Everyone and their mom has been going on about the glory of the air fryer, but some people are suddenly ditching theirs.
Some kitchen appliances are just trends and gimmicks, nothing more than a flash in the pan.
Some of those appliances are simply lost to time and replaced a few years after their inception, I mean who has ever heard of a microwave…
But on a more serious note, air fryers could find themselves go the way of the dodo due to another appliance that is reportedly cheaper and does the same thing.
Air fryers went viral over their touted ability to be able to cook things faster than a regular oven and more healthily than frying them in fat.
Air fryers have proven hugely popular. (i’am / Getty)
Leaving aside the observation that if you’re going to eat something that’s already unhealthy you may as well make sure it tastes as delicious as possible, the devices proved enormously popular.
They were also proposed as a cheaper alternative to using a regular oven.
But now it seems the supremacy of the air fryer is being challenged by another countertop kitchen gadget, the Halogen Oven.
This is a device which uses a halogen lightbulb to cook food in a small glass bowl underneath it.
You can almost imagine it being invented by someone burning themselves on a white-hot halogen bulb and thinking ‘hang on, I can use this to cook food’ as they dunked their scorched hand in a bowl of iced water.
Typically the device is made up of a basket on the outside to stop you burning yourself, then a glass bowl.
This is topped with the halogen bulb itself, which switches on to raise the temperature.
It might also flash on and off to keep the temperature maintained at the desired level.
It’s supposedly more cost effective. (tirc83 / Getty)
Some models can range between 60C and around 240C, or 140F and 464F.
The devices have been suggested by many as a cheaper alternative to the air fryer.
While air fryers are popular, the most expensive models can start to get a little pricey, which could undermine their status as a budget item.
Many people came out for halogen ovens as the better option.
One person said: “I treated myself to a halogen oven to help with Christmas; I only have one shelf in my oven.
“It is one million times better than the rubbish air fryer I got in the summer.”
Another advocated for the device as well, saying: “Halogen oven is better, healthier and cheaper than air fryer.”
Of course, there is another alternative, which is just to use the oven which came pre-installed in your home.