A convection oven is an oven that has fans to circulate air around food to create an evenly heated environment
. The increased air circulation causes a fan-assisted oven to cook food faster than a conventional non-fan oven, which relies only on natural convection to circulate the hot air
. Convection ovens distribute heat evenly around the food, removing the blanket of cooler air that surrounds food when it is first placed in an oven and allowing food to cook more evenly in less time and at a lower temperature than in a conventional oven
. When cooking using a fan-assisted oven, the temperature is usually lower compared to that of a non-fan oven, often by 20 °C (40 °F), to avoid overcooking the outside of the food
. The term "convection" is widely used to mean "fan-assisted", but this is perhaps not the most precise way to differentiate fan-assisted ovens from conventional ovens, since both types of oven cook using convective heat transfer
