There’s a reason air fryers have taken over many people’s kitchens: These days, you can fry almost anything in an air fryer, from typical quick meals like chicken, chips, and veggies to more unique dishes like mac and cheese, steak, and bagels, saving you precious money and time in the kitchen.
While most people haven’t abandoned traditional cooking methods entirely, avid home cooks often go days, or even weeks, without switching on their cookware, opting instead for countertop gadgets from the likes of Ninja, Tefal and Lakeland to save on electricity bills and cook healthier meals.
But as Wales Online reports, shoppers have now found an even cheaper alternative to air fryers, with foodies switching to healthier halogen ovens, which are small enough to fit on a kitchen worktop and cost much less to run.
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The £29.89 Daewoo model, available on Amazon, costs just 11p for 20 minutes of cooking, making it the choice of shoppers who “don’t want to splash out on a Ninja”. The model, which has roast, bake and grill settings, made waves earlier this year when mid-aisle Aldi shoppers spotted it cost £10 less than the supermarket’s 4.5 litre version.
It has more than double the capacity at 17 litres and can “cook perfectly”, but is selling for £29.99 in Aldi – 1p cheaper than the Amazon version.
Halogen ovens, also known as halogen air fryers, are generally larger than your typical drawer-style air fryer and can cook larger amounts of food at once. As the name suggests, halogen lights are used to cook food, and the glass bowl makes it easy to see what’s cooking.
To show how much cheaper cooking with a halogen model is than with a regular air fryer, we used energy saving site Sust-it to compare 20 minute run times: The Daewoo halogen model costs just 11p for 20 minutes running at 1300W – that’s a lot cheaper than, say, using Ninja’s Foodi FlexiDrawer Dual AirFryer, which at 2470W costs 20p for 20 minutes running.
Many users on Amazon are raving about this huge cost-saving feature, with one shopper explaining: “I ordered this as a much cheaper alternative to my air fryer. I’ve been using it for a few months now and it’s completely replaced my oven.”
“It fits a medium sized chicken and has space for a few roast potatoes. I’ve also used it to bake cakes and breads and the results have been fantastic. As it’s made of glass it’s easy to see how food is cooked/toasted without having to open it.”
Another Amazon shopper said, “I won’t be replacing my halogen model with an air fryer anytime soon,” while other reviews point out the quick cooking time. A second shopper said, “It cooks fast, cooks evenly, cooks in half the time of a regular oven, you don’t have to submerge food in oil, and you can deep fry.”
Of the 7,822 reviews, 7% gave the Daewoo air fryer one star, with reviewers complaining that the heater “never gets hot enough” and the bulb only lasts two months. A number of brands sell halogen air fryers on Amazon, including the £49 Tower T14048.