There are no preset cooking programs on this air fryer; instead you need to set the temperature and time manually as well as the overall setting, such as air fry, roast or reheat. There’s also little guidance in terms of cooking charts supplied — you will need to go online to instant pot duo nova find these. Like most air fryers, it excels at delivering crispy food in a fraction of the time. Small but thoughtful design features dramatically simplify the cooking process. This air fryer is perfect for cooking any fried foods that would otherwise go in the deep fryer.
Lastly, I tried a slightly rogue test of frozen cinnamon rolls. I tried the bake setting at 320ºF / 160ºC for 15 minutes, resulting in fabulously flaky pastry with a moist middle. For performance, the instant pot duo nova Slim delivers exactly what we’ve come to expect from Instant Pot. Maximum cooking temperature is 400ºF / 205ºC and the timer will run for up to an hour. At $99, the Instant Vortex is cheaper than many other models out there with the same capacity and functions.
As briefly touched on, both units have the standard air fryer cooking methods we expect and a little more, with both units being able to air fry, bake, reheat and roast. The Instant Pot Vortex is an air fryer from Instant pot which can air fry, bake, reheat and roast. The Instant Pot Vortex Plus has the functionality of the Vortex with the added functions of dehydrating and broiling food.
Both the handle and the controls don’t get much warmer than room temperature. We measured a noise level of 66.5dB during heating, which is the loudest of the air fryers we had on test. It’s worth mentioning that this is not so noisy that you won’t be able to have a conversation over the top of it while it’s running.
We did find it browned frozen French fries and chicken nuggets well, but the limited capacity of the inner pot made it difficult to air fry large batches of food. The has four pre-programmed settings to air fry, bake, roast and reheat similar to the Instant Pot’s seven settings. The caveat here is the Vortex only has eight buttons, four of which are those programs, plus Start, Cancel, Time and Temp.