This makes it one of the quietest air fryers we’ve tested to date. As well as air fry, the new model can roast, bake, grill, reheat and dehydrate. And while the moosoo air fryer glossy black finish looks nice enough, the control panel was prone to picking up greasy fingerprints, and is likely to need a regular clean with a damp cloth.
Dehydrating is easy to do, even for a first-timer following an online recipe. The Vortex Plus does a great job of cooking donuts through to the center; however, the outside is left undesirably soft. Taste-wise, this is a nonissue, but the donuts had more of a doughy texture rather than cakey.
The reheat function serves as a basic replacement for your microwave. It warmed up my macaroni and cheese lunch with ease, but there is one restriction. You won’t be able to adjust the temperature for your reheat cycle, only the time. Bacon cooked on air fry was one of my favorite results in testing. It was crispy and the design of the slotted baking tray allows grease to drip through to a foil-lined crumb tray below, making cleanup nice and easy. Wiping out the basket is pretty straightforward, which makes clearing the drawer of crumbs a breeze.
It features customizable programs for frequently cooked foods like wings, roasted veggies and more. What we especially love about it is that it has little to no preheating time, making it ideal for quick dinners. The 4-quart size is just right for whipping up snacks for the game or a meal for two.
It’s quiet, averaging just 50dB on my decibel reader (which is comparable to a refrigerator hum, and far quieter than my particularly raucous extractor fan). Plus, it cooks food perfectly every time, offering the right balance of features to make your cooking experience as low-maintenance as possible. For performance, the Instant Vortex Slim delivers exactly what we’ve come to expect from Instant Pot.
The VersaZone isn’t my favorite model I’ve tested, but as someone that doesn’t live with a large family, I don’t think I’m the target market. What I can say is that this air fryer exceeded my expectations, and it’s probably the most broad-appeal air fryer on the market. However, it doesn’t cook smaller portions as well as a single-drawer, small capacity air fryer.
I was able to cook two trays of fries at the same time but needed to rotate the trays and extend the cooking time for even results, which I wish the manual had suggested. We tested some air fryer pork ribs with bbq sauce and it was a winner! We just needed to rotate the racks to get all the ribs cooked evenly. Carrie-Ann Skinner was formerly Homes Editor at TechRadar, and has more than two decades of experience in both online and print journalism, with 13 years of that spent covering all-things tech. Carrie specializes in smart home devices such as smart plugs and smart lights, as well as large and small appliances including vacuum cleaners, air fryers, stand mixers, and coffee machines. Note, too, that this Instant air fryer is quieter in use than its predecessor, measuring just 51.7db on our decibel meter – which is equivalent to the gentle hum of a refrigerator.
We put a lot of time and research into this so sharing is caring! The Vortex Plus left itself very little room for improvement in our cooking tests, prepping everything to near perfection. During day-to-day use, I did notice that I had to turn the timer up a little when cooking on a single-drawer. It’s not the most energy-efficient, but then, it’s a lot more efficient than cooking a meal for one in a really large cooking drawer, which would also waste energy. Avoid foods dipped in batter, such as calamari, tempura shrimp and buttermilk fried chicken.
It is lightweight and easy to store away, or it could be left out on the counter unobtrusively. But if you want to cook more than one to two portions of food at a time, you should opt for a larger air fryer. Some claim to be dishwasher safe, but most have a nonstick coating that can be damaged by the dishwasher and will eventually wear off no matter how well you treat it. But unlike these larger, pricier appliances, many pod-shaped air fryers are compact, fast, easy to use, and even a little fun.