REVIEW – Have you been wanting an air fryer? Maybe you’ve been concerned that they’re a hassle to clean and maintain? Well Fritaire’s Self-Cleaning Glass Bowl Air Fryer tackles both of those in a single product.
What is it?
Talk about your self-descriptive product names… The Fritaire Self-Cleaning Glass Bowl Air Fryer is an air fryer that has a glass bowl and is self cleaning. Everything (hardware related) you need to start air frying is in the box (except AAA batteries).
What’s included?
- Air-Fryer burner lid/control panel
- Glass bowl/base w/ handles and rotisserie anchors
- French tumbler basket
- Rotisserie skewer
- Grabber tool (for removing a hot tumbler/rotisserie)
- Air Stand (raised mesh tray)
- Rotisserie motor
- Instructions and assorted pamphlets
Tech specs
Click to expand
- Large 5 quart | 4.8 L capacity glass bowl
- Intuitive digital touch control panel
- 6 convenient cooking preset functions
- 60-minute timer
- Halogen Heater (1500W, 400° F / 200° C max. temp)
- 360° Air Flow Technology (engineered vortex convection)
- Overheat protection
- Automatic shut off
- Teflon free, Plastic free, Phthalate free, BPA free (bowl)
Design and features
Fritaire definitely took a design-centric approach to the air fryer.
From the glass bowl to the 4 available colors, it’s meant to find a spot on your counter top. Below is Lily White, Midnight Black, Orange and Sage Green, the last of which definitely feeling way more blue than green. Kinda wishing I had chosen the White version because it’s just begging for some R2D2 vinyl stickers.
The controls for the Fritaire Self-Cleaning Glass Bowl Air Fryer are laid out on the top, with power, start/stop, and food shortcut buttons. There are also clear controls for temperature and duration, which show up on the easy-to-see display as they’re being adjusted.
One of the coolest features is the self-cleaning mode. Add 1-2″ of water to the bowl with a small amount of dishwashing liquid and then set the temp to 400º and the timer for 10 minutes. It then goes into magic mode as it swirls and washes itself.
Assembly, Installation, Setup
The Fritaire Self-Cleaning Glass Bowl Air Fryer is designed only to need setup for the particular cooking method you’re using at the time. As a result, it feels pretty modular with all parts able to be stored in the glass bowl when not in use.
Remove the lid which is also the heating element and the control module, and then place the corresponding component into the glass bowl depending on the cooking method you’ll be using….
Air Stand: Place this in the bottom of the bowl with your food on top. The stand allows air to circle underneath removing the need for you to flip the food during the cooking process.
French tumbler basket: Engage the left side of the tumbler into the rotisserie shaft socket and the right side into the hangar with the basket door upward and accessible.
Rotisserie skewer: Insert the skewer through the food you want to prepare, either kebab style or for a rotisserie meat also use the prongs for stabilization using the indentations for the set thumb screws. Engage the left side of the skewer into the rotisserie shaft socket and the right side into the hangar.
If using either the skewer or the basket, Fritaire included a useful grabber tool to help remove them when hot from cooking. It’s a simple bent wire handle with left and right hooks to lift the right side out of the channel and then the left out of the socket.
For the tumber or the skewer, you will need the rotisserie motor. If you haven’t already, remove the battery cover and install 4AAA batteries (not included).
Open the motor cover on the right side of the bowl and install the motor so that it is fully engaged into the receiver and will be able to rotate the skewer. Starting the rotisserie function is as simple as sliding the switch to ON (shown above left).
Performance
The Fritaire Self-Cleaning Glass Bowl Air Fryer is absolutely an easy appliance to use. All the tools for common air frying methods are included. Setting the temp and duration is easy. Being able to see your food is great, especially if you’re tweaking a recipe or trying something new and unfamiliar with how long a process might take.
The first thing we did was set about air frying a chicken and ran into one of the only realy issues we found. On the rotisserie skewer, this small chicken did not have enough room to turn without contacting the cooking surface, so we ended up leaving it on the skewer, and manually turning it every so often during the cooking duration. It came out great (according to my son who is not a vegetarian), plenty of moisture and evenly cooked. Lesson learned was small fowl or rotisserie meats and tying any wings or legs close to skewer center.
Later, we tried air-frying some tofu. The trick here is to squeeze as much water out beforehand as possible and then increase the duration until you reach the desired consistency. Even firm tofu sheds a good bit in the tumbler, so the Air Stand is probably a better bet.
Butternut squash cubes worked out really well in the basket though.
Salmon worked really well placed on top of tin foil which also helped minimize clean up.
And made for an awesome dinner.
The only other issue we ran into was a smell that emanated from the air fryer/burner lid that had a heated plastic smell to it. Fritaire’s site claims that it is Teflon free, Plastic free, Phthalate free, BPA free which is definitely true of the glass bowl cooking surface, but there is clearly plastic used throughout the top structure where the burner is. There was never any food contamination that we could taste, but there was always a smell that fought against all the good smells coming from the food. To date that “off-gassing” smell has not diminished with use.
As for storage, it takes up the room that it takes up. There is no nesting where you can flip the top upside down into the bowl or any other way to reduce the size, so make sure you’ve got some cabinet space or expansive counters for another appliance to remain out and on display.
What I like about Fritaire’s Self-cleaning glass bowl air fryer
- Complete air fryer system with static, rotisserie and french basket cooking methods
- Automated self cleaning
- Glass bowl is proven food-safe surface and it’s great for visibility
What needs to be improved?
- There’s an off-gassing smell from the heater lid that never seems to go away
- Rotisserie volume is smaller than appears due to proximity to heater surface
- No compact storage mode – it’s full size all the time.
Final thoughts
As with any appliance, there’s a learning curve, but straight out of the box, the Fritaire Self-Cleaning Glass Bowl Air Fryer did a commendable job of making it easy and delicious to start figuring it out. I’d really like to hear that they’ve figured out how to remove the heated plastic smell from the cooking process so that all the good smells coming from the food in the glass bowl can thrive.
Price: $199.99
Where to buy: Fritaire.com and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by Fritaire. They did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
