Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I find it interesting that a review already exists on this item that says it has been on the person's shelf for months now. They weren't available months ago in this specific model. Hmmm. I have had it all of a week. But it is a replacement for an older one I handed off to my son. Note that this is the manual, not digital model. It does not suffer as a result. There is nothing really to set electronically on the digital ones anyway that cannot be controlled with the manual dials. All the digital ones do is let you set the temperature and time to cook the food just like this one does. If anything, the manual controls give you more flexibility. The one I gave my son was a digital version. I do not miss it, although I would if I did not have a replacement. I love these appliances and they are second only to my microwave as a necessity in the kitchen. Well, maybe the electric pressure cooker is close. Philips is the leader in air fryers. These are small convection ovens that circulate high heat throughout to more rapidly cook foods at high temperatures up to about 390 degrees. The ability to crisp foods is a key quality of the unit. You can make your own french fries and potato chips for example with much less work and a rapid results. The chips come out crispy every time, unlike some cases in which frying leaves you with less consistent results and soggy greasy fried potatoes. I have made both and never had a batch that did not come out great. Other foods that crisp very well are broiled chicken (with skin), potato skins, mini pizza or slices, cheese sandwiches, baked potatoes, battered fish, frozen food products, fried chicken (dark meat bone in thighs best), onion rings, chiken wings, reheated fast food, and some vegetables. I even find myself making some sandwiches in it like hot pastrami, grilled cheese or ham and cheese. You can also bake and broil in the unit for quick results. I did try a broiled fish recipe, but I did not care for it much. It is not necessarily due to the unit, it is more likely the recipe, but the advantage of the unit is crisping items, so broiling something not intended to crisp does not gain that advantage. And baking would be fast, but limited given the size. Now broiled chicken with a good rub on it is amazing, although the best part is how it crisps the skin so healthy alternative...well...maybe not so much. LOL. There is a statement about the unit placement and the cord being short. This unit is for simulating frying. As a result it generates heat and sometimes some amount of smoke, so you do not want the unit placed just anywhere, you want to use it under a cooking vent, and most people have a plug near their stove. I usually use it on or directly next to my cook top so it vents like any oven would. So a longer cord would serve no purpose for me unless I wanted to use it outside or near a screen door or something. The unit comes with a minimal amount of documentation probably more concerned with telling you how to care for it and safety precautions (such as proper venting) but a phone app, multiple cookbooks, tons of forums and online recipes, etc. should keep you busy. Experimenting on your own is fun, and you learn from it. For example, emulating fried chicken works very well with small pieces such as drumsticks or bone in thighs. The latter are best. You can use white meat portions, but larger pieces of chicken are difficult to get the fried effect with and take up too much of the basket, so if you use white meat, use it in smaller pieces if possible and take extra care not to overcook it. And use the dip in egg first, then in powdered mix (such as flour, pepper, etc.) method, not the batter approach. Thick batters burn up on the outside, but the flour mixes crisp with the skin and fat. The thick batters tend to turn into cookies and break away from the meat. If you use less fatty pieces of meat for frying, then add oil to the surface. I recommend you get a good spray bottle for oil. Home made potato chips in the unit are a cinch, especially if you have a food processor or other device making them easy to slice. French fries are a cinch as well. Frozen or home cut. The pan on the outside does not get hot to the point it would burn anyone. It is plastic casing all around and when shut is relatively fool proof. When you take the basket out, the inside is obviously hot because you have been heating it to 360 to 390 degrees typically. But it does not spatter like oil and it is much much safer than hot oil or grease. The innards are relatively easy to clean. They say they are all dishwasher safe and that has been my experience, but some say to wash by hand. I do wash it in the dishwasher. The surrounding piece that snaps into the outer casing gets a film on it that is a pain to get off after a while, so you have to scrub it to get it off. It will not come off completely in the dishwasher. I will not downgrade the product for not coming with accessories that make it better. I have made a couple of my own accessories, so being clever can save you money. The cover of the box wants to sell you the product, just like many products do, they want to show you all it can do, but that does not mean a television set showing a video of Avatar playing comes with the avatar bluray DVD or a blu ray player. The main thing you would want is some way of increasing the cooking space. It is limited. I cook for only two, so it is fine, but a family of four demands more space, or cooking multiple batches. The batches cook faster, but still, 20 minutes is a long time if you have to repeat it two or three times. You can set it and forget it and then place the food in a low heat oven to keep the first round warm, but at some point, that is too much work. The base can fit about four to six small bone in chicken thighs, but if you like leg quarters (drumstick and thighs attached) without the upper rack, you are going to cook two at most and with the upper rack they do not cook as well and are slower to cook. There are accessories online to help. I made my own upper rack from a flexible aluminum grill grate. Works to stack some things, but even that is limited, because it blocks airflow and you cannot easily get at the food below to move it around or flip it, so an accessory may look great in a picture, but in real use, it may fail to pass muster. Tons of instruction videos out there and tons of ways to use this unit. It does what it should and it is well made. It is the best of its kind and a great brand. I have had this model or a predecessor unit for well over a year and a half now, and I use them at least three times a week, making it the most used cooking appliance other than a microwave in my kitchen. Even my electric pressure cooker comes in slightly behind it. I have owned convection toaster ovens. They work nowhere near as well as this. I cannot speak for large expensive convection ovens, but I have a less expensive convection oven and love it, but this does things the larger oven just cannot touch. The only complaint about this for me is size. I would like it to be twice as large, but then it would not likely be a practical counter top kitchen appliance.