Fan oven (hot air, true fan)
A ring-shaped element round the fan in the back wall heats, and the fan blows that hot air round the whole cavity. Because the air moves, every shelf gets similar heat, so you can cook on several at once.
What it is for
Cooking on more than one shelf at a time: AEG says up to 3 levels, Siemens and Bosch up to 3 (3D) or 4 (4D) shelves, without flavours and smells mixing. Batch baking, roasts, casseroles and everyday meals. AEG’s advice is to set it 20 °C lower than you would for conventional heat.
Makes differ, check your oven’s manual: the same drawing can mean different things on different brands, and only your model’s manual says exactly which elements run and how hot.
- What it looks like
- A fan — three curved blades round a hub — usually inside a circle, with no straight lines above or below it. Bosch prints “3D Hotair” or “4D Hotair” under it.
- Names makers use
- 3D / 4D hotAir (Siemens, Bosch); True Fan (AEG); Convection (Samsung); Circulaire (Smeg); Forced air (Hotpoint); CircoTherm (Neff)
Where makes differ
Most makers put the fan in a circle (Siemens, AEG, Samsung, Hotpoint), but Neff uses a plain fan with no circle for CircoTherm and a fan in a circle for its standard fan setting, and Smeg’s guide treats a plain fan (“fan only”) and a fan in a circle (“circulaire”) as two functions. Samsung calls this mode “Convection”, the US word, while Smeg uses convection for heat without a fan. Any fan with a line above or below it is a different setting.
Often confused with
An energy-saving version of the fan setting for one shelf that needs no preheating. Samsung says cooking takes slightly longer with the same result.
Other symbols with the same shapes
Sources
No single published standard defines oven function icons, so this meaning is taken from 6 makers’ own guides, each fetched and checked on the date shown:
- Siemens: Siemens Home UK — Oven symbols guide — “3D hotAir” and “4D hotAir” pictograms (fan in a circle): cook on up to 3 or 4 shelves without flavours intermingling. Checked 2026-09-23.
- AEG: AEG UK support — Symbols and functions on your AEG oven or cooker — “True Fan cooking” icon (fan in a circle): up to 3 levels at once; set the temperature 20 °C lower than Conventional cooking. Checked 2026-09-23.
- Samsung: Samsung Australia support — Cooking modes on your Samsung oven — “Convection” mode button icon (fan in a circle): the rear element heats and the convection fan distributes it; baking and roasting on different levels at the same time. Checked 2026-09-23.
- Smeg: Smeg UK — A guide to oven symbols and what they mean — “Fan-Only Symbol” and “Circulaire Heating Only Symbol” (fan within a circle): heat from the circular element at the back, circulated by the fan; cook different foods at once. Checked 2026-09-23.
- Neff: NEFF UK — Oven symbols explained: your complete guide — “Fan oven symbol” (fan, often inside a circle) and “CircoTherm symbol” (large fan): bake and roast on different shelves at the same time. Checked 2026-09-23.
- Hotpoint: Hotpoint UK — Understanding the different symbols on a Hotpoint oven — “Forced air”: a fan enclosed within a circle; circulates hot air evenly for a consistent cooking temperature. Checked 2026-09-23.
Written in our own words; quotations are the makers’ wording.