Air fryer? Good? Gimmick? Can it save money?

Air fryers are everywhere and I want to know if I'm missing out.

I'm also seeking a viable replacement for my oven when baking or roasting or reheating single servings.  The toaster oven we have now gets hotter on the outside than in,  so it ends up using the same or more electricity than the big oven.  

Are air fryers the solution?

And what's the difference between the ones that look like a mini oven and the space age style with drawers?  

Our air fryer seems to be a good replacement for a deep fat fryer.  

Here's a good thread by Anne for air fryers:   https://permies.com/t/140455/kitchen/air-fryer-cook

Jordan Holland wrote:Here's a good thread by Anne for air fryers:   https://permies.com/t/140455/kitchen/air-fryer-cook

Oh, that's a good thread.  I wonder how I missed it.

It talks a lot about the stand-alone air fryers.  Anyone here try the toaster oven version?  Is it really the same thing?  

That may be a good thread with lots of folks who like them.

I am not a fan of air fryers.  After mine went out after only a few months, I went back with the confection oven.  This is my third.

None of them went out they just went away for different reasons.

My first one is still buried out in the barn under our daughter's stuff.  It was my favorite.

The second one went away due to getting the air fryer.

The one I have now is a brand name and cost $40.00 new on eBay.  So far so good.  It is a glorified toaster oven with a turbo setting.

I like the speed of something easy to clean.

r ranson wrote:

It talks a lot about the stand-alone air fryers.  Anyone here try the toaster oven version?  Is it really the same thing?  

When I did research before buying mine, Emeril had also just come out with a toaster oven version. People seemed to gravitate towards the idea, but most all reviews warned against it. I think they said it was basically just a really expensive toaster oven that offered very little more. I wouldn't even consider getting one without the pressure cooker/rice cooker/sous vide functions after using mine.

r ranson wrote:..... Anyone here try the toaster oven version?  Is it really the same thing?  

I don't know if the TOA-60 of Cuisinart would qualify as the toaster oven version, but it does have a toast function so I suspect so.  Other than the trials and tribulations I noted elsewhere on the forum with the door switch going out, we've  been happy with unit and in cooking for two people, it's been great.  I too have wondered about the 'oven' comparison between the air fryer and that in our main electric range.  My conclusion at this point is, even given the lack of insulation in the air fryer, I find that it completes baking/cooking of items in anywhere from 0.5 to 0.8 the amount of time that the electric range oven compartment does.  The main range oven is 240V and will cycle the 2500W element on an off as it's pre-heating.  Once heated, it will still cycle on an off, but not as much due to insulation in the oven jacket.  With the 120V air-fryer, although there is a recommendation to 'pre-heat', I don't see any indicator of the oven compartment being pre-heated....no lights, bells, or whistles.  For that reason, irrespective of whether or not we are using the 'bake' mode or 'air bake' mode, I don't pre-heat for more than 2-3 minutes for baking. [For air-frying, no pre-heat,....just put the food in and hit the start button.]  With the recent Thanksgiving meal, we used the regular electric range since I was doing (vegan) turk'y roast, sweet potatoes, stuffing, and pumpkin pie all at once.  Cooking went for an hour after a 5-6 minute oven pre-heat.  As a comparison, if I do that same pie in the air-fryer oven on 'bake' (which does have a small fan-forced air current) the pie is typically done in 40 min. if not sooner (tested with fork).   All of this said, the power draw from this air fryer is not nothing....I put a kil-o-watt meter on it once and it was drawing a good 1200+ watts during those cooking functions and cycling between on an off more frequently than the electric range oven (as expected).  In the end, most meals in the air fryer, baking and otherwise, are performed with run times of 10 - 20 min.   So it may be that it still comes out ahead on energy use..... ?

One cautionary note:  if using glass/pyrex/corning bakeware, make sure to place the glass item on a rack/screen separated from the lower baking element by an empty pan-- If there is a direct and short distance between the heating element and the glass surface, this can get too hot and crack the dish.  [The Cuisinart comes with a metal mesh air-frying rack that sits on a steel pan.....just place the glass dish being used for baking on the mesh rack in the steel pan and this is placed in the lower slot of the oven.  All good in this configuration.]

As John Dean noted, a good replacement for higher oil-based frying and probably(?) healthier.  Great for toasting squash seeds, baking baguettes and quick (non-yeast) breads, and the air bake function on the lowest heat setting *can* be used for dehydration, although still a bit too warm for certain applications.  There are several other brands now offering this kind of configuration....  I think they are a great space- and possibly energy-saving invention.

r ranson wrote:

Jordan Holland wrote:Here's a good thread by Anne for air fryers:   https://permies.com/t/140455/kitchen/air-fryer-cook

Oh, that's a good thread.  I wonder how I missed it.

It talks a lot about the stand-alone air fryers.  Anyone here try the toaster oven version?  Is it really the same thing?  

Yes, we have the Emeril Lagosse Power Airfryer 360: https://emerilairfryer360.com/

It's a toaster oven, air fryer, convection oven, rotisserie... Anyway, our 1yr old stove is dead (long story: short version is glass-top electric stoves suck), and this thing fills in almost all the oven needs, for us - except large roasting. With our big oven dead, I wish we had the bigger version, as it would do bigger stuff, too. We love this thing, and it's helped us through not only this year, but 2yrs ago, when our old oven died (it was just old), this little thing went a long way toward offering us creative cooking options, for Thanksgiving dinner, with company. Oh, yeh - it also doesn't heat up the kitchen, in the summer.

Air fryers are electric, and our oven is propane. I use the air fryer more than the oven because it doesn't heat up the kitchen, cooks faster and browns better. But the redundancy of being able to cook without propane is a definite plus.

Jordan Holland wrote:

r ranson wrote:

It talks a lot about the stand-alone air fryers.  Anyone here try the toaster oven version?  Is it really the same thing?  

When I did research before buying mine, Emeril had also just come out with a toaster oven version. People seemed to gravitate towards the idea, but most all reviews warned against it. I think they said it was basically just a really expensive toaster oven that offered very little more. I wouldn't even consider getting one without the pressure cooker/rice cooker/sous vide functions after using mine.

That's a big part of what I'm wondering.  The toaster oven version has been out a while now.  Has the tech improved?

And what is the difference between a toaster oven with convection and a toaster oven with air fryer function?  

R said, " a toaster oven with air fryer function?

Mine blew the fat of what I was air flying, mostly chicken causing the Air Fryer  (aka toaster oven with air fryer function) to need cleaning more often.

I did not have that problem with the convection oven even when I used the rotisserie.

Our daughter loves her air fryer:

https://www.amazon.com/Ninja-OS101-Pressure-Capacity-Stainless/dp/B086542G1M

r ranson wrote:That's a big part of what I'm wondering.  The toaster oven version has been out a while now.  Has the tech improved?

Immensely. I used to scoff at those tiny, upright things, and saw them as just another gimmicky pos to waste $$ on, and take up counter space. No more. Ours has saved our proverbial butts, many times.

r ranson wrote:
And what is the difference between a toaster oven with convection and a toaster oven with air fryer function?  

I *think* is about the speed of airflow. I could very easily be mistaken - but, ours has both functions, and then some. That said, since I'm more familiar with the convection function, that's the one I tend to use more.

Mine blew the fat of what I was air flying...

Ahhh...so that's why they are so much healthier, lol.

I just assumed the air fryers blow more air than convection ovens. Most I have seen do, in any case.

for those of you with air fryers, what's your favourite recipe?

What's your biggest fail?

r ranson wrote:for those of you with air fryers, what's your favourite recipe?

What's your biggest fail?

My answer here will assume you are just referring to the air-fryer function of the oven.  Not really so much a favorite recipe as a favorite purpose.  As my wife and I both are french fry addicts, being able to do 'fried' shoestring or chopped potatoes without having a large pan of grease around or left-over is a big plus.....and is the item we cook most with that function.  The variation I most like on that are breakfast potatoes (1X3 cm chunks) air fryed in olive oil with slices of sweet onion and a dash of rosemary-garlic salt when done.

Although I wouldn't consider it a total fail, I'm not as happy with breaded items that one would normally deep fry.....breaded onion rings, mushrooms, etc....although the air-fry world seems to really love breaded cauliflower done this way.  The breading/batter makes a more difficult clean-up job as well.

To us (our household), this question is simply "what is your favorite recipe?", and I can't answer it. It's a multi-function small oven that we use for pretty much anything not done on the stovetop.

At my pottery I have a full kitchen to use, but the only thing I cook with is my Air Fryer.  IMO size matters with Air Fryers.  If it's for 1 or 2 people the regular ones I see all the time would be fine, but for more than 2 people I would get a double door one that has 2 or 3 shelfs.

An oven is a huge heat sink that gives off heat for an hour after you turn it off.  The air fryer is much smaller and is much less of a heat sink.  Due to this IMO their much better when your running the AC.

We love ours. A very common lunch around here is beans and greens over potatoes, and we can have roast potatoes in 20 minutes with the airfryer. When we get up to toss them at the 10 minute mark we begin sauteeing our greens and beans together with aromatics or a sauce. It's an incredibly cheap, healthy, and tasty lunch, that is now able to be made with only 15 minutes of active work.

We also use it a lot more in the summer when turning the oven on throws too much heat.

Jack Adam wrote:At my pottery I have a full kitchen to use, but the only thing I cook with is my Air Fryer.  IMO size matters with Air Fryers.  If it's for 1 or 2 people the regular ones I see all the time would be fine, but for more than 2 people I would get a double door one that has 2 or 3 shelfs.

Size definitely does matter.  You won't be able to get as much out of your air fryer as they want you to think. The ads like to show big baskets of fries coming out of an air fryer, but in order to get everything crispy and "fried" you must have ample air circulation, meaning that you really want a thinner layer of food on your tray(s), NOT piled high to fill the entire basket.

I also note that in my (limited) past experience with air fryers, they are the best method hands down for reheating leftover pizza slices!

I have no input on the power usage/conservative benefits, aside from less energy when wanting to reheat something quickly and not turning on the oven, or dirtying a skillet. The biggest benefit I see for the air fryer, is the convenience of size for singular or small family meals, and an excellent reason to abolish the microwave.

Has anyone made donuts in an air fryer?
What about fried potato pancakes/hash browns?
Did they come out as good as regular fried?

Hanukah is coming and that means 8 nights of deep frying for us. I would consider buying an air fryer if it worked for these.

Bloomah Simkin wrote:Has anyone made donuts in an air fryer?
What about fried potato pancakes/hash browns?
Did they come out as good as regular fried?

Hanukah is coming and that means 8 nights of deep frying for us. I would consider buying an air fryer if it worked for these.

I actually tried Air frying a few Latkes last year, while they were tasty, they missed a little something. I suspect, the oil itself of course ads some character. I ended up pan frying the rest of my Latkes as my air fryer is too small to do a lot in a timely fashion. I have done regular hash browns with great success, again, oil/fat is almost necessary with these as a flavor contribution, mixing a little oil or butter in with the potatoes helps.

Fries however, air fry perfectly without any oil. Lower the temp for a bit then ramp up to air fry temps. Too high too quick and they crisp up outside and then turn soggy as the middle catches up.

If you own a convection oven, I don't think you need an air fryer. Just don't use steam.

I can't offer anything about air fryers, but we Love our toaster oven, something we'd never considered until finding a nearly new Hamilton Beach at a yard sale (for $20!). I mostly cook on the woodstove when possible, but obviously not in the summer. We have even discussed an outdoor kitchen to be able to cook on wood in the hot months. The toaster oven can easily be brought outside and set on a picnic table or, in our case, plywood across sawhorses on the porch. No more extra heat in the house! Ours can hold a 3lb chicken (haven't tried the rotisserie yet), a 3 qt casserole pan (8x10 deep, but not a 9x13) or a 12" cast iron pan. Great for baking cookies or making a pizza in about 6 minutes. Has convection mode. The outside gets hot, but not ridiculously so. In the winter it's just extra heat. Definitely uses way less electricity than a full size oven for quick things, not sure about an hour of cooking but way less wattage and space being heated so it seems that would be the case. Seems crazy to heat up a huge oven to bake maybe a dozen potatoes, which, along with pizza is something the woodstove won't do.

(To those of you air-frying french fries, that's just so wrong! Double deep fry them in duck fat, you'll never look back! ; )

We love our air fryer. It's the most used method of cooking for us. My daughter has an air fryer oven she uses at college. She loves it but she is always nervous about how hot the wall gets behind it.

We have the Power Air Fryer Pro and put it to good use. This model produces great results because it replicates an oven with a front opening door, racks instead of a basket or hopper, and a built in rotisserie function that uses a spit or round basket.

It's great for reheating food that is best with a crunchy texture, like pizza crust. Frozen battered fish comes out ok but may improve once I take the advice from a previous post about starting on a lower temperature then increasing it. And, of course, french fries are perfect.

It is roomy enough to accommodate a few pounds worth of different meats, some of which we have cooked with great success, ham, beef, and chicken.

This along with it's companion, the Power Cooker XL, fulfills a lot of our cooking needs.

The absolute best thing our air fryer does is hotdogs. We love the Oscar Meyer naturals and the air fryer cooks them like they came off the grill in 9 minutes, start to finish. We are a hotdog eating bunch!

Bloomah Simkin wrote:Has anyone made donuts in an air fryer?
What about fried potato pancakes/hash browns?
Did they come out as good as regular fried?

Donuts are next on my list!....and a quick search with Google will yield a few air-fryer donut recipes.

Hash browns.....Yes!  In my case, potatoes shredded with a grater, mixed with a bit of sweet onion, and tossed with a bit of olive oil.  The natural starches in the potatoes will help form 'patties' and I make 4 -6 patties for the air-fryer basket (Cuisinart TOA60....rectangular basket).  Half-way through cooking, I flip each patty to get both sides browned..... really good!

Forgot to add:  I was able to find several sources on internet search for additional pans for the air-fryer.  The fryer we have came with a fryer basket that sits on a pan, the pan supposedly doubling as a baking sheet.  But that pan becomes hopelessly varnished with oil from the use as the basket support, so I decided to find extra pans.  The additional stainless steel pans that were purchased have allowed me to refine a good pizza-from-scratch recipe and procedure that works quite well.

I'm going to raise a red flag here 🚩🚩🚩!

The non-stick "teflon" coating on nearly all brands of AirFryers contains PFAS (the "forever chemicals" that studies have linked with several types of cancer, diabetes, thyroid disorders, low sperm counts, and other health concerns). Mamavation has a decent article on the topic, citing published studies in peer-reviewed biomedical literature: https://www.mamavation.com/food/safest-air-fryers-sans-toxic-pfas-coatings.html. They also lists "best" and "worst" brands of AirFryers.

Personally, I'm not willing to eat food that touches teflon or plastic (only glass, cast iron, and/or stainless steel). My health is too precious to me.

P.S. Anyone can explore the published studies at the National Library of Medicine via PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

That's something I've been looking at.   The toaster oven versions seem to be more likely to be stainless steel

An article I read yesterday was talking about a house fire started by an air fryer that was not in use. The fireman in the article said he knew of other fires started by air fryers and that you should unplug your air fryer when it is not in use. I only read that article because I was reading about air fryers in this thread. Sorry, don't have a link to the article, but here is a link to my search engine results. https://presearch.com/search?q=fire%20caused%20by%20air%20fryer  

I unplug all small appliances when not in use.  Coffee makers,  toasters and toaster ovens seem to be the biggest risk of fire.  

But just as important,  if there is a surge on the line,  it protects the appliances from damage.   And if there is a light or clock on the appliance,  it saves a few wats per hour which add up with all the gadgets in the house these days.

There seems to be a huge range of appliances using the word 'air fryer' these days.  

One thing I do when I'm considering a new appliance is to head to the local second-hand shop and see what's there.  It helps me know what not to get.

There were a lot of small air fryers with a drawer thingy.  It looks like a lot of plastic, including inside the cooking area.  I'm also thinking about how much food fits inside the drawer and given that the food can't be touched, these fit maybe a single serving of a side dish.  If I wanted to make fish and chips for two people I would need to have 4 goes in the fryer (one for each serving of fish, plus chips).  Not sure how that saves money over the big oven doing it all at once.

There were not any toaster oven-shaped air fryers to look at.  This makes me think that either no one buys this kind or those who do buy it love it.  Or it breaks and they send it to the dump.

...

I've also been trying to tell the difference between a convection oven and an air fryer.  I think it's the space and the speed of the air movement.  Smaller space and faster airflow makes cooking faster so they call it an air fryer.  Although the more I learn about this appliance, the less I like the term air fryer.  But I wonder if that's because we don't do a lot of deep frying in our house so I have trouble seeing the advantages of the frying side of this appliance.

Here's a different sort of air fryer



It's using a halogen lamp for the heat element and a fan.  The body of the gadget is glass and the racks seem to be stainless steel.  So it's a viable option for people wanting to avoid nonstick coatings.  It does look simple to clean, but the video reviewers were less than thrilled with the cooking results.  

r ranson wrote: I've also been trying to tell the difference between a convection oven and an air fryer.  I think it's the space and the speed of the air movement.  Smaller space and faster airflow makes cooking faster so they call it an air fryer.

That's all I could ever figure out too. We had no interest in 'healthier' frying, both because we don't often deep fry much of anything, and we don't buy the hype about frying in oil being all that bad if you use quality oil or butter. What our cast iron pans see the most are stir frys or skillet type meals, things an air fryer isn't meant for.
One note about the fire hazard- I found that if you manually turn the timer back to zero on our toaster oven, it sometimes (I don't know how or why) will reset itself to the 'stay on' position, which is just to the left of 'off', like 11:59 on a clock. We developed the habit of turning the temp knob back to zero, so even if the oven was to accidentally stay 'on', there's no heat. It's not digital so there's no phantom loads when it's plugged in.

The terminology is confusing at times between convection, air fryer, toaster oven, and so forth.  I was in a store recently and looked at several "whatchamacallits" and came away with a slight headache.  I use a three year old Caplhalon oven thing, which has been fine for what I ask of it.  The full size stove I had was a cheapo "builder's" version and the thing was poorly made, which is why I went with the little setup.  

The only thing I can add is do NOT buy one unless it is stainless steel inside.  Anything else rusts and is a pain to try to clean.  Powder coated might defy rust, but I cannot say, and not sure anyone makes a version like that.  This time of year I cook a LOT on the wood stove I use for heating, and it works out okay.  

I have a convection oven as well.  It does great.  had it for a couple of years.  makes amazing pizzas too.  I just bought a new one though (cause it was on sale and also said it had an air fryer feature too).  
https://www.kalorik.com/products/maxx-air-fryer?variant=31641084330069¤cy=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gclid=Cj0KCQiAvqGcBhCJARIsAFQ5ke4_Bs5m4awH1pV1NK6eBfYHTzYSYe33GVjFHw3xcnD8JlW81xMpU0EaApNUEALw_wcB

This is the style of unit I imagine would work for our household.  



It's more of an oven replacement than a fryer.   But with less space to heat up and the super strong conversation,  it looks like the cooking time is half what an oven needs.

It may be good for quick meals but I would still use the oven when cooking large amounts.

r ranson wrote: I've also been trying to tell the difference between a convection oven and an air fryer.  I think it's the space and the speed of the air movement.  Smaller space and faster airflow makes cooking faster so they call it an air fryer.

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.  Convection oven vs air fryer is just a matter of size and power.  A convection oven with an especially powerful heating element and a very large fan to move a lot of hot air quickly IS an air fryer.

As I understand it, another key feature of an air fryer (that may or may not be present on all convection ovens, I don't know) is that it exhausts the cooking air out the back, rather than continuously recirculating it.  In doing so, it exhausts the humidity released by the food, which helps to keep the food crispy.  Though obviously this comes at the expense of higher energy consumption, since it must continuously be heating new intake air.

Three cheers for the (large) toaster oven version. We find our 13-function (Toast, Bagel, Broil, Bake, Roast, Warm, Pizza, Proof, Airfry, Reheat, Cookies, Slow Cook, Dehydrate.) Breville Smart Oven Air Pro to be incredibly versatile. I think we've had it a couple of years now. And we move it outside in the summer so as not to heat up the house. I just said to my husband this morning that the Breville, a multi-cooker (e.g., "instant pot"), a microwave, and an induction hot plate would be all that a small house would need (forget the range/oven). They're not small (21.5''x17.5''x12.7'') or cheap ($400), but we use ours at least once a day. (Although we are retired and it's just the two of us at home, we do almost all our own cooking and much of it "from scratch.") I bought two extra mesh baskets and I use those for making granola and air-frying. We installed solar panels on our roof this year, but haven't yet replaced our range/oven with induction electric, so I love using the electric Breville instead of my gas oven. Drawbacks: the Breville is big, so won't toast as fast as a small toaster oven. The mesh baskets need to be oiled for use with most foods so you don't get baked-on messes that are difficult to clean (when you do, soak them in soapy water in a large rimmed cookie sheet, then use a stiff-bristled brush to clean). Even then, when I make my granola (which has egg whites in the mixture), I use a silicone mat on the mesh baskets.