My wife laughed at me for two years because I only ever made chicken nuggets and mozzarella sticks in ours. Then our oven broke last winter and I started doing pork chops in there at 400 for like 12 minutes and they were better than the oven ones. The fan moves the hot air around so stuff gets that crispy outside without drying out, which I guess is the whole point. Now I do salmon, veggies, even meatloaf in it and the big oven only gets used for pizza and holidays. I was wrong about it being a one trick thing, it really is just a small oven that heats up faster. Takes some getting used to on timing though because everything cooks quicker than the box says.

Wait, a 1/8 inch tilt can hide a whole layer of buildup? That is wild to me. I always figured if the brush goes in and comes out dirty then I got the job done. How would you even catch something that small on a normal sweep day? Do you level every flue now or just the ones that look off? That detail about the smoke shelf is what gets me because that is exactly where I would expect stuff to pile up anyway.