Joining the air fryer craze

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tweake

2349 posts

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#3356352 22-Mar-2025 20:28

gzt:

100% glass is one way to avoid the coatings. This thing from Kmart at $69 is attractive.

Marketed as a convection oven. 12L, only 1300 Watts. Too big for my liking initially.

a family member has a similar one, it lights up the entire kitchen. its a 1300 watt light bulb.

cddt

1513 posts

Uber Geek

#3356400 23-Mar-2025 06:28

jonathan18:

Yeah, I think it’s very difficult to find many (if any) air fryers that don’t use some form of non-stick coating.

I’m finding the same with rice cookers (ie, finding one that doesn’t have a non-stick bowl): we have a large rice cooker we’ve had for over twenty years that has an aluminium bowl. Cleans up perfectly every time. Doubt a ‘non-stick’ cooker can do that without losing its coating. (But I’m assuming there are many that still have negative associations with aluminium which puts companies off using it?; I also assume it would not be suitable for an air fryer...)

Another reason we went with the wire basket, rack, metal tray combo in the mini-convection oven style one.

Our rice cooker (also pressure cooker, slow cooker) came with a non-stick pot, that started wearing off pretty quickly, we were lucky enough to be able to source a stainless steel replacement which has been going for years now.

We also replaced our non-stick pans with a cast iron frying pan, took a few weeks to get used to, but now we use it for everything.

My referral links: BigPipe | Mercury

mattwnz

20111 posts

Uber Geek

#3356551 23-Mar-2025 16:01

cddt:

jonathan18:

Yeah, I think it’s very difficult to find many (if any) air fryers that don’t use some form of non-stick coating.

I’m finding the same with rice cookers (ie, finding one that doesn’t have a non-stick bowl): we have a large rice cooker we’ve had for over twenty years that has an aluminium bowl. Cleans up perfectly every time. Doubt a ‘non-stick’ cooker can do that without losing its coating. (But I’m assuming there are many that still have negative associations with aluminium which puts companies off using it?; I also assume it would not be suitable for an air fryer...)

Another reason we went with the wire basket, rack, metal tray combo in the mini-convection oven style one.

Our rice cooker (also pressure cooker, slow cooker) came with a non-stick pot, that started wearing off pretty quickly, we were lucky enough to be able to source a stainless steel replacement which has been going for years now.

We also replaced our non-stick pans with a cast iron frying pan, took a few weeks to get used to, but now we use it for everything.

Decades ago when people got married, often in their 20's, wedding gifts were often things such as pans, kettles etc. Back then these were made to last, being quality stainless steel and cast iron etc. I still have my parents old russell hobbs kettle that must 50 years old that still works. This is unlike new kettles that you will be lucky to get 5 years out of it before something fails or leaks on it.

tdgeek

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#3356615 23-Mar-2025 17:44

mattwnz:

Decades ago when people got married, often in their 20's, wedding gifts were often things such as pans, kettles etc. Back then these were made to last, being quality stainless steel and cast iron etc. I still have my parents old russell hobbs kettle that must 50 years old that still works. This is unlike new kettles that you will be lucky to get 5 years out of it before something fails or leaks on it.

That is so true, ironic in the modern technology days, makes no sense. But its all about making cents, billions of them

Handle9

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#3356707 23-Mar-2025 22:03

mattwnz:

Decades ago when people got married, often in their 20's, wedding gifts were often things such as pans, kettles etc. Back then these were made to last, being quality stainless steel and cast iron etc. I still have my parents old russell hobbs kettle that must 50 years old that still works. This is unlike new kettles that you will be lucky to get 5 years out of it before something fails or leaks on it.

They also had service contracts on TVs and cars that routinely broke down and dropped oil eveywhere. There are a lot of rose tinted glasses with this sort of thing.

You can still buy very high quality appliances that last a long time. You can also buy very inexpensive appliances at prices that didn’t exist in the past.

dantheperson

173 posts

Master Geek

#3357805 27-Mar-2025 12:46

mattwnz:

An air fryer is also heating a very small volume compared to an oven so there is so much less wasted energy and far quicker to heat up.

Consumer did a running cost comparison, comparing 7 air fryers against 3 ovens. Ovens came out cheaper to run than air fryers to run due to better insulation, thermostats and seals, so ovens will hold the temperature better and have the element turned off for longer. But that was running for 30mins. If you are doing a 5 min reheat then probably the quicker heatup time will win out, though our large Bosch 90cm oven only takes 5 mins to heat up so not much slower than an air 'fryer'.

Over the course of the year, 3 times a week, an air fryer would be $3 or 16% more expensive to run, so much of a muchness really, i wouldn't buy one to save money.

https://www.consumer.org.nz/articles/air-fryer-vs-oven-do-air-fryers-really-save-you-money

johno1234

2743 posts

Uber Geek

#3357840 27-Mar-2025 14:17

dantheperson:

mattwnz:

An air fryer is also heating a very small volume compared to an oven so there is so much less wasted energy and far quicker to heat up.

Consumer did a running cost comparison, comparing 7 air fryers against 3 ovens. Ovens came out cheaper to run than air fryers to run due to better insulation, thermostats and seals, so ovens will hold the temperature better and have the element turned off for longer. But that was running for 30mins. If you are doing a 5 min reheat then probably the quicker heatup time will win out, though our large Bosch 90cm oven only takes 5 mins to heat up so not much slower than an air 'fryer'.

Over the course of the year, 3 times a week, an air fryer would be $3 or 16% more expensive to run, so much of a muchness really, i wouldn't buy one to save money.

https://www.consumer.org.nz/articles/air-fryer-vs-oven-do-air-fryers-really-save-you-money

As the article says:

small quantities of food + less than 30 minutes’ cooking time = air fryer is cheaper
large quantities of food + more than 30 minutes’ cooking time = oven is cheaper.

So an air fryer is cheaper for most air fryer use cases. I doubt I've ever cooked anything for 30 min in the air fryer.

But then there's this clanger:

"If we added an extra 10 minutes of heating-up time to the oven costs in our test, we’d get an average annual running cost of around $21, which is higher than the air fryer average."

This makes a nonsense out of the headline claim of the article.

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networkn

Networkn
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#3357849 27-Mar-2025 14:57

We have never managed to get decent chips from an airfryer. I'd prefer them in the oven (and mostly, they are crap too).

richms

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#3357851 27-Mar-2025 15:02

networkn:

We have never managed to get decent chips from an airfryer. I'd prefer them in the oven (and mostly, they are crap too).

Get an oil spray bottle and give it an application or 2 once the chips are hot. Don't bother putting it on when they are frozen and just gone in.

Richard rich.ms

mattwnz

20111 posts

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#3357861 27-Mar-2025 15:09

I make wedges from fresh potatoes and use olive oil to coat them and they come out nicely green an air fryer. However because they are pilled on top of one another I have rotate them and you have to open the drawer regularly to see how they are cooking. It is however faster than cooking them in the oven.

johno1234

2743 posts

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#3357863 27-Mar-2025 15:23

networkn:

We have never managed to get decent chips from an airfryer. I'd prefer them in the oven (and mostly, they are crap too).

We get wonderful crispy chips - as good as or better than from the chippy. As others mentioned, a spray of oil helps. They need to be given a shake around a couple of times while cooking and you can't overfill the basket.

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