- Let's take a look. Oh my goodness, they look good. (bright music) Air fryers are all the
rage, and for good reason. They're essentially
countertop convection ovens, and the best ones could crispy
food quickly and efficiently. - Air fryer technology has changed a lot since we first started
testing these machines. There are all kinds of
styles and types now, including air fryer toaster ovens. - So, which air fryer is right for you? Do you want one that's also a toaster oven or a traditional air fryer is better? Hannah and I are gonna help you decide. - First up, Lisa. (bright music) - So, let's talk about air fryers. When they first came out,
I was a huge skeptic. I have come to really like these, they're fun to use and they're great. The words air fryer, a
little bit misleading. They're not actually frying the food. They're not a replacement
for a deep fryer. They're more like a
replacement for your big oven, but in a smaller form. They use less oil because
they don't need to use as much as you would put
on if you were deep frying, you'd have a pot of hot oil. There's just a tablespoon
or a teaspoon of oil on the food, or none at all in some cases. And it will crisp up
and mimic that crispy, delicious taste of fried food. However, the air part is
that it's a convection oven. That means there's fans in there
that circulate that hot air around the food, which is
held in a little basket. We recently went back and
retested all kinds of air fryers, every different design that we could find on the marketplace. There's a whole bunch of different styles. Some look like little ovens
with different racks in them. Some have a flip top that open up and then some are this style, which is a drawer style
where the food is accessed through the drawer in the front. The style that has the flip
top always felt really scary because the heating element is exposed when you lift that flip top. And when you're in there
doing stuff with the food, you always felt like it
was gonna come back down and burn you. And if you have your air fryer that you want your kids to be able to use, you don't wanna go there. Those ones with the
different shelves in them that were made more like little
mini ovens were terrible. You could not control
where things dropped, it was a mess, the stuff never cooked on the bottom even if you rotated the racks. Don't bother, the drawer
style works the best. It's the safest, it's the
most easy to access the food, keeps you away from the heating element, which is inside on the top
where your hand will never go. And it just kept all
the food in a nice area where all the heat could get at it. There wasn't parts of it
that weren't frying well, like those two layer ones where the bottom rack never got warm. So, we tested these
when they first came out several years ago and our
first Gear Heads video was about air fryers. At that time, our winner was by Phillips. And it's a great air fryer we still recommend it. One of the only problems with the Phillips is that it's kind of expensive. And we do have a best buy by GoWISE, but a few years have passed and so many more models have come out. So, we went back and looked
at everything out there and came up with a new winner. And that's, this one it's called the Instant Vortex Plus 6-Quart model. It has a lot of the same
characteristics that, that Phillips did. And it has a few things that
we like even more about it. It is that drawer style,
which really love. It has a nice, fairly
compact overall profile. Some of these air fryers are humongous. This is not bad. It's kind of moderate size air fryer and at the same time has a huge capacity. This drawer is 10 by 10 inches
and about four inches deep. This can hold so much food where most countertop little air fryers could not hold very much. It was always good for
like one or two portions. This can hold portions for four people. We were even able to put a
whole four pound chicken in here and roasted. You're not sacrificing
that compact profile, which is a huge factor that
put this one over the top. The other thing we really
love is that the interior is lined with nonstick. Now, it doesn't get hot
enough to make that dangerous, but it makes it so easy to clean. It's just a quick little
wash and you're done. It preheat, so, unlike some air fryers that are out on the market, but only preheats for two minutes. And that just made the
performance so much better. Everything we cooked
in this, whether it was French fries or vegetables
or meat or fish, anything you put in here
really cooked beautifully. It got nice and warm within two minutes and then it automatically
switches over to cooking. It reminds you to flip the food halfway, which is important with a
lot of air fryer recipes. And when you pull the
drawer out to do something, it pauses the timer and
all the settings are there when you put that drawer
back in and it resumed, you don't have to hit
a start button again. So much more convenient than
some other models out there. It does a few more things
than your average air fryer. It can also roast, it can bake, it can reheat, it can broil. And I was curious about whether it can
also be used as a toaster and I have to tell you the answer is yes, I made this lovely piece of
toast, right in this thing, using the broiler, and it
just took a couple minutes. I also made something else which is kind of on the
other end of the spectrum. I made a cheesecake in
this fryer last night. Now, I've made a bunch of cheesecake and our recipe is fantastic
for classic cheesecake, New York style. What it takes about 12 hours. This was about an hour and
of course it's smaller, but maybe that's a good thing
'cause it's so delicious. I have some nice, healthy and
gorgeous Brussels sprouts. And these are just real simple cut in half and toss with some olive
oil, salt and pepper. They cook fairly quickly and you can get beautiful
roasted Brussels sprouts. I'm gonna set this to cook at
350 degrees for 25 minutes. (bright music) Here we go, it's done. Oh my God. Look how brown they are, they're gorgeous. Because the food is spread out you get this gorgeous, uniform browning, everything cooks very evenly and really gets nice and crispy. You can just hear the crispy
little pieces on the edge, which is what I love. So, we made healthy
roasted Brussels sprouts. Now, let's try protein. I've got chicken wings and
they're already sizzling because that basket is hot, because preheating just
starts at right up. I'm gonna put them on a single layer and that will make sure
every single piece is... I can easily do a couple pounds in here, but I'm doing one pound. And now, it's just cooking. This recipe is called
lemon pepper chicken wings. And it was just developed
for our upcoming cookbook called "Healthy Air Fryer." And we have another cookbook right here, called "Air Fryer Perfection," which has lots of really
good recipes in it for all kinds of good things. So, totally worth picking up. If you're wondering what else
you can do in an air fryer. We're done, let's see, these look amazing. Oh my God. (bright music) So, the really amazing thing is these gorgeous crispy
golden chicken wings with no added fat, just salt and pepper, and then toss with some
parsley and lemon zest and serve with some lemon is probably the healthiest
chicken wing you'll ever have. So, now, you see me make chicken wings, you see me make Brussels sprouts. I made a cheesecake. You saw me make a piece of
toast in this air fryer, but you can do a lot of
other things as well. You can roast garlic, you can make crispy shallots, toast spices and nuts, you can make croutons. So many things that you can do in this little bitty oven right here. So, now, Hannah is gonna show us another style of air fryer, which is the air fryer-toaster oven. (bright music) - Air fryers have been all the rage, as you probably know these past few years. And as you might have also
noticed air frying capabilities have popped up in all
different kinds of machines. And one of them is toaster ovens. Toaster oven air fryers
have become a major thing. And what they really do is just integrate air fryer technology. This is a convection toaster oven that comes with an air fryer basket. Air frying in general is a little bit of a marketing term, but you know what, we really like them. They turn out really
delicious crispy food. Here's our winner, the
Breville Smart Oven Air. If they really hit the nail on the head, it's a great toaster oven. You can make toast, you can fit your whole
artisanal slice in here. It can broil, it can act like a second
smaller oven on holidays, in addition to airframe, which makes it a really great
addition to your kitchen. If you were looking for
a toaster oven as well, because look at the size
of this thing, it's big. I had to stand in front of my
table so I could see over it. It's bigger and it's also more expensive, but if you really want an air fry and you also need a toaster oven, it combines both of those
two things spectacularly. We loved it's digital interface over here. Really easy to navigate,
really clear to use, easy to tell what the machine
is doing at any given time. We also love that it has multiple racks. It's like a real oven, you can have multiple
layers in there at once, which can be a really
efficient usage of space. One downside of this machine is the price. It is expensive. So, we chose a second place model that is a little less
expensive from Oster. It doesn't quite cook as evenly. It doesn't boil as well. And it was a little harder to clean, but it does a reasonably good job of combining air fryer
technology and a toaster oven. So, it's a great less expensive option. All right, so, the first thing
we looked at and testing was does this work as a toaster oven? Let's start there. And one thing we loved about the Breville is it has different
rack levels inside here, and it's clearly marked on the door. So, right now I'm on the
bake and roast level. I'm gonna move it up to four, which is the toast and bigger one. There are, if you look inside here, I'm gonna take the rack out. It's just like an oven. And there are heating elements
in the top and the bottom. There's a fan over here for that convection air fryer experience. So, I'm moving this up
to the fourth level. It has different levels
for different applications. So, your food is cooked really perfectly. I got some larger bread also
to illustrate the point that I love this about toaster ovens. You can use artisanal slices. We have long toasters which we love too, but the regular smaller toasters
can be a little too short for these a modern artisanal loaves. I'm gonna toast it, I'm gonna show you how to do that. It's already on toast and
it's selected as medium. There's a gradient over
here and light and dark. So, I am gonna go with like a medium. I love my toast, like, golden brown, just on the darker side of golden brown. So, that's what I've set here. I love that you can really
personalize your settings, and then I just hit start. There are multiple dials
and buttons on here, but this was really easy to use. And we found again and again,
whatever the appliance is, that is so important. If something is confusing, you're just not gonna use it or it will cause you like
a little bit of friction in your everyday routine. I have a kettle that
I feel that way about. So, this one really just
reduces the friction and it toasted evenly. One thing, some of the toasters like toasted only the
top and not the bottom or like their light was
really actually pretty dark or their dark was like totally
blonde pale white toast. So, we wanted something that
was really calibrated to, we also want it to be able to
accommodate like really dark, crumpets, high moisture
breads, things like that. We want it to be able to
toast those kinds of things as well, not just come
out and have to enter. Go through three cycles to
get some color on there. All right, check this out. 13 seconds here, ooh look, it did it. The light turns on right
when it's almost done so you can see in there and see what you think of the doneness level. I love that, you pay
more for this machine, but it was luxurious. Look at this toast, beautiful, perfectly golden
brown, which I absolutely love. So, check off this box it works great as a
toaster, which is important, but let's move on to other things. Air frying, it's not
crispy as deep frying, but it's still pretty awesome. And we found this machine
to do a fantastic job of air frying. We tested like nine
toaster oven air fryers. We only like two of them. So, not everybody is integrating
this technology well, for some reason, toasters
are hard to make. People have a hard time making toasters. Anyways, I'm gonna show
you the air fire function. Here we go, 418 minutes, I'm gonna turn them over halfway through. And I scroll down select
air fryer, let's start. So ,this is preheating. This is another difference. Traditional air fryers, either they don't preheat or they take like one to three minutes. It's super fast. This will need to preheat. It's not gonna take a long time, but it is a slight difference. So, right in here, this is the rack three. It says it clearly on the door. I have my tray right here
with my chicken wings that I was gonna do. As you can see, the
tray is perforated here. It's like mesh, it's like a strainer, and that is to increase that airflow. You really want the air all
the way around these things so you can get that really
nice crispy exterior. Most air fryers, even like
traditional drawer style ones, their basket is perforated
for the same reason. All right, so, it's
halfway through cooking and I'm gonna flip these right now. If you'll watch it's pausing
while I'm doing this. So, it doesn't eat out
of the total cook time which is awesome. (bright music) All right, so, we just finished
up air frying our wings. Let me show you these. They look gorgeous. Wow. Check that out. They look so good. I can already tell they're
gonna be nice and crispy. I have some Frank's with
melted butter back there that I'm gonna toss them in. Before I do, there is chicken grease
all over this thing. And so, that really is one pro of a regular traditional air fryer. They have baskets that
are coated in nonstick. This means they're super easy to clean. This is stainless steel. It's not coated in nonstick. It is harder to clean, you know, things get stuck within the little wires. It's durable, but
compared to an air fryer, they're certainly easier
to clean both the tray and then now you have to
deal with the inside of here. So, it is something to consider. All right, so, I've got some
Frank's and melted butter here. I'm gonna put the wings right in here. Beautiful. All right, I have these
all tossed in the sauce. Look how good they look. Oh, it smells absolutely
delicious, chicken wing facial. I had so much fun playing
around with this machine. It has so many features on it. It's like buying a smaller second oven and it really does bake,
roast, broil, air fry, really, really well. But you know, like I said, we tested a ton of models
and not all of them did. So, you really have to pay attention to which brand you're buying
for an air fryer toaster oven. If you're looking for an air
fryer and a toaster oven, the Breville Smart Oven Air, toaster oven air fryer really
is the best of both worlds. It crushes it at air frying, It crushes it at being a toaster oven. It has more features, but it is bigger and more expensive. If you want an air fryer
and a toaster oven, combining them in one
machine, it's perfect. The Breville Smart Oven
really does it well, and we highly recommend it. However, if you're mostly
interested in air frying, we recommend just getting an air fryer. Our winner is more compact,
also super easy to clean. It just has that one nonstick basket. It costs less. And it's great at air frying. - So, for more information about the products we talked about today, check out the links below. - Make sure to ask us
your air fryer questions in the comments, like this video and hit that subscribe button. (bright music)
