Yes – You can use the Convection feature without a vent. The Microwave is a vent for the oven.
What foods can you cook in a convection oven?
There are specific dishes that work well in a convection microwave oven. Theyre good for reheating because of their ability to preheat quickly and make food crispy. While theyre not ideal for cooking fresh pizzas and pies from scratch (because they dont have a base element), you can use them to heat up frozen or leftover pizza and pastry.
Because of the grill function, theyre great for melting cheese toasties and browning the top of gratins and pasta bakes. Theyre also suitable for roasting small cuts of meat or small quantities of vegetables.
“I like to toast nuts and make vegetable chips in my convection microwave, too,” adds Fiona.
Other pre-programmed settings include steaming and slow-cooking.
Fiona says she has seen the design of these appliances evolve to offer multi-shelf cooking for baking batches of biscuits or cakes, accessories such as crisp plates to help cook food from the bottom, and features such as soft-close doors and reduced operating noise.
Can a convection microwave replace an oven?
If youre cooking large volumes, such as a Sunday roast with multiple trays of meat and veggies, youll still need to use a regular oven as most only have one shelf, and limited space.
But if youre cooking smaller quantities on a single tray, you can combine cooking functions such as convection and grill for browning meat and roasting vegetables.
What if youre cooking pizza or pastry from scratch?
“Because it doesnt have a base element,” explains Fiona, “results are not great for browning and crisping pastries and pizzas on the bottom”. Some models come with a crisp plate, which is designed to heat food from below, but your food is restricted to the size of the crisp plate.
The upside is that they are great for reheating pre-cooked pastries and pizzas, as they can reach a high temperature in a short time – but many only have a maximum temperature of 200°C.
This quick preheat means they are also cheaper to run than standard ovens, so they can offer considerable savings on energy costs. You can also combine functions – such as roast or grill – with the microwave function, to speed up the cooking time.
How Do Convection Microwaves Work?
FAQ
Does a convection microwave need to be vented outside?
Can you put a convection microwave in a cabinet?
Does a convection oven require venting?
Do microwave ovens have to be vented?
There is no requirement that your Over The Range (OTR) Microwave be vented to the outdoors. All OTR microwave ovens can be set up to either allow the fan to recirculate the air back into the kitchen or be vented to the outdoors. How do you keep cold air from coming in the microwave vent? Many microwave ovens are not vented to the outside.
Do you need a microwave convection oven?
The answer would be yes if you don’t like much crispy and brown textured food, and you are not fond of baking. The simple task for which you want an oven is to heat and cook food; then, a microwave convection oven is not a worthy appliance for you.
Can a microwave oven be vented out of a duct?
The oven will protrude from the front of the cabinet. *for upward exhaust. Many microwave ovens can be configured to vent out the top (into a duct), out the back (into a duct) or out the top (recirculating mode, no duct). All microwave ovens have an internal cooling fan for the magnetron.
What is a convection microwave?
A convection microwaves offer the quick cooking features of a microwave with the browning, crisping, and full “cook-through” of a traditional oven. Let’s take a deeper look.