Air Fryers?

[Guerrero]

With all the Black Friday deals we see, "Guerrera" is curious about air fryers, especially the newer "all in one" (I have no idea what that means) ones.

We briefly looked into them a couple years ago, we discounted them because we have a small(-er) kitchen with cabinets above all our counter space.

Do they work well? Food taste good? Decent models/brands?

[David S.]

With all the Black Friday deals we see, "Guerrera" is curious about air fryers, especially the newer "all in one" (I have no idea what that means) ones.

We briefly looked into them a couple years ago, we discounted them because we have a small(-er) kitchen with cabinets above all our counter space.

Do they work well? Food taste good? Decent models/brands?

It's just a mini convection oven. We like our Oster unit that looks like a large toaster oven.

In a Quarantine Quitchen episode earlier this year, Alton Brown was unimpressed by the Ninja unit. We've been similarly unimpressed by everything Ninja makes except their blenders, including their air fryer, which we returned to Costco within a couple weeks.

My wife mentioned interest in one that combines a microwave and air fryer into a single unit.

[HeavyDuty]

I picked up a small box type (as opposed to removable basket type) Cuisinart because it can be used while under the counter - it has a drop front door like a little oven with a slide out mesh tray. It’s great - quiet and fast. I always use perforated parchament paper under what I am cooking. Mine is simple - just temp and mechanical dials for controls. It was cheap.

80539

[4RNR]

Basically a small convection oven. I found them to be rather small and pointless unless you cook for one person. I have a convection oven that I use instead and even that I barely ever touch.

In my opinion if you don't fry much it's a waste of money. I grill/cook but don't fry. I don't even eat fried foods on a yearly basis so to me it's pointless. I prefer cast iron stove top/oven to anything fried

Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk

[David S.]

Multi function probably includes toast, bake, broil, etc in addition to just air frying.

[RoyGBiv]

Excellent for oil-less cooking for 1-2 people, although wife will use ours (over several cycles) to cook several portions of fish to keep in the fridge for workweek meals.

Air fried "Just Bare" brand chicken chunks (Costco) taste similar to, slightly better than, Chick-fil-A nuggets for 1/3 the cost. :cool:

We sent each of our kids an Oster PowerXL to use @college. They like them a lot, especially for heating up 1-2 servings of frozen foods (Trader Joe's fed our daughter through her last year at Uni). Way faster than heating the oven and way tastier than the microwave.

[Paul D]

I bought this Cuisinart air fryer for my cath lab staff's breakroom. I got it at Costco. They love it. They think it was the best investment ever. We've cooked french fries, hot dogs, bacon, shrimp, and yes even toast/bagels. The best part, it is fast at cooking stuff.

https://richmedia.ca-richimage.com/ImageDelivery/imageService?profileId=12026540&id=1644944&recipeId=728

[Jared]

We really like ours because it doesn’t seem to heat up the house as much in the summer as using the regular oven. We got a pretty large one because it’s three people in my home. Sometimes we do have to cook the food in two batches. Only problem we’ve had is my wife uses it so much she wears them out quickly. Had an element burn out, a “basket in place switch” fail, and one other one fail that I can’t remember the issue. We got two of them replaced free of charge by the maker. Sometimes I swear my wife needs commercial grade kitchen ware, as she cooks multiple times per day and we’ve frequently found the stuff we buy at the store to fail under the load.

[Erik]

So, if I have a toaster oven with a convection feature, would an air fryer do anything it won't? If not, how would I go about using the toaster oven as an air fryer?

[HeavyDuty]

So, if I have a toaster oven with a convection feature, would an air fryer do anything it won't? If not, how would I go about using the toaster oven as an air fryer?

My understanding is that an air fryer has a much more powerful fan.

[Erik]

Interesting. Thanks.

[UNM1136]

My wife mentioned interest in one that combines a microwave and air fryer into a single unit.
Really not enjoying mine. It does neither well. Looking into the toaster oven type.

pat

[Joe Mac]

I have this one, and I love it. Aside from all the fry/bake functions, it's the best toaster I've ever used.

https://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-Convection-Toaster-Extended-Warranty/dp/B07CXM33MD/

[Bratch]

We have the Cuisinart multi function counter top unit, I think we use it in some form nearly daily. Toast for breakfast, reheating pizza, keep frozen nuggets and fries around for a quick meal.

We have one of the old PowerXL basket style as well. It makes the most amazing wings, we rarely buy wings out now because we feel they are all inferior to what we do at home. The wings are messy so we have kept this one for just wings so the Cuisinart doesn’t get trashed.

[UNK]

Wife has a Go Wise USA. She uses it multiple times per week and has had it for a while. She did research before she bought it and is pretty happy with it. Takes it outside most of the time to use it.