Martin Lewis has issued a warning to anybody with an air fryer ahead of Christmas. The ITV This Morning and Good Morning Britain star appeared on today's daytime TV line-up ahead of his Martin Lewis Money Show, which airs live from 8pm on Tuesday night on ITV1 and ITVX.
Speaking to hosts Rochelle Humes and Dermot O'Leary, he was quick to mention their upcoming segment, asking: "I heard you on the show mentioning someone was going to cook a Christmas dinner in an air fryer, is that right?"
He said: "If it's being done for energy reasons, I would be somewhat sceptical whether that is a good idea - if it's for taste I definitely don't want to get involved. I mean, the benefit of an oven is when you cook a lot for a lot of people, you can fit it on all the racks and have it on consistently.
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"Air fryers are good for small things that cook quickly. If you're going to use your air fryer fifteen different times, generally on energy usage would be better using an oven. It's an interesting thought if you're cooking a small amount." Rochelle said : "I think the idea is that if you're hosting people on Christmas Day, and one person gets that job in the family [to cook], freeing up oven space, I think, was the suggestion."
Mr Lewis said: "The problem with the equation for heating equipment is an oven is going to be about 2000W. A microwave I believe, from memory, a best guess explanation, a microwave gives you consistent heat whereas an oven is warming up to full temperature and then topping it up so it isn't running at full power the whole time."
He said: "But if you're doing a jacket potato for 10 minutes it's going to be far cheaper [in the microwave] than doing a single jacket potato in an oven and keeping it on for an hour and a half. However if you were doing a full roast dinner and you were cooking many of them, that is where it's probably cheaper than putting five or six jacket potatoes in a microwave because each additional object you put in a microwave, you need to keep it on longer because a microwave just heats the individual object."
