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

lr1277

Recently there was a programme on the BBC - The Secret Genius of Modern life - the air fryer.

Hannah Fry (no pun intended) discusses how air fryers work and their development. I found it a fascinating programme.  If memory serves, it is quicker because it is smaller. As an aside this does make me reconsider getting one of those stand-alone combi microwave/air fryer devices.

Anyway here is a link:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0029kt8/the-secret-genius-of-modern-life-series-3-1-air-fryer

Gobsh

Yeap. I've reached the conclusion that UPSCALING the concept into a full size Air fryer is simply exploiting the phrase to sell us another oven

lr1277 said:

......  If memory serves, it is quicker because it is smaller. As an aside this does make me recon..... 

RockPools

Gobsh said:

Yeap. I've reached the conclusion that UPSCALING the concept into a full size Air fryer is simply exploiting the phrase to sell us another oven

lr1277 said:

......  If memory serves, it is quicker because it is smaller. As an aside this does make me recon..... 

It probably is 'exploiting the phrase' as you say but there may be advantages with a larger unit relating to speed and high heat that crisps stuff better than a conventional oven.  We love our 'standard' air fryer and use it everyday, although I'm probably in the cynics boat with you if when it starts being scaled up too far! 

fifeken

Moving over to an airfryer oven means you save counter space and gain larger capacity and potentially more features.  These are valid reasons for many.

Only the OP can tell if these reasons are valid for them or if they're about to be exploited.

Gobsh

Absolutely. I was seriously looking at replacing one of my built in ovens for a full size "air fryer", but so far we've established that the main/only benefit to an air fryer (aka small oven), is that it is in fact, small. So the attempt to sell us/me a large air fryer is just an attempt to sell me a large oven. I already have 2 

fifeken said:

Moving over to an airfryer oven means you save counter space and gain larger capacity and potentially more features.  These are valid reasons for many.

Only the OP can tell if these reasons are valid for them or if they're about to be exploited.

matelodave

Surely a built in "air-fryer" is a fan oven - thats what it looks like in the pictures 

Possibly the fan is a bit more powerful but it works just the same, blowing air over a hot element to cook stuff with heated air. I guess having a bigger one almost defeats the running cost and speed advantage of a counter top unit.

victor2

We have an air fryer and double electric ovens. They are used with the following preference:

Air Fryer

Small fan oven

Large fan oven

Size of the dish being cooked dictates which is used, as they are also in order of running cost.

Gobsh

Is my point

matelodave said:

Surely a built in "air-fryer" is a fan oven - thats what it looks like in the pictures 

Possibly the fan is a bit more powerful but it works just the same, blowing air over a hot element to cook stuff with heated air. I guess having a bigger one almost defeats the running cost and speed advantage of a counter top unit.

mjm3346

I have had air-fryers for years and not used the oven since I got them - generally I use them at 20c below "normal" oven temps (so bad luck daily mail). I just cook for me but I do like generous portions - even though my largest a-f easily handles joints over 1kg, 1/2 a standard pizza etc it definitely costs less then the electric oven to run and clean up is easier

bob2302

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

There are a lot of comparisons online. Air fryers are quicker, use less energy and are better at crisping. There are plenty of air-fryers for under £50.