It’s half the price and was runner-up in our air fryer testing. It doesn’t have a window in the basket, an air filter, or dehydration function, but it’s an excellent value and performs basic air frying with ease. The Instant Vortex Plus features a replaceable air filter designed to remove odors. To test this, I ran the air fryer until it burned bacon-topped deviled eggs placed in a silicone liner. The filter didn’t completely remove the odors, but I could smell it much less than when I cook items in other air fryers. In 8 minutes, the Instant Vortex Plus produced tender broccoli with lightly browned florets that tasted great.
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 instant vortex 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.
The product experts at Reviewed have all your shopping needs covered. Follow Reviewed on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or Flipboard for the latest deals, product reviews, and more. The SyncCook feature is also an easy shortcut to use when using both baskets to make the same recipe. The crispy chicken recipe provided instant vortex with the appliance came out soggy and underwhelming. It’s easy to get intimidated by appliances that have touch screens instead of traditional buttons; they often make navigation more complicated. This model also has a stainless steel exterior, which makes for a sleeker look, and dishwasher-safe accessories.
Once started, the air fryer enters preheat mode for 3 to 4 minutes, at which point it beeps at you to add food. I found preheating unnecessary — I put the food in and started cooking right away, subtracting 3 minutes from my cooking time since the timer doesn’t count down until after the unit preheats. Emitting a cheerful jingle, the air fryer indicated a few minutes before the end of the cooking cycle that it was time to give the basked a shake, which I dutifully obeyed. Once the time had elapsed, the air fryer automatically switched off – and I was greeted with perfectly crisp and fluffy fries cooked just to my liking, alongside a moist, flavorful fillet of salmon. Having mostly tested larger air fryers, and as a single-person household, in particular, I was delighted to have the Slim at my disposal.
With rotisserie feature for perfect self-basting dishes, this spit will be a hit. Its main panel is touchscreen, so when off, the unit is minimalistic on first appearance. Being equally as passionate about food as he is about technology.
The components and parts feel good quality, adding to the overall value for money with this product. This dual-drawer air fryer stood out for a number of reasons but predominantly for the design features that make it enjoyably easy to use. Both drawers have interior lights that mean ingredients can be checked without opening the drawers and losing the heat inside. You can see how these air fryers performed side-by-side in cooking, design, and functionality in our head-to-head comparison post (coming soon). Not because the air fryer did a bad job – the florets have those little “buds” which can crisp and burn faster than the stalk if you aren’t careful about your cooking time and temp. Instant™ also has a 10-quart oven-style air fryer which looks similar to our Vortex® but is fundamentally different.