I hate my new air fryer what am I doing wrong

[KingofCats]

Firstly, I maybe haven’t gone big enough. I considered size before I purchase and decided to go small and cheap prepared that if I loved it I would upgrade. But I don’t like anything I’ve cooked in it so far.

chips cut narrowly from raw potatoes- took 1 hour 10 minutes, didn’t really love the texture and no colour. Quicker and tastier in the oven.

chicken nuggets - did one batch in the oven and one in the air fryer and the air fryer ones were soggy on the bottom - could be user error.

grilled cheese sandwich - Mega crispy bread like a crisp bread but again no browning colour and the cheese took forever to melt, after 15 minutes I took it out and put it in the frying pan to finish off the cheese melting

what am I doing wrong before I give it away?

I microwave my chips to take the rawness away, then drain & dry, toss in oil & salt & then no more than 10 minutes on 200 airfry, shake every couple of minutes. Chips come out crispy with fluffy insides.

I have a ninja 9 in 1 and it's great. I usually use the air fryer string but have also used the sauce and slow cooker functions.

It's expensive but worth it if you think you'll use more than the air fryer.

They are literally just very small counter top ovens. They’re not a new way of cooking or anything. So they’re good if you have a large oven and don’t want to heat it for something small. You should save money using an air fryer in that situation. You might also save a bit of time if you’re only cooking something small. But the way people go on you’d think they were some sort of revolutionary new cooking technique. They’re really not.

I have one. It’s good when DS comes in late and wants to Cook a single chicken breast or reheat one slice of pizza. It’s completely rubbish when you want to cook a large quantity of frozen chips.

This puts me off buying one. I've read good reports about the Lakeland one.

I have a double gas oven and use the smaller oven a lot. Also have a grill inside my microwave. Was thinking about an air fryer but I think I'll stick with what I've got if an air fryer is just a small electric oven.

It sounds like there was something wrong with yours, OP. My Ninja dual drawer one certainly doesn't take that long to do chips (or anything!).

We use it a lot but yes, they are simply a small fan oven.

For an extra £30 you should have bought a tower express.
I have one and its brilliant. Stuff cooks in no time and dosent have that air fryer taste like many do. They taste just like done in my big oven. I cook roasties from raw potatoes and they take about 20 mins. They would take well over an hour in my big oven which is why I opted for an air fryer

I have a big double one and never use it I prefer the oven. Everyone else here loves it and won't use anything else.

I have got 2 - I had a big Instant Pot Voretex and thought I needed a 2 drawer one so gave the big one to my son and bought the 2 drawer. I missed my big one so bought another. We first had one years ago when there were problems with them breaking down but have never been without one. Don't think my new (5 years ago) oven has been on more than twice. I can recommend a book by Siobhan Wightman, Slimming Eats made in the Air Fryer, not a slimming book but has great recipes in it.

I bought the smallest Ninja (3.8L), £64 in the Black Friday sale. It's just right for 2 people, I watched loads of You Tube videos as didn't have a clue how to use it. Now having fun trying things out.

One really useful thing I learnt was to get a meat thermometer...so easy to quickly check temp and prevent over-cooking, especially with the AF on the worktop.

I cooked salmon, checking with the thermometer, and it was a revelation, lovely and moist, instead of hard and dried out because I'd overcooked as been worried about eating raw fish. Same with chicken, 700g chicken crown cooked perfectly (turned it over halfway through).

I've had similar with my air fryer, I thought it would be great, but things end up being soggy etc.

I’ve had the ninja dual zone one for about a fortnight now and pleased with it so far - chips and roast spuds etc about 20 mins, good for nuggets and brilliant for roast veg. Have also done salmon and chicken thighs. Really good. I can’t however say it’s knocked my socks off and made me want to only ever cook in an air fryer from now on, like all the fanatics on FB and YouTube. I’ll use it but it’s just a handy piece of kit that’s quick and cheap so I’ll use it once or twice a week and yay.