The best air fryers are brilliant things. I'm on my third, an Instant Pot Duo Crisp with Ultimate Lid, and the only bad thing I can say about it is that it's very big and quite pricey. The new Instant Vortex Slim Air Fryer delivers almost the same capacity in a much smaller appliance – and it's a lot cheaper too.
The new Instant air fryer has a 5.7L cooking capacity, but it's 20% slimmer than the firm's previous single drawer devices. It's much smaller than my fryer, but there's only half a litre difference in capacity. The new Slim is still big enough for a kilo of fries or a decent sized chicken.
It's relatively cheap, too: the RRP is £99.99/$129.99. My Duo Crisp cost more than twice that.
With air fryers, size isn't all that matters
The marketing bumph for the new Instant Vortex has all the usual claims about air frying – it uses less energy, it requires less oil, that sort of thing – and it's all perfectly true, but I'm more interested in a little logo on the packaging. The new Vortex has Quiet Mark Certification, which means that it's significantly quieter than many other air fryers. If like me you have a very small kitchen, even a small difference in volume can be significant. My current fryer isn't too bad in that department – it's quite well insulated, sound-wise – but my previous ones sounded like someone was trying to fly a 747 over my sink.
It's also worth noting that this is a multi-function fryer. It's not as versatile as my one, which has a removable pressure cooking lid so I can steam, slow cook and do the usual Instant Pot things. But in addition to the air fry mode there are modes for roasting, baking, reheating and grilling. And like my Instant Pot, all the key bits are dishwasher safe for easy cleaning.
The new Vortex is available now.
