As we’ve shown in a series of head-to-head tests, the Cuisinart Chef’s Convection Toaster Oven we recommend can do everything an air fryer can do and more. We recommend getting a toaster oven with convection if you’re interested in air-frying because a toaster oven holds more food and cooks more evenly than a pod-shaped air fryer. Convection can slightly reduce cooking times, and it has a dehydrating effect that makes foods a bit crispier on the outside (it’s what air fryers actually use to “fry” food). And the Wolf Gourmet Countertop Oven we tested, which normally costs over $650, uses nichrome elements, which are typically found in cheaper models.Ĭonvection: One feature that manufacturers like to tout is convection, which basically means that a fan circulates the hot air inside the oven. For instance, our budget pick, the Hamilton Beach, has the same quartz elements as the Cuisinart Chef’s Convection Toaster Oven, which usually costs over $200. Price is not necessarily correlated with the type of heating elements used in toaster ovens. None of the models we tested use ceramic exclusively, but one model, the Panasonic FlashXpress, uses both quartz and ceramic. It has the ability to heat up quickly and maintain even temperatures. The third type is a ceramic element, which is often found in space heaters. The big advantage quartz has over nichrome is that it heats up considerably faster. Nichrome heaters (metal wires, like in a slot toaster) and quartz elements (which look like long coils encased in a glass tube) are the most common heating elements you’ll find in toaster ovens. Although most people wouldn’t shop for a toaster oven by examining its heating elements, we focused on three main types during our research.

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