What's the Straight Dope on NuWave/FlavorWave Ovens?

Factual Questions
1

Okay, so these things were around for several years in the 90s, as an unremitting insomniac, I remember the informercials well. They went away for a while, and now they’re back.

We have the NuWave which is apparently an all plastic dome and base and uses infared light, and the FlavorWave which is a glass bowl with cap, which uses a halogen light, and has the added benefit of Mr. T as a spokesman.

The technology is essentially the same however, a combination of blast heat from the infared/halogen bulbs, convection airwaves created by an integral fan and conduction from the fact that the lightbulbs get things hot.

But the things sit, uninsulated, on top of your countertop, while getting hot enough to cook a turkey in an hour and a half.

These things scream scam to me, but I felt the same way about the Magic Bullet and the George Foreman grill and they both turned out to be pretty good products.

Anyone have one? Can anyone speak to the technology?

2

From the NuWave site:

It sounds like the light is just for show. The real cooling is done by a resistive heating element just like in an electric oven or crockpot.

3

Been thinking about getting one, so I’m posting to subscribe. I want to see if others have one and what they think of it.

4

I think anything hot will make your food cook. But does this do it better than a real oven? That is the question.

IF you have an experiment tell us so we can know the anwser.