Finally bit on one of these. Mine just arrived today, got the Philips AirFryer XL: (p/n HD9240/34)
http://www.usa.philips.com/c-p/HD9240_34/avance-collection-airfryer-xl-with-rapid-air-technology
Since this thread is a couple years old, just a quick synopsis: the term "Air Fryer" is a bit of a misnomer; it's more of a compact convection oven. It basically has a single broiler coil on top & some fans to circulate the air, similar to a TurboChef Oven. They advertise it as a sort of a lightweight fryer, which I guess it can do if you coat the food with a bit of oil, but really it's just a mini oven with fans. Think of it as a high-temp toaster oven with fans to circulate the hot air around. "Mini broiler convection oven" is probably how I'd name it. It has two primary use-case scenarios:
1. Cooking frozen convenience foods in half the time
2. Cooking smaller batches of food quickly & easily
Basically, if you eat a lot of frozen stuff (chicken nuggets, chicken tenders, wings, tater-tots, fries), this is the perfect machine. Dump the food in, hit the button, and enjoy crispy food. Great if you have kids who live off that stuff or enjoy it yourself. While I don't do a lot of packaged foods, I have been doing more with make-ahead freezer meals, so I'm very interested to try this out with those things, as well as with fresh stuff like beef & chicken.
Supposedly these are pretty popular in Australia & Europe; not really sure why they're not marketed all that much in the U.S. For starters though, I think the cost has something to do with it - the price is horrendous. Philip's largest model, the XL, goes for $350 ($299 on sale sometimes); you can literally get a full-sized flat-top electric oven for $100 more at Home Depot. So the finances don't make a lot of sense to me. They do have sales from time to time & you can score some nice deals online if you look around (Williams Sonoma usually has free shipping plus a 15% off coupon floating around), but still, it's a
lot of money for an appliance.
What
is nice is (1) it preheats in 3 minutes, and (2) it has fans, which help cook the food faster. The alternative (aside from getting a full-sized convection oven) is getting a convection
toaster oven, which typically run about $150. However, after reading reviews, the Air Fryers still cook much faster - about 50% faster, which I'm assuming is due to the smaller size. So if you're usually just cooking for yourself, or for you & say a S.O., the Air Fryer makes more sense because it's pretty zippy. My goal with this was to cook food faster, so I opted for this over the convection toaster oven.
I chose the XL for several reasons. First, the basket design is nice. The XL is made up of three pieces: the appliance itself, the drip pan, and the basket with handle. When you pull on the handle, the entire base slides outs and then you lift the basket up. The pan is also removable for cleaning, and there are several accessories available (racks, grill plate, etc.). This is a lot different than other models where you have to wear oven gloves to handle things. Second, it was their biggest model, which unfortunately isn't saying much. My hand for reference:
A lot of reviews complained about the even smaller trays on other models & having to do several batches of food to get an adult-sized meal, which is probably the main reason I opted for the XL. The appliance itself is laughably large, basically a giant egg. The performance over time will tell if it deserves a permanent place on my countertop (currently I only keep my toaster oven & blender there), but as I have a tiny galley kitchen with minimal counterspace, probably not. The basket is not very big, so I'll see what works & what doesn't. One thing to note is that you have to make sure you don't stuff it so full that the air can't pass through & properly cook the food.
The temperature range is from 150 to 390F. The manual says it takes 3 minutes to preheat. Operation is pretty simple: set the temperature, set the time, and then it starts cooking. If you don't set the time, it shuts off after 5 minutes. It also turns itself off completely after 30 minutes when no action is taken. Back to heat, it has 9 temperature ranges, all in 30F increments:
1. 150F
2. 180F
3. 210F
4. 240F
5. 270F
6. 300F
7. 330F
8. 360F
9. 390F
The lower temperature options are pretty interesting...I use a dehydrator for stuff like jerky, but turns out you can make it in one of these too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMa47Z8FOsI
Bunch more recipes from Gabby of Appliances Online Australia on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=gabby+airfryer
As far as accessories go, I did pick up the grill plate, unfortunately priced at $50:
http://www.amazon.com/Philips-HD9911-90-Airfryer-X-Large/dp/B010KCOTCW/
However, it was a highly recommend accessory based on the reviews & recipes I read. My 7" springform pan fits perfectly inside (I use that primarily for cheesecakes in my Instant Pot) & I already have some wire racks that will fit. Very curious to try out baking, especially for stuff like my pre-frozen dinner rolls & cookie dough. I did a first run with a frozen chicken pot pie, it did a good job baking it (even got the crust brown!); came out a lot better than it does in the microwave. I kept checking the temps & actually overcooked the pie by 10 degrees, so it definitely does cook fast!
Other suggested accessories:
1. Rock salt (Morton ice cream salt) - some of the reviewers suggested putting this on the bottom of the pan to handle food leaks, like fat drippings, so it wouldn't smoke. Then just shake it up once in awhile to distribute.
2. Oven gloves - the unit is a mini oven, so if you need to move it while hot, some oven gloves or potholders are good to have. On the design of the XL, the handle it attached to the basket & lets you slide the pan out, so I haven't had to use them yet.
3. Misto - this is a little ten-buck device that lets you atomize stuff like olive oil into a spray. This is useful for doing low-oil air frying, especially for crisping stuff up.
Two additional things to note: noise & heat. It is pretty noisy. Sounds the same as when a hairdryer or laundry dryer is in the room next to you. Not annoying but fairly loud due to the fans. Also, the heat comes out of the back vent, and it gets fairly hot, like a hair dryer - the underside of my wall-mounted cabinets got pretty warm. I have one open space on my counter without a cabinet above it, so I'll probably be using it either there or on the stovetop due to that heat blow-off.
Pros:
* 3-minute preheat time
* Can cut your food cook time in half
* Awesome for finishing off sous vide projects
* Can handle baked goods
* Accessories make it more useful
Cons:
* Enormous size on counter
* Even the largest "XL" model has a relatively small basket
* Horrendously expensive
* Official accessories are stupid expensive too
* Noisy
* Hot air vent from the back makes me worry about my wall-mounted cabinets
* Teflon coatings appear to come off easily with scrubbing (recommend soaking)
* Only works in 30F increments, so you can't dial it in exactly to the degree you want
I have a good 20+ items on my AirFryer to-do list, so I'll report back over the next month or two as I play with it more. It sounded like it would be a great companion to my sous vide projects to get stuff crispy with 360 degrees of heat (Maillard reaction starts at about 285F).
TL;DR: Convection oven appliance preheats in 3 minutes, cuts cook time in half, 150 to 390F temps. Catch is that it's expensive & cooking basket is somewhat small.
But then, I'm not a big fan of greaseball popcorn. Popcorn is a blank medium, not unlike tofu, which you can spice in a wide variety of ways. One of my favs is a combo of tamari (soy sauce) and nutritional yeast. Another is garlic powder, onion powder, and cayenne pepper.
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