Hi - potentially boring energy / ninja chat so will spoiler! Also appreciate if you’ve just got it you may not know so apologies in advance!
We’ve got family members who have purchased air fryers (not the ninja one, just a one drawer job) but they glaze over when I ask them questions about it. We are limited on space but trying to work out if it’s worth rejigging some bits and the initial cost in the energy potentially saved? Is it as simple as because they cook items quicker it will use less electric alongside the gas vs electric cost? As Tunnel said I’d rather not be lining the pockets of the energy firms so much. And another, final question….when roasting a chicken can you still collect any juices for gravy etc?
It’s still getting hotter here - we’re in theA1/M1 corridor and they’re predicting we’ve not peaked yet
. Alongside extreme heat anxiety I find it quite claustrophobic when it’s this hot and all you’re breathing in is hot air. Mr Beds is still having steaming hot showers
. Little Beds’ school had the option for early pick up due to the heat - his teacher looked shattered yesterday, no idea how you teach (or do a lot of jobs) in this heat. Looking forward to the predicted thunderstorms tomorrow
A friend has the pot type and says it takes up a load of room, but we bought the biggest dual drawer one, which I'd say takes up about the same foot print as a microwave, just a bit taller. I think because you don't need lid clearance and it's rectangular, it doesn't feel as though it takes up as much room; maybe teatray size?
It's a smaller cavity on each side, so instead of having to heat up 70-odd litres of space, it's less than a 1/7th of that volume to heat up. It's also not leaking heat out all over like the built in oven does as it has to be insulated to not be dangerous on the counter. You can also use even less energy heating up just one side; like heating (or AC cooling) a smaller room with the doors and windows closed and thermal curtains inherently costs less than doing the same with JM's crappy bungalow.. You don't need to preheat for most things, either, which also saves a bit.
Chicken is really easy - there's a sort of grating that the food sits on and the juices collect underneath without burning or sticking.
We deliberately chose the largest because it's a replacement for the oven, but wanted to be able to have more than one thing cooking at a time without having to mix them; I think the best thing of all is how you can either sync the drawers so they automatically finish at the same time, even if on different temperatures or types of cooking or, if you're cooking two drawers that need to be at the same temperature and timing, you press a button that copies the settings over - and as long as you aren't daft, you're less likely to burn yourself than if you're reaching down into a big oven for a heavy tray and catching your arm on a rack.
My friend uses hers to cook for 5 including 4 adults, 1 of which is a bodybuilder, we're just 2 people but it's perfect for the sort of things we cook, and there's no awful sludge to clean off the inside, it's just washing the drawers up. Only other potential expense would be dehydrator/layered grilling racks (about £20 on Amazon), disposable liners if washing up is a pain (but Mr D is happy to handwash them as they're non stick) and wooden or silicon tools if you only have metal ones.
Current temperature downstairs is 34.9 Celsius. No daylight, well insulated, fan going. Not even going to think about the temperature upstairs right now, as it's usually showing up to 5 degrees hotter in the front bedroom and even more in the back one.
I need sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.
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