Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Philips makes a great product- their air fryers are more expensive but also well made. My problem is in their marketing- they quote capacity using weight instead of volume, which doesn't make sense. This unit has a 1.8 pound capacity, so 1.8 pounds of dense meat is equivalent to 1.8 pounds of less dense French fries? You could put 3 pounds of something in there if it would fit as too much weight is irrelevant — what does matter is volume. Reality is their basket is pretty small and a product like fries should not be crowded into the basket. If you look at their marketing picture on Amazon at top of the page, the basket cooking the fries is about half full. I have tried filling it to the top and they don’t turn out too well (note: in the middle of the page they show a full basket of golden fries cooked using turbo technology. Even if you frequently shake the basket during cooking to try to redistribute them, a full basket redistributes poorly or ends up all over the counter top because of how hard you’d have to shake it to try to get the fries in the middle elsewhere). The air needs to circulate to cook evenly. Their picture of about 4 pieces of chicken at the very top of the basket probably are on a rack to separate them from whatever is on the bottom. Again need to separate the food to cook evenly (a basket filled to the brim with chicken, without a divider, wouldn’t cook well at all). Philips has a larger XL but they don’t provide its capacity in volume so I can’t guess whether it large enough for what I’m looking for or not. Although disappointing after spending this much on a Philips, I’m going to get something else for less money. The technology is a hot plate and a fan so it is not rocket science. From my research we’ll need at least a 3.7 quart capacity, which cost less than $100 on Amazon; however, I may get something even larger so we’ll have plenty of space for air to circulate regardless of what we cook. Meanwhile, our Philips is a good machine so we’ll take our time researching the alternatives. Finally, almost all air fryers do not give the dimensions of their baskets in their marketing materials. Some are round, some are oblong, some are square but rarely do they volunteer the LxWxH. Amazon could do a big service to their customers by requiring the vendors to provide basket dimensions in the same place they provide overall weight and total unit dimensions. It is a key purchase factor missing from the product descriptions.