Haier I-Master Series 3 Flex Double Drawer Air Fryer review

Design and Features

• Clear control panel
• Viewing window
• 11ltr capacity

The design of the Haier I-Master Series 3 Flex Double Drawer Air Fryer has one of the largest capacities yet smallest footprint that I have tested. Measuring 30.4 (H) x 36.3(W) x 49.5(D)cm with a X power cord, it fits perfectly in the corner of my kitchen underneath the wall units. It isn’t as tall as the Haier I-Master Series 5 Air Fryer (34.5cm) or the Ninja Foodi MAX Dual Zone Air Fryer with Smart Cook System AF451UK (32.5cm) which I’ve had for a number of years.

This appliance has everything that you need to get to at the front; control panel, drawer and viewing window.

The control panel gives access to eight cooking programes; air fry, grill, roast, bake, dry, reheat, defrost and slow cook. Here you can also turn on the internal light, adjust the temperature (60°C-200°C), tweak the cooking duration and split cooking strategies; cook a large batch or different foods at the same or different time.

A digital display within the control panel will count down the time remaining on a program, and show the minutes and degrees if you’re doing any fine tuning.

Below the control panel is the drawer with viewing window. This spans across the length of the appliance, and approximately two-thirds of this side. Switch on the internal light and look through the viewing window to check on cooking progress. You can toggle between either basket one or basket two, or both when synced. The handle to the drawer of the 11lt cooking basket spans the width of the appliance, too.

The non-stick cooking basket can either be used as a large basket or split into two with the included divider.

It has a removable, non-stick tray nestled into the basket to encourage air flow around the food for an even crisp. This is secured in place with rubber grips around the edges.

This air fryer comes with a user guide and basket divider.

Performance

• No pre-heating required
• Doesn’t always save time
• Cumbersome to clean

The Haier I-Master Series 3 Flex Double Drawer Air Fryer has been designed to do one thing, and that is to cook. I’ve worked my way through all the programmes to find out how it performs. Some are used more than others, like air frying, but the large basket makes it possible to try out new recipes – and cook more food types than ever before.

I cooked chips and fish fingers one night for dinner (for the kids), and a cheese toastie for my lunch the following day. For both of these meals I used the air fryer program, and both had mixed results.

The chips were frozen, and usually take 25 minutes in the oven. The air fryer program is defaulted to 20 minutes at 180°C. I bumped up the temperature to the maximum 200°C, and reduced the time (as I usually do when cooking frozen chips) to 15 minutes in basket one, and on basket two I also bumped up the temperature to 200°C and reduced the cooking time to 12 minutes, as I usually do when cooking frozen fish fingers).

At the end of the program the chips lacked crisp edges and were pale in colour, and the fish fingers didn’t look golden and, therefore, uncooked. I put both baskets back onto air fry mode for another three minutes which made the chips passable, and the fish fingers visibly edible. No odour was transferred between the foods, so the divider in the basket worked a treat.

My cheese toastie was air fried for seven minutes at 200°C; my usual go-to duration and temperature. It didn’t stick to the basket (hurrah!) and the upward facing side of the sandwich was golden. However, the other side of the sandwich was a little warm and soggy.

I tried out making apple chips (for the first time) using the “dehydrate” program. I followed a recipe for this which suggested a time of two hours, and temperature of 60°C; the maximum time I could set on this program was 90 minutes.

The apple chips were cooked to perfection. I found the viewing window helpful when I wanted to see what was going on inside the appliance – I was getting slightly concerned that pieces of apple would start blowing around, but they didn’t.

I tried baking a cake on the “bake” program, and it was cooked to perfection (after I gave it a little tweak). I pre-heated the air fryer for three minutes at 160°C. I don’t usually do this but, for cake, this time I made an exception to ensure I get a good rise. The program had a default time of 25 minutes, and 160°C. I reduced the duration of the bake down to 22 minutes because I didn’t want to over bake it, and you can also bake for longer if you need any way.

The only downside I found is that I couldn’t check in on the cooking progress through the viewing window because the sides of the loaf tin were too high for me to see over the top.

Next up, I tried the “grill” program to grill some bacon. This was pre-set to 200°C, and 10 minutes. I like my bacon crispy and kind-of burnt, but 10 minutes felt too long to me so I reduced the cooking duration down to seven minutes.

It transpired that the pre-set time, and temperature, was spot on because I ended up cooking the bacon for a further three minutes to crisp it up.

I also tried out the “reheat” program to warm through yesterday’s bread roll (can you tell what my lunch was?). This had a default setting of 10 minutes, and 160°C. I reduced the time down to five minutes because, again, the time pre-set time felt too long. The bread roll was cooler in the middle than the outer crust, but it was perfectly OK to have with the bacon.

I imagine that you may need to tinker with the “reheat” program depending on what you’re reheating. It’s likely that a microwave may be more thorough and quicker in some cases; it would’ve taken 20 seconds to reheat my bread roll in a microwave, for example.

On all programs I recorded a noise level reading of 63dB. This is equivalent to a quiet street with a low hum.

Keeping the Haier I-Master Series 3 Flex Double Drawer Air Fryer clean is a little cumbersome. The shear size of the 11-ltr basket makes it difficult to put in the dishwasher or kitchen sink. I opted to hand wash it to help preserve the non-stick, to free-up space in the dishwasher and because I wanted to have it cleaned quickly rather than for it to be sat around all dirty.

Should you buy it?