Should You Buy An Air Fryer?

Remember during COVID when every bloke and his dog seemed to cook food in an air fryer? 

While the compact cooking units may not be as big as they were during those dark times in 2020 and 2021, there’s no denying that plenty of people still swear by them.

If you’re not yet on the air fryer bandwagon and are thinking about taking a punt on one, we’ve put together this little pros and cons list we hope will help you make an informed decision.

We’ll start with the pros.

Air fryers have quick pre-heat times, cook food a lot quicker than a standard oven and are thus great for people on the go. They’re also great for reheating leftovers. 

Most air fryers have a minimal number of settings. All you really need to do when using one is set a temperature and cooking time, then chuck your food in. A lot of them also have pre-entered times and temperatures for certain foods, which is great for a novice!

Fun fact: you can cook both savoury and sweet food in the humble air fryer. Yes, it can handle steaks, cakes and potato bakes!

For small families, an air fryer can essentially replace a standard oven. With that in mind, you may save some money depending on how long you cook your food and the temperature at which you cook it. 

These days you can buy a small but decent air fryer from around the $55 mark. 

Relative to a full-size oven, which can be a massive chore to clean, it’s relatively simple to wash an air fryer. On the most part, you just empty and wash the tray where the fats and oils drain to and then give the inside of the unit a once over with a cloth soaked in soapy water.

Now onto the cons…

Unfortunately, food doesn’t necessarily cook evenly in every air fryer. With that in mind, you may occasionally need to flip or move your food around your air fryer’s basket during the cooking process, which is a minor strike against it from a convenience perspective.

While obviously not as big as a fulltime oven, air fryers can be quite bulky and may take a decent portion of your counter space, which is not ideal if you have a small kitchen.

Despite some models having multiple compartments, most air fryers can only cook one meal, at one temperature, at one time – which obviously means you can’t save time by using one to cook multiple meals simultaneously. This may prove problematic for the meal planners amongst us.

While they often take up a decent amount of counter space, the trays within air fryers aren’t exactly spacious, which can be a real pain in the neck if you're part of a big family or cooking for an army of visiting relatives.

We’re going to take the coward’s way out and tell you it’s ultimately your decision. If you are part of a small family and are looking to make quick meals on the fly, an air fryer could really improve your culinary circumstances. However, you may want to think twice about making a purchase if you cook multiple big meals regularly.