Tell me about air fryers

I have two and use them both. One is a toaster oven style from Walmart (farberware brand, about $80) and I use it almost daily. I make any kind of frozen breaded thing (chicken strips, shrimp, tater tots, etc) in it as well as steak, pork chops, bacon, roasted cauliflower, roasted aparagus, and more that I'm probably forgetting. I also bake cakes, brownies, biscuits, etc in it in the summer when I don't want to turn my big oven on. Almost anything that can be cooked in the oven can be cooked in it. I found a 9 x 13 cake pan that fits in it and a bundt pan that fits in it.

I also have a basket style that I don't use as often. I use it for roasted green beans, brussels sprouts, baked potatoes, and anything else that can go in a smaller fryer. I have a little cake pan for it but I haven't actually used it for cake. My basket style is a nuwave brio from kohls (I can't remember what I paid but it was probably less than $100).

That's probably very true. It seems like the air fry and the convection settings are pretty much the same. I think for me, a selling point was that it comes with a basket. I know you can buy after-market baskets but you might sacrifice some size since it's unlikely it would be exactly the size of the oven. I like that the basket slides in, so there's room underneath it for the air to circulate.  Plus our old toaster oven and microwave do not have convection features (our big oven does but the goal is to never turn that heat monster on during the summer). 

We've had our air fryer for years. It's our most used appliance. Yes it's basically a mini convection oven, BUT you don't have to pre-heat it and it doesn't heat up your whole kitchen. This past Summer we upgraded to the Ninja Foodi Grille. It bakes, grills and air frys.

I have one now, a Brio with a rotissorie. IDK it does all the same stuff my convection oven does and to me this is another applicance I have to take apart and clean.

Nothing in it comes out any better than the other ways I cook these foods. I guess its good if you don't want to heat up the kitchen during the summer.

I had two air fryers for some time. In June I donated them and got a Ninja Foodi and a Ninja Foodi Grill. They both air fry as well as bake, roast, grill and much more. Since I got my Ninjas my oven has gone into retirement. I use the oven for storage and purchased a wooden top from amazon for the top of the stove. I keep my most used seasons on it. Also got the Ninja Hot & Cold blender. Love all of my Ninja products.

We had the huge egg shaped air fryer but hated using it. Cumbersome to clean and took up so much counter space so we kept it stored under the sink cabinets. We then bought a toaster oven/air fryer from Amazon. It replaced our old toaster oven and the air fryer. We use it daily for all kinds of things. Best small appliance purchase we have made in a long time.

I have a basket style air fryer and use it almost every day. I love that it roasts vegetables without heating up my kitchen and it is much better than the food I get out of the oven.

I got one this summer because it was so hot outside and I didn’t want to turn on my oven. I’ve tried burgers, fried okra, frozen pizza, etc.

The only thing we consistently use it for is chocolate chip cookies. They make them soft inside but crispy on top {delicious}.

I don’t regret buying it but will put it away in the cabinet in a few weeks when it gets cooler and I can use my oven more. Definitely wasn’t the game changer I had hoped for.

We moved from a traditional air fryer with the little basket to more of a toaster oven looking one. It can air fry, broil, bake...etc. We literally use it daily, even more than the traditional air fryer. It's so nice not to need to heat up the oven for little things. DH loves baked potatoes and makes then a few times a week. They cook perfect in our little oven. Frozen pizza, air fried french fries, the kids make their lunches on a regular in it. I couldn't imagine not having it.

I have the Ninja Foodi 5-in-1 Indoor Grill with Air Fryer, Roast, Bake & Dehydrate. I don't air fry very frequently since I got it, but I really plan on using it the most for the grill this winter. We grill - a lot. Soon the weather will be turning too cold and wet to grill outside on the deck. We bought this same model for our daughter and she loves it. She air fries Costco preseasoned chicken wings and says it does and even better job than her oven. She uses it to grill, too and says burgers are really good, plus it doesn't get as smokey (and set off her smoke alarms) as her old indoor electric grill did.

The advantage (to me) is that it’s WAY faster than using a big oven and doesn’t heat up the whole kitchen when it’s hot outside. I have a different non-digital Cuisinart model at the lake cabin and we can cook a pizza from frozen solid to done in eight minutes flat. We use it for something pretty much every weekend we’re there. I have a convection oven at home that isn’t even fully heated up in eight minutes.

We’ve been talking about getting another one for home because we like the one we have at the cabin so much, so I’ll probably buy the digital Cuisinart that Costco has on sale starting tomorrow.

It’s great for all kinds of convenience frozen foods (pizza, mozzarella sticks, loaded potato skins, fish sticks or breaded filets, breaded chicken filets or nuggets, french toast sticks, frozen waffles, French fries, tater tots, etc.) We also use it to toast bagels, multiple pieces of bread or cheese bread, warm up focaccia bread or other dinner loaves.

We haven’t really used ours to bake anything yet but like that we have the option when it’s hot out to not heat up the kitchen with the big oven.