Air fryers are having a real moment right now due to their low running cost, ease of use and tasty results. If you've been thinking about purchasing one yourself but are hesitant to spend more than you need to, the Russell Hobbs SatisFry Air Fryer may be the model for you. Here's how our tester Louisa got on when she took it for a spin.
This large 5-litre air fryer has a very generous-sized basket with a nonstick interior and crisping plate, multiple auto cooking options to choose from as well as a manual cooking mode.
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Pros
- Large basket easily fits a whole chicken or four pieces of fish/meat
- Easy to clean
- Simple to use
- Sturdy
- Cheaper to use than a standard cooker
- Halves cooking time on many things
- Reheats food quickly
- Good results with less oil than conventional roasting
Cons
- No dehydrate or steam setting
- A little noisy
- Lightweight foods will fly around
- 5L capacity: The large 5L capacity has plenty of room for a family-sized portion of roast potatoes or good-sized whole chicken.
- Portability: This air fryer has a cool-touch carry handle, making it easy to move should you need to, without having to touch the main body of the fryer.
- Time: 60-minute timer with an auto switch off/overheat protection/ready bell, this provides a reminder that the cooking time has been reached and prevents overheating.
- Adjustable thermostat: This allows you to change the cooking temperature even when the auto cook function has been selected, this has a maximum temperature of 200 degrees, useful should you want to ensure a crisp finish for roast potatoes/ reheating a slice of pizza or simply cooking some cheese topped toast.
Testing the Russell Hobbs SatisFry Air Fryer
I wanted to test the product to see if it really was possible to cook items like crispy fries successfully with less oil and roast vegetables and meats in a fraction of the time. I also wanted to test for a few other things that people may not realise can be cooked in the Air fryer.
The Russell Hobbs SatisFry air fryer was very easy to put together, just pop in the basket tray, plug it in and you're away. The instructions are simple to understand: just select which auto-cooking program you need or manually set the time and temperature if you prefer.
Over the course of trialling the Russell Hobbs SatisFry air fryer, I tried the following:
Boiled egg
I placed the egg in the basket and cooked for 7 minutes as recommended for a medium egg, the result was a perfectly soft-boiled egg, no pan to wash up no water to boil, very simple.
Roast chicken
This whole chicken was a medium-sized bird which only took 40 minutes in total at a temp of 165 and I turned it twice during cooking so I could get nice crispy skin. I wasn’t disappointed the meat was juicy and the skin crispy.
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Roast potatoes
I pre-boiled the potatoes as normal then drained them, sprayed with oil and seasoned then cooked at 180 for 25 minutes a fraction of the time of a standard oven, the result was a healthier version of lovely crunchy potatoes.
Chocolate chip and walnut cookies
For this test, I specifically used an air fryer recipe so that I got the best results as I wasn’t sure how the texture would be with a regular recipe. The cookies took 6-8 minutes depending on how soft you like your cookie to be, as with regular baking the cookies will firm up after cooling. In the SatisFry air fryer you can fit six cookies at a time which is more than enough for a quick treat.
Reheating a sausage roll
Reheating a sausage roll took 6 minutes on 180 and the result was a crisp outside and moist sausage inside.
The overall performance of the Russell Hobbs SatisFry 5 Litre Air Fryer is very good. The reduced cooking time and temperature will save you time and energy compared to a standard cooker and in the current climate, this is undoubtedly a good thing. The air fryer heats up very quickly and I personally didn’t find the need to preheat before starting to cook. This air fryer is sturdy, easy to clean and is not too bulky in comparison to some other models available.
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Final thoughts
Overall, this is a good example of a mid-range Air fryer big enough for most requirements and not as bulky as some models, I particularly like the ease of use and how easy it is to clean. The Russell Hobbs SatisFry is priced competitively and compares well with other similar models currently on the market.
If I could choose an additional feature for this model to have it would be useful to have a window and internal light so you could see how the item is cooking. I'd also love Russell Hobbs to think about adding a two-drawer model to their range as these are becoming increasingly popular with families.