I tried the best space-saving air fryer for small kitchens, and it's under £100

Even in a small kitchen, creating the space for an air fryer is a non-negotiable. Thankfully, the Instant Vortex Slim combines an immensely large cooking space with a nifty body that will fit into any kitchen. After using it to cook for a crowd, I can confirm that it's the TARDIS of air fryers. 

Known for creating some of the top multi-cookers on the market, Instant creates appliances that rival even the best Ninja air fryers. As a foodie with an impressive collection of blenders and coffee machines, what I have in appliances I very much lack in counter space, so I was keen to see if the Instant Vortex Slim would make a smart addition to small kitchens. 

I tried the Instant Vortex Slim in woman&home's test kitchen to cook several air fryer staples, and while I do think you trade a few convenience features in opting for a deeper, more narrow fryer, that's a trade I'd gladly make to reclaim a few precious inches of ocunter space.  

Instant Vortex Slim specifications

• RRP: £99.99, or £119.99 with a cooking rack
• Dimensions: H25.9 x W30.1 x D45.2cm
• Capacity: 5.7 litres
• Modes available: Air Fry, Roast, Bake, Grill, Reheat
• Dishwasher safe? Yes
• Maximum temperature: 205°C 

My first impressions of the Instant Vortex Slim

The Instant Vortex Slim looks a little funny at first. It's deeper than many of the air fryers I've tried, and significantly more narrow. The facade, however, is much the same as Instant's other air fryers. It has a setting for roasting, baking, air frying and grilling, with a maximum temperature of 205°C and a timer up to one hour. The touch controls are slick and sensitive, with the dial coming in handy for adjusting time and temperature. 

The sacrifice you make with this air fryer is that it sits closer to the edge of your kitchen counter, but that can often be dead space when you're fitting a lot into a snug kitchen. My other main concern was that the shape of the basket may affect the cooking process. Most air fryers have square-ish baskets that allow air to circulate evenly, so I thought that the narrow shape of this basket may disrupt this. 

When you start cooking in the Instant Vortex Slim, it starts by pre-heating for a few minutes before it beeps to let you know that you can add your food. If you're feeling lazy, you can just lower the time a little and pop the food in at the same time you turn the fryer on. I do like the pre-heat feature on Instant air fryers as it allows you to be very precise with your cooking, but I noted that the Slim took a little longer than usual to pre-heat. 

How does the Instant Vortex Slim perform?

The first thing I cooked in the Instant Vortex Slim was some french fries. Instant advertises that it can cook up to 1kg at a time, but as I was cooking for three, I thought half a bag would be plenty. The bag of fries said they took 15 minutes to cook, but I set the air fryer onto maximum temperature and set it to 12 minutes. Air fryers typically take less time than an oven to cook your food because it's a smaller cooking area, and the circulation of air means your food heats up faster. However, I ended up putting the chips on for the extra three minutes to ensure they all browned evenly. I noticed that the chips in the middle of the fryer were less crisp than the ones around the outside, which isn't an issue I usually have with air fryers, so I'd recommend shaking your food halfway through cooking to ensure your meal cooks evenly. 

To go with the chips, I also cooked some chicken nuggets. An ideal quick dinner for families, I always cook something from frozen when I'm testing an air fryer to see if it can create a good crispy coating on freezer favourites. 

The air fryer was already a little warm from the chips, so it didn't take long at all to pre-heat this time, and I was also impressed at how evenly the food cooked this time. They were well browned after just 12 minutes, and there was plenty of space left to add chips or veggies if I had wanted to cook a meal all in one go. 

People often don't consider that air fryers can also do a great job at roasting vegetables. Whether you're making a side dish to serve a crowd, or batch-cooking for the week ahead, it's a low-mess way to add a twist to your typical veggie dish. I tossed some courgette, red onion, tomato, and pepper in some oil and seasoning and roasted it in the Instant Vortex Slim at 180°C for 20 minutes. 

The Instant reminds you to shake your food halfway through cooking, which is a feature you won't get with many air fryers. It's a handy reminder to give your food a stir to keep it roasting evenly. The noise created with this air fryer is relatively low, earning it Quiet Mark accreditation. Instant claims that it's the brand's quietest air fryer, but I found that the noise level was even lower with the Instant Vortex Plus 6-in-1. 

For my final test, I air fried some bacon in the Instant Vortex Slim. I used very long slices of streaky bacon, which usually wouldn't fit into an air fryer basket, so I was able to make the most of the long drawer to crisp up my rashers evenly. 

They took just 6 minutes to render the fat, and I didn't need to turn them midway through cooking. A big perk of cooking your bacon in the air fryer is that the fat drips away into the basket, which saves on the cleaning up but also reduces the amount of fat that ends up on your plate. One drawback though is that a lot of smell gets kicked up into the air of your kitchen. Our test kitchen smelled like bacon for hours! 

How does the Instant Vortex Slim compare?

If you're looking for a compact air fryer, you should also take a look at the Ninja AF100UK, which we recently reviewed as the smallest Ninja air fryer on the market. It has a smaller capacity than the Instant Vortex though, and also comes in a bit more expensive if you don't catch it during a sale, but the temperature goes up to 240°C and it features a Max Crisp mode that will cook in record time, and is amazing with frozen food.  

On the other hand, if you have a little more space and want an Instant air fryer which cooks even better than the Slim, the Instant Vortex Plus 6-in-1 Air Fryer with ClearCook and OdourErase 5.7L would be my #1 choice. It's the air fryer I've used in my own kitchen for years, and the OdourErase feature prevents those bacon smells from lingering in your kitchen. 

Should you buy the Instant Vortex Slim?

The Instant Vortex Slim puts up a really solid cooking performance, although the finished food is slightly less evenly cooked than a few top contenders on the market. With that being said, I think it's a brilliant air fryer when you consider it costs under £100, and features the same smart features you'll find with many of the brand's more expensive models. 

Cleaning is easy thanks to the dishwasher-safe basket and removable insert, and although the screen got a little smudgy with my fingerprints, it wipes clean and looks need tucked away in any kitchen. 

Most importantly, the capacity of this air fryer is astounding, in a neat and aesthetically pleasing package that will fit perfectly into small kitchens. As a small appliance expert, I've tried a range of air fryers over the years, but I've never seen such a compact machine offer such a generous cooking capacity. So if you're looking for a family-sized air fryer that will fit into just about any space, this is the model I'd recommend. 

About this review, and the reviewer

Millie Fender has been reviewing air fryers for nearly five years. A keen home cook in her spare time, she loves to bring her two passions together by reviewing kitchen appliances for woman&home's shopping channel. As woman&home's Head of Shopping, Millie will continue to test the latest air fryer launches and report back to keep this review updated after prolonged testing.