Martin Lewis issues warning to people using air fryers instead of ovens to cook

Once again, the financial guru that is Martin Lewis is imparting his nuggets of wisdom on how we can best save our pennies.

The Money Saving Expert has issued an urgent warning to all those air fryer lovers out there who frequently opt to cook their tea in the handy appliances rather than their oven.

While the must-have gadget is adored due its efficiency, speed and ability to have frozen chips ready in a matter of minutes - it's clear they may not always be the most cost-effective.

Now, in case you're not in the know of how air fryers function, they basically work by circulating hot air around the food to cook it in a similar way to a fan oven.

While they're great for delivering that 'fried' finish on a whole bunch of different foods, there are seemingly additional hidden costs attached to air fryers and microwaves when compared to ovens.

Lewis issued Brits with the warning over the price it takes to run air fryers during an episode of The Martin Lewis podcast.

"A microwave, I believe, 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 explained.

The 51-year-old continued: "If you’re doing a jacket potato for 10 minutes in the microwave it is going to be cheaper than doing a single jacket potato in an oven for an hour and a half.

Ali Majdfar / Getty Images

"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."

Summing it up, Lewis concluded: "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."

He added: "The problem with the equation for heating equipment is an oven is going to be about 2000W.

"If you had a 1,000W microwave and you put it on for 10 minutes, one KWH for a sixth of an hour, a sixth of 34p is about 6p, shall we say? So it’s 6p turning the microwave on for that amount of time. So yes it’s a very useful equation."

'Which?' a consumer group, also found that the traditional method of an oven is better to cook large quantities of scran.

But, with smaller amounts with appliances like air fryers, they state: "We’ve found these products cost less to cook certain foods than conventional ovens."

The more you know - eh?

Topics: Martin Lewis, Food and Drink, Home, Life, Money, Cost of Living

Rhiannon Ingle

Rhiannon Ingle is a Journalist at LADbible Group. She graduated from the University of Manchester in 2021 in English Literature. Alongside her studies, she was the Lifestyle Editor of The Mancunian, the largest student newspaper in the United Kingdom. Her favourite topics to write about include sex and relationships, bizarre lifestyle trends and all things travel.