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Instant Pots and Air Fryers

food4thot

food4thot

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Looking for advice/recommendations. Never used either and trying to sort out pros & cons. Have wanted to try both but don't want two more gadgets taking up counter space unless they are functional enough to ditch other small appliances.

If I buy an air fryer, can I get rid of the toaster? Not certain but looking at some models it appears some can make toast and others can't.

If I buy an instant pot, can I get rid of the slow cooker? Don't own a pressure cooker. Would be nice to have that feature for time savings. Don't keep my slow cooker on the counter but would be nice to get it out of the cabinet it's stored in.

If I buy both an air fryer and instant pot, can I get rid of the microwave? Not a big fan of microwaves but has become a necessary evil cooking/reheating for one most of the time. Awful for reheating anything fried, pasty, or pizza so do those on a pizza stone in the oven, heating up the entire kitchen.

Considering counter space savings, was looking at this combo unit but skeptical it can do all things they claim it can do very well. Are separates better?

Like the rotisserie feature on some air fryers, some including baskets. Not a must feature for me.

Looking for durability, preferably stainless steel. Read reviews of Teflon flaking off inside some.

Experiences with either appreciated.
 
Cannot testify to air fryers, but my understanding is that they are a glorified convection oven.
As to the Instant Pot, it can definitely replace your slow cooker. I like that you can brown your meat in it without dirtying up a skillet. Also replaces a rice cooker if you use one.
 
Not a huge help. But we have a good air fryer (gourmia)... I'm not impressed. We used it several times when it was new now it hardly ever, if at all gets used.

The insta-pot however gets used regularly and produces very good food.

None of these have replaced our toaster or microwave. But we do not use the microwave often and my toaster is a tradition slice toaster not a toaster/oven.
 
I haven't used my slow cooker since I got my Instant Pot a couple years ago. There are tons of recipes online to do everything from Pot roast to cheesecake. I recommend getting one.
 
I don’t have in instant pot but we did have an air fryer, I gave it to my youngest daughter. The thing took up a lot of space and we used it 3 times in a little over a year. Not worth having in my opinion.
 
Got an Instant Pot a few years ago, hardly ever use it. Have a slow cooker, hardly ever use it. Thinking about getting a toaster oven or toaster oven/air fryer combo.
 
like others, Instant pot has replaced slow cooker, and it's great for cheating when you get a late start on chili, stew, pea soup, etc. I did pork shoulder that way and it was good for what it was(no smoke).
 
crboggs said:
My wife uses the air fryer constantly.

We wound up with one of the Breville models that replaced the old toaster oven and performs multiple duties...

https://www.breville.com/us/en/products/ovens.html
Click to expand...

I have a Breville Smart Oven Air. We use it dang near daily,
many days twice a day , although not always as an air fryer. Wife uses it as a toaster almost every morning. Ive hardly used my main oven since getting this thing. The convenience of having a super quick heat up countertop oven is definitely underrated. Fits 12" CI pan and standard 9x13s.

I have not used my crock pot since. Use a dutch oven on the slow cooker setting in the Breville. I have not used my electric pizza oven in the garage since, for frozen pizzas. And, with 2 young kids, and a wife who doesnt cook, the Air Fryer has been seeing plenty of use as well. We love it!

That said, if youre only interested in the air fry function, buy a cheap one. This Breville takes up a bunch of counter space. At least they are decent looking.

No insta pot experience.
 
No experience on the air fryer. On the instapot, yes and no on replacing the slow cooker. In terms of directly replacing for long, slow, low temperature cooks, not really. Many of them have settings that try to do it but without the thermal mass of the ceramic "crock" that true slow cookers have it doesn't work as well.

What an instapot does exceptionally well is cooking at high heat under pressure, which gives you similar results to what you could otherwise do in a slow cooker with much less time.

So, in terms of outcome, yes, it's a good alternative to a slow cooker. If you want to use it as a slow cooker (based on the 10 different things it claims to do) then not so much.
 
Instapot makes an attachment that turns it into an air fryer. So, you can have both. I would say though, I have both and I’m not impressed. My wife likes the instapot but honestly, everything she makes tastes over cooked and bland to me. Probably her cooking but she has tried about 30 recipes from different websites. I’m sure there has to be good recipes out there and the instapot was great for a stew we did. Cooked it super fast and tasted like it came out of the crock pot. As for the air fryer, I have found it is best at reheating previously fried food. Hahaha.
 
We have a Breville (I think that is there spelling) toaster oven that also does air frying, convection oven, proofing of dough, broiling, baking, toasting and a few other things, air frier works great.
 
I have the Instant Pot Duo 8 quart. It has both lids, pressure and air fryer. The air fryer is a little smaller than I thought I wanted. But works very well for just the two of us. I still have a slow cooker because the instant pot stinks as one. But the food it cooks has turned out great. There is a learning curve though. Tons of groups with great info online.
 
I've got the Ninja combo unit. It air fries awesome. Wings come out super crispy. Capacity is a bit of an issue, but if I'm making enough for guests I use the Weber anyhow. You just have to toss the wings around 8 minutes or so to make sure all the skin gets crispy.

I've used it also as a pressure cooker and it's awesome. That being said, when I used it as a slow cooker it never seemed to get hot enough, even on hight. As a matter of fact the only reason I used the pressure cooker setting was because my beef stew wasn't done in time under the slow cook setting.
 
frayedend said:
I've got the Ninja combo unit. It air fries awesome. Wings come out super crispy. Capacity is a bit of an issue, but if I'm making enough for guests I use the Weber anyhow. You just have to toss the wings around 8 minutes or so to make sure all the skin gets crispy.

I've used it also as a pressure cooker and it's awesome. That being said, when I used it as a slow cooker it never seemed to get hot enough, even on hight. As a matter of fact the only reason I used the pressure cooker setting was because my beef stew wasn't done in time under the slow cook setting.
Click to expand...

That's what I use as well. I have an Instant Pot and a standalone ari fryer but I don't use either since getting the Ninja Foodi. i do use my slow cooker, however. I have on of the 6 qt. oval shaped ones that is a good size/shape for pot roast, etc.
 
We have all the gadgets. Insta-pot brand won it at a Pheasant's Forever dinner...like it, stainless pot that works great for grains, rice and hard boiled eggs are a dream. Need to try more stuff in it but, did a corned beef that turned out well. Air Fryer...just ok. IMHO it's like taking a really good recipe from Grandma and substituting ingredients to make it a healthy dish, just not the same. Plus we got away from Teflon which it had too. Crockpot still use for the usual suspects. Caveat, we grill in the garage all year long plus a garage addition to smoke with rec tec. So upon the bbq sets a deep fryer, it's the bomb. I am not sure how much healthier or not it is compared to air frying being that a lot of the stuff put in the air fryer is already fried...perhaps it's more marketing. Just my 2 cents and what works for us. Good Luck
ps...don't use canola oil for the fryer
 

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Have all. Ranked in most to least used, but we use them all frequently


1. Instant Pot
2. Crock Pot
3. Air Fryer
 
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