Three new air fryers from Instant Pot introduce one great new feature

Which feature-stuffed health fryer will you choose for perfectly crisped food with 95% less fat?

Instant Vortex new air fryers 2022
(Image credit: Instant Brands)
Duncan Bell
By Duncan Bell
published

Instant Vortex is the air fryer range from Instant Brands, which also makes Instant Pot. Easy to remember, huh? Now, in an instant, it has released three new Instant Vortex air fryers, each of which has its own killer feature. Only one of those features strikes me as super useful but all three fryers look great. 

Our guide to the best air fryers is always lengthening, because there are a lot on the market. And now, well, there are three more. People love air fryers because they're a convenient way to cook and they have some health benefits. And because people just love kitchen gizmos – just look at the success of Instant Pots. 

Brands and reviews arguably overstate the health benefits of air fryers in some cases. However, if you usually deep fry all your food or pan fry it in a ton of oil, lard, dripping and butter, you will definitely reduce your fat intake if you buy an air fryer and use that instead. That's because, as the name suggests, it 'fries' food using 'air'. Okay, air and usually a little tiny bit of oil. Like a teaspoonful, or a few quick squirts from an oil spray.

You can find out more in our handy guide, entitled What is an air fryer? In the meantime, on with the new Instant Vortex fryers! 

Instant Vortex new air fryers 2022

Sous vide is essentially a very posh version of 'boil in the bag' – but don't tell the French that

(Image credit: Instant Brands)

Instant Brands' new range will 'help beginners and pros escape the food rut to create delicious and fuss-free meals in an instant,' it says here – air fryers are indeed pretty quick, because they heat a relatively small heating chamber, compared to a full-size oven, very quickly to a high temperature and then move the hot air around the food you're cooking using a powerful fan. 

In the case of these new Instant Vortexes (Instant Vortices?), you can, 'create the perfect crunch with up to 95% less oil compared to deep frying.'

Instant Vortex Dual Drawer

(Image credit: Instant Brands)

The top-of-the-range entry here is the Instant Vortex Plus Dual Drawer 8-in-1 Air Fryer with ClearCook. As usual with these things, the name tells you a lot about the product, and is way too long for anyone to remember. With two 3.8-litre drawers – that's 7.6 litres in all, which is even bigger than the Philips Airfryer XXL and the Ninja Foodi OL750 and about on par with the Tefal ActiFry Genius XL 2in1. It's a capacity vast enough for 'up to 8 servings', although that might depend on how greedy you are. 

The standout feature here, at least according to Instant Vortex, is the ClearCook Window technology. As the name suggests, there's a window on each of the two baskets, so you can see how your food is progressing. Given how easy it is to cook with an air fryer, this is more of an aesthetically pleasing feature than a massively useful one. Instant says it's the only dual drawer air fryer, which seems to be true, and the only one that 'allows you to monitor progress without disrupting the cooking cycle.' But what's wrong with disrupting the cooking cycle? Opening a drawer to give some food a shake or stir is not a huge hardship IMO.

That aside, this looks like a great air fryer, with a SyncCook setting to cook both drawers on the same temperature for the same amount of time, and a cunning SyncFinish mode to cook a different food in each drawer – the machine will delay whichever one takes less time, so that both are ready at exactly the same time.

The eight functions here are air fry, bake, grill, dehydrate, roast, reheat and the aforementioned SyncCook and SyncFinish.

Instant Vortex air fryers

(Image credit: Instant Brands)

Next we have the new Instant Vortex Plus 6-in-1 Air Fryer with ClearCook + OdourErase. This is a relatively compact machine with a capacity of 5.7 litres or 'up to 6 portions'. 

The potentially killer feature here is the presence of two grease filters that 'work seamlessly to remove odours and aerosolised grease to ensure it doesn’t end up on your food.' Over time, grease build-up can become an issue with air fryers, particularly smaller and cheaper ones and it can have quite unpleasant effects on the food. Of course, the obvious thing to do would about this would be to design it out of existence by making the machines easier to clean thoroughly but a filter is an interesting approach. It should mean that the food will taste better, which is always a strong feature in my opinion.

As with the 8-in-1 Dual Drawer model, a windowed food container lets you see what's going on with your next meal. The function count here: six, with air frying, baking, grilling, dehydrating – seriously, who ever uses this one? – roasting and reheating.

Instant Vortex air fryers


(Image credit: Instant Brands)

If you prefer to keep things simple, and cost effective, the Instant Vortex Plus 6-in-1 Air Fryer with ClearCook is essentially the same as the above but without the grease filter. It will be very interesting to try both, and see just how much difference the filter – and the extra £30 – makes.

With a 5.7-litre/6-portion capacity, the functions here are again air fry, bake, grill, dehydrate, roast and reheat. Instant Vortex says the 'ClearCook Window and easy-to-use interface will transform the way you cook and will have friends and family asking for more,' and who can say fairer than that?

TOPICS
Kitchen Tech
Duncan Bell
Duncan Bell

Duncan has been writing about tech for almost 15 years, during which time he has attended every event going, apart from Apple ones, as he mysteriously doesn't get invited to them. He has covered everything from smartphones to headphones, TV to AC and air fryers to the movies of James Bond and obscure anime. 

Duncan's current brief is everything to do with the home and kitchen, which is good because he is an excellent cook, if he says so himself. He also covers cycling and ebikes – like over-using italics, this is another passion of his. Duncan also edits T3's golf section because fuck it, someone has to. Dave Usher does all the real work on that bit, though. In his long and varied lifestyle-tech career he is one of the few people to have been a fitness editor despite being unfit and a cars editor for not one but two websites, despite being unable to drive. He also has about 400 vacuum cleaners, and is possibly the UK's leading expert on cordless vacuum cleaners, despite being decidedly messy. A cricket fan for over 30 years, he also recently become T3's cricket editor, writing about how to stream obscure T20 tournaments, and turning out some typically no-nonsense opinions on the world's top teams and players.

Before T3, Duncan was a music and film reviewer, worked for a magazine about gambling that employed a surprisingly large number of convicted criminals, and then a magazine called Bizarre that was essentially like a cross between Reddit and DeviantArt, before the invention of the internet. There was also a lengthy period where he essentially wrote all of T3 magazine every month for about 3 years. 

A broadcaster, raconteur and public speaker, Duncan used to be on telly loads, but an unfortunate incident put a stop to that, so he now largely contents himself with telling people, "I used to be on the TV, you know."


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