Tefal ActiFry Genius XL 2in1 YV970840 Air Fryer - 1.7 kg / 8 Portions

I'm not a great one for instant reviews, much preferring to get to know a product well before passing judgement and the ActiFry Genius XL 2in1 does what it promises and more.If we start with chips it is happy with chunky, regular, French fries . . . any size. Sticking rigidly to the instructions and the chips are more akin to the oven variety than the local chippy but add a little more oil than suggested and it improves the flavour and texture no end, with the window allowing you to remove chips at just the browning you want.Blanch the chips for two or three minutes before placing in the Actifry pan and you have double cooked chips, which takes the chips up a notch.The Actifry also produces superb sauté potatoes, blanch first, a little longer than chips, and you produce evenly coloured, rough edged potatoes. Use butter instead of oil for a traditional flavour or a mix of oil and butter if you want to feel more health conscious.As with chips it is the paddle which makes the difference, gently stirring the potatoes negating the need to stop midway and manually turn the potatoes, which also makes it useful for other foods such as stir fries.The tray is excellent for steaks, chops, chicken breasts and the like and superb for items such as scampi. The instruction booklet only takes you so far, not every possible foodstuff is covered, so you have to experiment and learn as you go along. There are some failures along the way, sausages being one in my case, and decent sausages at that, which cooked really well in the top tray but filled the machine with a layer of grease, congealing nicely in areas difficult to clean.There is also a drawback in that pan and tray work consecutively rather than in conjunction so if you want, for example, steak and chips, you first cook your chips then, with the chips still in the pan underneath, add the tray and cook the steak. The chips are kept warm but can go a little tired and limp.One solution I found was to undercook the chips slightly and when the steaks, chops or whatever were cooked and resting, cook the chips for a few minutes more to finish them off, a sort of poor man’s double cooked, triple if you blanched first, to freshen them and crisp them up.All in all a useful addition to the kitchen and even adding a touch more oil it produces far healthier chips than a deep fat fryer. It’s quick and doesn’t need watching, set programme and time and leave it to get on with it. The warning beep that a programme has finished could be a bit louder though.If you want healthier chips and fried or grilled foods I would recommend it for any kitchen, it beats the pull out tray air fryers owned by friends hands down, but a final word of warning though, it is not a dainty item. It takes up a chunk of space, so check the size and your available space.If you can accommodate it then it will quickly become a kitchen workhorse.

Great product, great price, much better than the basket type. It moves the product for you without the food breaking up unless your doing it wrong. Excellent chips from it so prepare to get chunky

I have had several actifry's over the years and decided to upgrade to this version due to the dual tray. The machine itself is defiantly the smartest one i have owned and i really like the new design. It's tall but still fits on my worktop and slides under my kitchen cupboard fine. The food cooks well and is no different to any of the previous actifrys i have owned. Chips taste great in this, and with minimal oil you can indulge that little bit more often. The only thing i dont like about the machine is the controls. To start with it took me forever to work out how to only switch on the top cooking tray.. the instruction book is pretty useless and didn't really explain it that well. The touch pad isn't wonderfully responsive either. Whatever you do don't loose the manual either as you will need it to work out your cooking programme as they are listed as numbers on the touchpad. There are icons like fish and chicken but not every food is described by an icon. The one thing i hate about this new design, and what i would describe as a major flaw is that you have to have the stirring paddle in the bottom section of the fryer if you wish to use the top section of the fryer. Therefore if you cook anything that may go slightly soft such as croquets in the bottom section they will be a mashed potato mush if you wish to use the top cooking plate also. I wish tefal had of included a separate stand for the upper plate without the need for the stirring paddle. Cleaning of the unit is ok... as always anything where you use oil requires additional elbow grease. Keep on top of the cleaning or else it will be a nightmare! A wipe down inside and out is a must after every use. Top Tip - press and hold the button that looks like a sombrero button if you wish to swap between the top and bottom cooking modes!

My opinion of this is positive, not tainted by the fact I paid full price but received a used item in a partly shredded box with a slight hairline crack in the glass. It seems to work ok though.And now I've ranted here's the good part. The fryer itself is super easy to use, and easy to clean. It's loud, and gets very hot, but it cooks food very well. I tried it first with frozen nuggets and from frozen they were cooked perfectly in 11 mins. If anything I could probably have knocked a few minutes off the cooking time....and that was without warming the actifry up first.I say it's loud but no more than a medium level hairdryer or fan might be, you probably won't hear it over a TV in the next room.It is big. I mean really big. But it fits on my standard size worktop just fine, and it's actually much lighter than it looks. You'd expect it to be very heavy but it isn't.The glass and outside around it is a fingerprint magnet though, but if you want a brilliant air fryer that can cook a whole meal at once this is probably the best option out there.