A bit late to the party but I bought an Air Fryer to see how useful they might be to me. I selected this model based on features, size, price. I have used my Netta 4.5L Air Fryer almost daily for a month.
TL;DR
I think that the NETTA 4.5L Air Fryer works well as a deep-fat fryer and convection oven replacement. It does what it claims, has simple controls, and has worked flawlessly for me for over a month now.
Review
Pros
- Simple controls: Temperature and Time.
- I wanted a Mechanical Timer rather than digital controls. KISS principle.
- Temperature seems accurate based on my measurement with an oven temperature gauge.
- The temperature range is very useful as I wanted to use it at lower temperatures (80C-110C) for annealing PLA (Polylactic Acid) filament, as well as normal cooking temperatures.
- Cooks food quicker than a conventional oven without dealing with Frying pans or deep fat fryers. I find that I can usually reduce cooking times by 20-30%. I usually need to prepare two separate evening meals in the home so quick cooking is very helpful for me to juggle the tasks.
- The basket release button has a cover that we lift to access the button. I think that this is a good safety and design feature. Some other brands don't have this feature and rely on safety warnings to prevent users from unintentionally releasing the basket.
- The basket cleans up easily after use (or in my case, sometimes after a few uses).
- Compact.
- Food tastes good cooked this way.
- The fats can run off the food and into the bowl below the basket.
- Good value.
Cons
- I found the Timer Knob hard to use because it has no grips. It may be too smooth for kitchen use.
- I solved this by wrapping a rubber band around the knob: works a treat!
Depends
- If you want a longer cooking time then you may want a longer timer.
- The size may not be what you want.
- If you want more sophisticated controls then you could need a digital controlled air fryer.
- We manually take out the basket and give it a shake to assist even cooking. I'm totally happy with this but if you want some automated system then you could need another more complicated air fryer.
Cooked so far
And not necessarily recommend by the manufacturer, so don't try these at home unless you want to crash test dummy like me.
- Fresh and Frozen Root Vegetables.
- Sweet Potato Fries anyone?
- Butternut Squash.
- Baked Eggs: in a dish please, not directly in the basket!
- Tuna melts: of course in a dish, not directly in the basket!
- Sausages, sausages, and more sausages.
- SPAM!
- Nuts and Seeds; roasting.
- PLA (Polylactic Acid) filament: annealed directly in the basket without problems at 100C.
Tips
And not necessarily recommend by the manufacturer, so don't try these at home unless you want to crash test dummy like me.
- I interrupt cooking root vegetables and pour the fat run-off and the vegetables into a bowl, then I pour them back into the basket and continue cooking. This helps to coat the vegetables in a more even layer of fat.
- I mainly use my home made Ghee made from butter so this is solid at the start of cooking and then melts.
Notes
I bought my Netta 4.5L Air Fryer from the Amazon UK website. I plan to update this post in 3 months time to comment on how it continues to perform.