7 Underrated Air Fryer Features You Probably Didn't Know About

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Air fryers have quickly become a popular kitchen staple for good reason. There are tons of benefits to cooking with an air fryer. Their impressive versatility allows you to perfectly crisp up French fries, bake juicy chicken, roast veggies, and make countless other recipes, with little oil and far less effort than traditional cooking methods. They heat up quickly, require minimal cleanup, and don't heat the whole kitchen like a traditional oven. However, there are some highly underutilized features that many shoppers don't even know they're missing out on.

Many models come with surprisingly useful functions and settings that can do much more than crisp up frozen foods. Some can help you get better results from everyday meals, and others can make cooking, reheating, and even cleanup more convenient. While you may already be well-versed in the many capabilities of the air fryer and use it to make your own delicious recipes, these underrated features can help you get more out of your air fryer and may even change the way you use it.

A window might not seem like the most critical feature for an air fryer, but according to shoppers who have owned models with and without a window and light, this convenient feature is one they could no longer live without. One customer on Reddit wrote, "Definitely prefer having a window and light. You don't realize how much you like something until you have it." The window and interior light allows you to check in on the cooking process, without having to open the door and release some of the internal heat.

This useful feature makes it easy to prevent under- or overcooking your food. Another pro-window advocate on Reddit explained, "Mine has a window and I could never go without one. Would've burnt many things if I couldn't see what was going on in there ... things go from perfectly done to charred in no time."

There are several styles of air fryers available on the market, and the right one for you will largely depend on what you typically cook, and how large your portions are. Oven-style fryers are highly popular among shoppers who cook meals for their family, guests, or meal prep lots of food at a time. Customers find that if you are cooking things like meat and veggies for a family dinner, the oven-style air fryers are ideal to spread the food out and get an even cook.

For instance, you can lay out layers of French fries or veggies on the racks of an oven-style fryer for perfectly crispy results, whereas in a basket air fryer you're forced to pile them and may wind up with limp, soggy food. Shoppers also appreciate this style as an alternative to the regular oven. It requires minimal preheating, is more energy-efficient, and for some, the best part is that it doesn't heat up your entire house the way the oven can. Quickly cook up anything from pork chops, egg rolls, and chicken nuggets to vegetables, pizza, and potatoes.

In addition to cooking features like bake, broil, roast, and dehydrate, some newer models now offer grilling capabilities. Ninja carries some of the most popular air fryers you can buy, and the Ninja Foodi Indoor Grill and Air Fryer is one popular model that offers this feature. A shopper on Facebook wrote, "I have been using a Ninja Grill/Air Fryer for two years now. I use it just about every day and sometimes twice a day. This is the best appliance I have ever purchased and am so glad I did."

The grill on the Ninja model can heat up to 500 F, allowing you to char-grill your favorite meats and veggies all from inside your kitchen, year-round. Customers claim the meat is cooked tender and moist, and appreciate how many cooking capabilities it has, saving you from having to spend money and waste counter space with several appliances. To really step up your grill/air fryer game, you can give this expert-approved foods a try. Plus, it also receives praise for being extremely easy to clean.

While air fryers offer immense convenience and cooking versatility, one of the most common complaints among shoppers is difficulty keeping these appliances clean, especially around the hard-to-reach areas near the heating elements. With so many shapes and sizes, some models are harder to clean thoroughly than others, so some newer models include a highly praised self-cleaning feature. A few air fryer models that have self-cleaning mode are the Philips 5000, Typher Dome 2, and Fritaire.

One customer praises the feature in an Amazon review for the Fritaire: "Cleanup is practically effortless thanks to the self-cleaning function. You just add water, a drop of dish soap, and let the air fryer do the heavy lifting for you. It's powerful, healthy, beautiful, and hassle-free." When you add water, the air fryer cleaning mode will heat up and create steam that helps loosen the dirt, oil, or grease left behind after cooking.

Most air fryer models offer several types of cooking options and knowing the difference between these features is key for achieving perfectly cooked dishes. The wrong setting can result in soggy fries or charred chicken, for instance. The roast and bake features are particularly useful as alternatives to the traditional oven. Customers like to use the roast feature for slow cooking raw meat and veggies because this setting uses hotter temperatures and a less aggressive fan to brown and crisp the edges of your food while still thoroughly cooking the inside.

One Redditor explains that they also use this setting "if something is likely to splatter, like a fatty cut or drippings or basting sauce in a dish." The bake feature uses a more consistent temperature without the fan, making it ideal for things like bread and pastries, or anything you would normally cook in your traditional oven. It's an excellent alternative to the oven since it is often faster and doesn't heat up your kitchen in the process. Plus, this appliance crisps up some foods even better than the traditional oven.

Air fryer racks allow you to not only cook more servings at a time, but also make it easier to get a more even cook – this is because they provide more surface area than the basket of the air fryer can usually provide. If you've ever piled veggies or French fries in your basket and wondered why they didn't crisp to perfection, it's likely because you weren't using a rack.

Some oven-style air fryers come equipped with these racks already, but if you have an air fryer with a deep basket, one Redditor recommends the racks as a simple solution: "Best thing you can do is to find a rack that fits your air fryer, it cuts cooking time in half as all the hot air cooks all 4 sides at the same time, no flipping tossing." Other customers appreciate the racks for their versatility, using them for everything from toasting to reheating to ensure you get crispy edges on both sides of your food. This is one of many simple air fryer hacks that will change the way you cook.

Another feature that some shoppers claim is nonnegotiable if you're in the market for a new air fryer is the dehydrate function. This underutilized feature is included in many modern models, and it eliminates the need to purchase and use counter space for yet another appliance. The dehydrate function will circulate warm air around the interior, providing a low and slow cooking method that removes moisture and dries out the food inside, opening up a whole new world of foods you probably never thought to put in the air fryer.

You can dehydrate fruits like bananas, apples, and strawberries — eat them as snacks or add them to your cereal or yogurt bowls for a sweet addition to your mornings. Or, dehydrate vegetables such as tomatoes, garlic, chives, or onion to grind down and create fresh seasonings at home. Some customers use the function to dehydrate sweet potatoes as treats for dogs.