Air fryer help

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So today I unleash my new air fryer , read the instructions thoroughly and then made chips as a try out following the instructions to the letter , they turned out looking fine but a little crispy textured to eat and completely tasteless unless covered in salt , I’m really disappointed as I was so looking forwards to enjoying cooking with this
My questions are do they always come out like this or am I missing something ?
not sure what my AIBU is , perhaps it’s AIBU to be disappointed that after 3 attempts the chips are still less than mediocre

Air fryers don’t magically season food. Potatoes are generally tasteless and bland unless they’ve been seasoned. Get your chips salted and seasoned before you put them in the air fryer.

YABU. Why would you think a countertop convection oven would season your food? Adding salt to the water when parboiling the potatoes might help you need less salt at the end though.

What variety of potato did you use? King Edward makes the best chips, or a similar floury potato.

they look fine thats how mine come out and no the air fryer just cooks them what i do before i put mine in is put the cut potatoes in a bowl add a small amount of oil and coat them with a spoon so the oil is all over the outsides before they go in you could add some salt to the oil that way you would have some seasoning on them

@toastofthetown you dont parboil the potatoes first you go from raw and yes king edwards make nice fluffy chips but any chips done in an air fryer are going to come out like oven chips as they are not deep fried

I'm absolutely obsessed with my new Instant Pot but yeah I still do my chips the old-fashioned way in my chip-pan. I was so disappointed with how they turn out in the air-fryer! I don't care if they're healthier! Potatoes need lots of fat for flavour.

I do little cubed ones which come out nice
Literally cube them, spray oil, season and air fry
Ignore the messy plate!

Cut the potato into chips, don't parboil, soak in water and pat dry to remove starch, season as required, cook in air fryer. I don't use oil.

Depends on how you prefer chips. Parboiling in salt and (a splash of vinegar to slow pectin breakdown) per this method has given me easily the best oven chips (though still not equal to proper fried chips) both in terms of texture and taste with additional salt penetration. If you prefer the texture of chips oven cooked from raw or don't want to parboil, that's fine, but it's not an incorrect method.

Thank you all for your comments and advice , I didn’t salt before cooking as I followed the instructions and it didn’t say to but will try in future , the instructions just said cut potato into chips & rinse in cold water , Pat dry and add 1/2 tea spoon of oil gently brushed over the chips before air frying , I used Maris piper as they tend to be a good all rounder , just disappointed with results as they were worse than oven chips

Peel, chop, wash and chuck in a bowl. Season with onion or garlic powder, salt and oil give a good stir to coat. Then air fry.

I chuck peri-peri seasoning on mine and some oil before chucking in.

Roasties in the air fryer tend to come out better than my chips but I do "fluff" up the outside so they get a crispy coat.

Chicken is where my air fryer shines, it has a rotisserie inside and makes the best roast 🤤

Did you soak them for 30 minutes? This helps them release starch and become crispier

OP I could have written your post. I've just sadly made my peace with the fact that it's the oil that gives chips their taste. Baked potatoes come out a bit closer to tasting like the 'real thing'.

Jones9876 are there things that taste a bit less boring when done in the airfryer ? I do of course use seasoning but so far I haven't found anything that cooks as nicely as food done in a conventional oven or pan. Would be grateful for any recipe suggestion.

You have my sympathy, I sold our air fryer as found it disappointing but hope you find a solution!

Just a quick update ! , I tried again this evening , again using Maris piper potatoes , I cut them up , par boiled them then drained them , gave them a good shake in a bowl together with oil and salt , they looked quite fluffy and the sides were much less defined , I adjusted the cooking time to 15 mins and lower temperature of 180 , shaking them at 5 min and 10 mins , then turned it up to 200 for a further 5 mins to brown slightly more , very pleased with the result and probably as good as I’m going to get
so thank you again all of you who gave instructions , advice and recipes