Turns out air fryers aren't always the cheaper option

Turns out air fryers aren't always the cheaper option

Air fryer lovers, don't come for us, we are only presenting you with another view point. 

An air fryer with hot chips inside
An air fryer with hot chips inside/Facebook/@potatoesZA

The craze surrounding air fryers has died down to some extent. 

But there are still those die-hard fans who will do anything to keep their favourite appliance on the top of the most-wanted list. 

And to those die-hard fans, we have to say, don't come for us. We recently saw an article that spoke about "how air fryers don't always outweigh ovens in being cheaper to use". 

And, of course, it piqued our interest. 

A big factor when using an air fryer besides the 'ease' and convenience it offers is its power-saving ability.  

But it seems that that point is being questioned by popular financial journalist, Martin Lewis. In an episode of his podcast, "the 50-year-old explained how air fryers don't always outweigh ovens in being cheaper to use." (Ladbible)

He goes into some detail to explain the consistency in producing heat when using a microwave as opposed to a conventional oven, in comparison to the power used in an air fryer. 

"If you were doing a full roast dinner and you were cooking many [jacket potatoes], it’s probably cheaper [putting them in the oven] than putting five or six jacket potatoes in a microwave because each additional object you put in a microwave, you need to keep it on longer because a microwave just heats the individual object," Lewis adds." (Ladbible)

Then he goes on to share how depending on what you are cooking or heating, each device can vary with the cost factor. 

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"An oven costs 21p to use on average and 800W air fryer costs 13.6p to use." (Ladbible)

That's R4.79 to use an oven and an average 800W air fryer costs R3.10. But here's the tricky part, when you are using a more powerful air fryer, then you could be using almost the same amount of energy as you would with an oven. 

In short, air fryers aren't always the most cost-effective route. It all works according to the wattage and the item of food that you are cooking. 

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