Where the Premium’s basket has wire mesh in a crosshatched diamond pattern, the Philips Airfryer L’s has a nonstick base with rectangular slots. These openings allow circulation but don’t trap oil and food the way the Premium’s basket does. It took only a minute or so for us to clean the Airfryer L’s basket, whereas the Premium’s required some soaking and careful scrubbing. We checked for even cooking, looking for machines that can cook a whole tray of ingredients consistently, with no overdone or underdone pieces.
The wire mesh of the inner basket on the Premium is a beast to clean, trapping oil and food in a frustrating web of not-so-nonstick metal. Philips air fryers contain an outer shell, an inner basket, and a “fat reducer,” an extra layer in the bottom of the outer shell that is really just another thing to clean, so we don’t use it. The preprogrammed settings on air fryers—for things as vague as “vegetables” or as specific as “bacon”—are little more than useless recommendations, since they don’t consider the weight of food in the basket.
She spends a lot of time testing everything from toasters to air fryers in her own apartment and recommending the very best ones to readers. As with most Instant air fryers I’ve tried, the removable inserts can go in the dishwasher, as can the basket. With that being said, you’d need a large dishwasher to fit the basket inside, and it’s probably a lot easier to wash by hand. The basket is lined with nonstick, meaning it wipes clean easily. The control panel does smudge a bit when you touch it with oily fingertips, so spray it down with a little cleaning spray and clean with a microfiber cloth to keep it smudge-free. Remove any packaging or plastic debris from the product before turning it on.
With this test, we can see if it can achieve the crispness of air frying without drying out the ingredients, which is always a danger at these temperatures. For its price and quality, moosoo air fryer it’s a pretty good value buy – especially for those who want a smaller air fryer without sacrificing performance. There are a few things you lose by opting for this model, though.
While the Philips Airfryer L also crisped food evenly and quickly, the Premium was able to crisp trays of nuggets with minimal overdone edges and baskets of nearly identical fries. The Philips Airfryer L cooked up well-browned, crispy nuggets with no mushy spots or oily bottoms; whole baskets of crisp, golden fries; and juicy chicken wings, all without needing to add extra time. Only our upgrade pick, the Philips Premium, did better in our tests. This air fryer cooked as fast and almost as evenly as our other picks.
This air fryer crisped chicken nuggets, fries, and wings nearly as well as our upgrade pick, the Philips Premium Airfryer HD9741. It has a minimal display, with just a temperature dial and a timer. The air fryer basket is relatively easy to clean, with a nonstick coating and a less frustrating grate design than those of other air fryers we tested. An air fryer is, for all intents and purposes, a convenient countertop convection oven.
It’s user-friendly, large in capacity when it needs to be, and has the versatility that large families and frequent hosts will appreciate. I tossed a pound of frozen french fries at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. The average cook time in my best air fryer tests was 12.5 minutes, but the moosoo air fryer Plus only needed 8 minutes to produce golden and crispy fries. The fries were evenly cooked and tasted great, not too dry and not too limp.
The Clear Cook has a metallic band where other air fryers tend to accumulate fingerprints. This metal band is super easy to wipe down, keeping your appliance looking fresh; however, wiping the outside down with a sponge often leaves the interface and window looking streaky. Switching it on for the first time, I was impressed by the sleek light-up display. It’s much longer than other air fryers to ensure the 6 quart capacity but it looks much better on a countertop. Where other air fryers like the instant pot duo nova Plus and the Ninja Foodi 6-in-1 dominate a countertop with their width, this is much sleeker.
My favorite feature of the Instant Vortex Plus is the window in the basket. Unlike most pod-style air fryers, you don’t have to open the basket and let heat escape to check if your food is done. On the Instant Vortex Plus, you can just press the light button and look through the window.