However, the air fryer struggled to cook the broccoli evenly, performing in the middle of the pack during testing. It could have been more even, but my family still gobbled the batch up. It’s 20% smaller than some of Instant Pot’s other models, but doesn’t sacrifice capacity, offering 6 quarts / 5.7 liters. Given that many older air fryers of this size offer a reduced capacity of 2 quarts / 2 liters, this is a huge win for the Instant Vortex Slim. On the front of the air fryer is a handle that’s used to pull out the basket, which requires minimal fuss or force. Inside is a lift-out tray whose metal handle tucks in flush to the tray, meaning you don’t lose precious space in the center of the fryer as we’ve seen with some other models.
We’ve have issues with people stealing our words and content (photos) and putting their logos on it and putting on their blogs or posts. We put a lot of time and research into this so sharing is caring! When you buy a product, you’re buying into a company and their eco-system of accessories and support. Other breaded items from chicken strips to breaded fish work really well and without any extra oil. There is also a 2-quart Vortex® Mini Air Fryer which is designed for “singles, students, smaller portions”.
There are no preset cooking programs on this air fryer; instead you need to set the temperature and time manually as well as the overall setting, such as air fry, roast or reheat. There’s also little guidance in terms of cooking charts supplied — you will need to go online to find these. Like most air fryers, it excels at delivering crispy food in a fraction of the time. Small but thoughtful design features dramatically simplify the cooking process. This air fryer is perfect for cooking any fried foods that would otherwise go in the deep fryer.
Despite touting an 11.6-quart capacity, this model couldn’t really handle much more food than smaller drawer-style air fryers. Single layers of food cooked evenly and quickly, crisping up nicely. But food placed on the upper rack blocked heat from reaching the lower rack, resulting in unevenly cooked food. Its metal racks (called “fry baskets”) trapped baked-on cheese and molasses moosoo air fryer and were tedious to clean. It doesn’t have any cooking functions besides air frying, but it does have lots of different presets for air frying different foods, from potatoes to bacon to frozen snacks. The large array of buttons on the front makes figuring out all those presets somewhat confusing, however, so you’ll probably need to peruse the manual before firing this guy up.
My previous air fryer was a bit of a strange roundish shape, and I find the nice square shape nicer aesthetically, and less awkward to carry, move, and put things beside. Sharon Franke is a journalist who specializes in testing and writing about kitchen equipment. A thirty-year veteran of the Good Housekeeping Institute, Sharon also worked as a professional chef in New York City restaurants for seven years.
Across the range of air fryers we tested this one took a little longer to roast the vegetables how we liked, but we could not fault the even cooking. The air fryer has an insert at the back of the air fryer that claims to remove odors as it cooks. This can be removed and inserted easily for cleaning, and it uses removable filters which need to be replaced.
However, if you’re up for the challenge of researching and experimenting with air frying recipes—and love the idea of peeking at your food while it’s cooking—the instant pot duo nova Plus is a great choice. It performed well in crisping some of our favorite air fried foods (after some trial and error) and has a navigation touch screen that’s fun and easy to use. One of the key elements of this model is that it features a replaceable OdorErase filter, which is designed to reduce lingering cooking smells in the kitchen.
Its easy-to-use interface makes it great for recent air-fryer converts or parents who enjoy cooking with their pint-sized sous chefs. A step up from the Instant Vortex Slim, this air fryer comes packed out with all of the best features from Instant Pot’s air fry engineers, including a ClearCook window and OdorErase. Plus, when you’re done cooking your delicious meals, both the basket and tray are dishwasher safe, so cleanup takes minimal effort. The first test of a good air fryer is its ability to make homemade fries. To test this we cut and soaked some potatoes to remove the starchiness, and then dried and tossed them in oil and seasoning.
First, I put the Instant Vortex Slim to the test with a portion of steak fries and salmon. The recipe book suggested 390ºF / 200ºC for minutes for the fries and 350ºF / 176ºC for 8-12 minutes for the salmon. Since I was cooking the fish from frozen, I popped it in the tray once there were 8 minutes left on the timer for the fries. And less noise doesn’t come at the expense of high-quality results – the Instant Vortex Slim upkeeps its siblings’ fantastic legacy of perfectly air-fried meals. Its temperature settings range from 95ºF / 35ºC to 400ºF / 205ºC, and the timer can go up to 60 minutes. We will keep this review updated with information on how long this takes.