Are Air Fryers Worth It? [AIR FRYERS CHANGED MY LIFE]

Welcome back to Air Fryer Bro, the place to go to find more about the ins and outs of air frying!! I have heard a lot of people asking ‘Are air fryers worth it?”, so today I want to answer that question from my point of view and discuss how air fryers have changed my life! Just be aware that this is my take on the importance of air fryers, and what you think may be different. It just depends on the needs and priorities you have in your life!

Are air fryers worth it? My personal story!

I have grown up with both deep fried and oven cooked food since I was a child, and both food types feature among my favorites. However, I have lived in Asia for almost twenty years at the time of writing and for at least half of that time I have struggled to find ways to deep fry or roast! You see, built in ovens are not popular in most Asian countries and often won’t fit in the smaller kitchens you find in this region.

Whilst living in my first country in Asia, I had found out about the convection oven. A rather weird contraption that looked like a huge glass bowl with a heating element in the lid, but could actually be used to roast foods similar to what I did back home with my built in ovens.

This allowed me to get some oven style cooking into my Asian kitchen life, but certainly didn’t become the big game changer that the air fryer eventually did.

My first contact with an air fryer!!

My first real contact with an air fryer came in the third country in Asia that I lived in. I was actually in a furniture shop funnily enough, buying some furniture with my wife (a bed if I remember rightly!!) Whilst we were paying, one of us had noticed a special offer that the shop was running close to the checkout. We saw a white kitchen appliance that looked like some of the deep fat fryers from my childhood.

On closer inspection, we discovered it was an air fryer, something my wife and I had not considered buying before. As it was so cheap, we decided to go for it and the rest is history! Air fryers forever became an integral part of my life.

Even though this first air fryer was a generic Chinese branded one, it quickly became the most used kitchen appliance we owned! However, it only lasted a few years until this air fryer had turned into a peeling mess, as well as having a lid that wouldn’t close anymore. Air frying had impacted my life so much, that we almost immediately went out and bought another air fryer, this time a much better Philips model!

So, for me air fryers were totally worth it! Air fryers had literally changed my life! I was using them practically every day, and now I want to explain why this is! What I love about air fryers so much that make them worthwhile!

What I love about air fryers…

Healthy

I wouldn’t say that I am an incredibly healthy person, but I do consider how healthy the food is that I am eating and try to moderate it accordingly. An air fryer does give me piece of mind that it is one of the healthier forms of cooking I can use.

Using an air fryer is much healthier than using a regular deep fat fryer, for example. The results are not exactly the same, but I still like the air “fried” food that comes out of an air fryer (as long as I have sprayed it with a little oil). As the oil hasn’t soaked into the food as much as with traditional frying, it also has less of a greasy or oily aftertaste when cooked in an air fryer. This means I can eat my air fried food with way less guilt!

I have a whole article on this website on how healthy air fryers are, if you go over there you will be amazed at the difference in calories when comparing air fried to deep fried food.

Fast

I am always pretty amazed by how fast food can be cooked in an air fryer. I recently even cooked steak in my air fryer, and it literally just took a couple of minutes on each side. Most dishes I cook in my air fryer will be ready in around 5 to 15 minutes. In a recent test I cooked frozen french fries in my air fryer, and was able to cook them in practically half the time given in the oven directions.

This is coupled with the fact that there is no need to preheat an air fryer, so you don’t have to wait for that process like you would with a conventional oven or even an oil fat fryer. I have a whole article on why you don’t need to preheat an air fryer on this website too!

What this means in my life, is that I can easily knock up an air fried meal in under half an hour, perfect for those evenings you come home exhausted after a busy day at work.

Compact Size

As I said above, I have lived in Asia for quite a while now. Not only that, but right now I am living somewhere that has some of the highest real estate costs in the world. Needless to say, my kitchen is pretty tiny. This means any kind of traditional oven is out of the question.

However, ever since I have found out about air fryers, I have found them to be the perfect solution for anyone short on space. A typical basket style air fryer is a compact appliance that only takes up a small amount of real estate on your countertops. Also, it can easily be lifted up and packed into a cupboard when needed, giving you the ultimate flexibility.

Toaster ovens don’t offer the same amount of convenience. Yes, they can also be compact in nature, but they heat up on the outside more than an air fryer, and would often leak crumbs when moved around! This is why I choose the air fryer now!

Easier to clean

The compact nature of an air fryer usually means it is a lot easier to clean. When I had deep fat oil fryers, they would be annoying to clean. Especially, when you had to change the oil inside them. Even when comparing with a conventional oven (which is usually much larger), an air fryer is easier to clean. Oil fat fryers would also cover your kitchen in oil residue, which would be a nightmare to clean! Air fryers don’t give you such issues.

Versatile

I have already talked about how versatile air fryers are when it comes to fitting them into your kitchen, but there is another side to their versatility. This is in the type of food they can cook. My wife cooks hard boiled eggs in our air fryer most mornings for her breakfast. I have also baked cakes in there too. All of this alongside the regular air fried and oven style cooking it offers.

I don’t think I have ever owned a kitchen appliance as versatile as my air fryer. This why it gets used in our kitchen almost daily.

Above you will see a couple of examples of food cooked in my air fryer. It really is a versatile kitchen appliance.

Doesn’t heat up my kitchen

Where I live right now is a sub-tropical climate. This means that for three quarters of the calendar year it is pretty damn hot! A regular oven would heat up my kitchen making it pretty much unbearable to work in. Especially, during the Summer. However, with my air fryer I don’t notice any differences in the overall temperature of my kitchen. The insulation of the typical air fryer is excellent.

What I don’t like about my air fryer…

Nothing in life is perfect, right?? So, of course there are a couple of things I don’t like about my air fryer and air fryers in general. This is what they are.

Not really the same as oil frying.

I am an avid fan of air fryers (hence why I called myself the Air Fryer Bro!), but even I will openly admit that you can’t get the same level of crisp when you compare an air fryer to a traditional fat fryer. However, I have grown to enjoy the air fried taste. This is helped by learning some essential air fryer tips to get the best results. However, some die hard fat frying fans will probably never be happy with the air fryer’s cooking results.

The dreaded white smoke of death!

A lot of people are ready to throw their air fryers away when they first experience this. Unfortunately, some food that you cook in an air fryer will produce oil or grease. If this oil builds up, it can cause white smoke to pour out of your air fryer. This can be quite a turn off for new air fryer users. As air fryers are such new kitchen appliances, a lot of people have no idea what to do to solve this problem. Luckily I have a whole article on how to stop this problem over HERE.

That was in fact the first article I wrote as Air Fryer Bro, as I could see how much of a problem a smoking air fryer was in the community!

Quality issues

One of my biggest pet peeves with air fryers are the total lack of quality seen from many of the major air fryer brands out there. Go and read any online reviews of air fryers and you will probably see many people complaining of quality issues.

From peeling air fryer baskets to units that just suddenly stop working, you will see a wide range. I had these problems when I had my first generic air fryer, but have thankfully had much less issues with my latest Philips air fryer.

If you are in the market for an air fryer, it is crucial that you do your research first and only buy a good quality one. It will totally be worth it in the long run.

That is why air fryers are worth it for me!!

There you have it, the full run down on why air fryers are a vital part of my life right now. I literally love my air fryer and couldn’t live without it. It’s not only me, my wife is similarly impressed!

We would love to hear all about your feelings about air fryers too. You can leave a comment in the comments section below to tell us all about your own experiences with this new kitchen appliance!!