Martin Lewis explains why air fryers could cost more than ovens

7 December 2022, 11:05

Martin Lewis has revealed why Air Fryers could cost you more. Picture: ITV/Alamy

By Naomi Bartram

Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis has a word of warning to anybody using air fryers or microwaves instead of ovens.

With Christmas right around the corner, you might be planning how you can cook your whole festive dinner in the air fryer.

But now Martin Lewis has warned this might actually cost you more in energy bills than using your oven.

The Money Saving Expert has now claimed that appliances such as the Ninja and Tower fryers could use more energy depending on what you're cooking in them.

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Speaking on his latest podcast, Martin explained that while microwaves and air fryers can be good for singular meals, cooking in the oven might be more economical for a larger family.

Martin Lewis has warned about air fryer costs. Picture: ITV

“The problem with the equation for heating equipment is an oven is going to be about 2000W,” he said.

"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."

The 50-year-old continued: "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.

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"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.

"General equation is, find the wattage of an item, then work out how many kilowatts or what fraction of a kilowatt it's using, then multiply that by 34p per hour of use."

This same advice can be applied to air fyers and halogen cookers.

It comes after Which? revealed the cheapest cooking appliance for popular meals was the air fryer.

Cooking large meals in an air fryer could be more expensive. Picture: Alamy

Emily Seymour, Which? Energy Editor, said: "There has been a surge of interest in air fryers and smaller cooking appliances in recent months, and our research shows that the hype could be justified in some cases, as we’ve found these products cost less to cook certain foods than conventional ovens."

However, she agreed with Martin when it comes to larger meals, stating: "The cost savings will soon be lost if you have to cook more than one batch though, so it’s still better to use your oven if you’re cooking large quantities."