You know I’m sitting here at 6.31am on a Tuesday morning waiting to go to work and it crossed my mind as to what is the best air fryer under £100.
Why £100?
Well to be honest I’m not really keen on spending much more than that on kitchen gadgets, and the cheaper the better really. Although saying that I don’t want any old pile of tosh that’s just going to look all fancy and not really do too much.
My partner has been talking a lot about eating healthier, and trying to get in shape, and air fryers came into a recent conversation.
I’m not prepared to pay the high prices that some of the well known brands cost, that’s why I decided to look into what’s available with a maximum budget of £100.
I know that there are other air fryers out there that are more expensive, but personally, they can keep their over priced stuff and fancy extra’s and I am more than happy to choose function over fancy. Although my partner will want it to look nice, so it’s going to be a search for the best of both worlds really.
(We did write a report a while back on the best 10 air fryers overall here if interested).
Figuring it all out.
So, I guess I ought to think about what we will be using it for.
- Family of 4, and 2 other children who sleep over every other week.
- “Trying” to be a bit healthier
- Chips
- Burgers / Meat
- Fish portions … and so on..
That’ll be a starter for what we need.
I’ve read that you can cook all sorts of stuff in them like cakes and so on.
So here’s what I’ve done.
I’ve spent 2 or 3 days on this.
Started out by simply looking at what was out there for £100 and under and soon hit information overload.
There’s so many, and a lot of unbranded ones I don’t recognise.
So not wanting to buy a tosh one I thought I’d do some research.
- I discounted ones that I couldn’t see any reviews on.
- I discounted ones that weren’t getting top rated feedback scores
- I also spent some time looking online for any forums to see if anyone had any bad stuff to say about them.
So in essence I knocked out all the cruddy air fryers and hopefully unearthed the ones that aren’t all that bad.
Here’s my own “best air fryers under £100” list and my thoughts on each of them
Best family sized air fryer (under £100!)
FAMILY AIR FRYER 1: Pro Breeze air fryer
Roughly £80 on Amazon UK (prices can change every now and then so you’ll have to check what the current price is for yourself)
Why is it the best “family sized air fryer” ?
- A large family air fryer needs a lot of space inside to cook more food at the same time.
- This is a 5.5 litre model, so it’s up there in the “biggest of the big range!
- It cooks cakes and chips (yay!)
- It’s a sensible shape to fit on your worktop
- Available here on Amazon Prime for fast delivery if you have Prime
- It has hundreds of consistently “almost perfect” reviews on Amazon
- It has the “auto-off” function built in so if you decide to take a sleep and forget it, it won’t burn your food
- It also looks fancy and has a snazzy digital LED screen – one point for the fancy stuff!
- It sits at roughly £80 giving you £20 change to get some Aldi food to try out with it
Anyway in summary, I thought this one looked best as it is a sensible shape (some have wider bases) and won’t sit there like some giant statue taking up all the worktop. It still hit’s the “stylish” buttons if that’s your thing.
If you like this one, you can go see it by clicking here on Amazon and see if it’s still the right choice for you.
Any other family air fryers that are rated as “best” ?
Other excellent rated family sized air fryers include the:
FAMILY AIR FRYER 2 Habor 5.5 litre air fryer (just over £80)
FAMILY AIR FRYER 3 Cooks professional 10 litre air fryer (just under £100) – HUGE CAPACITY!
Cheapest Air Fryer Possible That’s Still “Great”(way way under £100!)
If you’re wanting to air fry as cheap as possible then you’re in luck as there are some great models out there for around £30
BUDGET AIR FRYER 1: Tower Air Fryer T17023
Roughly £30 on Amazon Uk (was previously around £45, check here to see the current price on this one)
Why is it the best “cheap air fryer” ?
- The price is the main reason – it’s one of the cheapest around
- Despite the price it still gets top notch reviews
- We’re not discussing size as this isn’t the criteria here, we are talking “as cheap as possible”
- It’s got the auto switch off and overheat protection
- It’s easy to clean – just pop the cooking basket in the dishwasher, job done
Any other cheap as chips air fryers that are rated as “best” ?
Other excellent rated low cost air fryers include the:
LOW COST AIR FRYER 2: Schallen 17 Litre Air Fryer – around £35 – ginormous capacity, enough for a family of elephants!
LOW COST AIR FRYER 3: Netta Air Fryer – around £40
Smallest Air Fryer Possible (under £100!)
COMPACT AIR FRYER 1: Salter EK2817 Air Fryer
Roughly £40 on Amazon Uk (was previously around £100, check here to see the current price on this one)
Why is it the best “compact air fryer” ?
- It’s slim in size at 23.5 x 23.5 x 30.5 cm. Perfect for small spaces
- It still has lot’s going for it like its style
- It’s a well known brand, AND it’s small and well priced
- It’s got an auto shut off feature so no more burnt food if you forget or get distracted
Any other compact air fryers that are rated as “best” ?
Other excellent rated compact air fryers include the:
COMPACT AIR FRYER 2: Vonshef 1.5 litre air fryer – around the £30 mark
COMPACT AIR FRYER 3: Tower T17026 air fryer – around £35
Buyers Guide
So above are my choices based on me weeding out the crap.
I thought I’d add here some pointers that have come to mind from my time doing the research.
Be aware of unknown brands
Unknown brands are not necessarily all bad. These are just new companies trying to make their mark in life and grow their business.
Normally you would look at past reviews, but that may not always be possible if it’s a brand new listing on Amazon.
What do you do if there are no reviews?
Conduct some “due diligence” on the brand
- This means taking the company name and typing it into Google.
- See if you can find a real address, a real website, a real phone number and email.
- See if you can find names of the company owners and see if those people have ever come under scrutiny in the past 5 years for “anything”
- See if there are any mentions of the company elsewhere – such as a personal blog or a forum like Reddit etc where people vent their anger
- See if the company have a social presence for example a Facebook page, Twitter account and so on.
If you want to purchase, check to see if there are any warranties included.
Any company who import or distribute products have certain obligations to meet. You can review the electrical document on the Uk Gov website here.
Electrical items in the UK MUST Display the CE mark
Read all of the reviews of a product
It’s always good to get a balance view of the good and bad points of an air fryer that you might be looking at. Thankfully all Air fryers sold in the UK have to conform to Uk regulations. When you couple this with good feedback, you are edging towards the right air fryer for you.
Not every air fryer will be perfect. The one you pick might be perfect in many ways but still have a niggle or two. Sometimes this is to be expected, so just be prepared to possibly live with a few minor indiscretions.
Work out what you will cook the most and choose the right size
I will be honest, I’m not one for super fancy food or faffing around. Pop some chips and sausages in, or jacket potatoes or even chicken and I’m happy. Plate it up with some veg or salad and it’s a good start.
If you are a family with kids you should look at a bigger sized air fryer. The extra capacity let’s you cook more at the same time. I’m sure you don’t want to spend all your time cooking multiple times.
However if you just need a small compact air fryer then go for it. It shouldn’t take up to much space and could possible be popped in a cupboard when you’re not using it, but you’d need to check the dimensions first.
