To not understand the fuss about air fryers?

[whatthen]

People keep raving about them and I got one as a present and I used it a couple of times and gave up on it. It doesn’t cook food any quicker than a normal cooker.

I’ve tried again today and I’ve now been waiting an hour for a baked potato to cook. Would’ve been done by now in the oven. What is the point? What am I missing?

This sounds like the temperature isn’t high enough? I can cook frozen chicken goujons in 17 minutes.

I didn't buy one for years, then was persuaded by a great Amazon offer on a 2 drawer Ninja. It's truly amazing and things like chicken and salmon are much nicer, as they retain more moisture.

I think it depends on the brand, we had a cheaper one first and it was crap, we’ve just been in a holiday rental and it was crap. At home we have multiple Ninja ones and I wouldn’t be without them. Barely turn my oven on at all.

Never heard of econo but I have 2 ninja air fryers (one double drawer and one oven style that I bought when my actual oven broke) and fish fingers take 10 minutes if that.

Fish fingers take 8-10 mins, chicken strips 12ish mins. Lovely crispy oven chips 18 mins. All definitely faster and crispy than the oven.

It may depend on your make of airfryer. I have a ninja but my MIL has a Lakeland one and hers doesn’t cook things as quick or doesn’t crisp thing up like the ninja does. For a jacket potato I microwave it for 6 minutes then brush it in olive oil then cook it in the airfryer for 35 minutes. Extremely crispy skin. To achieve this in the oven would take at least 1 hour 15. That’s about 35 minutes difference and the oven would cost more in electric too. No brainer

I bought an air fryer recently due to my oven unexpectedly packing in. I had to grab the cheapest one that I could carry home, so ended up with a little Daewoo one. I was pleasantly surprised that it does indeed cook things quickly and well. The only thing is not to over fill it and to make sure air can circulate.

My teenagers cooks himself fish fingers in it in 8 to 10 minutes which is significantly quicker than doing them in the oven and uses less energy too.

If your air fryer is taking 45 minutes to cook fish fingers then it must be defective!

Do you have the grill thing inside?

I've never heard of your model, I have a ninja 7-in-1 and it's halved my cooking time.

It cooks things a lot faster, I think. Fish fingers take 8 minutes in mine ( Ninja) You've got a crap one or it's not working properly.

Econo appears to be a budget band so it's not going to be a good as a Ninja.

A summary of reviews from Google:-

Because it is a compact, budget model, the capacity is not suitable for larger families. Some users also note that the cooking times can be a bit slower than larger, premium brands, and the smaller basket requires shaking to ensure an even cook on foods like chips.

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I have a ninja double drawer which I got my my birthday at the beginning of the year. I haven’t opened the oven since. I even chopped up a pizza to fit in the air fryer because it’s so quick and economical 😂

Have you plugged it in? 😂

You’ve obviously bought a cheap crappy one. The reviews are not great for that brand.

Maybe do your research more thoroughly before you buy another gadget and deem it rubbish? 😂

Something is going very wrong if fish fingers took 45 mins!!

I think with air fryers, it's very much a case of 'buy shite, buy twice'. (Although I'm aware the OP didn't buy it themselves)

Air fryers are literally just table top ovens. They heat up quickly because they're small. I can't understand why people lose their minds over how amazing they are. It's just branding.

We have a Corsori one which is good, but if I were to buy again, I'd get one with two drawers. We do have a wee stand thing to create two levels but two drawers would be better.

They are not a substitute for an oven if you are cooking for a family or large group, but they are very handy for cooking small quantities quickly.

I always start baked potatoes off in the microwave- then it’s about 10-15 mins in the AF for a crispy skin.
Definitely cooks much quicker than oven. Great for 1-2 people so a couple of salmon fillets, homemade chips or frozen ones. Have grated up
pizza in a couple of mins. Cooked a whole small chicken.

I love that I can cook salmon and bacon in my air fryer without lingering smell.

Also cheaper & easier than heating up the oven for one chicken breast or a preschooler dinner’s worth of fish fingers. Definitely an MVP in this household.

What size of family do they work for?
We have a family of 6 and I have just assumed we would have too much food for them to be useful.
Are they more of a one person oven?

😂 Mumsnet is a gift sometimes. Why on earth would a person lie about the cooking of fish fingers and why is it something which needs to be challenged?

Goodness me. Absolute gold.

Love our air fryer. So much quicker than a regular oven. We are on our second one as we use it so much.

It’s set to 200, the highest setting.

Are everyone else’s air fryers more technological than mine? Mine has a dial for the temperature and a dial for the time. I am not sure how it would be possible to use it incorrectly.

Maybe I’ve just had crap ones then. But my parents had the same model as my first one and they raved about it. I gave up on it and then they bought me another one to try and persuade me. It is still terrible.