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Having the choice of one large or two smaller baskets makes cooking a complete meal much more straightforward, and there is another significant benefit from this, which is you can cook two different food types at the same time. If you’ve got your heart set on a flexible air fryer that can convert from one zone to two, you should definitely consider the Ninja FlexDrawer - a whopper of an air fryer offering a 10.4 capacity. Yes, it is a tad more expensive, but it converts from one to two zones and offers several cooking modes including bake, roast, and max crisp. On top of that it trumps the Russell Hobbs by allowing you to cook at different temperatures and even use different cooking modes simultaneously. Cleaning The time is adjusted via up and down arrows on the left, and the temperature has similar controls on the right. Once you’ve set these for basket 1 on the left, you simply press 2 and adjust the time for the basket on the right. But when you’re setting the timer for basket 2, the time is displayed next to the temperature controls which is super confusing the first couple of times until you get used to it. There are a couple of cooking charts in the instruction manual and they offer suggested time and temperature settings for a variety of basic foods. But generally speaking, it’s quite a basic set of instructions. I should say that because the manual says preheating is optional, I didn’t preheat the air fryer for any of the foods I cooked in it. What's it like to use? I still remember the 1970s when my father proudly proclaimed we were getting a microwave oven, which resulted in a distinct change in how we cooked in our home. Some decades after this, Philips brought Fred van der Weij’s air fryer to the world’s attention, unveiling a consumer model in Berlin in 2010. And just like the introduction of the microwave oven, it has proven to be a revelation in home kitchens worldwide.
My second mistake was more a near miss than a mistake. Roasted tomatoes break down and release lots of tomato juice into the bottom of the pan, which is usually not a problem in most air fryers. But because of the perforated side, if I’d have tried cooking any more than I did, there would have been tomato juice spilling out of the holes in the side divider. These two factors are likely why Russell Hobbs has designed and launched its innovative new air fryer. The main reason to buy this air fryer is the flexibility that comes with being able to split the basket into two zones. But having to cook at the same temperature on both sides, combined with the frustrations I experienced with the perforated dividers, leaves me thinking you’d be better off foregoing the flexible zones. And instead plumping for either a decent size single zone or a good dual zone air fryer.
Preview
My first mistake was putting the fishcakes in the basket at the same time as the tomatoes, despite having programmed a shorter cook time. I hadn’t realised that when cooking two separate foods with a sync finish, the air fryer stops at the appropriate time and alerts you to add your food to the second side.
When I brought up the topic of writing a review on the Russell Hobbs Satisfry Snappi and told her about some of its features, it was music to her ears. Before I tell you about our experience using it, I want to highlight the features that make the Satisfry Air Snappi somewhat of a game-changer.In addition to producing great-tasting food, its flexibility and ease of cleaning, the Russell Hobbs Satisfry Snappi brings another significant benefit to the kitchen table, and that’s its ability to save money on energy costs. According to Russell Hobbs, the Satisfry Air Snappi fries your food up to 76% faster when compared to a conventional oven, which will help save up to 58% on energy costs. For a similar price you can buy the Instant Vortex Plus Dual Basket Air Fryer, which has a slightly reduced capacity at 7.6 litres. But it’s got a lot going for it. In addition to air frying, you can use it to roast, bake, dehydrate, grill and reheat. What’s more, it allows you to cook using a different mode and temperature in each basket. And the viewing windows allow you to see your food while it cooks. But, unlike the Russell Hobbs Satisfry you can’t combine the two zones into one larger single zone.
Converting the Satisfry Air Snappi from one to two baskets or vice versa is very straightforward. Utilising the air fryer in the single 8.5L basket mode requires a connection piece, which sits in the middle and joins the two individual compartments. Using the air fryer in dual basket mode requires moving the connector and inserting metal perforated dividing walls for each basket. First up I set it up as two cooking zones in preparation to heat up some chilled fishcakes alongside roasting some cherry tomatoes. I added around 500g cherry tomatoes that I’d coated in olive oil, balsamic vinegar and seasonings. But before I put them in, I removed the perforated tray so that they were sitting on the solid base. Another feature I found frustrating is that if you set your time and temperature and then pull out the baskets before you’ve pressed start, the display switches off and you lose your settings. Which means you have to remember to put the food in first and then adjust the settings - so that you can immediately press start.Firstly, there's nothing the air fryer can do that another appliance can't do, albeit more slowly. Then there's the issue of sustainability. Why use resources to produce more plastic – which will eventually go to landfill – when you have the means to duplicate its function already? There is also a question of how long it will last. Our expert testing tells us that a high-end oven can last 20 years. Air fryers are still relatively new so we don't have the data on how long they last before they need replacing, but some enthusiastic users report needing to find a replacement every two years. In the dual-compartment mode, the baskets can be used completely independently from each other. It is a genius design, particularly when batch cooking, as once one food has been cooked, its basket can be removed without disturbing the other and filled with another food, continuing the cooking flow. Overall, the air fryer took four of the heats, and drew on a fifth, clearly coming out ahead of the more conventional cooking methods. If that was the only consideration I'd be a convert, but there are other factors that are important to me.
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