Help/advice w/air fryers

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Katie H

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Been considering an air fryer. Don't want to invest lots of $$$ but want to see what an average unit would cost.


I have NO experience with these appliances but they seem to be a good tool to stay away from fats, etc. when frying.


Any information or experience would be welcomed.
 
Been considering an air fryer. Don't want to invest lots of $$$ but want to see what an average unit would cost.


I have NO experience with these appliances but they seem to be a good tool to stay away from fats, etc. when frying.


Any information or experience would be welcomed.
I don’t like air fryers. I bought one, used it twice, and out it went to the garage. If I want “fried” chicken, I just make it in the oven. Same with pretty much everything else you can make with an air fryer. The dang thing was too hard to clean and took up too much room.

Don’t remember what brand it was.
 
My understanding is that it's basically a small countertop convection oven. So if you have a full-size convection oven, there's not much of an advantage.
 
My understanding is that it's basically a small countertop convection oven. So if you have a full-size convection oven, there's not much of an advantage.


No convection oven here and I have no clue how to operate one.


Thought an air fryer would be good for us since we're actively trying to reduce fats and still enjoy some of the foods we enjoy.
 
The first time I heard the expression "air fryer", I thought it was an oxymoron.

If it plugged into an electric outlet, I thought I JUST HAVE TO HAVE IT! Today, the only thing I am the owner of is my coffee maker and microwave. My neighbors now have the pleasure of keeping all those misguided wants clean and looking for a place to store them. Oh yeah. I also have a very simple steam iron. Yeah, I am one of those folks who enjoy ironing. I find it very relaxing.
 
Health reasons aside, I watched a bunch of YouTube videos on air fryers and found out that it wasn't for me as I have other appliances that can basically do the same thing and at a much larger capacity. Based on that I bought an inexpensive electric deep fryer which takes up to 8 cups of oil. I got the largest of the Presto Fry Daddy line of fryers, the Dual Daddy. It's a no-brainer, pre-set temp, just plug in to turn on, fryer.
 
I have one and really like it!

But, like GG said, above, its just a little tabletop convection oven. Its not a fryer.

It oven fries stuff really well, but you can oven-fry anything in a regular oven and reduce the amount of oil you use.

An air fryer is faster and runs like a little blast furnace so the food gets quite crispy.

I basically use it instead of a toaster oven. You can even make toast in one.
 
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I have one and really like it!

But, like GG said, above, its just a little tabletop convection oven. Its not a fryer.

You can oven-fry anything in a regular oven and reduce the amount of oil you use.

An air fryer is faster and runs like a little blast furnace so the food gets quite crispy.

I basically use it instead of a toaster oven.

If I had to only cook for myself I'd get one but once you start filling these little fryers to capacity I don't think they perform well, from what I've seen.
 
I wish Luckytrim would show up. He cooks some good looking food with his and often shows us on the nightly dinner thread.
With a full size convection oven and a convection toaster oven, I have no need for one, nor the counter space to spare.
 
I have one. My wife got it for me for my birthday, fathers day or whatever a few year ago. The one we got was about $300. It did work well ( on fries, eggplant, zucchini). The cooking space was limited, so for snack purposes, it was great. But, if she wanted to make an eggplant Parm. To 'fry' up enough eggplant would take forever due to the limited internal cooking space. This wa like 4 or 5 year ago. Ive seen updated models that appear to have increased the cooking amount capacity, but for me , I wouldn't get another one. It wound up in the 'One hit wonder appliance graveyard' in my basement for a few years. My wife just recently resurrected it to make something ( I forget what). Now its sitting ( in its box) on top of a chair in the Billiards room ( fancy way of saying that I have no friends and invite no one over my house for dinner, so instead of having a dining room, I just bought a fancy pool table ( which we play only a few times a year, but thats a few times more than we would use a dining room table to collect mail and newspapers).
 
I have one and it's okay, I guess. It's really too small to consider making anything substantial in it, but I did try some fries (using fresh cut potatoes). Nothing special about those, they were decent. But it works wonders on hot dogs. Makes them taste like they came right off the grill. Hot dogs are really the only reason I keep the air fryer around.
 
I have one. My wife got it for me for my birthday, fathers day or whatever a few year ago. The one we got was about $300. It did work well ( on fries, eggplant, zucchini). The cooking space was limited, so for snack purposes, it was great. But, if she wanted to make an eggplant Parm. To 'fry' up enough eggplant would take forever due to the limited internal cooking space. This wa like 4 or 5 year ago. Ive seen updated models that appear to have increased the cooking amount capacity, but for me , I wouldn't get another one. It wound up in the 'One hit wonder appliance graveyard' in my basement for a few years. My wife just recently resurrected it to make something ( I forget what). Now its sitting ( in its box) on top of a chair in the Billiards room ( fancy way of saying that I have no friends and invite no one over my house for dinner, so instead of having a dining room, I just bought a fancy pool table ( which we play only a few times a year, but thats a few times more than we would use a dining room table to collect mail and newspapers).

I have one of those. My bread machine lives there. I also had a juicer, but ended up just throwing it out.
 
Since I managed to rid myself of all of my MUST HAVES, I have some very happy or angry friends who ended up with all of those plugins. I have more counter space now than they have.

I still do have my Fry Daddy. I do use it during the summer when I don't want to heat up the oven for a handful of FF's.
 
Since I managed to rid myself of all of my MUST HAVES, I have some very happy or angry friends who ended up with all of those plugins. I have more counter space now than they have.

I still do have my Fry Daddy. I do use it during the summer when I don't want to heat up the oven for a handful of FF's.

I don't use my fryers much, but I too have a Fry Daddy and I also have a larger basket-fryer. I like that one better because once I lower the food down in, I can close the lid while the food cooks, which reduces splashes of oil all over my counter.

I don't have a ton of stuff on my counters, either. I hate clutter. Besides my microwave and toaster oven (both get a lot of use) the smaller appliances I have on my counter that are used on a regular basis consist of my compact coffee maker, the toaster and my electric can opener. And that's it. My other small appliances live on shelves in the store room until I need them for something.
 
Before I became so ill, I lived the blessed life of aloneness!. So the Fry Daddy was perfect for me. Just a handful of frozen FF and I was happy. But since Pirate had to move in to care for me, he eats twice the amount of FF's that I do in one sitting. I have been known to have a small bag of FF's last for two months or even longer. With him here, I now am lucky if a large bag makes it through the month.

My downfall is BUTTER! Put a popsicle stick in a hunk of butter, and I am so happy. Even butter on my FF's.
 
We got one as a gift. Gotham is the brand. Round style.
I would have never bought one. But since we got it for Christmas we tried it first with frozen fries.
They came out crispy to my surprise.
Then my wife made some chicken nuggets and told me they came out equally as crispy.
She made bacon once as well and it performed as advertised.
However the basket that holds the food is way to small for most main courses. The bacon took three times to get what I fry up in a pan.

I have a convection counter top and its not the same as the air fryer. Not even close.
 
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