The moment you find out that you can cook anything in a halogen oven, chances are that your normal oven will be doomed to oblivion. Of course, before you get there, you’ll have to decide which is the best halogen oven to buy. That’s the part where things get tricky…
Should you pick a top-of-the-range model or settle for a low-budget one? Is there anything in between that can help you cook for a large family, give you all the necessary accessories, and still leave you with money in your pocket?
Let’s help you get those answers! Below, we’ve summed up our findings after testing some of the best halogen cookers from Andrew James, Russell Hobbs, Tower, and other popular brands.
You’ll want to read this buying guide before anything else!
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Best For Higher Budgets
1Andrew James 12 Litre Halogen Oven
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Best Overall
3Tower Halogen Airwave Oven
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| 4
Best For Low Budgets
4Daewoo Deluxe Halogen Oven
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1. Andrew James 12 Litre Halogen Oven
- 12 litres cooking capacity with 5-litre extender ring.
- Package includes 9 accessories, high and low racks, spare bulb, rice dish, and more.
- Digital halogen oven with hinged lid, easy to flip up to 90-degrees.
- 2-hour timer and self-cleaning function with steam.
Andrew James’ halogen oven with hinged lid is nicely sized at 12 litres. Large enough to cook a generous meal, it is still not too large to take up all the space on your countertop.
The self-cleaning function built in makes it particularly appealing. Yet the 9 accessories in the package will help you notice how much it is well worth the investment.
You can cook with it using a wide range of temperatures, from 50°C to 250°C. So, given its low minimum temperature, you can use it for reheating and defrosting, too.
From fries and chicken to puff pastry or cakes, it can handle a lot. Overall, it’s a convenient choice even for those who lack the cooking skills, given the pre-set cooking modes.
Specifications
Pros
- Generous cooking capacity.
- Allows faster, more economical cooking.
- Easy to use and easy to clean up.
- Good price and plenty of accessories included.
Cons
- User guide could be more detailed.
- Footprint is relatively large.
2. JML Halowave Oven
- 10.5 litres cooking capacity.
- Package consists of a halogen oven, upper and lower racks and tongs.
- Designed to drain fat during cooking.
- Built-in self-cleaning function.
An easy to use and surprisingly inexpensive halogen oven, the JML Halowave comes with a more than decent cooking capacity of 10.5 kg. Ideal for cooking meals for 2 persons, it’s also well-built and sturdy.
Thanks to the two-rack design, not only you’ll make the most of its cooking space, but you’ll also save time and energy. Basically, you can put in everything you need for a meal, meat and veggies, and watch it getting cooked at once.
With this Halowave halogen oven, you’re supposed to cook 40% faster than with your traditional oven. While feeling good about how healthy you cook, thanks to the fat drainer!
Ready to serve you delicious meals fast and easy, it comes with a handbook that will offer you all the inspiration you need. Not to mention that it will clean itself automatically, with the self-cleaning function.
Specifications
Pros
- Versatile cooking appliance.
- Well-organized, with two cooking levels.
- Allows healthier cooking, with fat drainer.
- Easy to clean up.
Cons
- No rice tray in the package.
- Only 1-year warranty.
3. Tower Halogen Airwave Oven
- 12 litres cooking capacity and 5 litre extender ring.
- Rapid cooking with halogen, convection, and infrared.
- Innovative air circulation technology that supports a defrost mode.
- Protective basket for glass bowl included in the package.
With an elegant design and a large 12-litre cooking chamber, this halogen oven from Tower has lots of other distinctive features.
For starters, it has a stainless-steel body that ensures its longevity. Then, it relies on a very special air flow technology that makes it a winner in all the chapters.
Still, its biggest advantage is the triple cooking power that ensures rapid and even heat distribution. It bakes, fries, roasts, grills, and cooks healthy snacks in a jiff.
The price point is unexpectedly low, given everything that it has to offer. And knowing you can extend its 1-year warranty to 3 years with a simple registration makes it even more tempting.
Specifications
Pros
- Large cooking capacity for big families.
- Advanced air circulation technology.
- Can cook from frozen food.
- Warranty of up to 3 years.
Cons
- No fat dripper.
- Takes up a bit of space.
4. Daewoo Deluxe Halogen Oven
- 17 litres cooking capacity and an extender ring included.
- Built-in 60-minute timer and knob temperature control.
- 7 accessories in the package, including a lid stand.
- Self-cleaning function.
Daewoo is walking the extra mile with this extra-large, 17-litre halogen oven. Designed with adjustable time and temperature, it can cook dishes in up to 60 minutes, at temperatures ranging from 125 to 250 degrees Celsius.
Simple and intuitive, with only two knobs that let you set it up on the double, it has this large glass bowl that shows you how the cooking goes, at a glance.
Speaking of how it goes, one can always maximize its cooking capacity by inserting the extender ring. This is only one of the 7 accessories included in the package. How thoughtful of them to include even an oil bottle!
Easy to use, easy to clean – because it self-cleans – and with this outstanding cooking capacity, it provides excellent value for the money.
Specifications
Pros
- Allows you to cook fast and with little to no oil.
- Extra-large cooking capacity.
- All the necessary accessories are included.
- Comes with a lid stand in the package.
Cons
- No hinged lid design.
- No pre-set cooking modes.
5. Russell Hobbs Mini Halogen Oven
- 16 litres cooking capacity halogen oven.
- Ideal for roasting, grilling, or baking.
- Comes with reversible rack, expansion ring, and heater rest rack.
- Features 60-minute countdown timer.
Russell Hobbs is one of those brands you always want to check when looking for a kitchen appliance. If anything, their 1400 W halogen oven with timer and a 16-litre cooking chamber is well worth your consideration.
In the package, look for the reversible rack, a rack that you’ll be able to use to rest the heater on it when you’re done cooking, and, of course, an expansion ring. The latter is made of stainless steel, so you can count on its durability.
Quality and style, the stamps of this brand, are reflected throughout the design and the functionalities of this product. Rest assured, its ability to cook at high temperatures makes it versatile enough to roast and grill like no other.
Specifications
Pros
- Powerful halogen oven.
- Extra-large cooking capacity.
- Intuitive controls for time and temperature.
- Warranty of up to 3 years, if you register the product.
Cons
- No self-cleaning function.
- Cooking times take a small learning curve.
Halogen Oven Buying Guide
What Is a Halogen Oven?
A halogen oven is a small, compact oven that heats up with a bright halogen light. Since it saves space and it cooks up to three times faster than a regular oven, it makes an excellent alternative to the latter.
Thanks to the built-in thermostat, the light inside the halogen oven will turn On or Off, as needed, in order to maintain the selected temperature. Meanwhile, a fan dissipates the heat through the cooking chamber.
Best Brands
Given the popularity of this mini oven, many of the big kitchen appliance brands on the market manufacture halogen ovens. Russell Hobbs, Andrew James, and Tower are just a few of the names you won’t help but notice in your research.
Russell Hobbs
As one of the most popular British manufacturers of household appliances, Russell Hobbs is a reputable brand. You’ll find plenty of their top-rated mini ovens with a quick search for Argos halogen oven. But be prepared to fall for their elegant design and large cooking chamber, from the first sight!
Andrew James
Those who go for an Andrew James halogen oven are typically getting into a long-term relationship. Known for their reliability and longevity, the AJ products are usually the choice of buyers who don’t want to shop for a new oven every other year.
Tower
If there’s one thing that a Tower halogen oven will stand out for, it will be the premium performance available at a fair price. This manufacturer tends to innovate and sell versatile ovens that look good and are not crazy-expensive, which makes it quite an irresistible choice.
Size & Capacity
Halogen ovens are known to save space, but this comes along with limiting the cooking capacity. A small halogen oven may have a cooking bowl of 10 to 12 litres. Typically, these models include an extender ring in the package, that gives you an extra 5 litres cooking space.
An extra-large halogen oven can be sized directly at 17 litres. At the opposite pole, however, you have mini halogen ovens of only 7 litres.
7 Litre Halogen Oven
Clearly, the 7-litre halogen oven is ideal for those who only cook for one, maximum two persons. You can still fry, grill, roast, barbecue or bake in it, but it will take up considerably less space in your kitchen. If space is a precious resource in your home, such a mini halogen oven may be a saving solution.
Design
At its core, a halogen oven is a large glass bowl that sits on a plastic frame with the heater and a fan attached to its lid. The lid is also the part with the dials or control knobs. Because of that, when taking out the lid of a classic halogen oven, it goes off with the power cord attached to it.
Handling the lid this way can be challenging, especially with the steam that comes out of the oven. This is the part where a tiny design detail – the hinged lid – makes a world of difference.
Hinged Lid Halogen Oven
The hinged lid halogen oven is a relatively new invention. Just like the name suggests, this type of lid will swing up and stay like that without you having to take it off and put it aside.
It’s much safer, easier to handle, and less messy, which is why ovens with a hinged lid are particularly popular.
Halogen Oven Accessories
Manufacturers include a couple of halogen oven accessories in the package, but some of them are essential. An extender ring is, perhaps, one of the most important parts, as it gives you about 5 litres extra cooking space. A baking and a steamer tray are necessary, but so are the skewers.
The list of extras includes a toast rack and a rice or cake dish. The fat dripper is also appealing, and for a classic halogen oven, without a hinged lid, a rack for placing the lid when you open the oven is quite necessary.
Halogen Oven vs Airfryer
While both the halogen oven and the airfryer rely on spreading the heat with a fan inside a cooking chamber, a lot of things are different between the two of them.
For once, the halogen oven uses a halogen light as a heat source. This means that the food inside the oven will be lit up. So, it’s a completely different experience to look at a halogen oven while running, compared to an air fryer where everything is dark.
Then, you’ll notice that halogen ovens have larger cooking capacities, of up to 17 litres, while the largest airfryers are around 12 litres. Apart from size and capacity, such ovens are easier to clean, too.
By contrast, an air fryer works much better with deep fried dishes (and it is much harder to clean up). Furthermore, it has a slight advantage in the sense that it can be used to dehydrate or air fry foods, using even less oil than in a halogen oven.
Replaceable Lighting Unit
Any halogen oven has a replaceable lighting unit, the halogen bulb being a consumable. Some halogen oven manufacturers even include an extra bulb in the package, knowing it’s just a matter of time until replacement will be required.
Whether the bulb is burned-out or it just broke, the replacement is quite straightforward and detailed within the user manual.
Pricing range
The pricing range is attractive, this being yet another reason why halogen ovens are getting more and more popular. A really cheap halogen oven can cost you around £35, with the top-of-the-range products going up to £60-70. At £45-50, if it also packs in a couple of accessories, you can consider it a good deal.
Frequently Asked Questions
Perfect for those with a busy lifestyle, a halogen oven allows you to cook pretty much anything you’d cook in a regular oven. It just lets you do it faster, in smaller quantities, and with a friendlier electricity bill at the end of the month. Among the basic types of cooking it facilitates, you have:
- Grilled meat, toast, wedges, and chips;
- Steamed vegetables and fish;
- Roasted chicken or beef and potatoes;
- Baked muffins, tarts, cookies;
- Cooking or heating up casseroles, curries, chillies.
Frozen foods can be easily handled by a halogen oven, provided you read and follow the instructions from the package.
If you buy an accessory tray, you can also cook rice in it.
Puff pastry and croissants will get nice and crispy if you get yourself a special rack to place them on, in the halogen oven.
Using a halogen oven is a relatively simple 3-part operation:
- First, you must prepare your ingredients and choose the tray or accessory you want to use.
- Second, you must place the ingredients in their container, and close the lid.
- Third, you need to set its cooking time and temperature.
The third step is the most challenging, since it involves making the right settings. Top-of-the-range models come with more intuitive dials and may have presets from which to select.
Simpler units only have a knob for the time and one for the temperature, letting you do the guesswork of what to select for what you need to cook.
Sometimes, the manufacturer sends you a recipe booklet along with the user manual. If there are no cooking time and temperature suggestions neither in the user manual nor in that booklet, you always have the option to look it up on the web.
It takes a little learning curve, but soon you’ll know what settings work best for roasts, fries, or baked goods.
Cleaning a halogen oven can be done either manually or automatically. If yours has a self-cleaning function, suffices to put water in the glass bowl, put on the lid, and select that special function.
It will heat up, produce a lot of steam, and soak all the grease and dirt. Then, you’ll be able to remove the water and simply clean it with a sponge, without sweating at all.
If you don’t have the self-cleaning function, you’ll have to take out the glass bowl and carefully wash it in the sink. In case that the manufacturer specifies it, you might be able to put it in the washing machine.
Our Verdict
As one of the coolest kitchen aids, a halogen cooker will forever change the way you feed your family. All the dishes you avoided preparing because you dreaded turning on your huge built-in oven can now be easily enjoyed with a small halogen oven.
Do your research wisely and consider the best brands of halogen ovens we’ve discussed in this buying guide. You’ll see that there are many accessories you want to have at hand, and if you’re not very skilled in the kitchen, you’ll want a model that guides you a little bit with presets.
As a final tip, if you’re planning on using it to reheat, defrost, or bake, make sure it comes with a lower minimum temperature!
