Peak air fryer?
Sep. 26th, 2024 07:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Shortly after these became a big 'thing' in the UK, I realised that they're small fan ovens.
We've got a fan oven, so why pay £100 for a small one?
Staying with someone who finds their one very useful was a small nudge.
Using the one in the Edinburgh flat that the niece has was another one: if there's just one of you wanting to eat after coming back after midnight, having the heating element much closer to the food making things quicker is a big plus, even before you consider the lower electricity usage.
So when Lidl said they were going to sell some for £14.99 from the 12th, I went 'Oooh'.
I was expecting to have to be there at opening time (8am) to get one, but - having missed setting the alarm to earlier than its usual 8am - wandering over there around 11am, I still found plenty of them.
In fact, there were three sorts. The 4L one I was after from Daewoo that was £14.99, a smaller (2L?) own brand one for the same price, and a fancier one from Tower for £44.99 that really is a small fan oven.
I checked on Amazon - yes, they really sell the Daewoo for £49.99 there and the reviews were fine* - and bought one.
The next time I went, around a week later, they seemed to have gone, but that ones at £14.99 were still there hours after opening did make me wonder if we have had 'peak air fryer' in that most of the people who want one already have one?
* At least one of the reviews did make me pause for a second, because it described it as using an unreplaceable halogen lamp for the heat source, with a limited life. But the three year warranty made me go 'that's £5/year' and it turns out that they're completely wrong about that: looking inside reveals it's a standard heating element.