you think.
Deal Expert
User avatar
Apr 21, 2004
58648 posts
24637 upvotes
drokli wrote: The Philips AirFryer is your only solution. Roasts a beautiful chicken. http://www.philips.ca/c-m-ho/cooking
We got that and this attachment is better (bought all of them though when shop.ca had terrific deals):
http://www.thebay.com/webapp/wcs/stores ... lsrc=aw.ds

plus a Cuisinart steamer:
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products ... tion-oven/
Member
Oct 16, 2007
288 posts
6 upvotes
@alanbrenton, I've got all the attachments and I agree that the grill pan is the best. Do you have an IG account I can follow that posts your food creations? You can find me at @drokskitchen. OP the AirFryer makes incredible chicken, fries, steak, sweet potato chips, grilled veggies, you name it.
alanbrenton wrote: We got that and this attachment is better (bought all of them though when shop.ca had terrific deals):
http://www.thebay.com/webapp/wcs/stores ... lsrc=aw.ds

plus a Cuisinart steamer:
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products ... tion-oven/
Deal Expert
Aug 22, 2006
31271 posts
17295 upvotes
yesstyle wrote: Im interested in one as well. Anyone else here has 1 that they can recommend? Was what death_hawk said is true that it is not turbo and does not cook evenly?
Having used a few more of these since my last post, I really can't recommend any of them.
If you INSIST on having one, buy the cheapest one you can because even the expensive ones break.
I broke 2 Securas and a Rosewill.

And nothing has changed since then either in terms of cooking performance.
It's a directional weapon.
drokli wrote: The Philips AirFryer is your only solution. Roasts a beautiful chicken. http://www.philips.ca/c-m-ho/cooking
You know... this is actually a great idea. I completely forgot about this thing mostly because they're trying to associate it with a deep fryer.
But once you realize that it's actually a convection oven (and a pretty good one at that) you open up solutions like roast chicken.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCNj7NZSd8s

Also this is one reason I hate promotional videos.
The before shot is the woman dumping potatoes in randomly and stacked on one side.
The after shot is opening a drawer with perfectly arranged potatoes that aren't touching the chicken.
Deal Fanatic
May 18, 2009
7863 posts
2841 upvotes
Richmond Hill
rageking wrote: You want one without the plastic bowl. If it has glass bowl then you can move on with other features. Plastic bowl will always crack - it's a matter of time.

The halogen lamp/coil breaking is the next concern. You can buy that off ebay for about $20 or so. Might be easier to buy extended warranty on this, provided the shipping charges aren't excessive (better if there is a return depot in Toronto).

I'm using the Rosell from Newegg, it's one of their subsidiaries and you can return it at their markham depot if it's in warranty. It seems to be ok after a month. I only use it for making fries and hash browns - any recipe that has a lot of liquid in it will not work for this type of oven because it only cooks the top half centimeter or so of the surface of the liquid.

You should look at the recipes for this type of machine and decide if it is what you imagined it to be. This isn't a replacement for an oven because the recipes that work on this machine is limited. Also keep in mind a very large chunk of your hydro bill actually consists of fixed costs (transmission costs etc) meaning your variable costs that you can save by using this machine is more limited than you think.
you mean this one? http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... -_-Product
Deal Expert
Aug 22, 2006
31271 posts
17295 upvotes
yesstyle wrote: looks good but its $300

Im moving into a new condo so i'm trying to find one that does it all.
Define "all"
Technically a full sized oven will be the most versatile.
But the drawbacks are the heat it produces relative to the temperature of the room (ie you don't want to use an oven when it's 40C out)
Nothing replicates a deep fryer.
Toaster you can't exactly do in an Airfryer.
Toaster oven would work for toast and broiling and maybe reheating but doesn't have the deep brown of a good convection.
Oven does all of this decently (well except deep frying)
Buy the warranty.
It's a glass bowl but the heating element went out forever after like 20 uses.
Member
Oct 16, 2007
288 posts
6 upvotes
What I like better is the fact that she cuts through the chicken with a butter knife :D

OP I would like to know what you mean by "does it all" as well. A convection oven, as I describe, can roast, 'fry', bake, and grill. It cannot do wet-batter fried foods, just dried batter. Think KFC chicken rather than Popeye's chicken. Think Japanese Agadashi tofu, not Pogo corn dog. Think panko-crusted crab cakes, not beer-battered fish and chips.

If you need an appliance that can steam or boil or slow cook, you'd need to look into the Philips Multi-Cooker, which I have as well and can provide a little context.

Good luck!
death_hawk wrote: Having used a few more of these since my last post, I really can't recommend any of them.
If you INSIST on having one, buy the cheapest one you can because even the expensive ones break.
I broke 2 Securas and a Rosewill.

And nothing has changed since then either in terms of cooking performance.
It's a directional weapon.


You know... this is actually a great idea. I completely forgot about this thing mostly because they're trying to associate it with a deep fryer.
But once you realize that it's actually a convection oven (and a pretty good one at that) you open up solutions like roast chicken.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCNj7NZSd8s

Also this is one reason I hate promotional videos.
The before shot is the woman dumping potatoes in randomly and stacked on one side.
The after shot is opening a drawer with perfectly arranged potatoes that aren't touching the chicken.
Deal Expert
Aug 22, 2006
31271 posts
17295 upvotes
drokli wrote: What I like better is the fact that she cuts through the chicken with a butter knife :D
OH MY GOD I just watched the video again.
Not only was the chicken pre cut with what looks to be a hack saw, she's finishing it with a butter knife.
Seriously... who does that.
Deal Fanatic
May 18, 2009
7863 posts
2841 upvotes
Richmond Hill
drokli wrote: What I like better is the fact that she cuts through the chicken with a butter knife :D

OP I would like to know what you mean by "does it all" as well. A convection oven, as I describe, can roast, 'fry', bake, and grill. It cannot do wet-batter fried foods, just dried batter. Think KFC chicken rather than Popeye's chicken. Think Japanese Agadashi tofu, not Pogo corn dog. Think panko-crusted crab cakes, not beer-battered fish and chips.

If you need an appliance that can steam or boil or slow cook, you'd need to look into the Philips Multi-Cooker, which I have as well and can provide a little context.

Good luck!
more like putting/cooking all the assorted foods in one appliance then call it a day. Cooking meats and veggies separately is a pain in the ass when you arrive home from work so late.

I could careless about deep crying - trying to eat healthy.

Top

Thread Information

There is currently 1 user viewing this thread. (0 members and 1 guest)