When air grills first appeared on the market, they were all arranged in approximately the same way: a large glass pan, on which a heating unit with a fan is put on top. Years passed, the approach changed – and here we see a miracle of space design with an opaque tray that is inserted into the body of the device.
The Kitfort KT-2213 aerogrill looks very impressive, does not take up as much space on the table as the old models we are used to, and is also positioned as a replacement for the oven. Let’s see what can be cooked in it and whether it is as good in business as it looks good.
Characteristics
| Manufacturer | kitfort |
|---|---|
| Model | KT-2213 |
| Type | aerogrill |
| Country of Origin | China |
| Warranty | 1 year |
| Service life * | 2 years |
| Power | 1350 W |
| Protection class against electric shock | class I |
| Temperature control | 80 to 200 °C |
| Timer | mechanical (0—30 minutes) |
| Automatic shutdown | there is |
| Finished beep | there is |
| Pallet capacity | 3 l |
| The weight | 4.1 kg |
| Dimensions (W×H×D) | 375×283×364 mm |
| Network cable length | 0.85 m |
| Retail offers |
* If it’s quite simple: this is the period during which parts for repairing the device are delivered to official service centers. After this period, any repair in the official SC (both warranty and paid) is unlikely to be possible.
Equipment
The black box with purple fragments is almost square in cross section. It is decorated with another Kitfort slogan “I care about your diet!” On both sides, in addition to the slogan, we see a schematic representation of the air grill, the brand, name of the device and model, as well as the color – black (and an empty checkbox next to it).
The other two sides, as usual, are given over to the technical information and advantages of the device. The technical ones include voltage, power, type of control, temperature control range and timer settings, the presence of auto-off and a sound signal after work is completed, the capacity of the tray and the dimensions and weight of the device and packaging.
On the opposite side there is information that the convection grill fries without adding oil, has a retro design, the capacity of its tray is 3 liters, it has manual control with operation and heating indicators, and auto-off. The tray and grate have a non-stick coating, they are easy to clean, and the tray has a comfortable handle. Also, as one of the advantages, instructions with recipes are indicated.
Opening the box, inside we found:
- aerogrill body with removable tray and grate;
- instruction manual.
At first sight
Aerogrill Kitfort KT-2213 resembles an egg. Only black (however, it also happens to be white, but we don’t have it for testing), from a very large ostrich and with cut off blunt and sharp ends: it stands on the blunt end, there is a timer on the sharp one. Well, not every egg has a handle for removing the pallet from the front.
The device is large, but since it is oriented vertically, it does not take up much space on the table. Its futuristic appearance is very unusual, it will attract the attention of all guests and will not even spoil the traditional interior. The color scheme is especially good: the main color is glossy black, a wide silver border that goes from the sides to the top, a white scale and a silver handle for the temperature regulator. Very stylish.
The upper part is occupied by a platform of a mechanical timer (it can also be used when the device is turned off) with a gradation from 0 to 30 minutes. The timer handle turns clockwise with little effort and characteristic clicks. To turn off the timer, you need to slightly press the handle down and turn it counterclockwise – this turn is smoother and without clicks, but also requires effort.
Scale around the handle with large divisions of 5 minutes and small divisions of one minute. The numbers are applied in a decorative, but understandable font. There are also hints for cooking times and temperatures for some of the most common types of food.
The lower part of the body is a plastic grill that provides air circulation with a solid platform in the center. A white nameplate with technical characteristics of the device and information about the manufacturer is pasted on this area.
At the bottom of the air grill there are also four legs with rubber anti-slip pads and a plastic shield that covers the bottom of the outlet for the power cord and prevents it from bending and falling under the bottom during operation of the device. The power cord exits the vertical wall of the appliance at the rear. On the back side there is a ventilation grill for hot air outlet, so the device should not be placed close to a wall or other vertical surfaces.
Putting the device vertically, we saw that approximately in the middle it was divided into two parts by a seam. On the upper front part there is a control knob with two LEDs and a scale from 80 °C to 200 °C.
The lower part is a cavity for installing a pallet with a grate there. The inlet part of this cavity occupies almost half of the body circumference and has cutouts and guides for fixing the pallet. On top of this part of the case there are two spring-loaded steel latches for a more secure fit. In our test instance, the left of them is not pressed every time and seems to meet resistance if it is not pressed strictly vertically. Therefore, the insertion of the tray requires its correct positioning, which may not be very convenient when manipulating the hot tray. The second latch works flawlessly, smoothly and with deviations from strictly vertical pressing.
Inside the cavity, on its upper part, there is a spiral heating element, behind which is a large steel fan with wide blades. At the back, approximately at the level of the fan, there is an outlet for hot air, the grille of which we have already seen from the back. The thermostat sensor is located in front of the heating element.
The pallet is not strictly round, as one might assume from the shape of the body, but has the shape of a circle cut off at the sides. It is made of thin steel, protected on the inside with a non-stick coating. It has a plastic hollow pad on the front with a large, highly visible handle that says Air Fryer. On the upper cut of the lining there are cutouts for mounting in the case.
There is an embossed arrow at the bottom of the tray indicating how to properly insert it into the case. There are four protrusions on the inside of the front wall, two at different heights. They combine stops for the grate and screws for attaching the cover to the handle.
When inserting the pallet into the body, you need to find one position in which this can be done. Considering that the backlash of the pallet in this case reaches almost a centimeter, and also that the left latch behaves differently from the right one, we did not succeed the first time. Yes, and from the second or third, too. Every time, a few seconds of trying to correctly position the pallet is still not very convenient.
The grate is made of steel with a non-stick coating on both sides. On the top, working, surface there is a small steel handle for more convenient pulling of the grate from the pallet. The handle is located on a platform from which convex stiffening ribs diverge. There are also additional ribs in the form of concentric circles, with round holes between them.
The edges of the lattice are a slightly raised side with cutouts – two on four sides. Silicone pads are put on the fragments of the side between the cutouts, which help to fix the grate in the pallet.
As for the attachment, by the way, we doubted for a long time whether everything was arranged correctly in our copy: in fact, the grille is not attached in any way at the back of the pallet. In the front, it rests on two lugs when installed at maximum height and at half the height of the pallet. The back part should be kept on the friction force of the silicone pads. Just in case, we do not recommend loading this part of the grate so that it does not warp.
In one of the previous models of the same manufacturer, the grille was attached to four protrusions, and we do not understand why this was abandoned.
Instruction
The Kitfort KT-2213 Airfryer User Manual is an A5 booklet printed on good quality glossy paper in a clear, albeit rather small, font. On the traditional purple cover there is a schematic image of the device, the name and model of the device and the slogan “I care about your home.”
The brochure describes in clear and understandable language not only the use of the air fryer, but also the principles of its operation, as well as useful tips on the use of the device and recipes for several of the most representative dishes. A list of recipes and a table with the time and temperature of cooking some types of dishes is enough to learn the rules of cooking in an air grill and in the future allow yourself to modify recipes, introduce new products, and so on.
The list of possible problems that the user can fix on their own is quite extensive and answers the maximum of questions that are likely to arise during operation (for example, about white smoke from the device). All other questions are promised to be answered by the hotline, the phone number and address of which are printed on the first page of the instructions.
Control
Airfryer cooking has two parameters: temperature and time. First, using the round knob on the front of the body, the temperature is set, and then the cooking process starts by turning on the timer for the desired time.
The instructions say that the air grill must be preheated for three minutes – that is, set the desired temperature and set the timer for 3 minutes. If this is not done, then it makes sense to add 3 minutes to the total cooking time. By the way, note that in many recipes from the instructions, the warm-up time is five minutes.
When cooking food that needs to be turned over, it is best to set the timer for half the time stated in the recipe, turn the food over after it goes off and then set the remaining half. If you pull out the tray during operation, the air grill will automatically pause and start working again only after the tray is returned to its place. At the same time, the mechanical timer does not turn off, and the time spent on turning and other manipulations is not taken into account.
During the cooking process, you can change the time, operating time, and temperature, if you feel it is necessary.
You can turn off the air grill during operation by resetting the timer to zero. We note once again that the timer is mechanical, so turning it counterclockwise requires light pressure on the timer handle, as if pressing it into the case.
To the left of the round temperature control is a yellow operation indicator that lights up when the timer is running. On the right is a red heating indicator that lights up when the temperature control knob is turned and turns off when the set temperature is reached.
Exploitation
Before starting work, the manufacturer recommends washing the drip tray and grate with warm water and a mild detergent. Then you need to put the air grill in full assembly to warm up at the maximum temperature for 15-20 minutes, so that the factory grease on the heating element burns out and foreign odors go away.
After that, the grate and the pan must be rinsed, dried and greased with vegetable oil.
The air grill is installed on a flat surface at a distance of no closer than 20-30 centimeters from the rear wall of the appliance to the kitchen wall. At least 10 centimeters of free space should remain at the top and sides. There should not be anything combustible nearby (curtains, paper towel holder, etc.).
Food should only be placed on the grate; it is impossible to cook in a pan without a grate. Also, you can’t fill the pan with fat – they only need to lubricate the products and a little – the grate.
The biggest advantage of an air grill (apart from the fact that it takes up very little space on the work surface) is its minimal impact, let’s call it that, on the environment. That is, all splashes of fat from potatoes or chicken remain inside the device. Of course, it will have to be washed, but this is a much lower cost than washing, for example, a stove spattered with grease from a frying pan and the wall behind it. This makes the Kitfort KT-2213 an excellent choice for studios whose owners like to receive guests and treat them to quick, not too greasy food – and after that do not clean the entire living space, but simply wash the dishes and wipe the heating element of the airfryer.
Working with an air grill looks quite simple according to the description: you need to put the grate in the pan, put the prepared products on it, insert the pan and set the desired time and temperature. Wait for the final call of the timer and take out the finished dish. However, some features of working with the device make cooking in it a little more exciting attraction than we would like. First, you need to decide in which position to set the grate so that the food is completely baked or fried, but at the same time does not fall off the grate when the tray is moved. For french fries, for example, a low position of the rack is more convenient, and for baked apples or beets, you can put it higher.
Secondly, it is necessary to properly distribute the load over the grating, taking into account the features of its fastening. Thirdly, taking into account the size and location of the products, it is necessary to increase or decrease the cooking time (or temperature) accordingly – the recipes in the instructions are averaged, so you need to make adjustments and check the condition of the food in the process. At the same time, do not forget that the mechanical timer does not stop, so the check time must be subtracted from the total cooking time.
We also note that the design of the timer handle did not seem convenient to us: shallow semicircular notches on it do not provide a good grip, the handle is tight, so it is difficult to turn it with a wet or greasy hand.
The opaque tray does not allow you to control the cooking process without interrupting work, so every time when there is doubt, you will have to pull out the tray and decide whether to continue frying or finish, reduce the temperature or time or increase, stir or not yet. At the same time, the operation of the motor stops, the thermoelement begins to cool down and does it quite quickly. After the next turn on, especially if you are distracted by something and the air grill has been turned off for more than a minute, the dish does not heat up, but cools down: the air passes through the thermoelement coil that has not yet warmed up and lowers the temperature in the pan.
Care
After each use, the air grill must be cleaned of grease and crumbs. The only exceptions are when you need to cook several servings of the same type of food in a short time (for example, fry chicken wings all evening as they are eaten, or something like that).
Before cleaning, unplug the power cord and allow the appliance to cool completely. If you need to speed up the process, you can remove the pan and leave it to cool separately.
If fat has accumulated in the pan, it must be removed without waiting for complete cooling. To do this, put on gloves and use paper towels to “soak” all the fat from the pan. Both the tray and the grate have a non-stick coating, so you can’t wash them with hard washcloths or brushes. In addition, do not wash the tray or grate under running water until completely cool, and do not wash them in the dishwasher. If the grease does not come off with a simple wash, you can soak the grate and drip tray in soapy water for 30 minutes or use a liquid degreaser (only for the most stubborn stains).
Before each use, a clean grate and pan should be lubricated with vegetable oil to prolong the life of the non-stick coating.
The heating element can be cleaned of food debris with a nylon brush – but only after it has completely cooled down. External surfaces should be wiped with a damp cloth.
Our measurements
The maximum power recorded during the operation of the device was 1309 watts. It was achieved by setting the temperature controller to 200 °C.
The grill goes into operating mode fairly quickly. Set at 200°C, the appliance heated the air in the bowl to 100°C in just 65 seconds, and reached 200°C in 2 minutes 9 seconds. This is significantly less than the five minutes recommended by the user manual for warming up the device.
The mechanical grill timer is not very accurate. With the help of a stopwatch, we checked its operation and were slightly disappointed: the convection oven, turned on for five minutes, actually works for 3 minutes 4 seconds. The ten-minute interval, on the contrary, is slightly longer in reality: 12 minutes 9 seconds.
During operation, the temperature inside the grill bowl fluctuates noticeably. When set to 200 °C, the device, according to our measurements, changes the cooking temperature in a fairly wide range: the maximum temperature recorded reached 240 °C, while the minimum dropped to 194 °C. An airfryer set to 100°C actually cooks at temperatures between 69°C and 106°C. This feature should be kept in mind when preparing products that require precise temperatures in the recipe.
The fact is that the heating element of the device does not work constantly: it has on and off cycles that take about 30 seconds. During shutdown, the coil cools down and does not heat the air, which is still driving the fan, to the desired temperature. However, if we are dealing with meat or vegetables, then such differences do not harm them at all.
For 20 minutes (the most common time for recipes) at maximum heating, the air grill showed an energy consumption of 0.237 kWh.
We also measured the temperature of the case when the device was operating at maximum heat: the lower part, where hot air enters, heated up to 55 ° C from the outside, and only up to 47 ° C at the top. The upper part with the timer and the temperature control knob practically did not heat up, so we considered the thermal insulation of the air grill to be good.
practice tests
In cooking on the air grill, we decided to rely on the recipes given in the instructions, while making changes (for example, in the composition of the sauce) and noting the discrepancy with the time indicated in the recipe.
traditional chicken
For starters, we decided to cook something that is always cooked in air grills: chicken. We took chicken legs (you can use wings, but you need to take less time to cook them) and marinated in teriyaki sauce (soy sauce, honey, rice vinegar, a little red wine, chili pepper, salt). The chicken was kept in the sauce for three hours, after which it was placed on a wire rack and sent to the convection oven.
After setting the grill to 180°C, we preheated it for five minutes as the manual recommends, and loaded the marinated thighs into it.
After 15 minutes, we turned the chicken over for a more even browning, lowered the temperature to 150°C, and waited another 10 minutes.
Chicken thighs turned out great: well-done, but not over-dried, with a well-formed crust.
Result: excellent.
French fries without extra oil
To test how the grill replaces the air fryer, we made french fries – this is also a recipe from the air fryer manual. To do this, peeled tubers were cut into thin sticks and soaked for half an hour in cold water.
We dried the potato wedges, mixed them with a tablespoon of vegetable oil, laid them in an even layer on the grate and put them on a grill preheated for 5 minutes to 200 ° C.
Cooked for 15 minutes, shook about halfway through cooking. All slices were brought to readiness, but some were slightly burned. However, it didn’t affect the taste.
Result: excellent but the cooking time in the recipe should vary depending on the amount of product
Pork in sesame
We cut the lean pork flesh into cubes and stood for three hours in a spicy marinade, which consisted of soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, cayenne pepper and salt to taste. Marinating time – 3 hours. After that, we dried the slices of meat on a napkin, rolled them in sesame seeds and evenly spread them out on a wire rack.
Fry for 12 minutes at 200 ° C in a preheated air grill, periodically looking at the process. As soon as the sesame seeds began to brown, the dish was considered ready.
Pork was fully cooked, not overdried and not burned. The taste is wonderful.
Result: excellent.
Baked apples with honey and raisins
Let’s check how the convection oven works in the oven mode: bake apples in it. We took out the core from sour green apples and stuffed them with raisins mixed with melted honey.
At 180°C on a preheated grill, the apples baked for 20 minutes and were quite cooked.
Before serving, baked apples can be decorated with powdered sugar and icing.
Result: excellent.
Fried khinkali
This is another recipe from the airfryer guide that we decided to try. Without defrosting, we put the finished khinkali on the grill grate, greased with vegetable oil and, after preheating the device, turned it on to 180 ° C.
Fifteen minutes and the dish is ready. Outside – an appetizing crispy crust, inside – a tender, but completely ready-made filling.
A little spoiled the impression, perhaps, a few khinkali that cracked and released the filling, but we attribute this to the quality of the original semi-finished product.
Result: good.
Salmon steak
We slightly dried a large salmon steak with a napkin without additional preparation and placed it in a bowl of a preheated grill. Salmon is a fairly oily fish, and even oil is not required to cook it in an air grill. Only fish and grill.
For cooking fish, the manufacturer recommends 160 ° C and 15-20 minutes. Our steak was ready in twenty.
The result was predictably good. The fish has acquired an excellent crust on the outside, while remaining tender, juicy, not overdried, but quite ready inside.
Result: excellent.
findings
Air grill Kitfort KT-2213 is perfect for quick cooking of fried and baked food, while it does not take up much space on the work surface and does not stain everything around when cooking. Therefore, it is an excellent option for very small kitchens or studios where there is no kitchen at all. Here, by the way, a spectacular design solution of the device will also be needed – it will decorate the interior and attract the views of guests.
Since food can be not only cooked in it, but also heated, it seems to us that it will also be a good replacement for a traditional microwave.
However, some features of its design and operation may require the owner to adapt to a new household appliance and conduct several tests, finding out the limits of its capabilities.
pros
- unusual and stylish design
- good thermal insulation
Minuses
- not too successful fastening of the pallet grate
- not very convenient timer handle
- the impossibility of visual control of the readiness of the dish without stopping cooking
