Sales of air fryers have gone up by as much as 3,000% as consumers look to save money in the kitchen. The gadget has become increasingly popular because of its versatility and energy efficiency.
Research by Utilita found that air fryers run at an average cost of £55.71 a year, while an electric cooker runs at £335.57 a year. Another study by Hometree in September found that while an oven with an average wattage of 3kW costs about 34p to run for 20 minutes, a 1kW air fryer would cost 10p.
The appliance works in a similar way to a convection oven, with a heating element at the top of the machine and a large fan to circulate the hot air. With its relatively small size, it does not need a lot of time for pre-heating and is able to cook quickly and evenly.
Air fryers sell from about £60, but more expensive ones can cost more than £200. The top-selling air fryers have risen in popularity by more than 3,000% since this time last year and are up 2,000% since the summer, price comparison website PriceRunner said.
And sales of the most popular air fryer on the site, the Ninja AF400UK, have risen by more than 22,000% since October last year. PriceRunner consumer spokeswoman Evelina Galli said: “Air fryers, as we know, are massively popular right now and our data backs this up, with the most popular models on our website seeing more than significant increases since this summer alone – up 7,000% on some models – although we actually started seeing an uprising in air fryers back in 2020/2021 when they were all the rage on TikTok.”
Kitchen retailer Lakeland also said it had seen unprecedented demand for its range of air fryers, with more stock expected later this year. It reported more than 1,500 views of the Lakeland Digital Crisp Air Fryer in 24 hours alone.
Lakeland consumer spokeswoman Wendy Miranda said: “There is very little you can’t cook in an air fryer. Our recent survey found that social media, particularly Tik Tok, is the first place Gen Z turns to for cooking inspiration and kitchen hacks, so no surprises that nearly five billion searches have been racked up.”
