To judge portability, I first assessed the size and weight of the air fryer and the length of the cord (a longer cord will give you more options for where to put a countertop appliance). I looked at how simple and straightforward the machine is to assemble without instructions, and also considered how easy the control panel was to read and use. The Instant Vortex has an incredibly intuitive control panel that made it one of the easiest to use in my tests. You can easily remove the basket from the machine, and a built-in light lets you see what’s happening inside the oven without opening the drawer. I found the built-in light to be a helpful feature in the Instant Vortex, and in the Breville oven. Other fryers—like the Cosori, Dash, and Philips—lacked this handy light and were a little harder to use.
With rotisserie feature for perfect self-basting dishes, this spit will be a hit. Not like a traditional oven where the door face is cool to touch. Many people don’t like to cook with Teflon coating for various instant vortex different reasons that I won’t get into here, but this is a drawback for some people. What is cool about this, is that halfway through your cook cycle, it will beep at you and tell you to flip your food.
The crisper plate’s airflow slots trapped debris and needed a firmer scrub. Fortunately, a wash cycle in the dishwasher got the job done, and it only takes up the space of a dinner plate. Drip Pan – this pan goes on the bottom of the unit and comes in and out so easily and makes clean up a breeze.
A thirty-year veteran of the Good Housekeeping Institute, Sharon also worked as a professional chef in New York City restaurants for seven years. In her free time, she is an avid home cook who is in the process of mastering the art of baking sour dough bread. Both the basket and the rack are nonstick and have relatively few crevices, making each easy to wash by hand. The Vortex can accommodate a chicken larger than 4 pounds, if it is placed on the baking tray. We know consumers want appliances to be compact for counters, so it was more about keeping the overall footprint smaller.
We tried a range of foods in these air fryers to see how they perform. This isn’t the first line of air fryers to come from Instant. We tested the first edition of the Vortex Plus back in 2019 and had some mixed feelings. Garlic Cheese Bread is a simple yet delicious dish that’s perfect for any moosoo air fryer meal. With the addition of air fryer roasted garlic, this recipe takes classic cheese bread to a whole new level of flavor. Honey ginger chicken is a delicious Asian dish that combines honey with the zesty kick of fresh ginger to make the most scrumptious air fryer chicken thighs recipe.
Yeah, this sort of like that, but turned down a notch or two. The Instant Vortex has four pre-programmed settings to air fry, bake, roast and reheat similar to the Instant Pot’s seven settings. The caveat here is the Vortex only has eight buttons, four of which are those programs, plus Start, Cancel, Time and Temp. The dial in the center of the screen easily allows you to adjust the temperature in 5-degree intervals and the text is large and easy to read.
Browning was better on the second side and was similar to the coloring you get from broiling, rather than the deep brown crusty exterior you get from grilling or even pan frying. But once again, there was no smoke and no greasy splatters on the cooktop or pan to clean up. Are you curious about all the other air fryers we tested out? I gave it a go with a popular online recipe, 2 pounds of thinly sliced top round beef and a tasty marinade. Set at 155 for 3 hours, I filled two trays with the marinated meat.
When it came to testing the XL Dual model, we experienced similar results to the singular Vortex Plus model—with some disappointing differences. The Brussels sprouts cooked in the XL Dual had significantly inferior, undercooked results compared to the singular model. The ClearCook window allows you to monitor your food as it cooks—without letting heat escape.
Brussels sprouts came out nicely browned with crispy edges, frozen fries had a decadent crunch and melty interior, and bacon was browned and crunchy without getting burnt. The fried chicken and waffles were especially impressive; my family couldn’t believe those chicken thighs hadn’t been deep fried when I brought them to the dinner table. The Ultenic K10 is a bit more of a statement piece aesthetically and rings in a similar size and capacity to the Slim. It’s a little pricier but comes with more presets, a companion app, and other smart features. Unlike its siblings, the Instant Vortex Slim doesn’t have a ClearCook window through which you can watch your food cook.
We also set both baskets to the same temperature and checked for any discrepancies, and again, the Vortex Plus XL proves accurate. Fortunately, the Vortex Plus XL is easy to clean, and the two smaller baskets are much easier to throw on a drying rack than one larger basket. Sharon Franke is a journalist who specializes in testing and writing about kitchen equipment.