Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

So, I have to first start out by saying I got this as a birth day gift for my Grandmother. She was born during WWII and has age related macular degeneration. That being said, she said the buttons on this are large enough that she can see them, and the digital light up is bright enough that she can see everything and read it clearly. Someone else may have more advanced degeneration, but she assures me she can see it all just fine even after cataract removal and new lenses. The machine itself is great. I just felt like there was some set up frustration. First, the machine came in Celsius. I get it, people use Celsius, but it's super uncommon in the US for anyone to cook in anything other than Fahrenheit. It wasn't a hard fix, the booklet explained. I just had to hold the temp button down for about ten seconds. The second feature that isn't preset, and this was frustrating, is that the timer doesn't ding audibly when finished. Instead, I had to set the machine up to do so by holding the light button down for about ten seconds. Once I set the temp and the sound, it was great. I unplugged it for ten minutes to make sure the presets would stay, and they did stay programmed in. The third thing - and I think this is all air fryers - it comes with a terrible manufacturing smell. It smells like hot plastic. I left the machine running for 20 minutes, then did a 10 minute broil and it dissipated most of it. The actual unit is nice- it runs super quiet. I couldn't believe how quiet it is. The one feature I have issues with is that for some reason, the digital buttons don't respond well to my Grandmothers fingers. I read that elderly people may conduct electricity differently through their skin, but it was kind of annoying. She literally has to press sometimes three or four times to get a response from the unit. It responds to me at 30, every time, so I truly think it's the conduction of electricity issue. It's a fickle thing, and I wish they had put actual buttons on the unit instead. Everything else about the unit is great. The machine has giant buttons that are visible, it has a large end display, it has so many cool functions. I especially enjoy the toast feature. Grandma can use this in place of her toaster and it doesn't take up much more space. It does have a short cord, but there are instructions for choosing a proper wattage extension cord in the booklet. Features on the unit include bake, warm, bagel, air fry, slow cook, pizza, broil, dehydrate, and toast. Some of the cool things include a dual mode feature. This lets me or Grandma set it up to where I can use one setting for X number of minutes, and then switch to a second second at the end for X number of minutes. For instance, I can bake a chicken breast for 10 minutes, and then broil for 2 at the end to add color or whatever I need. This thing even has a dehydrate mode that goes down to 95 F. It can run for up to 72 hours, so if we decide to dehydrate fruit, this would work great. I haven't looked at the wattage usage, though, to see if this would be economical for dehydrating or if it's best to just use the Excalibur. It included a lot of racks, too. There's a large drip catch so no need to line with foil, and it had four accessories with it. I can pull out one basket and then fry the next thing without any change over or stress of cleaning right away. Something else I noticed, most of the machine is cool to the touch. The front glass is obviously not, and is a no-touch zone, but the top metal, and sides were tolerable. It definitely will prevent some burns. The door and behind the door were also smartly lined with silicon! This should help keep her from getting burned, although she keeps a pot holder handy. We've been impressed so far. At 450, this unit can take frozen fries to done in just 7-10 minutes depending on desired crispiness. Her oven takes 15 minutes or longer to preheat, and this unit doesn't even need a preheat time. It's as simple as load, and go. It also handles corn dogs and chicken strips quickly, without a need to preheat. I will update if it doesn't hold up to the test of time. Thankfully, my Uncle is staying with my Grandma and can help if the unit just absolutely will not respond to her touch, but it usually responds after two or three presses. She's going to try fried green tomatoes in it this weekend and see how it holds up. It is worth mentioning, the stainless steel on this picks up every single touch. It is going to be tough to avoid fingerprints.