Baby's first air fryer / convection oven
February 3, 2025 4:18 PM   Subscribe

Hello, I'm looking at possibly getting a 6-in-1 / 8-in-one air fryer / convection oven / brain surgeon / ninja / rockstar. I'm looking for something that can cook meals for 1-2 people, can be used in place of a regular oven. I was looking at the Cuisinart Air Fryer + Convection Toaster Oven, 8-1 Oven with Bake, Grill, Broil & Warm Options (TOA-70) and would like to hear from people who have one of these, or something similar.

I'm not a fantastic cook. I do a lot of slow cooking (and have a Crock Pot), and do a limited amount of oven-baking or oven-cooking, but am interested in learning how to cook more. I want something that's durable, performs well, and versatile without being too fiddly. Something that a relative kitchen-doofus could easily start using, then learn to use more.

One thing I note about the model I mention was that it says that users can cook a 12" pizza. Are there larger models? (Sometimes I'll make a casserole-sized pan of something.) Also, can people bake cakes in these? (Like I said...kitchen idiot. Assume that I've heard about these things for years, but haven't given them any serious study.)

If you have or had the model I noted, please tell me about your experiences. If you have something else, please share your experiences! TIA, all.
posted by Tailkinker to-Ennien to Food & Drink (21 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
I have a Breville Smart Oven. It also boasts a 12in pizza pie capacity, but that's mostly cause of depth. It has a bit of a cut out on the back just to fit the pie pan. A 9x13 pan fits well for casseroles. Definitely bakes cakes/cookies/pies/etc well. Toasts extremely well, too.

I also use it to air fry things like wings.

It is easy to clean but only if you keep up with it: wipe it regularly and it won't be a pain, let it sit to bake on the next time and it won't be nearly as easy to clean. This probably applies to other brands as well.

My kitchen gets very cold so we've also been known to use it to pre-heat our plates. It has a low minimum temp that makes this doable.
posted by miscbuff at 4:35 PM on February 3 [3 favorites]


I have the Breville Smart Oven Air and really like it. I've used it to bake everything from bread to layer cakes to lasagna to a whole roast chicken (spatchcocked). It fits a quarter sheet pan or 9x13" dish*. I think I've turned my big oven on maaybe 3 or 4 times since I got the Smart Oven 2 years ago. Ironically, the only feature I don't use regularly is the "air fry" function, but that's because it's powerful enough that it consistently sets off the smoke detector in my condo.

*as long as the dish is exactly 9x13" and doesn't have handles or anything sticking out. I had to buy new pans to fit the smart oven and it was totally worth it. I believe there is a "Smart Oven Air Pro" model that is slightly roomier and might be able to accommodate more conventional casserole dishes, but you'd have to check first.

on preview: ha, smart oven fans rise up!
posted by btfreek at 4:40 PM on February 3 [3 favorites]


I'm going to second the Breville Smart Oven. I purchased one on sale before xmas because my family had been asking for an air fryer and I had been resisting having something single-purpose. But the Breville is extremely flexible, does a ton of stuff well, and has been used nearly daily since I got it.
posted by griffey at 4:42 PM on February 3 [2 favorites]


I also have a Breville and really like it. But they’re substantially more expensive unless you can wait for a sale.

Cook’s Illustrated reviewed the Cuisinart TOA-60 (I assume it’s similar?) in September and were not into it—it came second to last:

"This model struggled with just about every task we gave it. Toast was entirely too blond on even the darkest setting, broiled asparagus was light and limp, and the air-fried french fries were limp with surprisingly burnt edges. Temperature tests showed it missed target temperatures by a whopping 85 degrees, but its air-fryer rack was close enough to the top element that a few pieces still burned. When we tried a second copy of this oven, it ran too hot, burning toast on the medium and dark settings and air-fried french fries. We also thought this model was the most challenging to clean—when we made roast chicken, grease pooled at the bottom of the door and dripped all over the counter when we opened it."

The review is behind a paywall.
posted by bcwinters at 4:44 PM on February 3


(Actually, I take it back, I opened the review in an incognito tab and it seemed to be accessible!)
posted by bcwinters at 4:46 PM on February 3


We got that square Ninja Convection Oven from Costco and it's fine for my needs. It's not like the cannister-shaped air fryer Alec reviews but after watching that I don't care, it's close enough, and yes a pizza fits.
posted by Rash at 5:41 PM on February 3


Haha I'm another happy Breville customer. We bought ours when the oven in our kitchen stopped working three days before Thanksgiving during the pandemic and were able to use the smart oven for the things we'd intended to do in the regular oven - not the turkey which we deep fried, but I made rolls and Brussels sprouts in there, and reheated a pie. You could definitely make a cake but might have to bake one layer at a time. My 9x13 baking dish has handles and wouldn't fit in there but that's not to say that *no* 9x13 baking dish could. It's honestly just never crossed my mind because my particular dish has such a wide footprint.

I will say that people in general have mixed reviews on the air fryer functionality of these many-functional countertop ovens compared to dedicated air fryers. I don't have an air fryer myself, so I don't have a basis for comparison.

The best "hidden feature" of this oven is the proof setting, to my mind. There are so many situations when you want to just put something in the equivalent of a hot room - like bringing ingredients to room temp or proofing dough - and it's super nice to be able to temperature control it down to like 80 degrees.

There was also one time when my dad for Reasons needed a whole lot of bread crumbs that were dry and stores weren't open and we were able to use the dehydrate setting to crumble some bread out of the fridge and get it dried out rapidly without burning it. It's nice to have a workhorse like this in the kitchen that does a whole lot of random heating tasks pretty well.
posted by potrzebie at 5:52 PM on February 3


I got the Cuisinart model you mentioned a few months ago when it was on sale for under a hundred bucks. I like it for air frying and toasting, especially for the price, but it has its drawbacks, as explained in this review. First, the inserts are not dishwasher safe, supposedly, but I might start putting them in the dishwasher anyway. Second, it's overly powerful when baking. I have burnt cookies several times, as they seem to cook much quicker than they do in a regular oven at the same setting, and I haven't yet learned how to adjust it properly.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 5:53 PM on February 3


We have this one, which says it will cook a 13 inch pizza. It comes with a pizza stone and I've fit a 9x13 pan in it before. It is more expensive than most of these other models, but it is roomy. I often cook with the convection setting, but I don't really notice a difference. It does toast and bagels well, too. It doesn't claim to be an air fryer, as it is probably too big.

It is very, very easy to set. It has a lot of modes but you can just use toast and bake and broil and you will be fine. You set the temp and the time and hit start. Easy to clean, preheats quickly.
posted by soelo at 6:08 PM on February 3


I would buy this Panasonic microwave combo oven..

It has convection, flash broiling, turbo defrost and other features too.

There should be a larger one that's parallel with their larger microwave only oven, but I didn't see that one.
posted by jamjam at 6:57 PM on February 3


Another vote for the Breville. My brother bought me one when I moved into my new place, and I have not used my oven once. I use the stovetop for steaming, but most of my cooking is in the Breville or my Instant Pot. I’m just cooking for one, but I think it would also be good for 2.
posted by Glinn at 7:55 PM on February 3


The Breville is good. I got mine used from Facebook Marketplace, which made it much more affordable. They have several different model names; the "Smart Oven Pro" has convection but the fan is not as powerful so it doesn't have true air frying, whereas the "Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro" does. The air fryer model is significantly more expensive.

Convection and air frying both move air around the food being cooked, but air frying gets dryer, crispier, and crunchier. If you're making rotisserie chicken and roasted veggies that are typically starting from refrigerated temps, either regular convection or air frying is fine. If you're into frozen pre-made foods like hash browns, tater tots, fries, anything breaded like chicken tenders, and anything that is starting from frozen, air frying is better. And for the breaded frozen items, a dedicated air fryer with a smaller volume will be even better.

Be aware that the bigger the volume of the oven, the longer it will take to cook your food. This is mostly an issue for smaller foods. A Breville Smart Oven will take a full 6 minutes to toast 1-2 slices of bread to a medium dark shade. I ended up using a separate small toaster for bread.

I've also used a Cuisinart oven air fryer, similar to the model you listed, that looks and works almost identically to the Breville. It's likely to be cheaper for the same functionality.

Here's a review of the Breville that matches my experience.
posted by danceswithlight at 8:05 PM on February 3 [1 favorite]


nthing the brevile, with the convection on it's an air fryer that is more flexible/easy to clean
posted by wowenthusiast at 8:06 PM on February 3 [1 favorite]


Breville all the way, baby! As mentioned above, the proof setting is awesome to have. There’s also a dehydrate setting, and all the other things mentioned. We roast a lot of veggies in It and they’re perfect. The only challenge worth mentioning is that the longer you have it, the harder it is to clean even if you’re fastidious about cleaning it after every use , and you can’t use oven cleaner.
posted by ashbury at 8:55 PM on February 3 [1 favorite]


I have this one from Sur la Table and it has been my only "oven" in my tiny home. It cannot fit a pizza, but it holds a 6 cup muffin tray perfectly :)

It looks like the Breville has a solid fan club, but I wanted to mention this style because what I really like about it is that the door swings out instead of down. I feel like that helps to minimize the collection of crumbs and other debris - and it also feels like a better fit for the space where it sits.

I bought mine at Costco for $79 about a year ago and cannot seem to find it available anymore . . . but there are other models with similar side-swinging door styles on Amazon if that sounds like a feature you would want to consider.
posted by ainsleymoon at 8:57 PM on February 3 [1 favorite]


I too am considering buying one and saw this Wirecutter article just yesterday. They like the Philips.
posted by wisekaren at 4:30 AM on February 4


We just upgraded to the Breville and it is very good, but I also miss the basket-style air fryer we had before (a very basic Ninja) as it was better at some things (crispy crust on chicken/pork, cooking things that are covered in marinade or otherwise going to drip). Overall the Breville does enough other things well that we are keeping it, and I'm happy to not have the hot plastic of the Ninja in our kitchen.
posted by mcgsa at 8:18 AM on February 4


Response by poster: Another point that I should have mentioned: I'm at high altitude (currently just over 6200 ft). Quick research shows that, like with normal ovens, I'll have to increase cooking time and temperature. But just out of curiosity, are there any other higher-altitude folks who have an air fryer/convection oven combo machine?
posted by Tailkinker to-Ennien at 9:48 AM on February 4


Got the Ninja Flip about a month ago and using it fairly regularly in place of the oven. Roasting vegetables, making toast, baked potatoes, and making exactly two cookies each night from frozen dough. It's a little gimmicky in that its selling point is that it is very flat and can be flipped up against the wall to store it when cool but I really like this feature, and it is big enough to make pizza as well.
posted by lolibrarian at 11:17 AM on February 4


I suggest getting something that you can fit a whole chicken into - this makes it very versatile and the chicken is delicious.
posted by meepmeow at 5:40 PM on February 4 [1 favorite]


We have a Cosori that was a best-recommended multi-function a few years ago when they first came out. I would buy the Breville one now. Having all the different oven functions really helps and we used it exclusively for a family of five when our wall oven broke. I will say the air fryer element isn't as good as some of the smaller, canister type ones, but it serves our purposes. You can fit the average frozen pizza, an 11x17 pan, a tall bundt pan, etc. And, you can toast your toast, which is hard to do in a regular oven.

Ours has been beaten up quite a bit because it's used by 5 adults of varying skill sets, but it's still going strong after 4 years of constant use.
posted by drossdragon at 3:33 PM on February 5 [1 favorite]


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