Air Fryer Guide for Black Friday & Amazon Prime Day!

Welcome back to Air Fryer Bro. With the silly season approaching, I wanted to give you guys a heads up! When all those crazy Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day air fryer deals are out, I want to make sure you make the right choice, and don’t end up with the air fryer equivalent of a lemon!

Just to be clear, this is not highlighting specific deals. This article is aimed at arming you with the best information so that you can choose the best deal for you! So, don’t get in a fluster when the deals come out. Read this article and be ready!

So, here is your Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday Checklist!!

There is a lot of information within this guide, and I appreciate you may be in a rush. Feel free to skip to the part that most interests you 🙂

Brand

Air fryers are quite new in the world of kitchen appliances, and it isn’t only established brands that make them. In fact there are quite a few brand new or up and coming brands that you will hear about. Like Omorc…..yes, it’s not a race in the latest MMO, it’s a new kitchen appliance brand that make air fryers!

I recently did an article called air fryer brands 101, where I tried to do some research and give my view on some main air fryer brands. You can read that article HERE. I managed to cover quite a few brands, but if you are looking at a brand that is not in that article, simply do the research yourself following the same methods I used! Yes, standing in Best Buy (or wherever) researching on your smart phone will TOTALLY be worth it in the long run!!

Look for consumer reviews of that brand on any shopping websites that have a good amount of them. And only use sites where the reviews are from verified buyers. You would be surprised how many fake reviews get into the others! Do those reviews talk about quality issues or it breaking quickly? Reading a good number of these will give you an insight into the brand.

If it is a brand which is generic and has zero or very few reviews online, my advice would be to skip it altogether. Unfortunately, the lower quality brands are in the majority right now when it comes to air fryers. So, it’s better to be safe than sorry!

As part of this process, also take a close look at the air fryer’s warranty. In the store, simply ask someone. Online, retailers always have information on where to find these details. Failing all of that Google the official website of the air fryer brand you are looking at. Again, if you can’t verify this, walk away.

Believe it or not, some warranty’s out there don’t include the air fryer basket and accessories (can you believe that??). Some are incredibly short. Some make you pay too much money to send your defective air fryer back to the manufacturer. Read the fine print, and make sure this isn’t the case with that shiny new air fryer you are looking at!

Quality

Another sad story in the air fryer world, is that low quality ones are way too common. If you did the research I described above, you should be fine! But what exactly should you look out for?

The Peeler!!

No, I am not talking about a vegetable peeler! I am talking about those air fryer baskets whose non-stick coating will start to peel or flake off months or even weeks after purchase. I have a whole article on this problem HERE. It is quite a common problem, and one you should try and avoid. Sadly, I have heard stories of some air fryers peeling after only a few weeks of use!

Air Fryer Burnout!

A lot of people don’t realise how intense an air fryer really is! The heating element and related components need to be strong to last extended use. I have heard of some inferior brands ‘burning’ out way too fast. Again, look for signs of people talking about this issue within user reviews online. That typical line of ‘it stopped working after only a few weeks’ kind of thing.

Size

There are quite an array of different air fryer sizes these days, going from just over a quart in size (yeah don’t get that one unless it’s for camping!) all the way up to 12 quarts! Therefore, it is important that you know the size of air fryer that you need.

As a general rule, I would say try to err on the side of big rather than small. For example, there are only two people in my household and we have a pretty standard 3 quart air fryer. Even with only two people to cook for, I often have to batch cook food and would really want something bigger. So try to go bigger rather than smaller. 

The other thing to consider. Is your air fryer going to be for cooking whole meals or just for snacks? Only use the full size guide below if you are cooking whole meals.

Air fryer size is a matter of personal taste and dependent on what you want to cook in it. But generally speaking, I would follow this rule:

• 2 person household = 4 quarts
• 3-4 person household = 6 Quarts
• 5 person + = as big as you can find!!

If you are looking to cook for a big family, you might want to go for the air fryer oven style (explained more below), as these can generally hold more food and have racks. These racks make it easier to place more food and still get even cooking!

Type: Bucket or Oven?

When air fryer were first around, they went for a bucket style! This was to mimic the oil fat fryers they were trying to replace in the kitchen. See the image below for an example of this. You can click the image to view this air fryer on Amazon.

In recent years, air fryer design has evolved into an oven style. So they take the intense air fried heat and apply it to almost a toaster oven looking device! See below:

In simple terms, if you need a lot of space in your air fryer, an oven style would suit you. If you are looking to dehydrate in your air fryer, an oven style is also for you! However, the traditional bucket style is much more compact and easy to move around your kitchen.

For a more detailed discussion on these two main types of air fryers, you can read our full in depth article HERE.

Aggregate Baby!

With all those deals around during Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day, shopping aggregation sites are your best friend. You don’t HAVE to buy through them, you can simply use them as a research tool to make sure you are getting a good deal in your area.

For example, go to Google Shopping right now and type in ‘air fryer’. If the device has location enabled, you will quickly see all multitude of cool air fryer deals in your area! Go and be amazed. For some reason, I see a lot of people that forget to do this!

Should you even buy an air fryer?

Maybe you just saw an air fryer in a sale and vaguely remember a friend saying she had one. Before you pull the trigger, let’s explain a little about what to expect from an air fryer. 

The aim of an air fryer is to give you fried foods that you would usually fry in an oil fat fryer, but by using only a fraction of the oil. Is the taste exactly the same? Most of the time, no it isn’t. Is it good? For me personally, I love it. When using the correct air fryer techniques for cooking, you can get some great and much healthier results. I have grown to love the air fried taste of food. But, if you expect it to perform exactly like an oil fryer, you may be disappointed.

I would say, browse around this website and get a feel for what an air fryer is and how it works. They will help you decide whether an air fryer is right for you.

Some people use their air fryer a bit like a smaller oven, meaning they don’t have to heat up their massive traditional oven for a small batch of food. How many times have you heated up your massive oven just to cook a small amount of fries? Don’t get me wrong, an air fryer is not just a small oven. But this is just an example of one of the ways it can be used.

What happens after I buy an air fryer?

Now that you have your shiny new air fryer, I don’t want you to destroy it or be disappointed with the results. So here are some key things to remember:

Don’t destroy your air fryer’s coating!

An air fryer often has a rather delicate non stick coating on it, and if you are not careful you will quickly destroy it! Treat it like a delicate non stick pan. For more information on caring for your non-stick coating, you can read THIS article.

Spray on some oil!

Yes, I know the whole marketing push for air fryers is the whole ‘oil free’ thing! However, in a lot of situations spraying a fine mist of oil on your air fried food will elevate your air fryer game immensely. No-one wants to eat dry or pale food, right? As always, we have an article all about this on our website too!!

If you visit our recommended products page, you will find an oil sprayer that we recommend. It is important to buy a quality one, as oil is quite a heavy liquid to spray!

Don’t let oil build up!

Smoking can be a problem for some air fryer users, and it can cause new users to get all worried about their new toy! It might happen when cooking particularly fatty foods, or ones which let out a lot of oil. Maybe this excess oil is building up in your air fryer and causing your kitchen to fill up with white smoke.  Go read THIS article to get the lowdown on how to deal with this problem.

And we are not talking about black smoke. Air fryers with black smoke and/or a plastic burning smell should be sent straight back to the manufacturer!!

Think about placement

An air fryer has to vent some pretty hot air throughout the cooking process, so make sure to place it in enough space. I have seen many melted wall sockets/outlets due to this. Also, some people like to place their air fryer on their regular stove, to use the stove’s extractor fan. Great idea! But make sure to take the knobs off said stove if you do this, otherwise someone will probably come along and melt your new toy!! Trust me, I have seen this too!

Enjoy your Air Fryer!

Well, that’s the key things to think about. For more tips and info on air fryers, you can browse around this website. We have articles on a lot of the key issues or talking points around air fryers! That’s why they call me the Air Fryer Bro!! I recently did an article looking at the top 10 best selling air fryers on Amazon. This could give you valuable insight into an air fryer you are considering!

If you did buy an air fryer during Amazon Prime Day or Black Friday, we love to hear about your experiences in the comments section below! What did you buy? How did it work out? Did this guide help! We also love to hear from the community!

So what are you waiting for? Click HERE to go to the air fryer category over at Amazon 🙂