The fight doesn’t start over money or politics on a Tuesday night in a small London flat. It begins with chips. Emma, 34, is holding her favourite air fryer basket like a trophy. Her partner is scrolling through his phone and waving a shiny new promise at her: a multitasking cooker that grills, steams, slow-cooks, bakes, pressure-cooks, and, he says, “blows air fryers out of the water.” The device has nine functions, shiny PR photos, and a slogan that says, “I can do anything your air fryer can do better.”
There is a small war going on on social media. People who love air fryers feel attacked. People who are curious about cooking are tempted. Brands of appliances feel like a new frontier is opening.
One machine with nine functions turns our kitchens into battlefields.
A new person comes into the kitchen.
The new multitasking cooker doesn’t look dangerous when you take it out of the box. A little bigger than a regular air fryer, with a lid that looks like a spaceship and a control panel with glowing icons like a gaming keyboard. One dial, a few buttons, and promises of healthier fries, faster stews, crisper chicken, and fluffier rice.
The video for its launch doesn’t whisper; it shouts. In less than a minute, a presenter throws frozen fries into the basket, presses “crisp” on the screen, and then “steam,” “bake,” “sauté,” and “slow cook.” The pitch is simple: why have a lot of machines on your counter when one can do it all?
That queue really hurts fans of the old air fryer.
People react right away and with strong feelings on TikTok and Instagram. A creator drags her air fryer across the floor “in protest” in one clip, making fun of the new cooker for “trying to erase her best friend.” Thousands of people have left comments below saying that their air fryer has changed the way they cook dinner during the week.
The other video goes the other way. A father of three sets a timer on both his old air fryer and his new multitasker. Both devices can hold chicken thighs. He puts the results on plates next to each other, cuts into them, and declares the multitasker the winner because it has juicier meat, crispier skin, and less smoke.
The video gets millions of views, and the comments are all over the place: betrayal, excitement, jokes about “appliance infidelity,” and a surprising amount of nostalgia for a gadget that only became popular a few years ago.
There is a very simple tension behind the noise. The air fryer became famous because it solved a specific problem: it made food that was quick, crispy, and less greasy with little effort. The new cooker is trying to fix ten things at once. That feels like freedom to some people. Some people think it sounds like innovation dressed up as complication.
Brands are very good at what they do. The way each feature works makes you think that your kitchen needs a device that can sauté onions, slow-cook a stew, pressure-cook beans, and then finish everything off with an air-crisp blast. The message is not neutral; your current air fryer suddenly seems old, limited, and almost naive.
This is where the anger starts to build. People don’t like it when someone tells them that their daily hero is no longer useful.
How this nine-in-one device really works in the real world
The method looks smart on paper. The new cooker puts functions on top of each other instead of separating them. It has a lid that seals for pressure and slow cooking, a lid or insert that crisps food, and a base that can sear or sauté like a pan. One pot, three levels of cooking logic.
Put chicken, broth, and spices in the pot, set it to “pressure cook” for 12 minutes, and then switch it to “crisp” to brown the skin without having to clean another tray. You can use the same setup for tofu, potatoes, or cauliflower. You’re not just reheating; you’re cooking and finishing in the same pot.
When that combination works, it feels almost magical for home cooks who don’t have a lot of time.
Kitchens in real life are messier than in ads. A student in Manchester told me that she used the multitasking cooker to make chilli in batches on Sunday, pressure-cook chickpeas on Monday, and then air-crisp leftover potatoes on Tuesday. She loves that it makes more room on the stove in her small shared flat. But she also says that she had to read the manual three times before she was brave enough to put any pressure on anything.
For a whole week, a family in Lyon used the nine-in-one as their only main cooker. They made yoghurt overnight, a risotto that switched from sauté to pressure, and a whole roast chicken that finished on the crisp mode. The food was good, even great. What are the bad things? The pot was always being used or was in the sink. When someone needed a quick batch of fries, they missed how easy it was to just drop them into a dedicated air fryer basket.
It turns out that convenience isn’t just about features. It’s all about friction.
It’s easy to figure out what people are feeling when they react badly. People who love air fryers think that a newer, more expensive model is making fun of their favourite shortcut by calling it “basic.” A single-purpose gadget also gives you peace of mind because it only does one thing, you press one button, and you get the same result every time. The new cooker wants you to trust that it has different modes, multiple steps, and a learning curve.
“Replacing several appliances at once” is a big push from manufacturers, but kitchens aren’t spreadsheets. We get used to how we cook, the sound of a fan warming up, and the routine of shaking a basket halfway through. *You’re not just changing machines; you’re also changing habits.
And let’s be honest: no one really uses all nine functions every day.
Picking a side (or not) in the fight between the air fryer and the multitasker
One useful way to cut through the noise is to start with one dish that you make all the time. That meal you eat over and over again is what keeps you grounded. If you eat a lot of vegetables and fries on a sheet pan, the pure air fryer is still the easiest to use: just preheat, toss, crisp, and you’re done. A pressure-and-crisp combo makes a lot of sense if you eat a lot of stews, curries, beans, and grains.
For one week, write down what you actually cook on weeknights instead of what you wish you could cook. Pasta, frozen nuggets, roasted vegetables and reheated takeaway. Then compare that list to the nine functions on the box. You’ll quickly find out if that promise to multitask is true for you or just something you want to be true.
The best gadget is the one that works for you on Tuesday, not the one you wish you had on Sunday.
Expectations are the source of a lot of frustration. People want a nine-in-one to make them the kind of cook who soaks beans overnight, slow-ferments dough, and steams fish in parchment. Then they only use it for chips and frozen wings, which makes them feel a little bad. We’ve all had that moment when a shiny new appliance turns into an expensive dust collector.
It’s also a trap to compare the worst of one device to the best of another. It’s clear that an air fryer basket that is too full and shaken up will lose to a dish from the multitasker that is carefully layered and has a crisp finish. That doesn’t mean the air fryer is “out of date.” It just means that technique is still more important than marketing.
The most honest way to go is to be gentle: know that you’ll make a few mushy meals before you figure out which mode works best for you.
Léa, who teaches online air fryer classes and is a home cook, says, “People get so defensive about their gadgets.” “But a machine doesn’t make you who you are. If a nine-in-one makes it easy for you to feed your family, it’s a winner. It wins if a small air fryer on a messy counter makes you cook instead of ordering food. Your own tiredness, not another appliance, is the real enemy.
Begin in your areaIf your counter is already full, trading three devices for one might make you feel like you have more space.
Check your real habits Make a list of your five most common dinners, and then match them to the functions you would actually use more than once a week.
Try one “hero recipe” for each mode. Choose one recipe for each function you’re interested in and make it over and over again until it becomes second nature.
Keep one gadget that makes you feel good
Don’t believe the hype; just look at the clean-up. Read real reviews about how hard it is to clean the pot, lid, and other parts. That detail has a bigger impact on daily life than wattage or presets.
What this argument over a stove says about our kitchens
This strange fight over a nine-function cooker and a simple air fryer is about more than just crispy potatoes. It talks about how we manage our time, money, space, and energy every day. Some people really want to believe that one smart machine can do everything. Some people hold on to one reliable tool that doesn’t ask much and gives them what they need. Both responses make sense.
There is a quiet question behind the reviews and the angry comments: how much trouble are we willing to put up with in the name of “better” food? The answer might be very different for a busy parent who has to do homework and get to bed, and for a twenty-something who lives in a studio flat and is obsessed with food.
This new cooker is making us face the truth about our lives. Do we want a new way to cook or just one more button to press? Do we want to add or replace?
You might not just be judging the machine the next time you see that nine-in-one in your feed. You may be quietly choosing which version of your everyday life you can live with.
Important pointDetail: What the reader gets out of it
Make sure you know what you really needBefore you buy a new cooker, make a list of what you usually cook in a week.Don’t pay for nine features you’ll hardly use.
Test with “hero recipes”Connect each mode you care about to one simple dish that you can make over and over again.Get more confident and get into a routine more quickly, with fewer failed experiments.
Take into account space and cleaning upThink about the size of the counter, how much storage you have, and how many parts need to be washed.Pick a device that fits your daily routine, not just what the ads say.
