Convection oven vs. regular oven??

Is it worth the extra money to buy a convection oven? I am talking about a regular oven, not a microwave oven. If the answer is that a convection oven is worth it, recommending a good choice would also be helpful.
I%26#39;ll leave the recommending to others, but I am crazy about convection ovens. When mine broke down and we could not afford to replace it, I was very sad. I loved that oven. Returning to cooking with the old conventional oven is a big step down.
All regular ovens are convection ovens. It is likely that you are reading looking at an advertising gimmick, like when corn oils advertise themselves as %26#39;Cholesterol Free%26#39; corn oil couldn%26#39;t possibly have it to begin with since cholesterol is only found in oils made from animal fat.
elids, The term %26quot;convection oven,%26quot; as used in the appliance industry, refers to an oven with fan-forced heat. It%26#39;s definitely no gimmick.
yup I just looked it up, looks like you are right pinkfreud. The term though is a misnomer, convection refers to the way in which heat is transmitted, so although my original comment was not incorrect, because they add a fan to the oven it is not a gimmick, it is a misnomer.
I don%26#39;t see where the misnomer is: Convection http://www.answers.com/convection Actually, there%26#39;s more to it than just blowing around some hot air: FROM: Better Cooking Through Convection http://www.taunton.com/finecooking/pages/c00042.asp Besides the excerpt below, this is a great page for those that want to know more about convection cooking. ...%26quot;Not all convection ovens are %26quot;true convection%26quot; The extent to which you get these marvelous results depends a lot on the particular convection oven you%26#39;re using. The best -- and most efficient -- convection ovens blow heated air into the oven cavity. This means they have a third heating element (in addition to the usual top and bottom elements in a radiant oven) located near or around the fan in the back of the oven. This element heats the air to a uniform temperature before it enters the oven cavity. In many ovens, the third heating element is covered by a baffle, or a panel, which channels air sucked in by the fan past the heating element and back out into the oven. The appliance industry generally calls this type of oven %26quot;true convection,%26quot; %26quot;third-element convection,%26quot; or %26quot;European convection%26quot; (first popularized in Europe), so these are the terms to look for when shopping. In an effort to distinguish themselves, however, some manufacturers have come up with their own names. Dacor, for instance, calls its technology %26quot;Pure Convection%26quot; because its third-element convection also uses a special filtering system that prevents odors from being transferred from one item to another cooking in the same oven...%26quot;
I hear that %26quot;convention ovens%26quot; are great, but I too have always considered this a misnomer, only slightly better than %26quot;organic food%26quot;. As Elid mentioned, all ovens (except microwave ovens) are convection ovens. These things should properly be called %26quot;Forced Air Ovens%26quot; or %26quot;Forced Air Convection Ovens%26quot; or something like that. While my sister loves her %26quot;convection oven%26quot;, beware of some exaggerated claims. I remember going to her house for Thanksgiving. She told us the turkey would cook in half the time. I was skeptical since forced air is not going to speed up the diffusion of heat inside the turkey, which is what makes cooking something thick take so long. She had a nifty built in thermometer with digital readout. I watched if for a few minutes, took the derivative, extrapolated and told her the turkey would be done two hours later than her planned time, which is what happened. This exaggeration is probably attributable to an over eager sales person rather than the oven manufacturer.