To not have an air fryer?

[wildfellhall]

I'm not convinced I need one but everyone seems to be so passionate about how great they are.

Are people just using them like a little oven do they don't have to heat the whole oven every time they want to cook something?

I can't work out what I am missing.

yeah I've actually got two now, but I use my main big one. I started off with a smaller one but it was too small for me (and I'm single living on my own). It also means that I don't need to bend down getting things out of a big oven, and it has a light so I can see the progression of cooking.
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We largely use it for heating up oven chips - they do come out nice and crispy. I plan to try a few more things but you can't really get enough in there for a whole meal. We only got one because my son bought it.

Think the name is off putting. I didn’t buy one because I don’t eat chicken nuggets or that sort of food.

Re name it a mini oven because that’s what it is. I’m learning still, but great for reheating but with oven quality.

Roasting vegetables it’s perfect and super fast. Croissants frozen or just need a refresh.

I have a dual basket one and it’s really useful.

Someone bought me one. It is sat in a kitchen cupboard unused. I have nothing I want to cook my other kitchen equipment can’t cook and the air fryer recipes just look a little worse than what I would cook without.

I am not in the air fryer cult but don’t get me started on my slow cooker……😀

I have two, the Ninja Dual drawer and the Ninja 15 in 1 . I cook everything you can think of in them

Part baked rolls in one drawer, bacon in the other - lunch ready in 8-10 mins
Fish fingers/breaded chicken/etc one drawer, wedges or chips in the other - veg in the microwave ( seriously they are worth it to cook a fish finger alone - crisp and dry coating with moist fish )
Chicken tikka one side, onion bahjees/ naan the other

Anything that you can grill, roast or bake - the air fryer does it quicker

The 15 in 1 does all that and then add slow cooking, pressure cooking and steaming on top
I use it weekly to make yoghurt, make the odd loaf of bread. Get a casserole on the table in 30 mins of walking in the door. Do a full roast dinner and all the veg in an hour ......

Seriously the list is endless.

We eat foods now that I was avoiding as I wasnt putting the oven on "just for that " like the pre baked rolls and now jacket spuds are crispy and hand cut chips come out really good. DH can whack in a sausage roll, the grandkids can do their waffles and smiley faces

They are big, they take counter space. The 15 sits on a trolley that I roll out to the hob area when using so its near the extractor if Im using fast release on PC. The dual drawer sits on my hob and just moved over if I need the hob

I don’t think they are all that great really. What they are useful for is cooking freezer food (chips, chicken dippers, fish fingers, little frozen snacks). It’s quicker and they do probably cook better.

Actual normal food you’d cook in an oven, for me, they don’t seem to do that very well. I can afford to run an oven when I need to and I’d rather do that than use an air fryer, because I’m a bit of a food snob.

I also find though that for a family of 4, I can cook one item in there, but not everything. So I can do chips for us in a dual drawer one, but can’t fit sausages, so those still need to go in oven. Or I can do chips for kids in one and veg in the other, but the fish or chicken still needs to go in the oven. It doesn’t save me having to use the oven.

I finally gave in and bought one two weeks ago. I honestly have used it almost every day since. It's cheaper to run than an oven but also it saves me a lot of time cooking. I threw a couple of stakes in for 7 minutes and went to take a shower. No standing in front of a frying pan/grill. By the time I got out, dinner was ready.
It's the same reason why I love my slow cooker. Yes, I can cook the same stuff on the stove but it is much more time-effective to bang everything in, turn it on and get on with other business.
You also don't need any oil in air fryer so it is perfect if you are cutting calories. My partner needs to lose some weight for the upcoming surgery. It's been a huge help for that.

I don't have one , and don't want one, having had two in holiday houses i still don't see what I’d use it for . Plus they're ugly, and the ones i tried were noisy ! I was curious as people claimed you could do a full Sunday roast in one so i watched a youtube demo, what a faff ! And then at the final moment they made instant gravy in a jug, which we would hate as we make proper gravy . So much easier to throw the whole lot in the oven and have yummy gravy juices ! I don't think they're for me 🤣

I like mine because I'm old, I only cook for one person and I don't want to spend hundreds on a shiny new full size cooker now the old one is dead. I spent £70 or so instead and it does everything I need. Have microwave too. More than sufficient.

We thought about getting an air fryer but ended up getting a combi microwave instead - it works as a convection oven so we save energy vs using the big oven and you can fit more in than a standard air fryer. Unlike an air fryer you don't have to convert the times/temperatures - you just use the values for a non-fan oven.

I went away for 2 weeks and didn’t miss it.
But since I got back it’s been used at least once a day because its part of my fully functional kitchen routine.

Here’s a selection:
Farmhouse potatoes and oven chips
Par-baked bread, mini pizzas and croissants
Roast spiced chickpeas
Muffins (small batches, no heating the kitchen)
Steaks
Salmon
Aubergine Parmesan.
Lasagne

Mine is a 5-litre Cosori which is a good size for 3 people. I wash it by hand and degrease the cooked-on oil spatters with Oven Pride.
I’m thinking of getting a second basket for versatility and because the preheat function needs the basket to be inserted.

I’m perfectly capable of living without it, but in Summer the air fryer stops me wasting energy cooling the house with AC and heating the kitchen via the oven!

I'm always a bit bemused by these sorts of questions. I mean, I absolutely love my air fryer and it has made my life a million times easier. But I can totally see how someone else doesn't particularly care or need one. it depends on how you cook, where your challenges are etc.

So for me, I often have to do something different for DD so it's super handy to be able to stick some sausages or chicken breasts or chips or whatever in there while I'm using the hob to make the meal for the rest of us. Similarly when we have friends over I can do a big batch of sausages in there for any other irritatingly fussy children. I also WFH so I really like being able to whip myself up something like roasted veg or baked feta with a fresh roll/ciabatta at lunch without turning the oven on. Teenage DS is also using it more and more to make himself quick substantial "snacks" after school - fishfinger sandwich or a crumbed chicken burger or whatever. And finally, it's useflu for us as we quite often land up eating at different times so, for example, if I'm making tacos and we're all eating together I wouldn't mind sticking the oven on for the tacos. But often tacos is something i can prepare and leave out then everyone just heats up their own taco shells as and when they're ready. We do this with all kinds of things like fish/fish cakes, jacket potatoes etc

I use my microwave, my Remoska (which I love) and my Sage Fast Slo pressure cooker- that works as a slow cooker but I only ever use the pressure cooker function. I don’t use the large oven anymore but I do use the hob. No need for anything else.

I've got a multi-function one.

Yesterday I did a large pizza in the main oven for the family but heated my portion in the airfryer later on in 3 minutes. Our oven takes 8 minutes to warm up.
Later I was going out so used the sauté function to start off a bolognese and get it cooking then switched to slow cooker to finish cooking while I was out so walkef in to a cooked meal. Less messy than needing an additional pan for the hob with my old slow cooker.

It's great for my lunches of stirfries and grilled fish. Also great for speeding up javcket potatoes and then turning them into wedges for DS. The fish fingers the other day were much quicker and crispier than waiting ages for the grill.

I do use it for fresh home cooked food as well as some convenient food.

It's taken on quite a lot of work from the oven, grill and hob. If I don't need the capacity of the oven, it is a lot more efficient heating smaller quantities in the air fryer.

The disadvantage is the size and there's only one spot in the kitchen avaliable to use it practically.

I literally have a small one that cost £39 - there are only 2 of us and I use it for sausages, fish cakes, Potato croquettes, anything in breadcrumbs or batter( spring rolls, bajis etc)

Cooks slightly quicker, nice and crispy and saves putting the oven on for small amounts of stuff

Crispy tofu!

I was absolute adamant we didn't need one, DH insisted we do. I said it would end up in the cupboard, alongside other gadgets we apparently couldn't live without.

He got one Black Friday last year and our oven hasn't beem used since Christmas day.

I still won't admit he was right though

I was asking about this in the food section the other day but didn't get many replies, anyway do you need to use a little spray of oil so that food doesn't dry out ?

I got one when they first came out. They weren't as fancy as they are now. I hated it, I literally opened the back door and flung it out. I found it dried the food out and not big enough for a family of 7

It depends on what it is.
For anything with fats already in/on then no so I don't use anything extra on sausages, whole chicken, oven chips etc.

For veg homemade or very lean meat then yes a bit of spray oil

Yet I find the complete opposite, but then Im a confident cook and have been a professional cook and find them very easy to use . Once you get the hang of the speed and temp its just really easy. I dont use recipe or cook books for the air fryer, I use a bit if math and a lot of eye on and natural judgement

I think if you have small DC then they're good for heating up kids freezer food like nuggets and chips etc

I'd have bought one for that reason but DC are older now so we just use the oven as per usual

So we don't have one and I can't think of anything we'd want to cook I it

I think if you have small DC then they're good for heating up kids freezer food like nuggets and chips etc

They are good for so much more than that.

I have no desire to have one. One of my dc has one and finds it very useful - she lives alone and often works late so needs to cook quickly.

To replace the main oven would have cost more even with the cheapest electric model in terms of installation - and thanks to some decidedly shonky builders, would have also meant rebuilding the kitchen and rewiring to make it fit (assuming that it would even have been legal for an installation to proceed).

No such worries with the Ninja Dual - and when the slow cooker died a death, that got replaced with the Ninja 14 in 1 with pressure cooker auto release, slow cooking and and additional oven. So we have three ovens, three grills, a pressure cooker and slow cooker for the same cost as one mid range oven before standard removal/disposal of the old one plus installation.

Different items can be synced to finish at the same time, you can walk away knowing that everything will switch off, no worry about pressure cookers exploding or scalding, no bending down to lift stuff out, no glass to clean - it's so much easier.