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. This air fryer pre-heats, which is not a feature you’ll find with the Ninja air fryers we tested alongside this model. The pre-heat took about a minute and a half, after which the air fryer prompts you to add your food. If you don’t want the hassle of pre-heating it and then adding your food, we suspect that adding it in when you set the air fryer up to pre-heat won’t make too much of a difference to cooking times.
Both the handle and the controls don’t get much warmer than room temperature. We measured a noise level of 66.5dB during heating, which is the loudest of the air moosoo air fryer fryers we had on test. It’s worth mentioning that this is not so noisy that you won’t be able to have a conversation over the top of it while it’s running.
However, the air fryer struggled to cook the broccoli evenly, performing in the middle of the pack during testing. It could have been more even, but my family still gobbled the batch up. It’s 20% smaller than some of Instant Pot’s other models, but doesn’t sacrifice capacity, offering 6 quarts / 5.7 liters. Given that many older air fryers of this size offer a reduced capacity of 2 quarts / 2 liters, this is a huge win for the instant vortex Slim. On the front of the air fryer is a handle that’s used to pull out the basket, which requires minimal fuss or force. Inside is a lift-out tray whose metal handle tucks in flush to the tray, meaning you don’t lose precious space in the center of the fryer as we’ve seen with some other models.
My previous air fryer was a bit of a strange roundish shape, and I find the nice square shape nicer aesthetically, and less awkward to carry, move, and put things beside. Sharon Franke is a journalist who specializes in testing and writing about kitchen equipment. A thirty-year veteran of the Good Housekeeping Institute, Sharon also worked as a professional chef in New York City restaurants for seven years.
There are no preset cooking programs on this air fryer; instead you need to set the temperature and time manually as well as the overall setting, such as air fry, roast or reheat. There’s also little guidance in terms of cooking charts supplied — you will need to go online to find these. Like most air fryers, it excels at delivering crispy food in a fraction of the time. Small but thoughtful design features dramatically simplify the cooking process. This air fryer is perfect for cooking any fried foods that would otherwise go in the deep fryer.