Tower Vortx Vizion Express Dual 11L Air Fryer review
4.0
Read the full BBC Good Food review of the Tower Vortx Vizion Express 11L Air Fryer. This model features oven-style drawers and a whole host of useful accessories, but how did it perform?
Pros
- safe drop-down doors
- clear windows
- lots of useful accessories included
- light setting
- responsive control panel
Cons
- no preheat function
- too little text on control panel
Tower Vortx Vizion Express Dual 11L Air Fryer summary
Sporting an impressive 11L capacity, this large air fryer is ideal for a family of four or more. It has two equally sized compartments featuring oven-style doors, windows to check on the progress of the food inside, plus useful accessories in the form of baking trays, baskets and racks.
This air fryer comes with 10 different presets: fries, toast, cake, vegetables, dehydrate, chicken, steak, wings, fish and shrimp. It also offers the ability to cook two different foods at different temperatures, and even to finish the cooking process in both compartments at the same time, thanks to the Sync Finish function. Like the other Tower model we tested, we felt that a preheat function was missing.
- Read our full review of the best air fryers
How easy is the Tower Vortx Vizion Express Dual 11L Air Fryer to use?
This is a large air fryer – though considering its 11L capacity, this is to be expected. The two compartments are generously sized, and the oven-style door opening offers a slightly safer insertion and removal method compared to basket-style air fryers where you have to reach into the hot compartment.
The wealth of accessories included with the air fryer maximises the cooking options, and the ability to stack the racks at different heights means you can put every inch of space to use. This model also comes with a cooking chart for a variety of different foods, plus a separate recipe book.
The control panel is large, bright and well-lit. There’s an icon for each of the 10 presets, as well as settings for frozen foods and to turn on the internal lights, reheat and keep food warm. With very little text on the control panel, we found Vortx Vizion less-than-intuitive to use and found ourselves constantly referring to the manual throughout testing.
Thankfully, the manual is fairly informative and setting one of the compartments to cook a preset of your choice is relatively easy to do. However, setting the two compartments to run at the same time is a little convoluted and finicky, as pressing the wrong button accidentally causes the whole process to reset.
The air fryer comes ready assembled, so all you need to do is wipe down the inside and clean the accessories and it’s ready to use. We recommend keeping the baking tray at the bottom of the air fryer when using either the basket or rack to catch any drips.
Results
We cooked halloumi and aubergine on the veg setting. They came out evenly browned all over with no distinct hot spots. Both were delicately cooked through.
We also cooked a salmon fillet using the fish preset. This setting automatically cooks for 15 minutes at 170C. The finished fillet was evenly browned and cooked through, though notably overcooked by around four minutes. Further information about the size or weight of foods for the programmed presets would avoid overcooking.
Chips were cooked through and nicely browned, though like the salmon, they could have done with around four-five minutes less cooking time – the preset for these run for 30 minutes. The Vortx Vizion lets out a beep when it’s time to shake the contents.
The manual suggests cooking chicken breasts for 10-15 minutes at 180C. Our chicken breasts were on the larger side, so we cooked them for the full 15 minutes, though they were a little undercooked. We cooked them for another three minutes, after which, the chicken was fully cooked, evenly browned and juicy in the middle.
Uniquely, this model comes with a setting for toast. We were thoroughly impressed with the results, until we turned the toast over. On the one side, the toast was a perfect, an evenly browned shade; but on the underside, it was still uncooked bread. If you’re prepared to wait for the 10 minutes it takes to produce admittedly perfect toast, then it’s worth it. But if you’re not, a regular toaster will get the job done quicker.
How sustainable is the Tower Vortx Vizion Express Dual 11L Air Fryer?
This air fryer is well secured within its box, which comes with a considerable amount of plastic packaging.
The manual includes lots of useful information about spare parts and how to get in contact with Tower customer service. Plus, you’ll find information about how to recycle the air fryer after use.
The Vortx Vizion comes with a one-year warranty as standard, though this can be extended to three years.
We ran this model for 10 minutes to work out the cost of its energy usage. We ran the air fryer using just one compartment and using both compartments at the same time. One compartment cost 2.39p and both compartments cost 5.78p.
Conclusion
Offering even and consistent browning and a wealth of cooking presets, this air fryer is a good choice for those looking to get maximum usage out of their new machine. We love many of the Vortx Vizion features, such as the oven-style compartments, door windows and range of accessories. However, a preset function is notably absent.
Getting started with this model is a little slow and we suggest experimenting with cooking times and temperatures as the manual isn’t quite specific enough. But once you’re familiarised, it’s likely this Tower model will soon replace your oven for most cooking tasks.
Tower Vortx Vizion Express Dual 11L Air Fryer
Specifications
Components: 2 baking trays, 2 baskets, 2 racks
Wattage: 2400W
Dishwasher safe components: None
Capacity: 11L, 5.5L in each compartment
Made in: China
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If you have any questions, suggestions for future reviews or spot anything that has changed in price or availability, please get in touch at goodfoodwebsite@immediate.co.uk.
All costs-to-run calculations were done against the variable tariff at the time of testing (31.8p/kWh), which may have since changed – read more on the current energy price guarantee rates.
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