I love my grill but standing over hot flames in 90-degree heat isn't my idea of a good time. Cooking inside isn't ideal either, since the oven raises the temperature of the entire house and using your gas range with the windows closed raises serious air quality concerns.
Enter the air fryer. These mighty machines cook fast and use less use less energy than ovens, making them an ideal candidate for cooking inside during a heat wave. Air fryers do release warm air but it's nothing compared to the output of wall oven. Plus, most air fryer recipes take a fraction of the time to complete.
But don't take my word for it, I ran tests to see how much an air fryer would warm my kitchen compared to cooking them same food in an oven. The results cemented the air fryer as one of the best summer kitchen tools, right up there with ice makers and blenders.
The numbers don't lie
A heat wave requires creative thinking to keep the home cool and an air fryer is my ticket to getting through those sweltering summer spells without starving. To see if air fryers belong in the summer cooking hall of fame, I ran tests to see how much the oven heats up the kitchen versus an air fryer.
Trendy air fryers are all they're cracked up to be, especially when it's hot out. David Watsky/CNET
I ran tests to see how much hotter an oven would make the kitchen
The air fryer turns out juicy chicken thighs in under 20 minutes. David Watsky/CNET
To find real-world differences, I roasted chicken thighs in my KitchenAid wall oven (less than 10 years old) and a 4-quart Dreo air fryer, according to two popular recipes from a well-known cooking site. I tested the temperature before, during and after to see how much of a difference each machine makes.
My Brooklyn apartment kitchen is on the small side, but it's not enclosed and opens up to the rest of the apartment. I kept the windows closed for the test, although it's worth noting that recent studies show cooking with natural gas in an enclosed kitchen can be a health risk.
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