I Bought an Air Fryer – Was it Worth the Price?

Air Fryers Are the “NEW” Thing, but Are They Really Healthy?

I got sucked into an infomercial about the Power Air Fryer XL and found out that:

This is what we hear about Air Fryers:

Less chance of a grease fire with no grease

Less chance of getting burned by popping grease when there is no grease

Much less clean up, and no worries about dumping old grease.

Air fryers produce food that has the same crispy outside that standard fryers produce, without the unhealthy additives.

Air fryers can reduce up to eighty percent of the fat content of foods typically cooked in hot oil.

So after getting sucked into the Power Air Fryer XL Informercial, I went and bought one. There isn't much to it, and I through 8 chicken thighs into the basket, put on some seasonings, 20 minutes later, presto out popped crispy fried chicken that tasted awesome. There is also a deluxe version that comes with a Baking insert, Pizza Pan, and Cooking Tongs.

In a nutshell, it a conventional oven with a built-in fan that allows your to Roast, Air Fry, Bake, Steam, Sauté, and Grill your favorite food. There is an exhaust fan, so it will not heat up your house as much as a traditional oven (and it only takes 3 minutes to warm up) but it does send hot out the back (and sucks new air in the front).

The cleanup was beyond easy (I love it when non-stick stuff comes out and there is nothing stuck to it. I bought a new Foreman grill to it, and grill it's never really been nonstick. Easy to clean, sure, but nonstick, um, yeah, no.

I do appreciate the removal of grease popping and landing on me. As a child (five years old) my sister was cooking bacon, and accidentally hit the handle on the pan, and an entire pan of hot bacon grease landed on my leg leaving me with giant scar for many years. To this day, I'm still a little squeamish around hot grease. Now that worry is gone.

Things to Watch Out For

There is a piece of cardboard in the bottom pan, and while I got off all the tape and wrapping, I missed that one.

There is a lot of documentation about this. The inner bucket is controlled by a button. If you click that button the bottom pan (potentially full of hot grease) is released from the top bucket. So if you do not have this sitting on something, when you click that button you could drop the hot pan and end up throwing hot grease everywhere. Read the directions as these items get hot. Have an oven mitt around to handle this stuff.

If You're Getting It To Eat Healthy Remember This About Air Fryers

Pie is still pie, and doughnuts are still doughnuts. Likewise, fries are still giant mounds of carbs with or without fries (but I do plan on making some sweet potato fries in this thing)

Just because it uses less or no oil, it's not a miracle worker. It does not turn cupcakes into super food.