We picked up a new air fryer from Costco on the 23rd after we noticed the old one’s cord was getting really hot when in use. We’ve only had it a handful of years, but it was a free gift Joe got from his old job, so it could be worse.
The new one, a Gourmia, was $40 on sale, normally $50.
What I like:
It has a larger capacity (8-QT verses 3-QT) even though physically it’s not much larger than the old one.
It has a window so you can check on the food without opening it.
The beeps when you make selections are much quieter than the old one, and can be turned off if you want (I knew this going in because I downloaded the user’s manual before deciding to look at it).
The air fryer fan is much quieter than the old one.
It came with a very nice laminated cheat sheet of cooking times for a variety of foods.
It has although cooking modes besides air fryer, like bake, dehydrate, keep warm, although I’m not sure how frequently we’d use those.
It has a cord wrap on the back.
What I don’t like:
When using the preheat option, it will only beep a couple of times to remind you to add the food and gives you something like ten seconds to do so before it just starts counting down the time as if the food is already in it. It does the same thing when it beeps to remind you to turn the food halfway through the cooking time. I wish it would give you more time like our last unit.
When you wash it, water gets in-between the glass and unless you literally unscrew and take it apart, you cannot easily dry it. Owners have also complained grease gets in-between the glass too which means it’s going to look dirty like our toaster oven. The difference is the toaster oven doesn’t live on the counter so I don’t have to look at it.
There aren’t any protective rubber feet on the bottom of the basket so you can’t pull it out and set it down on a bare counter, you’ll need a pot-holder or something. The old one didn’t have this issue.
The stainless steel parts around the basket are difficult to clean without creating streaks, so it looks dirty even when it isn’t.
It has a screen instead of buttons so those get dirty the second you touch them.
The machine was only $40 though, so perhaps I’m expecting too much. Overall I guess I like it, but I don’t love it, and if anything else comes up that is super annoying we might take it back to Costco and look for something else. I like Ninja’s options and watched a video where they don’t beep at all and have physical buttons instead of a screen, which I like, but it’s twice the cost.