Is it cheaper to cook with an air fryer?

I'm a idiosyncratic and BBC Radio 4 presenter and connected my user programme, Sliced Bread, I often get asked astir the latest gadgets.

With nutrient and vigor prices expanding astatine their fastest complaint successful 40 years, radical are looking for proposal connected the cheapest ways to navigator food. So erstwhile listeners asked maine whether an aerial fryer truly was bully worth for money, my squad and I decided to investigate.

An aerial fryer is astir the aforesaid size arsenic a breadmaker and sits connected your room counter. It cooks by blowing precise blistery air, astatine precocious speed, each astir the food.

"It's fundamentally a precise strong, precise blistery wind," says Dr Jakub Radzikowski, Culinary Education Designer astatine Imperial College London. "You could comparison it to drying your hairsbreadth with a hairdryer."

It works successful a akin mode to a instrumentality oven, Dr Radzikowski explains, but due to the fact that it is smaller and has a stronger fan, the aerial currents tin beryllium arsenic beardown arsenic those successful a commercialized oven.

The operation of a almighty instrumentality and a smaller compartment makes the aerial fryer much businesslike and reduces the clip needed to pre-heat it.

"If I person a chickenhearted thigh, I volition astir apt navigator it for 20 minutes successful an aerial fryer. In an oven it would instrumentality longer," helium says.

That said, an aerial fryer has its drawbacks. Because the drawer has little capacity, you tin lone navigator smaller amounts.

"If you're cooking for 4 radical oregon six people, the clip redeeming doesn't enactment anymore due to the fact that you person to navigator successful batches successful the aerial fryer," says Dr Radzikowski.

For the Sliced Bread programme, shaper Simon performed 2 tests.

In the first, helium cooked 1 chickenhearted limb successful his accustomed oven, and past 1 same-sized chickenhearted limb successful his aerial fryer; successful the second, helium cooked 1 overgarment murphy successful his oven and past 1 same-sized overgarment murphy successful his aerial fryer.

The oven was an electrical convection oven, and helium was cautious to marque definite different appliances astir his location were switched disconnected portion helium was cooking.

He utilized his astute metre readings to spot however overmuch vigor helium used, and we past crunched the numbers to cipher the costs of cooking the items successful an oven versus an aerial fryer.

In the regular oven, the chickenhearted took 35 minutes to navigator and utilized 1.05 kWh of electricity, moving retired astatine a outgo of 35.7p.

Cooking the chickenhearted successful the aerial fryer took 20 minutes and utilized 0.43 kWh of electricity, astatine a outgo of 14.62p.

The murphy took astir an hr to navigator successful the oven. That was 1.31 KWh, astatine a outgo of 44.54p.

In the aerial fryer, the murphy took 35 minutes, utilizing 0.55 kWh of electricity, costing 18.07p.

So - allowing for tiny variations similar however aged your oven is, and however overmuch vigor it uses - cooking successful an oven costs much than treble what it costs to navigator successful an aerial fryer. But lone if you navigator each your nutrient successful the aforesaid batch successful the aerial fryer.

Some listeners were frustrated that we didn't see the archetypal outgo of an aerial fryer successful our calculations. It's tricky, due to the fact that immoderate radical - similar maine - person a 2nd manus aerial fryer oregon got 1 arsenic a gift. If you bargain 1 yourself, they tin outgo from £65 for a cheaper exemplary to arsenic overmuch arsenic £250 for the much costly ones.

Since we didn't origin successful the outgo of a accepted oven successful immoderate mode to our calculations either, we thought we'd support it elemental and permission it out.

While aerial fryers are a cost-effective mode of cooking, Simon told america they're besides a tasty one.

He said the chickenhearted legs cooked successful the aerial fryer had that crisp tegument but the nutrient wasn't adust and retained a beauteous juiciness. The oven chickenhearted legs were drier. But helium preferred the mode the accepted oven cooked the tegument of the overgarment potato, possibly due to the fact that it took longer to cook. The remainder of the potato, helium said, tasted precisely the aforesaid successful both.

The caller bid of Sliced Bread returns to BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds connected 3 November.