Instant Pot Vortex Compact 5L Air Fryer Review

Design and features

• Anti-odour filter
• Viewing window
• Simple, straightforward controls

Rather than just being another ‘me-too’ basic air fryer, the Instant Pot Vortex Compact 5L Air Fryer has some clever features, which are particularly impressive given its low price.

With a single drawer and five-litre capacity, the Instant Pot Vortex Compact 5L Air Fryer is designed for smaller families or for just doing a single dish well, such as a batch of chips. It’s just a little smaller than the Ninja Air Fryer Max Pro 6.2L AF180UK.

The small size does mean that the air fryer doesn’t take up much counter space, and you can easily tuck it away in a regular kitchen cupboard when it’s not in use. 

I noticed two things about this air fryer immediately. First, there’s an OdourErase at the back, which traps smells after cooking. They really work, and you can buy a replacement set of four filters for £9.99 – you only need to replace the filter when the light comes on.

Secondly, there’s a window at the front of the drawer, which you can peer through to see how the food is cooking, aided by the internal light, which turns on via the control panel.

These features aren’t something that I’d expect to find on an air fryer this cheap, so they’re a real bonus.

Cooking is easy with this machine. There are four cooking modes: air fry, bake, reheat and dehydrate. Each comes set to a default setting, which seemed a bit arbitrary to me. For example, why set dehydrate to 51°C rather than 50°C? 

However, using the on-screen controls to change the temperature and time, the Instant Pot Vortex Compact 5L Air Fryer remembers the setting for the next time. These controls are easy enough to use, but it’s one button to cycle through the temperature and time options, and up/down buttons to change time. I slightly prefer Ninja’s interface, with dedicated temperature and time buttons, as these make it faster to make changes.

In addition, there are four favourite buttons underneath, which you can use to save your presets. That’s handy if you have food that you regularly cook, as you can just tap one button and you’re ready to go.

This air fryer tops out at 205°C, which isn’t bad, but it’s a way behind the Max Crisp mode on some Ninja air fryers, which gives you 240°C of heat. Higher heat is useful for foods where you need a nice crisp finish.

Once the Instant Pot Vortex Compact 5L Air Fryer is set, hit the play button and it pre-heats, beeping when it’s time to add food. Just pull out the tray, add your food, stick it back in and it starts to cook.

Handily, the air fryer beeps partway through cooking, reminding you to turn the food. I could do this with a little shake for some items, such as chips, although I had to be careful, as the crisper plate doesn’t fix that firmly to the bottom of the drawer. It may just be easier to use some silicone tongs. 

It’s possible to adjust the temperature and cooking time during cooking, which is handy if you need to add a bit more time or heat to get the results that you want.

At the end of cooking, the drawer and crisper plate can go in the dishwasher, but it’s just as easy to quickly wash them by hand.

Performance

• Pre-heat
• Tells you when it’s time to turn food
• Even, crisp cooking

I tested the Instant Pot Vortex Compact 5L Air Fryer with a few staples, starting with traditional oven chips. Cooking for the recommended time and temperature, I found that the chips were pretty much perfectly cooked: evenly browned, with a nice crunch on the outside and a soft inside.

Next, I cooked some potato smiles, which are made from mashed potatoes and are similar to a hash brown. These would ideally benefit from a high temperature to really crisp up the outside, but at 205°C, I found that they cooked nicely enough, with a bit of a crunch to the outside.

I then cooked fish fingers. I found that the filter did a good job of holding the fishy smell inside, while the air fryer cooked them brilliantly. In an oven, fish fingers can often go a bit soggy; here, the outside was crisp, but the inside was still moist.

Should you buy it?