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Convection toaster ovens are a specific kind that is very similar to what you traditionally think of as an oven. They use heated air to cook food - the only difference is that they have a fan built into them that will blow the air around and over the food. There are some big advantages of doing this:
1) Moving the air around overall keeps the total temperature of the oven lower, even though the air heating the food is the same. That means you aren't using as much energy to do the cooking.
2) The food will cook more evenly. With a standard oven, the air in certain spots may be a higher temparature than elsewhere, and it doesn't really move around much. Circulating the air helps keep any one part of the food from being overcooked relative to the rest. With standard ovens (radiant ovens) you will generally see the bottom part of the food get cooked much more than the top - because the air is just rising past it, and not hitting the top of the food to the same extent. That doesn't happen with a convection oven.
3) Convection ovens will cook food more quickly than a regular oven.
4) It lets you use all the racks without cooking food differently. With a regular oven, hot air will hit the food on the bottom rack, cooking it most - and then unevenly cook the stuff on higher racks, because the air doesn't hit them in the same way.
The main downside is that it can be difficult to get used to if you've been using a regular oven. You'll have to adjust cooking time downward, and it will be kind of a trial and error process for you to get where you're comfortable with it. In the end, though, it's well worth it. Getting a convection toaster oven is a good way to test it out without having to replace a giant appliance in your kitchen - and it's a lot cheaper.
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