, you'll probably save around 20p on energy per meal by using the air fryer instead. Based on this you could save a grand total of £73 if you use the air fryer for 20 minutes once a day for a year. So if your air fryer is one of the cheaper models on the market, it might have paid for itself in 12 months. But really, would you really use it every single day? Somehow I think not, especially seen as most can't cope with large volumes of food and aren't be appropriate for making all types of meals. Let's say you use it every other day instead, you might save £36.50 a year. So a £75 air fryer would pay for itself in around two years. That's a long time to wait to break even. Use it less frequently, say three times a week, and your energy savings would fall to £24 a year which really isn't much when you consider many popular air fryers cost well over £100. John Lewis's two week early Black Friday sale has on special offer an Instant Pot Duo Crisp air fryer for £159, which given the price, is going to take years of use to pay for itself in energy savings unless you're using it like Billy-O. By which time you'll have either got bored of it, or it'll have broken. Anyway, the humble air fryer looks set to be the star at the top of the Christmas tree this year, and who am I to argue. If you fancy some lovely, crispy potatoes and have the storage space for another gadget in your kitchen, then by a){kind=link}
Don’t believe the hype – this Christmas wish list favourite is just another fad
Here’s a prediction: by this time next year most of the air fryers being snapped up in the November sales will be lying dusty at the back of cupboards or on charity shop shelves.
There, I’ve said it. Die hard fans and those in the throes of the honeymoon period with their counter top cookers will protest, I’m sure. And with sales up by 300pc in recent weeks, the air fryer brigade are certainly growing in numbers.
But these clunky cookers are sadly destined sooner or later to join the likes of spiralizers, fondue sets and juicers in the graveyard of kitchen fads now consigned to history.
Of course that’s not to say air fryers don’t have their merits. They mimic the effect of frying by blowing hot air on and around food, making it crispy and golden in a faster time than oven cooking. It’s actually rather nifty. Aside from making delicious food, air fryers are convenient and energy efficient, hence their surging popularity amid the the biting cost-of-living crisis as households try to reduce electricity consumption.