Is there an actual advantage to air frying or are we just being sold a pup?

Vitor

I'm a doctor and I threw my air fryer in the BIN - and you should too for cancer reasons | Daily Mail Online

jshm2

Of course it's better than a conventional gas or electric oven. The only limit is its size to make big roasts or cakes... which is why the conventional oven is still around. But for everything else from chips to poppers - it's always the air fryer. It's even replacing the microwave and "toaster oven" in many respects.

Not only does it use less power, but you have more control over the cooking process. Not to mention less cleaning than a conventional oven and healthier than a deep fryer....

Gobsh

You're a bit wrong 
1/ Air Fryer cooks faster/used less power BECAUSE it's smaller, not because it "Frys in the Air"
2/ They are now trying to sell us full size "Air Fryers" like it's some sort of improvement on a conventional oven
IS exactly why I'm asking
It sounds like they are blowing smoke

teaselMay

FlorayG said:

They are just the latest fad. You can get one of the previous 'fad' cookers for a tenner unused on FB or other selling sites. It's called a halogen oven and it does every single thing that a £150 air-fryer can do. I'm on my third £10 halogen oven, I've been using them for years. You can even buy a new one for £50

Air friers start at a lot less than that, mine was £30 full price. Cooks in less than half the time of my proper oven which takes an eon to warm up. 

They are just small fan ovens but they do have a place especially for small households.

matelodave

We've had ours for around three years and I reckon it's probably cheaper to run than a conventional oven because you don't have to preheat, you can use lower temperatures and it takes less time to cook food.

Its quicker, more convenient and It's also much easier to clean than a conventional oven as you can put the drawers in the sink or even the dishwasher.

Ours gets used most days, whereas the main oven is now very seldom as theres not much that the air-fryer cant cook, we've done cakes as well (even pizza if you cut it into segments first even a Sainsbury's steak pie will fit).

We wouldn't be without ours nowadays but I'm not sure we'd want a built-in one though

Cornucopia

If the question is whether "Air Fryers" are a useful thing, generally, then I'd say yes.    I have one of the cheap AFs that in a previous era were called "Halogen Ovens" and it's very useful (it was £40 from B&M).  I like the fact that it's made mainly of glass so you can see what's happening inside which isn't the case with some AFs.

But, part of the advantage is their small size which is one factor in making them faster and more economical than a big oven.   So, I would want to see the numbers for a built-in AF before considering one.   

GDB2222

Do you use less fat when cooking with an air fryer? 

teaselMay

GDB2222 said:

Do you use less fat when cooking with an air fryer? 

i don't add any

droopsnoot

teaselMay said:

GDB2222 said:

Do you use less fat when cooking with an air fryer? 

i don't add any

Nor me. The term "air fryer" confuses people, because it's really a small fan oven as mentioned before in the thread. Mine is a small kettle-sized one, cost me nothing from a local Facebook recycle group as the previous owner had bought a bigger one. The only thing I do in the oven now is a pizza that won't fit in the air fryer. Quicker to cook (so takes less electricity), lower temperature (so takes less electricity) and easier to clean. 

As for larger ones, I would agree with the OP that I'd expect most of those advantages would be taken away. The thread title seemed to just be talking about air fryers in general, I haven't seen the larger ones so can't really offer any opinion. Do they perhaps have multiple sections like the twin-drawer air fryers do, to allow cooking at different temperatures for different times and synchronising the end time? 

matelodave

GDB2222 said:

Do you use less fat when cooking with an air fryer? 

TBH air fryer isn't the right word as in reality they are a hot air fan cooker. Depending on the device both temperature and air velocity are variable (different cook settings) so you can crisp stuff, bake cakes (we've done that) and even dehydrate food (handy for dehydrating 3D printer filaments  )

We dont add any any fat although sometimes we'll brush a small amount of oil onto whatever you are cooking which makes stuff a bit crisper.(roast potatoes for instance)

Most units have a perforated grid in the base which allows oil and fat to drain out, so in some ways its also a healthier way to cook as stuff doesn't sit in a pool of oil or grease.