It was my birthday recently and my mum wanted to know what to get me for my birthday. After writing this article about the best air fryers to buy in Australia, I decided that I wanted to get a new air fryer.
I had an old model of a no-name brand from a few years ago that gave off such a bad smell whenever I cooked with it that it had long ago been relegated to the bottom of the cupboard and was never used anymore.
After seeing so many tempting recipes on Pinterest and reading all the reviews for my air fryer article, I decided to give air frying another go.
Mum was very happy with this choice as, like me, she is a big fan of shopping on Amazon and this was a nice easy way to cross buying me a birthday present off her to-do list!
She decided that since I was the air fryer expert I should just buy the one I wanted and she would reimburse me later. So I went straight to amazon planning to order the Instant Pot Vortex Plus Air Fryer.
This was the model that stood out to me when I did my comparisons of the top selling air fryers and, as you may know, I’m already a big fan of the Instant Pot so I figured an air fryer made by the same company would be great too. And, I’m sure it would be.
But, when I got to the Amazon page full of air fryers, this new, stainless steel model of the Innsky 5.5L Air Fryer caught my eye. They had only had the black one in stock when I wrote my previous article so I hadn’t seen this version of the Innsky – it looked kind of like the Instant Pot Vortex.
The Innsky was very well rated and about $80 cheaper than the Instant Pot Vortex. So that started to make me rethink my decision. Price wasn’t the only factor (my mum was happy to pay after all!), there were two other factors that swayed me over to buying the Innsky over the Instant Pot Vortex – availability and recipes.
While both models were available to buy on Australian Amazon and both come with plugs suitable for use in Australia, at the time I ordered, the Innsky was available for delivery within 2 days which meant it was here in an Australian warehouse.
The Instant Vortex, however, had just over a week for expected delivery time which made me think it either wasn’t in the country yet or at least not in my state.
One of the biggest negatives about the Instant Pot Vortex, according to the reviews, was the lack of instructions and recipes. Meanwhile, the Innsky came with a 32 page recipe booklet which would be enough to get started and learn how to air fry.
So, after much deliberation, I saved my mum some money and went with the more affordable Innsky Air Fryer.
To say I am impressed is an understatement! Don’t get me wrong, I still think I would have enjoyed an Instant Pot Vortex too, but the Innsky has so far done everything I could ask of it.
What’s more, Amazon lived up to their reputation of fast delivery – I ordered it at about lunch time on a Sunday and it was delivered by 9 am the next day! Got to be happy with that!
I recorded a quick unboxing video of it which you can watch here if you’re interested.
Here are a few things I particularly like about my new air fryer:
1.
Detailed instructions were included in the box – but it’s very easy to figure out if you’re not into reading instruction manuals.
2.
The touchscreen controls are highly intuitive and easy to adjust.
3.
It doesn’t smell! I’d read a few reviews of air fryers in general that report a very bad smell, with others insisting you need to run your machine for 20 minutes without putting food in it to first burn off any plastic smell.
I ran this one in the “preheat mode” twice (so for 10 minutes) and there was only a minor smell at the beginning then nothing!
4.
It’s easy to preheat – all air fryers need to be preheated to cook properly, this machine has a “preheat” button to push which will automatically preheat the air fryer for 5 minutes.
5.
Easy to clean! The basket and the drawer come right out of the machine and appear to have a nonstick coating of some kind which means food and debris washes off very easily.
6.
Large capacity – I have a family of 5 so I need to be able to cook a fair bit at once. A whole packet of frozen chips was no bother – could easily fit in another half a packet or more too.
7.
Recipes – sure, we all have access to literally thousands of air fryer recipes if we do a google search or search on Pinterest. But, sometimes it’s nice to know that the recipes are intended for your machine.
While it’s only a small 32 page booklet of recipes, they’re the sort of recipes you will actually use like fried chicken and corn on the cob.
What about the negatives?
There are only 2 minor drawbacks that I have discovered:
1.
The handle takes a bit of getting used to – you have to sort of push the plastic cover forward, it’s hard to explain, you just have to have a go at it and figure it out.
Once the basket and drawer are removed from the machine it’s easy to slip the plastic cover forward, press down on the eject button and the basket separates from the base easily, you just need to have a go and figure out for yourself how to release the drawer/basket combo from the rest of the unit.
2.
Noise. I don’t think this would be the noisiest air fryer around – but I doubt that it’s the quietest either. I guess, when you think about it, the air fryer has to generate and blow hot air and it’s not possible to do that without making noise.
It’s not a deal breaker in its volume, I just know if I’m trying to watch TV while cooking dinner, I’ll need to turn up the volume if I turn the air fryer on.
This problem could potentially be solved if you have a butlers pantry or space where you can store and use your air fryer that could be a bit more shut away than my open plan kitchen/family room area.
So, would I recommend buying the Innsky 5.5L air fryer?
Absolutely! So far everything I’ve cooked in it has been a hit with the family – especially frozen, store bought chips, they turn out so much better than if you cook them in an oven!
Do I regret not buying the Instant Pot Vortex?
No – while I would still love to try one out one day, the air fryer I purchased does its job really well and, at just over $100, it was a bargain compared to the Vortex which sits more around the $190 mark.
Here’s the video we made showing everything you get in the box with the Innsky air fryer – if you watch to the end, you’ll even see our first air frying attempt where we turned potatoes into hot chips!
So, if you’re in the market for a new air fryer, by all means try the Instant Pot Vortex Plus (if you do, let me know how it goes!) or else read my comprehensive article which compares the top 5 air fryers in Australia right now.
Or, if you want to keep things simple, just grab yourself an Innsky air fryer today – I think it’s the best, affordable, value for money air fryer available in Australia.
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