I bought this item with great expectations, given what a life changer the instapot has been.

First day I had great experience cooking frozen food and experimenting with the results. The rotisserie was my favorite feature... second day, I noticed it was not turning the right way. Turns out, the rotisserie is made of some sort of plastic/rubber that melted (see it photo).

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First off, my apologies for being late in posting this review. I received this fryer about a week or so ago but didn't know what to make with it because . . . I had NEVER used an air fryer before. Also, this particular model DOES NOT COME WITH RECIPES! Nothing, zilch, nada! You pretty much have to look for your recipes online because the Instant Vortex will not provide you with any. They will give you a very broad time and heat guide but that's it.

In fact, my main complaint with this air fryer is mainly on the bare-bones instructions. For that reason, a lot of what you do with this air fryer is going to have to be through trial and error. There are more instructions to prevent you from lighting your house on fire than there are in the operation of the machine.

So, as someone who has never used an air fryer before, especially an Instant Vortex Plus 6 Quart 6-in-1 thingamajig, what did I think of it?

AWESOME!

But before we get to why it's awesome, I need to tell you what you're going to get when you purchase this device.

THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE PURCHASING:

1.) Most timers (at least in the US) when they are 00:00 it means 00 mins : 00 seconds. Not so with this air fryer. With the Instant Vortex the first two digits are hours and the last two digits are minutes. This was not clear in the instruction manual. Remember, I've never used an air fryer before, so this was new to me.

2.) When using air fryer mode, at around 3 quarters time, the fryer will ask you to turn over your food. This was also not very clear in the instructions.

3.) The basket is SMALL and not ideal for party size servings. Six quarts is good for a couple, but anyone with a big family is going to find themselves running multiple batches to get enough food cooked. If you're planning a big super bowl wing fest, you might want to get something bigger.

BONUS: The air fryer DOES NOT get dangerously hot like an oven. You can accidentally touch the top of the fryer and not burn your hand off. The vent in the back is also warm but not blazing hot. As long as the safety instructions are followed, this machine feels very safe to use.

Somehow we didn't blow a fuse when using the microwave and the air fryer at the same time, so that was also impressive, but your results may vary.

All right, so let's get into exactly how I used my air fryer as someone who has never, ever used one before.

- We added pepper and salt to the raw wings. Then we greased the tray and basket with Pam cooking oil. EDIT: (Don't grease the tray with PAM. You can spray your food not your tray. Or use a substitute instead of PAM.)

- We found an online recipe that was for 24 minutes. At the twelve minute mark we flip over the wings and cook the other side.

- After putting the food into the tray and setting the fryer for 12 minutes, we quickly discovered that the fryer must PREHEAT first. After it ran through its preheat cycle, then it said "ADD FOOD." Whoops. The wings stayed in there anyway.

- At around 5 minutes, the fryer then said "TURN FOOD OVER." We didn't know it was going to give us this prompt. So we took out the basket to check on the wings, they were cooking but not yet finished, so we flipped them over.

- Once the timer was finished, we removed the basket and saw that the wings were halfway cooked, awesome! We popped them back in for another 12 minutes but made note that in the future, we just put them in for 24 and wait for the fryer to tell us when to flip. Also, not once did I feel a blast of hot air like I do when taking things out of the oven. The fryer and the basket felt safe to handle AT ALL TIMES.

- After another twelve minutes it was time to taste test. Did the wings cook thoroughly or were we about to get a case of salmonella?

- The answer was YES! The wings cooked thoroughly. The exterior skin was nice and crunchy while the inside was juicy and flavorful. All of the excess oil dripped off of the wings and settled at the bottom of the basket. Awesome!

- Clean up required dumping out the remaining oil into a bag, then cleaning the basket and grill with paper towels and water.

THEN WE TRIED COOKING SALMON USING THE BAKE SETTING.

- Grease the grill with pam. EDIT: DO NOT GREASE THE GRILL WITH PAM. You can put PAM on your food but not the grill tray. Supposedly this starts to erode some of the coating on the tray. Whoops! Found this out recently.

- Pop 1.6lbs of Salmon into the basket. (This time we waited for the preheat)

- Cooked for 7 minutes at 389 I believe. Don't remember.

- Took the salmon out and found that the interior was still raw. Whoops. Again, no recipes means we don't know what the heck we're doing with this thing. Pop it back in for another 7 minutes.

- Salmon bakes and is now thoroughly cooked. Still good, still flavorful, but we underestimated cooking time.

WHAT ABOUT THE BROIL, ROAST, REHEAT & DEHYDRATE FEATURE?

I, unfortunately, do not know. We haven't really roasted, broiled, or dehydrated food in my house. However, if the chicken wings and salmon are the standard it sets, then I'm sure those features will work perfectly.

In fact, I have to say that I am supremely impressed with the Instant Vortex 6-in-1 multi use fryer. It's extremely safe t use, It cooks the food thoroughly, and it's super easy to clean.

If you're looking for an air fryer with the versatility of an oven but without the hassle or increase to your gas bill, than this air fryer is definitely going to be a perfect fit for you! Very, very happy with this device and I can't wait to fry more food with it.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

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I had such high hopes for this air fryer and expected a lot more from this brand/company but I’m extremely disappointed in my purchase. First off the air fryer itself is very sleek and looks nice, it is easy to use but there are major design flaws. The basket/rack at the bottom is not secure and makes taking out food more difficult than it has to be as you cannot simply turn the basket over to get your food out on a plate because if you do that everything (food, bottom basket, grease) comes spilling out and crashing to the floor. The most frustrating thing however and the major deal breaker for me is not only the horrible plastic smell this air fryer emits but the toxic plastic taste it imparts on the food! Everything cooked in it is inedible because of this. I thought it may go away after a couple of uses but it has not. I cleaned all parts thoroughly several times, ran it empty several times, ran it with a ramekin full of water and lemon juice then water and vinegar and cooked several rounds of Food that tasted like a chemical/plastic and had to be thrown out. Very disappointed as this in my opinion is unusable due to terrible taste and likely toxic effect on my family’s health. Do not buy! The plastic smell and PLASTIC TASTE never went away.

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Unbelievably toxic smell when used--the smell filled our entire house--had to open all the windows in the kitchen (in December) and then on the vent fan--and it's still bad a few hours later. After some internet research I see this is a common problem with this item.

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After several uses my air fryer still emits such a strong odor of hot plastic I put it in the garage when using it. My husband says the food tastes like burnt plastic. As much as I enjoy cooking with it, he’s right. I like everything about the unit except the taste of burnt plastic on the food. We no longer use it.

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 I like the vortex air fryer because it’s easy to use and easy to clean. I don’t need to use a lot if oil when cooking in air fryer you can see the natural oil drips in the pan, food taste good. It’s just kind of expensive though but worth the money.

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I have now had the Vortex Pro for 6 months and I use it daily. In reading some of the other reviews common complaints seem to be around the door being flimsy and difficulty cleaning. I thought this when I first received the device until I read the book and discovered the door is removable which is why it appears loose. This has made cleaning the device super easy, the racks go in the dishwasher and if something gets stuck in or around the door, I pop it off and clean it up super quick. Other reviews mention it is noisy, I have noticed if it sits on the counter under a cupboard it does get louder (doesn’t bother me) but if it gets bothersome to others I just pull it forward on the countertop and it decreases significantly (the sound seems to bounce off the bottom of the cupboard and seems much louder when it sits underneath). It is true that you do need to flip food half way through to get even cooking but to me this is easy as I am usually in the kitchen anyways making the rest of the meal and the overall result is worth it the 30 seconds. For a family of four I find the size adequate to prepare the main dish of the meal and I really enjoy the speed at which things cook. The rotisserie and basket work wonderfully. My husbands only complaint is toast takes too long (3 min, 30 sec). I would absolutely recommend this device!

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We have the Instant Pot from this company, and love it. But this Air Fryer is a huge disappointment.

We did the 20 minute test run as advised. It had a very noisy fan, buzzes, rattles. It had a electrical burning smell, that lasted for hours after the test run. And we found a piece of broken plastic under it when we moved it to pack it up.

In all fairness those issues may have been shipping damage. We noticed the corner of the box had signs of being dropped. Since it was completely external we didn't think much of it.

Even if we got this Air Fryer in good working condition, the fan would be unbearable. The main reason we bought this was we thought it would be useful in a power outage running on generator power. Unfortunately this is not up to the quality standards of the instant pot, not even close.

We sent is back, and we won't be trying another.

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We could not get rid of plastic burning smell, had to return.

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