Vs the modern basket-style air fryer.
Should you upgrade?
Our first air fryer was a Tefal Actifry—the original design with a paddle that moved the food around as it was cooked by hot air.
Features
A nonstick food container, a heating element with a removable filter, and quickly detachable parts made the actifry easy to clean. The clear lid allows you can see the food brown as it cooks. The rotating paddle meant the food was automatically turned and flipped over as it cooked with hot air. Very little oil was needed to get crisp fried food.
Needs Improvement
This early design of the air fryer didn’t get much use from us after the initial honeymoon stage. It cooked fries, chips, and sausages, and we even followed some of the recipes supplied. The stirring paddle could mash the food as it rotated, but forgiving that it was something else that just didn’t fit in so well for us.
The size. The original actifry was quite large for the size of the cooking area, and it looked like the modern cylindrical or box-shaped basket air fryers available today. The unique shape of the early air fryer wasn’t particularly space-saving, and it would take up too much space in the cupboard that could be better used for other kitchen gadgets.
Long term
For those that persisted with the early models of actifry air fryers, reports of broken stirring paddles are not uncommon. The spare paddle is readily available on Amazon and is simple to replace. There is still life in the original tefal actifry if you have one.
Actifry vs Airfryer
The actifry solved the problem of turning the food automatically with a rotating paddle. The basket air fryers need a manual intervention of the basket shake or flipping the food part way through cooking.
The new basket-style air fryers are much more space efficient for the amount of food you can cook in one go. Due to the shape of the actifry it is impossible to cook a whole chicken. A reasonably sized modern basket-type air fryer can simultaneously cook a whole chicken and some potatoes.
Should you upgrade?
What you will lose is the automatic food turning that the actifry offers. There are air fryer ovens that have a rotisserie feature that solves that problem.
Roasting Chickens in the basket-style air fryer is an everyday use for us. A cheap roast is ideal for the air fryer; you just can’t fit a chicken into the original tefal actifry.
Cooking times and costs are very similar between the two kitchen devices. One is fully automatic, while the other has the potential to fit more oversized food items in for cooking.
If you are happy with your actifry, you may not find upgrading to the newer style oven or basket air fryer advantageous.
If you have a broken actifry paddle, it may be more cost-effective to fit a new paddle sourced from Amazon.