If you’ve been thinking about purchasing the NuWave Oven and you’re wondering if you should purchase it or not, this guide should help you determine that. This review explains what the NuWave Oven is, how it works, if it’s safe for your health, if it’s an air fryer and its pros and cons.

What Is the NuWave Oven?

The NuWave Oven is an Infrared convection oven that replaces microwaves, stoves and ovens used for cooking. It uses 75 percent less energy, and it has a 70 percent faster cooking time compared to a standard oven.

The NuWave Oven makes cooking easier compared to using microwaves, stoves and ovens. You can cook various types of food in a NuWave Oven, and you can use the convection oven to broil, barbecue, roast, grill, bake, dehydrate, steam or air fry them.

The NuWave Oven is a great option for people who don’t have the money to purchase expensive appliances or if you travel frequently. It’s lightweight and portable so that you can cook in the convenience of your camper, boat, dorm and more.

If you are looking for a larger oil-less fryer to fry a turkey, you can check out our Char-Broil TRU-Infrared Oil-Less Turkey Fryer Review.

How Does the NuWave Oven Work?

The NuWave Oven uses three different systems simultaneously: infrared, conduction, and convection.

Conduction heat

This is the most common form of heat transfer. It occurs via physical contact. This type of heat is similar to the heat used in a conventional oven. The heating element on the top generates heat energy which will be conducted from the hot end of an object to the cold end.

Convection heat

Convection heat occurs when hot air is generated and then forced to circulate around the food from all directions. As a result, the food will be cooked evenly. The hot air circulation also works the same way as an air fryer does. You can use this oven to fry your favorite food when using an air frying function. If you are looking for an air fryer rather than this oven, you can check out our Nuwave air fryer review.

Infrared heat

This type of heat is an invisible energy that cooks the food on the inside and outside at the same time. Infrared increases the temperature of molecules by making them shake. The energy affects the molecules directly instead of being transmitted through a liquid or solid conductor. As a result, an infrared oven heats up food much faster than other ovens because heat is not lost through the conductor.

NuWave Oven is easy to use. You just assemble NuWave Oven’s parts, adjust the temperature and time. See more on How to Use a NuWave Oven.

The NuWave Oven will also make your food healthier. The elevated cooking rack allows fats and oils to drip from food. The natural juices will remain in the food to give it its rich flavor while making meals that are healthier.

Related: 

• NuWave Oven Cooking Guide – How to Set Timer and Temperature
• Convection Oven vs Conventional Oven by Home Cookable

Is the NuWave Infrared Oven Safe for Your Health?

Many people have questioned how safe it is to use infrared heat to cook food. As many people know, infrared cooking involves exposing food to rays. Infrared heating has been used in microwaves to warm food for several years.

When using infrared technology to cook, it doesn’t use any radioactive rays that can cause damage to DNA. Many safety concerns about infrared technology come from the misconception about the nature of the energy used in this type of cooking. People often confuse infrared technology with radioactive rays. People worry about the fear of the increased risk of cancer if the food is prepared with infrared technology.

Do you have anything to worry about? No, you don’t. Is the NuWave Oven safe for your health? Yes, it is. Recent scientific research has shown that infrared cooking is completely safe for your health. The researchers didn’t find any link between infrared cooking and cancer. Infrared cooking doesn’t make the food radioactive, contaminate it or change its protein. The research also showed that the nutritional value of the food isn’t decreased.

In fact, infrared light is used to provide food safety in some countries. According to Hong Kong’s Centre of Food Safety, infrared is used to inactivate bacteria, spores, yeast and mold in both liquid and solid food in the food industry. Freshly baked bread that is disinfected by infrared will have a longer shelf-life without the addition of preservatives. It can also be applied to dehydrate vegetables for preservation.

Is the NuWave Oven an Air Fryer?

The NuWave Oven isn’t an air fryer even though it works like one. There are many differences when it comes to comparing the NuWave Oven to an air fryer. The NuWave Oven and an air fryer cook the same way in that they use hot air to cook food. However, the NuWave oven also uses infrared heat to cook the food on the inside. Their features are also different. The biggest differences in an air fryer and NuWave Oven is capacity, durability and temperature.

The NuWave Oven will have a bigger holding capacity compared to most air fryers. The only way that you’ll be able to cook a lot of food using an air fryer is by cooking food in batches or purchasing an extra large fryer.

An air fryer has better durability compared to the NuWave Oven. The air fryer will last longer compared to the NuWave Oven. If you decide to purchase the NuWave Oven, you should expect to have to replace parts after a few years of use. These parts will need to be changed out so that it’ll have a longer lifespan.

Unfortunately, the maximum temperature that can be set on the NuWave Oven Pro, Pro Plus and Pro Plus with Extender Ring is 350 degrees Fahrenheit which is quite low. Air fryers usually reach a maximum temperature of 390 degrees Fahrenheit. If you want to get a higher temperature, you should pay more for NuWave Oven Elite which generates heat up to 420 degrees Fahrenheit. Since the the first three models of NuWave Oven mentioned above won’t get as hot as the air fryer, it may take longer to cook your food. Cooking times aren’t accurate with these NuWave Ovens because of the temperature issue. When you use the NuWave Oven to cook food, be sure to cook your food slowly. Your food won’t cook evenly if you rush.

Click for more detail of Air Fryer vs. NuWave Oven.

NuWave Oven Pros and Cons

Pros

✓  All parts are dishwasher safe
✓ Easy to use
✓ Cooking times reduced by 50 percent or more
✓ No defrosting necessary
✓ Can use with a variety of foods

Cons

✘  Dome may crack
✘ May be hard to clean
✘ Cooking times aren’t accurate
✘ Cooking may be uneven if you cook the food too quickly
✘ Maximum cooking time is two hours at a time

Benefits of Having a NuWave Oven

If you haven’t tested out a NuWave oven before, you definitely should before you decide on the type of countertop oven that you want to settle on.

What is so special about NuWave Ovens?

What we really appreciate about most every oven that NuWave oven makes is that they are incredibly energy efficient. If you really want to help the environment anytime that you get the chance to, these NuWave ovens use 70-85% less energy than traditional ovens.

Does that sacrifice the performance of your oven?

Absolutely not. Every NuWave oven that we are going to take a look at today cooks food 50-70% faster than traditional ovens. They are incredibly easy to use also. All you have to do is place what you are cooking inside the oven, make sure that the dome lid is secure, and use the keypad to select your temperature and cooking settings.

So you can see for yourself how impressive these ovens are, let’s take a closer look at four top-performing NuWave ovens.

NuWave Oven Reviews

NuWave Oven Pro

Key Features

Let’s take a look at the NuWave Oven Pro infrared convection oven. This unique model uses triple combo cooking to prepare all of your foods to perfection, exactly the way that you want them. What you will really like about this model of NuWave, is that it cooks food 50% faster than a conventional oven. Then, you don’t have to wait for what seems like an eternity between when you start cooking your meal, and when you actually get to eat your meal.

Another feature that we really like with this innovative oven is that it uses 85% less energy than conventional ovens, so that you can feel good about helping the environment, every time that you use it. This oven naturally extracts fat from your food. The oven comes installed with a bottom liner that collects the fat and oil that cooks off of your food, to make each meal considerably healthier. This oven is super easy to program, and the parts on it are dishwasher safe so that it is really easy to clean too.

Want to learn more about this product? Check out our NuWave Oven Pro Review.

Pros

✓  Uses convection technology to cook your meals and food 50% faster than your average conventional oven
✓  This oven uses 85% less energy than your traditional ovens, so you are actually going green and helping out the environment. You can feel good about that every time that you use it
✓  This convection oven is extremely easy to program and use, so that you don’t need to be scientist to figure it out
✓  It has a liner in the bottom of the oven that collects fat and oils to make your food even healthier
✓  The main parts of this oven are 100% dishwasher safe, which makes it really easy to clean and put back together

Cons

✘  The power cord isn’t that long
✘  It takes a while to figure how to adjust and position foods so that they fit easily and cook properly

Check out product and users’ comments on Amazon.com

NuWave Oven Pro Plus

Key Features

Now, for something a little bit different, let’s take a look at the NuWave Oven Pro Plus. This oven features an advanced digital temperature control system that allows you to cook your food between 100 and 350 degrees fahrenheit. Unlike other ovens that only let you choose your temperature in 5-10 degree increments, you can change the temperature on this stylish oven in one degree increments, so that you can always dial in the perfect temperature for your food.

Need to keep your food warm after you cook it? This oven also has a warming feature that you can activate at the push of a button, so you can keep your cooked food nice and warm. You will also appreciate that this NuWave oven is incredibly efficient as well. The Oven Pro Plus uses 75% less energy than your standard oven, and cooks food 70% faster than your traditional oven.

This oven also comes with a shatter resistant power dome, which is incredibly durable and equally resistant to drops and falls as it is to extreme changes in temperature. It does not emit a lot of heat, and in fact, you can hardly tell it is on unless you are right up next to it. NuWave Oven Pro Plus is also incredibly quiet so that it will never make a ton of noise in your kitchen.

Want to learn more about this product? Check out our NuWave 20631 Oven Pro Plus Review.

Pros

✓  This oven is incredibly quiet and won’t make a racket in your kitchen like some appliances
✓  This model hardly emits any heat, so that you won’t get uncomfortably warm while using it, and it won’t heat up your kitchen
✓  It is really energy efficient, and uses 75% less energy than traditional ovens
✓  This oven also cooks foods incredibly fast, and prepares food 70% faster than most conventional ovens
✓  Let’s your choose your temperature in one degree increments, where most ovens only let you choose in 5 or 10 degree increments
✓  It features both warm and delay functions to make sure that your food is always warm and prepared at the perfect time

Cons

✘  It doesn’t actually cook foods that much faster than conventional ovens. What it does do, is eliminates the time that it takes to preheat a normal oven.
✘  Depending on what you are cooking, you can’t just put your food in the oven on one side and expect it to be totally cooked. You need to open it and rotate your food to cook it fully.

Check out product and users’ comments on Amazon.com

NuWave 20632 Pro Plus Oven with Extender Ring

Key Features

Let’s take a look at a little bit of a different design for NuWave, with the Pro Plus Oven with an extender ring. What we really like about this oven is that it offers you the option of having both infrared, conduction and convection cooking.

This powerful oven also cooks food 70% faster than your standard oven, so that you don’t have to wait forever between the time that you start cooking, and the time you sit down to eat. Like the other NuWave ovens that we have looked at, this model also uses 75% less energy than your traditional oven, so that you can feel good about using this oven over a conventional model.

This oven has settings for warm, reheat, and delay, which all default to 155 degrees fahrenheit. Just in case you would forget about your food in the oven, as a safety feature, the oven will turn itself off after two hours on any of those settings. The delay timer is incredibly convenient, and gives you the ability to start cooking on the time that you select. That makes sure that your meal is always cooked on time. This oven is perfect for large groups, families, and big meals. The large capacity of this oven gives it the ability to cook either a 16 pound turkey or a 14 pound ham, so that you will always have plenty of food. 

Want to learn more about this product? Check out our NuWave Oven Pro Plus with Extender Ring Review

Pros

✓  This oven has a massive capacity that can cook either a 16 pound turkey or a 14 pound ham in one cook cycle
✓  Features a delay button, which allows you to delay your cooking time so that you always have your meal prepared at the right time. All you have to do is set it, and leave it to cook.
✓  Also features functions for warming and reheating your food. On these settings, your oven defaults to 155 degrees, and will automatically shut off after two hours for your safety.
✓  This powerful oven cooks food 70% faster than traditional ovens, so you can enjoy a hot meal in no time at all.
✓  This oven also uses 75% less energy than your traditional oven, so it is much safer for the environment.

Cons

✘  The instruction booklet isn’t that helpful, so you kind of have to feel out how to cook certain foods
✘  The dome lid can be prone to cracking after a few years of use, so they could make their dome lid more durable and better resistant to high temperatures

Check out product and users’ comments on Amazon.com

NuWave Elite Dome Oven

Key Features

Now, let’s take a look at the NuWave Elite Oven. This oven also uses a combination of conduction and  infrared convection to make sure that everything that you cook in your oven is evenly prepared on the inside and the outside. This impressive and energy efficient oven uses 85% less energy than a normal standard oven, and it is so powerful that it cooks your food 70% faster than your traditional oven.

If you want a larger oven, you can choose NuWave Elite Oven with the extender ring. What is so great about the extender ring models of these ovens, is that the extender ring significantly increases the amount of functional cooking space that you have in your oven. This oven is also great in that it has some of the highest heat capacity of any oven that we have looked at today. This particular model of NuWave can get up to a scorching 420 degrees, so you can cook just about anything in it.

Want to learn more about this product? Check out NuWave Countertop Elite Dome Oven Review

Pros

✓  This is an incredibly powerful oven that can get up to 420 degrees fahrenheit
✓  It also uses 85% less energy than your traditional oven, so that you don’t have to worry about spiking your electric bill when you use it
✓  Extender ring allows you to significantly increase the amount of usable space in your oven
✓  Cooks food 70% faster than traditional ovens
✓  Uses infrared convection and conduction technology to cook foods quickly and evenly, inside and out
✓  Comes with a reversible cooking rack and stainless steel liner pan

Cons

✘  Nothing apparent wrong with this model, other than that it is a little more expensive than some of the others

Check out product and users’ comments on Amazon.com

Final Words

There are many NuWave Oven advantages and disadvantages. The biggest disadvantage is that the NuWave Oven’s dome has been known to crack. The dome cracks because it’s made out of plastic, and the heat is too much pressure on it. There are easy ways to fix this issue. You can always repair the dome or purchase something to replace it.