At a look
Knowledgeable’s Score
Execs
- Saves area in comparison with a multi-lid cooker
- Moist & dry cooking capabilities
- Quick cooking instances
Cons
- Unlikely to suit beneath kitchen cabinets
- Essential half broke off in testing
- Costly for those who’ll primarily use the air fryer mode
Our Verdict
The Duo Crisp with Final Lid is a superb multicooker that may prepare dinner a wide range of moist meals in addition to being an air fryer. It cooks shortly and is generally very straightforward to make use of, too.
Air fryers are essentially the most talked-about kitchen equipment of the yr. They usually’re additionally, most likely, essentially the most misunderstood.
Put merely, an air fryer is a miniature fan oven with a catchier identify. They warmth up fast, and their small dimension means they will prepare dinner small quantities of meals sooner than your regular fan oven, saving you money and time.
Not all air fryers are the identical, and the On the spot Pot Duo Crisp with Final Lid is a really completely different beast from a budget air fryers you may discover stacked excessive on sure grocery store aisles.
It combines the favored On the spot Pot – a multicooker that permits you to stress prepare dinner, sluggish prepare dinner, sauté and different wet-cooking capabilities – with an air fryer for dry-cooking capabilities akin to grilling, roasting, baking and proofing.
The ‘Final Lid’ half means you need to use the varied capabilities with out swapping between lids as you do with the common Duo Crisp. That is far more handy as a result of it means you don’t want to search out extra cupboard space for various lids.
All of this explains why this cooker prices greater than different air fryers, however as you’ll see, it may be properly definitely worth the outlay.
Options & design
Measuring 393 × 391 × 340 mm (15.5 x 15.4 x 13.4in, w x d x h), it is a pretty chunky equipment which requires a good quantity of worktop area. It’s unlikely to suit beneath wall cabinets, because it’s a lot taller when the lid is open: you want no less than 600mm (24in) of top.
As you possibly can see, it’s a lot too massive to open the lid underneath my kitchen cabinets.
Jim Martin / Foundry
It solely is available in black, and has a comparatively quick energy cable – 80cm – so it must be positioned close to a mains socket.
Open the lid, and also you’ll discover a detachable air frying basket that’s additionally used for steaming and has a non-stick coating. That sits inside a 6.2 litre (6.5 quart) chrome steel cooking pot.
Jim Martin / Foundry
Throughout the lid is a detachable stress plate. This stays in for many of the moist cooking capabilities, however must be taken out for the dry ones because the heating factor and fan sit behind it.
There’s one other heating factor within the cooking base, which is used for sluggish cooking, sautéing and different modes.
Speaking of modes, the Duo Crisp with Final Lid is a 13-in-1 gadget and there are 13 buttons: six for moist cooking, six for dry plus a Maintain Heat perform.
Jim Martin / Foundry
Should you’re acquainted with On the spot Pots, then the moist capabilities received’t be a shock: stress prepare dinner, sauté, steam, sluggish prepare dinner and sous vide.
On the dry facet, you’ve received air fry, roast, grille, bake, dehydrate and proofing.
In actuality, there isn’t a distinction between steam and stress prepare dinner (the guide even says so), and there’s additionally no distinction between air fry, bake and roast besides that with bake you don’t want to make use of the chrome steel cooking pot or air frying basket: you need to use an oven-safe tray that matches contained in the cooker.
Grilling is once more just about the identical, however removes the flexibility to vary the temperature which is ready to the utmost the Duo Crisp provides for all dry modes: 204°C.
Final, there’s proofing and dehydrating. These differ solely within the instances and temperatures you possibly can choose, with 23-35°C for proofing and 40-73°C for dehydrating.
Cooking with the Duo Crisp with Final lid
One of the crucial necessary issues to grasp is that the On the spot Pot’s capability as an air fryer is comparatively restricted, though not in comparison with different air fryers. The basket has a diameter of 215mm / 8.5in, which suggests you’re going to battle to feed multiple or two folks with out cooking issues one after one other.
For instance, for those who needed to make a roast dinner, you’d must do the rooster first (and ensure you purchase one which’ll match), then the potatoes and parsnips, and eventually the greens.
You possibly can stress prepare dinner meat in a lot much less time then for those who tried to air fry it, and might use the grill mode to brown it off.
Jim Martin / Foundry
There’s room within the air frying basket for 4 medium-size rooster breasts and a few thighs, so it may possibly’t be described as tiny in comparison with different air fryers, however it is tiny in comparison with a conventional fan oven.
It’s additionally price figuring out that, as talked about, there isn’t actually a steam perform to switch steaming veg on the hob. The Duo Crisp steams underneath stress, which requires studying a very new method the place you possibly can can’t see the meals, check it and even open the lid after cooking as stress should be launched first.
Nonetheless, it’s just about pointless to even hassle making an attempt to steam any veg since it may possibly take 10-Quarter-hour to ‘preheat’ earlier than it even begins steaming. So that is one space the place the On the spot Pot isn’t sooner than conventional strategies. The one factor it’s good for steaming is corn on the cob.
The capability is nice for soups, risottos and different one-pot dishes, although, and might simply make sufficient in a single go for a household of 4 or 5.
Jim Martin / Foundry
When air frying or grilling, pre-heating instances are a lot sooner than an everyday oven, and you’ll normally knock off an excellent jiffy from the cooking directions on most meals. I cooked rooster nuggets, fish fingers, sausages and even small pizzas within the air frying basket they usually had been all cooked properly earlier than the beneficial instances.
Jim Martin / Foundry
I didn’t attempt making yoghurt or proofing dough, however did discover the sauté perform to be actually helpful. The power to fry onions and brown issues off earlier than utilizing sluggish or stress cooking modes is useful, as is the actual fact the On the spot Pot helps you to decide between six completely different temperatures, which it reaches shortly and maintains precisely, so that you don’t must supervise it so carefully.
Usability & Security
Because of the show and number of beeps, the Duo Crisp with Final Lid is kind of straightforward to make use of. It clearly reveals progress by way of the pre-heating and cooking phases, whereas the scrolling textual content means it may possibly present directions to “add meals”, “flip meals”, “shut the lid” or “take away stress plate”, and warn you to not open the lid when steam is underneath stress.
Not that may open it: a lock bodily prevents the slider being moved till the stress has been launched, and there are numerous security mechanisms to make sure the lid can’t be opened when pressurised steam may escape and trigger accidents.
There are three choices for releasing steam: naturally, in pulses or shortly. If it is advisable to get at your meals shortly, the Fast Launch possibility makes steam shoot out of the vent quickly, whereas the opposite modes take far longer.
Every mode has default temperatures and cooking instances, and it’s nice that these retain the final settings you used quite than all the time going again to the defaults. It’s easy to regulate time or temperature by urgent the suitable button and turning the silver dial. You possibly can modify both throughout cooking, too.
Handily, you need to use the delay begin timer, put your meals in and have it prepared for once you get house.
Jim Martin / Foundry
An sudden bonus was the truth that my teenage daughter was capable of air fry meals each safely and unsupervised as soon as she had been proven methods to take away the stress plate. In contrast to a fan oven, the Duo Crisp with Final lid will cease cooking as soon as the set period of time is up, so it’s a lot more durable to overcook and burn meals, and is a safer possibility for these instances she fully forgot she was cooking something and left the home.
One niggle was that – from time to time – the LED for the mode getting used would flash and make it inconceivable to begin cooking. There’s no guide within the field, and the web one isn’t significantly complete or straightforward to observe, and it’s annoying to need to scan the QR core or Google the guide if it is advisable to lookup methods to use a particular perform.
Jim Martin / Foundry
Lastly, throughout testing, the small plastic pin that locates the stress plate within the lid snapped off as my spouse was refitting it. The method doesn’t require any stress, however for those who’re not used to it and don’t get the pin correctly within the slot, it – seemingly – doesn’t take a lot to snap this significant piece off. And with out it, stress cooking modes received’t work as a seal can’t be shaped.
I’ve searched on-line and seen precisely the identical occurred to a different reviewer, so I do know this isn’t an remoted failure. Be very cautious with the stress plate for those who resolve to purchase a Duo Crisp with Final lid.
Value & availability
Within the UK, the Duo Crisp with Final Lid prices £229.99 from the On the spot web site.
You’ll discover it a bit cheaper in Argos and John Lewis – £220 on the time of evaluation – however it did drop as little as £155 within the few weeks I spent testing the gadget, so it’s price preserving a watch out for reductions and gross sales.
Within the US, it’s $229.99 from On the spot.
Given the value, it’s a bit disappointing it comes with solely a one-year guarantee.
Verdict
Should you don’t have already got a multicooker and can use these capabilities – stress cooking, sluggish cooking and sautéing – often, then the Duo Crisp with Final lid is a good purchase.
Sure, it’s fairly costly, however provides quite a few advantages, together with the comfort of not having to swap lids (or retailer them), and the truth that, not like choosing a separate air fryer and On the spot Pot, it takes up much less area and makes use of just one mains socket.
If , then again you have already got an On the spot Pot or would primarily use the air frying mode, then it can save you cash on a less expensive air fryer which is able to most likely take up much less area and may even provide a bit extra inside area for cooking.
To see these alternate options, check out our roundup of the perfect air fryers.