Review: Philips Viva Airfryer – less oil, less time, better outcome

Cooking is fun. I enjoy baking, boiling, steaming…  but, one of my weak points is “frying”. As a mother of two boys and as a Japanese, I need to fry a lot: potatoes, chicken karaage, tempura. But, every time I fry, I feel bad, as I need to consume lots of oil. Obviously, it’s not good, both for our health and the environment. And even if I used enough oil and took enough time – I know those are the success key points of frying – I seldomly get satisfactorily results, and my kitchen becomes always just a mess with many oil spots.

Oil waste

Moreover, another headache is how to throw away the used oil. In Japan, it is popular to use a chemical agent which will turn the liquid oil into a solid, so that we can throw it away as combustible waste. In other words, we never drain such oil into sewer pipes, or throw the liquid oil out with other waste, as this may badly affect nature (harmful smokes, soil pollution etc.) I was not able to find a similar product in the Netherlands, so it is confusing for me how to process this used oil. If it is not a lot, I can let newspapers to soak it, but this is not always the best way if a lot of oil is used. It seems that waste oil can be recycled with a special arrangement with city councils, but it does not look like a handy solution. 

So for me, an Airfryer seemed to be the solution to decrease oil consumption, while still being able to fry often. Taking into consideration its size and seems-to-be-noisy function, we were hesitating for a long time. As my kids naturally grow up as a big eaters, we finally made up our mind. Comparing capacity, price, functionality, and several reviews, we decided to purchase the Philips Viva Airfryer HD9220/20.

Fry more, waste less

Now, after two months with our lovely Viva Airfryer, our family’s dinner recipes list becomes longer than before. The big change: I am no longer hesitant to make fries. We often put some bone-meat such as chicken wings or spareribs in the Airfryer, and after 15-20 minutes we get amazingly crispy taste, whereas a normal oven results in a more juicy taste. The Airfryer is much faster than a normal oven, what came as a great surprise to me. Now, I do not even feel guilty about the energy consumption anymore! Kids keep eating, parents save time, and as expected, our oil consumption is drastically reduced.  

Heavy in maintenance, easy to use

As feared, the machine is not very compact, and the containers are quite heavy. So, when it comes to washing, it is tougher than normal pans. Both containers, use already around 1/4 of our dishwasher’s space, which I’m not so happy with. On the other hand, we choose the XXL size, the largest, as we are a four person household. Regarding noise, it ended up being less than expected. We thought that it might be distracting when watching TV, but luckily that’s not the case at all. Further, all the functions are quite straightforward, and not really difficult to use. You just need to be careful to use the appropriate time for each dish.

Recommended as a Christmas present

I have noticed that the price on this product keeps changing. My husband bought this model for me as a birthday present on a promotion, and he paid less than 130 euro. Later, I saw offers between 100 and 150 euro. In addition, the Philips model is slightly more expensive than similar models from other brands. Nevertheless, for our family, the Philips Airfryer was one of the best choices as for us it is a reliable brand for a reasonable price.  So, for those who are still wondering what to buy as a Christmas present, I recommend this as one of the options.

Disclaimer: this review only reflects my honest, personal opinion about the product. Philips didn’t pay me to do this review nor was there any communication with Philips about this review. Nevertheless, my employer has a commercial relation with Philips, but didn’t influence me in any way.