Convection in the microwave — what is this mode and is it needed in a microwave oven?

Con­vec­tion is a phe­nom­e­non asso­ci­at­ed with the trans­fer of inter­nal ener­gy through the move­ment of air — in the form of its streams and jets. It can be used as the prin­ci­ple of oper­a­tion of some modes in house­hold appli­ances. For exam­ple, con­vec­tion in a microwave oven. What it is? How is it car­ried out and what are the advan­tages of such an option? In the microwave, it man­i­fests itself when mass­es of hot air from the heat­ing ele­ments move with the help of fans.

The advan­tages are in uni­form heat­ing through­out the entire vol­ume of the fur­nace cham­ber, almost regard­less of the loca­tion of the ele­ments in the mod­el. After all, the fan blades car­ry the heat. This allows you to achieve the same bak­ing dish any­where. Also, those dish­es for which this is nec­es­sary can be made slight­ly dried on top, with a crispy crust.

How is convection used in microwave ovens?

So what is con­vec­tion in a microwave? To car­ry out this process in microwave ovens, two devices are need­ed: heat­ing ele­ment and fan. The first gen­er­ates heat and heats the air, and with the help of the sec­ond it cir­cu­lates through­out the cham­ber. Most often, man­u­fac­tur­ers choose the back wall of the microwave for the loca­tion of the fan.

Anoth­er ques­tion is much more curi­ous for ordi­nary peo­ple — how does cook­ing in a microwave oven with con­vec­tion affect dish­es, why is it need­ed? For even­ness! Com­pared to old ovens (with­out con­vec­tion), they are more uni­form:

1. heat­ing dish­es;
2. col­or and dis­tri­b­u­tion of the crust;
3. baked goods.

There are many dish­es for which this option is sim­ply vital. You can for­ev­er for­get about black burns in those places that are clos­er to the heat­ing ele­ments, while the bulk is still damp. This prob­lem is espe­cial­ly rel­e­vant for fur­naces with a small inter­nal vol­ume.

In the video, the host of the pop­u­lar pro­gram sim­ply and clear­ly explains the prin­ci­ple of con­vec­tion. On the exam­ple of the move­ment of card­board over a hot incan­des­cent lamp, the fact that hot air ris­es pre­cise­ly upwards is demon­strat­ed, which is the essence of this phe­nom­e­non. With the help of the men­tioned fans, the air move­ment takes on a more order­ly char­ac­ter.

Microwaves with and without convection: what else is the difference?

Microwave ovens with a con­vec­tion func­tion, com­pared to mod­els that do not have this mode, have the fol­low­ing dif­fer­ences:

1. Instal­la­tion of fans and oth­er dif­fer­ences in the device lead to the fact that such mod­els are larg­er in size and take up more space.
2. Acti­vat­ing this mode results in more pow­er con­sump­tion.
3. Mod­els of microwave ovens with the con­vec­tion option allow you to bake dish­es — pies, chick­en, bread, etc.
4. Com­pared to con­ven­tion­al ovens, con­vec­tion microwave ovens allow you to cook much faster.
5. high­er cost.

Who needs convection?

The con­vec­tion func­tion in the microwave can be use­ful for the fol­low­ing types of peo­ple:

• For those who seek to fol­low trends in house­hold appli­ances, increase their com­fort lev­el in every­day life, but do not yet have such a kitchen appli­ance, and the men­tion of the con­vec­tion func­tion in the microwave oven can only cause them to ask “What is this?”. For them, of course, a new expe­ri­ence will be inter­est­ing.
• Not too close­ly fol­low­ing all the new prod­ucts for peo­ple who, nev­er­the­less, have a sim­ple microwave mod­el that they want to find a replace­ment for. In this case, you should not “change the awl for soap” and pur­chase almost exact­ly the same equip­ment, only a new one. It is worth try­ing a more advanced tech­nol­o­gy, it is always inter­est­ing.
• Cooks who spe­cial­ize in bak­ing, as well as dish­es that require a sim­i­lar cook­ing reg­i­men. Pies, cook­ies, muffins, bread — man­u­fac­tur­ers claim that con­vec­tion is the best suit­ed for this. Accord­ing to reviews, stew­ing and fry­ing also work well.
• For those who do not have any oth­er devices on the farm that can do the same as a con­vec­tion microwave. These include a slow cook­er, air grill, oven, sep­a­rate grill — their func­tions are sim­i­lar.

Conclusion

Answer­ing the ques­tion whether con­vec­tion is need­ed in a microwave oven, we can say: of course, yes. Do not give up the oppor­tu­ni­ty to make high-qual­i­ty home­made cakes, stew some­thing, gen­tly brown or make a gold­en crust. Espe­cial­ly con­vec­tion is use­ful for those who like to cook in the oven — as a more mod­ern and con­ve­nient option.

The ide­al option — choos­ing between mod­els with a grill and with grill and con­vec­tion, choose the last one. It was then that this option will make its exclu­sive­ly pos­i­tive con­tri­bu­tion to the over­all impres­sion of using the device.