Why do you use an airfryer?

I use mine on a regular basis. Cook a chicken in an hour. Sausages, Bacon, etc. Baked potatoes, cakes and crumbles.

Rarely use the main oven now.

Ziplok

They are basically a mini oven.

The translation from the german word "Heissluft Fritteuse" is Hot air deep fryer. It literally uses hardly any oil or fat, and rather sort of roasts/fries the food with hot air and in a much shorter time than the conventional oven. The bonus is that one has less cleaning up afterwards, and less power is used.

We discarded our microwave more than 10 years ago. The airfryer is now our "warming up" gadget, pie baker and Sunday bread roll baker, more useful than the microwave ever was. (Except for quickly warming up that forgotten mug of tea or coffee)

Its quite simply a small fan oven. Mine has several other functions. Saves time, money and washing up

I use mine almost daily, it’s quicker than my normal electric oven and there are only two of us at home so I don’t need the oven space so it makes sense to use the smaller oven

I have an air fryer oven. It doesn’t have drawers, but shelves and is very compact. Since I’ve been on my own, it has saved me a considerable amount on electricity. It’s fast and versatile - makes better cheese scones than my main oven does in half the time and cakes too. I’m currently cooking a pork chop in it. I wouldn’t dream of putting the main oven on for one pork chop or a piece of chicken. It also has a rotisserie and a rotating kebab function, both of which I have only used once - or rather my son has and was very taken with it, but he likes gadgets! The main oven comes into its own for family meals a couple of times a month.

kittylester To save time and money, I’m single so it suits me fine. However I’m a batch cooker too so will sometimes use the oven.

Save time, money & cleaning.
Only use my big oven at Christmas time now.

Cheaper and sometimes quicker than main oven.

For Kitty, as per the many comments you've had, they're versatile (not just for doing chips, Pink!!), and far quicker, and importantly cheaper than a full oven. We have a large 'normal' oven, a small 'mini' oven, and an air fryer (Ninja), the latter is getting increasing use as it's just so good.

My main oven takes approx 15 mins to heat up, before cooking, I use my air fryer every day with most things cooked within 20 mins, in one half I can be cooking roasted veg, in the other side salmon. The outlay for the oven is far outweighed by the savings on electric.

You have to turn your big oven on heat up then you can put it in the oven to cook . That doesn't make any difference if you are cooking for 2 or ten people.
With an air fryer and for 2 people less time for the same results and as others have have in most cases no actual frying with oil .

To save time and money. Why heat up an oven if you can use an airfryer!

kittylester

Following on from the aurfryer recipes thread, I started to wonder why people choose to use one.

Some people seem to only us their airfryer - never, or rarely, the main oven. I wonder why?

Is it to save money, time, a dislike of cooking?

We have an aurfryer but it would not be my main source of cooking. My range cooker has a tall fan oven wuth a small capacity. That is the one I use the most - which suppose it not too different from using the airfryer all the time.

How, and why, do you use yours?

Hi I use mine to save both time and money. It’s also easier for me than my main oven as I have a few health issues as well. It’s been a godsend

Cheaper than turning your oven on if you are cooking, say goujons.

Much cheaper to run. We can tell from our smart meter monitor.

To save money. I could see my electricity bill drop when I started using it.

pably 👍

They are quicker and easier than using the oven or grill for small or single portions and perfect for making pommes parmentier. We never had those before I bought an airfryer.

I will use it this evening to cook some bought fishcakes for supper. Two fit in nicely, will cook crisply without me having to keep an eye on them to stop them burning.

I just have a small airfryer. For me it is the euivalent of having a slow cooker, it is another way of cooking something without having to constantly monitor it and check that it isn't burning or needs the oven turned up a bit, and so on.

As people say the term airfryer is a bit of a misnomer, mine also roasts, bakes, reheats and dehydrates. My single oven is quite a large one and it seems overkill to have it for, say, two jacket potatoes. Instead, I microwave the potatoes then finish them off for ten minutes in the airfryer. The difference in cost is very noticeable on my energy monitor.

The word fryer is misleading.
It’s simply a small electric oven. You don’t fry oven chips, or cakes or lemon meringue pies or roasted vegetable or meringues or bread or biscuits, or joints of meat.
It wastes no time or fuel heating up.
E.g. Half the cooking time for cooking a pizza in a gas oven is taken up by pre heating the oven, which uses more gas. A third of the time for cooking oven chips, is used for pre heating the oven.
My first air fryer took 2 to 3 minutes to heat up (the blue light went out).
I love our current one. You can cook two separate parts of the meal at different times and different heats or I can take the centre panel out and use the trays at which ever height I want them.

Air fryers are cheaper to run, and cook quicker. And healthier.
I don't use my oven anywhere near as much these days.

They are basically a mini oven.

PinkCosmos

I don't have an airfryer. I find the name a bit misleading. We don't eat much fried food, chips, things in breadcrumbs, pastry. I thought it was literally a fryer. I don't know what I would use one for.

Our friends have one. They made sausages and bacon in it for us once. It took just as long as it would have done under the grill.

The name is misleading. They don't actually 'fry' things in the conventional sense, but use hot air to cook the food. It's definitely quicker to cook most things.

I have an instant pot, it will fry, roast, bake, pressure cook, slow cook and more.

I use mine to save electricity and time.

I don't have an airfryer. I find the name a bit misleading. We don't eat much fried food, chips, things in breadcrumbs, pastry. I thought it was literally a fryer. I don't know what I would use one for.

Our friends have one. They made sausages and bacon in it for us once. It took just as long as it would have done under the grill.