You’ve finally decided to buy the
hot air fryer. No doubt you’ve read up about air fryer reviews online or even have friends who rave about their air fryers.
The 2 major ones are the Airfryer vs Actifry – which one to buy?
Both use hot air technology but they come in different designs and cooking parts.
I’ll be talking more on the different cooking parts of these air fryers and what type of food is best suited for the 2 different designs.
You would want the best air fryer that caters to your cooking needs.
Disclosure: I may be compensated through the links in the post below but at no extra cost to you. The opinions are my own
Philips Hot Air Fryer
The smallest capacity Philips airfryer USA comes with a 1.8 pounds cooking basket that sits on a non-stick drip tray or drawer.
The cooking basket has a metal mesh bottom for improved air circulation.
The hot air can reached the bottom part of the food sitting on the basket. This ensures more even cooking in all directions that is so essential for successful hot air frying.
Besides the cooking basket, there are other Philips air fryer accessories that greatly improves your cooking options.
You can read the full review of the Philips air fryer here.
Tefal Actifry Fryer
The Tefal Actifry hot air cooker has a rotating non-stick ceramic cooking bowl instead of the cooking basket.
It is also fitted with a stirring paddle to stir the food thus ensuring a more even cooking and browning. This also prevents the food from sticking to the base of the bowl.
The T fal Actifry has a fixed temperature which makes it less flexible where either higher or lower temperatures are necessary for cooking certain types of food.
My Tefal Actifry review helps you to understand more about this home hot air fryer.
Tefal Actifry and Philips Air fryer Comparison
Here are the important differences between these 2 popular air fryers.
Airfryer VS Actifry – Cooking Options
Tefal Actifry non stick ceramic pan with foldable handle
The Philips hot air cooker with its squarish cooking basket is more practical compared to the Tefal round cooking bowl with the hole in the center.
You can put a small whole chicken to roast inside the Philips cooking basket but this is not possible in the Tefal bowl.
Any food item that is big size will not fit into the ceramic bowl due to its unique design.
It is more suitable for the smaller cuts of food ingredients.
When the food ingredients are cut into too big sizes, the paddle has difficulty pushing the food around. This can result in the food getting stuck in the paddle or even breaking it.
Fried rice, fried noodles, fried vegetables, fried chicken wings, fried potatoes, meat slices etc turn out great in the Tfal fryer.
You can also fry meat slices and vegetables together and add a little bit of sauce just before cooking is completed.
But steak or lamp chop is out, so is the whole roast chicken or roast pork belly.
You cannot bake a whole cake in the Tefal fryer whereas this can be done in the Philips model.
In fact, they have specially designed a non-stick baking dish specially for use in the air fryer. Thus you can bake muffins, bread etc. in this Philips baking dish.
The air fryer baking dish is even possible to cook casseroles, curries or any recipes that come with a sauce.
This does seem like the Philips hot air fryer offer more cooking options compared to the Tefal Actifry.
However, you need to stop the Philips air fryer halfway during cooking to give the food items a shake. This is done to ensure more even cooking.
This is not necessary for the Tefal air fryer with its stirring paddle. Looks like it is more hands-free.
Air Fryer Control Buttons
The Philips airfryer with its wide temperature ranges from 150 – 390°F do offer more cooking options.
Different foodstuff cook best at different temperatures.
Even the same food item, for example chicken drumsticks, cook at a lower temperature at the beginning part of the cooking time with a higher temperature at the end of the cooking time.
This is to get the nice golden skin color as well as moist and tender meat.
With the Tefal Actifry, the cooking temperature is fixed at 338°F. You can only adjust the total time needed.
Hot Air fryer Accessories
The Philips brand has come out with accessories such as the wire rack insert, grill pan or baking dish to offer more cooking options.
With the wire rack, there is another cooking surface area besides the cooking basket. Thus you can cook more at the same time.
The Grill Pan’s perforated surface creates ideal air flow while grilling
The Philips air fryer grill pan is perfect for grilling that piece of steak or fish fillet. Delicate food items can be cooked on the grill.
This is in contrast to the Tefal air fryer cooking bowl with its paddle.
The paddle will break up delicate food items such as fish fillet.
Some customers have commented that they have tried cooking salmon fillets with the paddle removed.
However, this is not recommended as oil and food might get blown into the motor unit.
Conclusion
You can fry, bake, grill and roast in the Philips air fryer.
As for the Tefal Actifry, smaller cuts food ingredients fare better.
Chinese stir-fries do very well in the Actifry fryer compared to the Philips model.
The Philips hot air food fryer offers more cooking options due in part to its optional accessories.
However, the Philips optional air fryer accessories have to be bought separately and thus incurring additional costs.
For the Tefal low fat air fryer, you do not have to remember to give the food a toss midway during cooking as is needed for the Philips hot air food fryer.
Both models come with small and large cooking capacities.
Food taste great whichever hot air fryer you use but the Philips air fryer does offer more cooking options because of its design and optional air fryer accessories. At least there are options even though you have to pay extra.
The Tefal Actifry fryers sold in Europe and Asia do come with accessories such as a snacking wire rack and another cooking pan. If these are also sold in the States, then there will be more options for the Tefal hot air food fryer.