CAN’T help wondering how many of the doubtless thousands of air fryers bought in the Christmas shopping madness will end up discarded, re-gifted  or otherwise dumped.

This must surely be the most useless bit of kitchen gadgetry ever.

Over-publicised, over-promoted and  oversold it is destined for the dump once reality bites.

As commented on here a few months ago, https://tinyurl.com/eps4vnja it is severely limited in its application.

It offers no substantial benefits over any of the several alternative means of cooking a meal. Certainly not any worth the price asked for a model with even moderate capacity.

Little wonder that e-bay is awash with them; page after page in all sizes and the majority declaring “No bids”.  Not exactly a buyers’ rush; more a stampede of sellers.

And the wider media has at last realised that what they were rhapsodising about last year is far from the culinary sensation they rushed to feature without benefit of a road test.

Now they have tried it and found it wanting. As have thousands of others (this bunny included) who too soon made way on their kitchen benches for this space invading gimmick. Something about fools rushing in . . . comes to mind.

When somone so well-tuned into customer value as the Daily Telegraph‘s  ‘Consumer Champion’, Katie Morley, admits to disposing of her air fryer after a six-week trial  https://tinyurl.com/24t5nftx  then the writing is well and truly on the wall.

She describes various disasters and near misses with a family-sized model.

Too late she learned that ingredients need to be given a regular shaking and turning to produce the goods. Also that microwaving food before air-frying it was required.

Why add an extra stage to cooking a meal? So why bother, especially when so many homes find cooking more of a chore than the pleasure it should be?

Which is the point I made some months back. Air fryers do nothing that cannot be achieved with less hassle and more certainty of success by using existing equipment.

One major benefit claimed in these economic hard times is that of opereating costs.

But you would have to be the ultimate Scrooge and then some to spend big on an air fryer for the scant savings in electricity it offers.

Even a microwave, with its limited capacity for family dinners, is far better than this.