A convection oven uses the principle of convection in heat transfer in order to force the movement of air molecules over the food. This is what a modern convection oven can do because it has an inbuilt fan which enables it to circulate air molecules over the food using the principles of convection in heat transfer. Convection ovens cook food much faster than normal ovens and there are numerous reasons that account for this. However, the most notable reason is the fact that the distribution of air above the food makes it easy for them to distribute heat evenly thereby reducing on the amount of time that the heat reaches to ends of the bulk of food that is being cooked. As such, they have an upper hand over conventional ovens in as far as the time taken for cooking food is concerned and the amount of heat that is lost during the cooking. Like most ovens or cookers, convection cookers also fall into different categories as will be depicted in the passage. In most cases, the variations may be based on size and slight modification of the features of the preceding oven.
Ordinary Convection Ovens
These are convection ovens that are common in most households. They usually have several racks in one chamber for cooking various food items. Unlike most modern ovens, these ovens usually cook a variety of foods within the same chamber. There are also no restrictions on the nature of plates that can be placed into the chamber for as long as the material is strong enough to withstand the temperatures of the oven. In most cases, ordinary ovens cook food much slowly and are usually not equipped with sophisticated temperature sensitive timers and settings.
Countertop Ovens
These are arguably the smallest convection ovens that are available on the market today. They are good for preparing small amounts of food at a time. Because of their small size, countertop convection ovens are usually suitable for quick service eating places and restaurants that do not possess a space large enough to accommodate an oven. Their advantage over other convection ovens is that they are much easier to install and they do not require any overhead vents. Countertop convection ovens vary in size and shape depending on the model.
Floor Convection Ovens
These are quite common and they usually come in a variety of sizes depending on the usage and place where it is being used. The smallest size in the group is usually useful in places where much larger ovens cannot be used. It is good for much smaller menus such as the preparation of cookies and pies. On the other hand, much larger sizes are good for larger menus such as baking multiple units of loaves of bread and other multivolume applications. Much larger floor ovens are usually used in places such as hotels, very large restaurants, multipurpose bakeries and tertiary institutions where a lot of food is required to be prepared within a short period of time.
Microwave convection ovens
It might surprise you to learn that microwave cookers can also fall into the category of convection ovens. However, the simple fact is that they do. As a matter of fact, they are very qualified for convection cooking because they are able to distribute heat evenly as much as an ordinary convection oven does. Although not all microwave cookers may fall into the category of convection cookers, the modern ones have recently been equipped with the cooking abilities of a convection oven. Such microwave cookers are able to cook food in much the same way as an ordinary convection cooker does.