My girlfriend is on a diet (quite why escapes me but anyway) and has been eyeing up these air fryer things, and I know nothing about them. Anyone have any experiences of them? Are they any cop or just a gimmick? The last thing I want is another unused gadget sitting next to the slow cooker, I’ve a small kitchen and very little spare storage space.

They’re kicking out some no-mark branded ones in Iceland for like £35 quid and the supermarket are doing Tefal ones for £70+. Worth paying extra for a ‘good’ one or will an el cheapo be fine?

Cheers.

I want one, but the g/f won’t allow it, as we avoid frying anything (we have no space either).. m8 has one and made the best breaded chicken I’d ever had (not dripping with fat like normal). The advice seems to be, get the biggest you can, preferably branded.

We have one – it’s spot on for chips, although they do take about 30-40 mins depending on how many your doing and how well done you like them. It uses about 15ml of oil, so hardly any in the grand scheme. You can also get a mesh tray to do other things that are more delicate and not suitable for being turned by the paddle.
We have a Tefal if that makes any difference.

Middle ground – we have a Breville Halo, which is really excellent, we use it more than our cooker to be honest.

They’re great for chips. Used to have an Actifry until it died. Didn’t use it for much else as that’s about as far as my culinary experience goes.

(we have no space either)..

So I reckon, unless you have a massive kitchen it’s a question of what you have space to use conveniently.

Somewhere we have a halogen oven (works well as an air frier), slow cooker, sandwich toaster, £300 juicer (really), bread maker …. probably a lot more and it’s all freakin great until you have to go get it from a cupboard and clear a space.

My girlfriend is on a diet (quite why escapes me but anyway) and has been eyeing up these air fryer things, and I know nothing about them. Anyone have any experiences of them? Are they any cop or just a gimmick? The last thing I want is another unused gadget sitting next to the slow cooker, I’ve a small kitchen and very little spare storage space.

They’re kicking out some no-mark branded ones in Iceland for like £35 quid and the supermarket are doing Tefal ones for £70+. Worth paying extra for a ‘good’ one or will an el cheapo be fine?

Cheers.

I had the same reservations when Mrs f wanted one, turns out I was wrong (it happens) it’s superb and we use it most days and a lot more than we use the oven.

Don’t be tempted by the cheap ones, they’re cheap for a reason. Pick one that rotates and can tumble if you’re doing chips. Once you get used to the timings for different foods is just a case of throwing them in at the correct time.

After a quick Google I can confirm ours is a breville halo plus.

We had a Tefal Actifry for years and used it regular for wedges, chips and cubed potatoes, eventually the lid broke so replaced it with their basic version which is still as good.

We have a Philips Air fryer. it’s essentially just a very small fan assisted oven.

I’m glad I only paid £50, as it doesn’t really do anything I couldn’t already do in the fan assisted oven we already have. It’s possibly cheaper to run, never checked.

I’d probably buy the Tefal Actifry if I was buying again.

We have a Halo and it is brilliant, so much more than just a fryer. I use it to make everything from sausages, to roast veg to shepherd’s pie.

Really appreciate this.

The Breville sounds good, it just doesn’t appear to exist. Discontinued?

It uses about 15ml of oil,

Ah so it doesn’t actually fry air then (or even in air)?

Ah so it doesn’t actually fry air then (or even in air)?

Depends what your cooking. It basically a fan oven so blows the hot air around the unit. For chips it’s best to add the oil, but you can do without although it’s like doing roasts in the oven with no oil/fat. Other things you don’t really need to add oil as per in a normal oven.
The one (tefal) we have, has a paddle that turns the chips and allows the oil to be distributed while blowing the hot air around. You can use less oil if you think 15ml is too much.

it’s like doing roasts in the oven with no oil/fat.

Isn’t that more like baking?

Ah so it doesn’t actually fry air then (or even in air)?

Can’t comment for other makes but with the halo you spray a couple of squirts of oil on the chips/potatoes whatever and that’s it.

Really appreciate this.

The Breville sounds good, it just doesn’t appear to exist. Discontinued?

Very good, I had to concede to Mrs f quite early on, she was almost unbearably smug about it all 🙁

We don’t bother with oven chips in it, just chip/cube/wedge potatoes, no need to book them beforehand, couple of squirts of oil then let the fryer tumble them for 25-30 minutes then add veg, meat etc at suitable times (learning when to put different foodstuffs in so everything is finished cooking together takes a bit of practice) marinaded pork is a good choice job the grill above the potatoes as the marinade drops through and flavours everything, smoked salmon fillets are good too.
We’ve cooked pretty much everything from chips to a full casserole (with dumplings) in it.

Another Breville Halo owner. I was also sceptical when Mrs Binners bought it. As usual, I was wrong. Its bloody brilliant!

Between that and the slow cooker, the actual cooker barely gets a look in nowadays. The Halo gets used pretty much every day

We’ve got one, its ace. ‘Power air-fryer XL’ Same one they flog in the cheesy infomercials IIRC. Use it all the time for chips/sausage ect

A guy at work keeps banging on about his air fryer. I have enough unused kitchen gadgets as it is!

We have a Breville – it’s fantastic at roast parsnips. Like WAY better than in the oven.

But it only gets used at Christmas and gathers dust the rest of the time. It’s hard to recommend tbh.

Fantastic things. Perfect streaky bacon and fried mushrooms in 12 minutes.

Ah so it doesn’t actually fry air then (or even in air)?

Yes and No … it requires very little oil and in many things what you are cooking has enough oil.
As its such a small amount then it does fry in that the oil is on the surface and boils…

We’ve got the Power Air Fryer XL – blimey didn’t realise it was that much – missus bought it.

We’ve sussed out real chips – need a fair bit longer than a fat fryer, but you just use a small amount of oil – we tend to leave the skin on. The power fryer doesn’t turn anything, so it’s a quick shake part way through cooking. It’s great for sausages, as the fat collects in the lower pan. Also good for breaded foods.

We borrowed an Actifry and used it a few times to make sure we were using it right. It made nice chips that tasted and felt like oven chips. Nice if you like that sort of thing.
However, Mrs BigJohn (not big and doesn’t like fatty food (which is good because I get all the chicken skin and crispy lamb fat that she cuts off)) said Nah, prefer proper chips so we reverted to the deep fat fryer.
We tend to double or triple cook the chips and they don’t really absorb much oil, looking at how little the level drops.

Holy Thread Bump, Batman!

Revisiting this as a) she’s just dropped hints about getting one for her birthday and b) I’m moving house to somewhere with a kitchen three times the size of the current one so it’s suddenly viable.

Any advances on the generous advice from six months ago?

I’d be getting a ninja foodie, but probs not if I had a small kitchen. It’s a slow/pressure cooker/air fryer all in one. Big ugly thing to leave out on your counter though.

Edit: just saw about the bigger kitchen

I watched something where they said an air fryer is no different from a convection oven microwave.

I think the point must be that they are smaller than a regular convection oven and with a more powerful fan. Supposed to work pretty well, but the name is a bit of a scam. It’s not frying anything.

Would they be any good for applying Putoline to your chain? 😃

BTW, I’m not sure an air fryer is going to help lose weight unless you are using it to replace a deep fat fryer.

Point was, in her head at least, she can have “proper” chips / fried food again.

Now I’m eyeing up this.

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/AH960040-Actifry-Genius-Portions-Capacity/dp/B079YS5J3Y/

I think I might just buy her a bike.

We had a philips airfrier and it was ok. The problem was that for things like wedges or chips you had to constantly move them around during cooking which kind of negated the usefulness. They still cooked somewhat unevenly.

Bought, well upgraded, to a tefal actifry and it’s streets ahead. Click and forget with even cooking.

Great for our boys as they love various chipped and wedged root vegetables.

The only potential downside is that you can’t do things like salmon or steak in an actifry, but I wouldn’t ever do them in a static air frier anyway.

Aim a hairdryer into a biscuit tin for 40 minutes. Kick it now and again to keep stuff from sticking.

We’ve had the family size Actifry for years. It’s in the back of a cupboard now, proper deep fat fryer in it’s place. Actifry can make chips every bit as good as supermarket oven chips, but no comparison to the real thing. Fish? Churros? Bhajis? Not happening in anything else really. If I’m going to limit my calories, I’m damn sure every one I eat tastes as good as it can.

Holy Thread Bump, Batman!

Re-bump time rather than start a new thread……

wifes looking at getting this Ninja Health Grill and Air Fryer to replace our ‘on-its-way-out’ actifry, and understandably before pressing the trigger wants to know if its worth the (potato) wedge….

i dont see it mentioned in this thread but that could be cos its only just come out maybe?

anyone got one and can compare to some of the above recommendations?

cheers

We have a ninja something or other, best kitchen gadget we’ve ever bought and we’ve bought alkt !

We got a Ninja Foodi Max before Christmas and hardly use the oven now. It does air frying but lots of other stuff too, so maybe worth a look.

We also have a Ninja something or other.
Does air frying, roasting, re heating and dehydrating.
Only tried the air frying and roasting so far but seems pretty good.

If anyone cares, just to finish off my own thread,

Revisiting this as a) she’s just dropped hints about getting one for her birthday and b) I’m moving house to somewhere with a kitchen three times the size of the current one so it’s suddenly viable.

I think I might just buy her a bike.

We got the bigger kitchen. I bought her a bike.*

We’ve currently got my OH’s daughter and her boyfriend** staying here temporarily whilst their own house purchase goes through and he’s using the kitchen seemingly to prepare for a zombie apocalypse. Joking aside, I think he’s genuinely got an issue, he comes home with a week’s worth of food like every two days. Once they’ve flown our nest I’m going to put a fryer back on the shopping list.

(* – she’s a shortarse, she’s not 12 years old.)
(** – the daughter’s boyfriend, not my OH’s, we’re not quite that cosmopolitan.)

We’ve got an Actifry which is used a fair bit. Chips & roasties are excellent as long as you forget about being healthy & use a spoonful of beef dripping instead of oil. Curries are great too & recently had Tandoori chicken wings which were awesome.
I looked at the Ninja but gave it a swerve, I avoid made Chinese stuff where possible. (Virtually impossible)