Over the previous decade, the air fryer has turn into a staple of the American kitchen. Roughly 60 % of households in the US now personal an air fryer. There are numerous cookbooks, equipment, even precise meals merchandise designed to make the expertise of air frying higher and simpler. Sadly, there’s been a lot much less innovation in terms of the air fryer itself, particularly from a design perspective.
This grew to become abundantly clear to me a number of months in the past. About midway by my salmon’s cooking time, I heard the fan on my low-cost Sprint air fryer fully give out. Once I opened the machine, the fish was nowhere close to achieved, and it was clear that the air fryer’s heating component was struggling. Unable to seek out any documentation of a guaranty and even keep in mind the place I’d purchased it, I chucked the busted air fryer into the trash and pulled up the Amazon app on my telephone to seek for a brand new one.
I didn’t like what I noticed. The primary outcomes on Amazon returned a slew of almost equivalent air fryers in two classes: pod-shaped machines in black, purple, or gray plastic, or monumental toaster-oven-shaped varieties obtainable in chrome steel. There have been additionally dozens of air fryer manufacturers — Ninja, Prompt, Cosori, Sprint, Nuwave, Breville, Phillips, Toshiba, and Hamilton Seashore amongst them — all with various critiques on their efficiency. And since this was an equipment that might sit out on the counter always, I needed to seek out one thing that match each the size and the aesthetic of my small condominium kitchen. As such, the hunt continued.
My scrolling stopped, although, once I got here throughout the Fritaire, which appears like no different air fryer I’d seen earlier than. As an alternative of a metallic basket, Fritaire’s egg-shaped air fryer employs a glass bowl to carry the meals, which the model claims makes it simpler to wash and helps customers keep away from the chemical compounds inherent to the nonstick coatings on most air fryers. It’s additionally “self-cleaning,” which means that customers can dump soapy water straight into the bowl and permit the machine’s fan to swirl it round with air earlier than tossing the water and wiping it clear. Aesthetically, it boasts a bit little bit of an Atomic Period, Jetsons-esque vibe, and is accessible in a variety of colours, from traditional black to newer choices like mauve and lavender.
Fritaire founder Andreas Hansen first grew to become conscious of air fryer cooking in 2020, when the COVID pandemic despatched gross sales of the equipment skyrocketing. At all times a tinkerer, Hansen, who has an intensive background in product growth, ordered a number of air fryer fashions from main manufacturers like Ninja to check them at residence. He preferred the best way they cooked, however his spouse hated the look of all of them. “She didn’t like several of them, and it wasn’t due to efficiency,” he says. “She stated that all of them appeared the identical. They’re black, they’re grey, they’re boring, they’re ugly. That simply sparked a necessity for me to see what else folks don’t like about air fryers.”
Hansen started studying by dozens of damaging critiques of air fryers on platforms like Amazon, and seen tons of reviewers agreed along with his spouse. He additionally seen some widespread complaints concerning the methods during which air fryers are designed — people who purchase the pod-shaped air fryers don’t like that they’ll’t see how their meals is cooking inside and that they’re troublesome to wash, for instance — and so he got down to design an air fryer that might keep away from all these criticisms.
It was when Hansen began to search for producers for his design — which prioritized attractiveness and performance equally — that issues bought difficult. Shortly, he realized why so many air fryers, even once they’re offered by completely completely different manufacturers, look so comparable. Many air fryers are made in China, and a single producer could produce air fryers and different small home equipment, or elements for these home equipment, for a number of manufacturers. “Even the large manufacturers purchase from them,” Hansen says.
The opposite drawback that Hansen shortly encountered was that his plan to supply extra colours was difficult by the best way that air fryers work. As a result of they’re mainly countertop ovens, producers must deal with the new air that can inevitably make contact with the air fryer’s plastic items. “There’s a purpose that air fryers are normally not colourful, and that has to do with warmth discoloration,” he says. “Principally, the plastic will get cooked over time. White plastic will flip inexperienced, inexperienced turns into yellow, and so forth.” Black may even discolor over time, however it’s a lot much less noticeable than lighter colours. Hansen labored for almost eight months to discover a plastic that wouldn’t be impacted by warmth discoloration, and he nonetheless needed to accept making the machine’s deal with in black plastic.
Our Place, the model identified for its aesthetically pleasing cookware just like the virally widespread At all times Pan, additionally took a definite method to designing its personal air fryer. Its Surprise Oven is priced at $195, decidedly dearer than the everyday pod-shaped air fryer that usually sells for round $100, and appears like a petite toaster oven. It’s additionally obtainable in a number of stylish colours — heat, orangey Spice and funky Blue Salt, amongst them — and its look has earned the oven viral fame on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Many creators name it the “grownup Straightforward-Bake oven,” referring to the favored ’80s cooking toy, and that description isn’t too far off.
When she started fascinated by what her model’s air fryer would seem like, Our Place CEO Shiza Shahid instantly eschewed the pod-shaped design. “The standard air fryer design is admittedly cumbersome and hyper-specific,” she says. “[This design] is simply a lot extra helpful. It allowed us to make the Surprise Oven not simply an air fryer, but additionally an oven you possibly can bake in. It’s additionally a toaster. You are able to do a lot extra in it, it’s a extra versatile and approachable design. And, after all, the cherry on high of the cake is that it appears good.”
As a result of Shahid’s firm employs an in-house design crew, it allowed Our Place to develop a design that was actually distinct. “The way in which most kitchenware manufacturers design merchandise is that they buy it from factories who’ve already achieved that work. It’s very uncommon for a corporation to have their very own in-house product design crew,” Shahid says. “It’s not simply in air fryers, it’s throughout the board. Each frying pan appears the identical, each toaster appears the identical. It’s a class that has lacked innovation for a very long time, each in kind and in supplies.”
There is likely to be a purpose for that lack of innovation past manufacturing effectivity. Maybe, the pod-shaped air fryer is the superior design, and that’s why so many manufacturers have gone with it. I made a decision to place that concept to the take a look at by requesting three completely different air fryers from their producers and evaluating them on their efficiency: the Our Place Surprise Oven, the Fritaire, and a primary Toshiba pod-shaped mannequin. My plan was to air fry rooster nuggets, bake a cookie or two, and roast half-bags of frozen broccoli in every equipment. I assumed — and feared — that the cumbersome pod machine would produce probably the most even cooking.
The outcomes, nevertheless, had been shockingly comparable — besides when it got here to baking. All three air fryers produced crisp nuggets and properly charred broccoli florets, however neither the Toshiba nor the Fritaire fashions got here with a baking sheet that might have labored with the cookies, so I wasn’t in a position to replicate that take a look at. The Surprise Oven baked an okay cookie, however it received’t be changing my bigger oven in that respect.
I additionally bought a mixture air fryer and toaster oven from Drew Barrymore’s widespread housewares line Lovely, which is offered at Walmart. As its title would possibly point out, Lovely’s merchandise are all aesthetically pleasing, obtainable in a number of colours, and made with luxe finishes like gold-painted handles. Priced at round $100, this oven did look nice on my counter, however it cooked very erratically, all the time burning the toast within the again left nook, and the outside of the machine felt dangerously scorching even after a fast prepare dinner. It additionally shortly fell sufferer to that warmth discoloration that Hansen talked about. Inside only a few weeks, its gentle sage exterior turned an disagreeable brown across the edges of the door. I reached out to Lovely for extra perception into why I is likely to be having these points, however didn’t hear again.
Each air fryer I attempted got here with its personal gripes. The Fritaire mannequin was annoying to make use of as a result of I needed to take away the complete high half of the egg-shaped machine — which incorporates the heating component — each time I needed to test on my meals. Its plastic additionally felt flimsy, and the included rotisserie attachment was cumbersome and irritating to make use of. The Toshiba cooked fairly evenly, however was an actual ache to wash, and the nonstick coating contained in the basket constructed up an unappealing movie of carbonized grease. It was additionally the ugliest of the three, a giant hulking hunk of black plastic. Our Place’s Surprise Oven was arguably probably the most enticing and best to make use of of all three, however it nonetheless suffered from uneven cooking and a finicky timer knob.
Finally, I nonetheless have all three of those air fryers, however the Surprise Oven is the one one which’s earned a everlasting spot on my counter. Name me shallow, however I’d slightly have to fret about erratically browned rooster nuggets than crowd up my counter with an unpleasant black equipment that I’ve to have a look at each single day. For probably the most half, the Surprise Oven roasts my veggies and bakes my salmon simply high quality. Each on occasion, I’m irritated by how usually I’ve to stir what’s inside or by the necessity to flip the tiny sheet pan round only for my potatoes to roast evenly. However I suppose these are the sorts of compromises all of us must make if we actually can’t reside with out an air fryer.
