There are plenty of reasons to look for a portable air fryer. Maybe you want something that can fry foods faster and easier than your kitchen oven can. Maybe you live in a dorm or are going on a trip and need a cooker that’s nice and portable.
Whether you’re looking for a quicker way to cook something, a fast fry-up, or a portable broiler, the Instant Vortex Plus Air Fryer offers a lot, but does it make for a recipe of cooking features worth including in your kitchen?
Our rating: 
4.7 / 5
What Should You Expect From an Air Fryer?
Before delving into what makes this air fryer from Instant Vortex Plus work, it is worth taking a step back and asking what qualities make any and all air fryers work in the first place. After all, these units are different from your average fat fryer in a variety of important ways.
Portability
For starters, they’re obviously a lot smarter, which can immediately present you with something of a conundrum. On the one hand, you naturally want to get a unit that is small and portable – the last thing you want is a behemoth of a unit that breaks your back while carrying it from site to site. On the other hand, however, it still needs enough power to be able to cook your meat sufficiently. That means being able to find units that have enough wattage and heating abilities to cook meat fast and thoroughly while still being compact. Ideally, units should have 1400 to 1500 wattage for this purpose.
Capacity
For as important as it is to find a portable unit, however, the air fryer still needs to have enough capacity for you to be able to cook whatever meals you wish to prepare.
Multi-cooking Options
One of the best things about cooking is being able to prepare all kinds of different delectable dishes on a whim. That’s why you’ll want to be sure you’re choosing an air fryer that is able to handle several kinds of cooking. For example, maybe you don’t feel like frying a piece of chicken, but broiling it. If the unit does not support that kind of cooking, however, you can’t do that. As such, you’ll want to check to see what kinds of preprogrammed cooking options the unit offers, the more the better.
Easy to Clean
Finally, it’s important to remember that whatever gets used in the cooking process will get dirty and need to be cleaned. Nobody likes cleaning up after a big, hearty meal, but the job can be even more laborious if the portable oven or fryer you’re using is spattered with oil. As anyone who’s cooked with it knows, when oily residue hardens and crusts over, it can be incredibly difficult to get off. That’s why you’ll want to look for indications that the unit you are considering is easy to clean. Modern portable fryers try to reduce the amount of oil they use, have removable parts, and are often dishwasher-friendly for these very reasons.
Instant Vortex Plus Air Fryer Features
With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at what some of the most important features included with this Instant Vortex Plus Air Fryer are:
- Measures 13.23 in. x 13.23 in. x 14.37 in. and weighs 19 lbs with a capacity to hold 10 quarts
- Operates at 1500 watts
- 7-in-1 technology that allows you to take advantage of preprogrammed features that allow you to perform different cooking features such as baking, roasting, toasting, broiling, rotisserie-ing, dehydrating, and frying your favorite foods
- Single-step EvenCrisp Technology allows the unit to achieve deep-fried flavor without the splatter and mess that comes with oil-based methodologies in typical deep fat fryers
- Even cooking allows you to get a crispy exterior and tender inside to anything you cook
- A rotation basket allows you to rotisserie meat
- A layout of this model that allows you to fry meat with less oil than other models
- Instant Vortex Plus allows the air fryer to circulate air that has been superheated so as to allow your food to cook evenly while locking in moisture
- Sleek surface that is easy to clean
- Parts are dishwasher safe
- Bright touchscreen with 14 buttons
There are a lot of intriguing elements to this air fryer, not the least of which are the touchscreen and the 7-in-1 program set up. If you’re someone who doesn’t want to have to deal with the hassle of having to manually choose your method of cooking down to the tiniest detail, this is a great way to get your food fried up and ready to eat as quickly as possible.
Multiple Cooking Options
Of course, this model can do a lot more than simply fry food. On the contrary, those 7-in-1 controls allow you to preset a wide variety of cooking options. Whether you want to roast, toast, broil, rotisserie, or cook in any number of ways, this model has you covered. That makes it a great choice for anyone looking to cook on the go. Too many other portable fryers are so limited in their features as to eliminate entire recipes or styles of cooking. With this, you can cook your meat how you want where you want.
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Lot of Power
What’s more, you can do all of that with a model that is compact yet powerful enough to get the job done, boasting 1500 watts of power, more than enough to cook this meat thoroughly. What’s more, as alluded to above, it is able to offer all of this power while still being compact enough to carry around. 19 lbs isn’t necessarily so light you won’t “feel it” while carrying it in a bag or suitcase, but it is still quite light compared to the competition, especially for a unit with this much wattage and capacity.
EverCrisp Technology
That said, this model doesn’t simply fry everything to a crisp as, again, too many other portable fryers do. This can leave the meat you’re attempting to fry dry, charred, or both. That’s no way to enjoy your favorite kind of meat, which is why this model features EverCrisp Technology, a cooking system that cooks your meat in such a way as to trap tenderness inside while making sure the exterior is nice and crispy.
Design
When you think of frying ovens, there’s every chance you think of an oil-splattered mess. This is often the case with larger fryers, and even some other mini models – but not this air fryer from Instant Vortex Plus. Instead, this model boasts a lovely sleek silver and black exterior that’s as easy on the eyes as it is easy to clean. Of course, true beauty is found within, and this model is likewise neat and orderly inside and likewise features parts that are easily detachable and dishwasher-friendly.
Finally, the Instant Vortex Fry feature helps ensure that this model can heat air to a high enough temperature to cook your meat thoroughly.
Pros and Cons
Some of the best things about this air fryer from Instant Vortex Plus are:
- Easy to clean
- Nice balance of size and power
- Litany of cooking features
- Sleek exterior
- Affordable unit
Some possible drawbacks to consider with this Instant Vortex Plus Air Fryer include:
- A few owners reported melting issues resulting in plastic smell and taste
- Some users have reported the back rack can be a bit loose
Our rating: 4.7 / 5
As mentioned above, one of the biggest upsides to owning this model is the fact that it is remarkably easy to clean. If that seems like an easy or obvious feature, congratulations on being new to the world of fat fryers. Those who have known and used fryers for an extensive amount of time, know full well how easily oil can splatter and make a mess. Worse still, this can often become so caked on that it is hard to scrape or scrub off again, which impacts the taste of the meat. Thankfully, this is a nice, clean, compact frying oven.
That does not mean it is free from taste issues, however. A small minority of users have reported burning and melting. This is obviously the last thing you want to hear when you’re considering a fat fryer, and thankfully this problem seems quite rare and not a threat for most users. At the same time, if it does happen you should notice instantly, as it can cause a nose-wrinkling, wretched plastic-y smell.
Thankfully, the considerable rarity of such an event is outweighed by the buffet of cooking features offered by this model.
In Conclusion
If you love to fry food on the go and do it often (or wish to), you can get some serious “frequent fryer miles” out of this model from Instant Vortex Plus. It does a great job of blending power with portability. Unlike many fryers big and small, it’s easy to clean. Add to that the fact that this model comes with 14 programmable buttons and a 7-in-1 cooking scheme, and the impetus for purchasing this fat fryer becomes clear.
Whether you’re looking for a compact home model or one to take with you on your next big adventure, you can enjoy a world of flavor with this little air fryer.
