@149.00$ plus tax and free shipping it was for my needs the best buy for the quality. There were so many to choose from on amazon.com, it took me a day to research it all.
Why buy an air fryer when I have a stove? Well, I live in a large low income senior residence building that is all electric. The price of utilities skyrocketed and seniors didn’t get cut a break. Plus they lowered the voltage which means it takes twice as long for something to cook. Even the microwave where it once required 1 minute to heat a cup of cold water, now it takes 2 minutes. I think that’s called a brownout, but nobody told us they were doing it – sneaky move I’d say.
You can forget about using a standard oven, preheating it, baking something for an hour? Too expensive.
A couple years ago the utility company came around and replaced everybody’s light bulbs with energy savers, so the utilities saved on energy, then the utility company raised everybody’s bill anyway. So they say, yeah, but you’re helping the planet by using less electricity and we paid for the bulbs. What they didn’t tell us was that we’d be paying for those free bulbs every month forever. We could have bought our own, but they found a way to legally make money off of every single person they gave free bulbs to – and it was mandatory. Besides, I already had energy saver bulbs, I’d been using them for years. My bill went up after they came in – when it should have gone down, according to them. Of course it didn’t go down, because I already had energy saver bulbs. But it should not have gone up.
Fourteen years ago when we first arrived in this building, it was beautiful. After years of mismanagement of funds and repairs needed but not done, floods, hurricanes, fires and vandalism turned it into one of the least desirable buildings in the area. Dangerous building.
Anyway, the manager at the time told me there are two types of tenants here: those with microwaves and those with toaster ovens. I recall wondering, why if they have the same stove that I have (and they do) would they not use it? For the same reason they don’t use the heat during the winter and air-conditioning in the summer. It costs money that they don’t have. And no they’re not all drug addicts, alcoholics and slackers – such an insult to the hard workers and disadvantaged and the people who keep falling through the cracks because they don’t fit into anybody’s benefit package.
I know now, what they knew then, that’s why I turned to an air fryer for help. I cook a lot, granted, but most people who have stoves can use them without mentally considering the amount of electricity they’re using every time they use it. This is insanity in a country that boasts taking care of those they serve. Seniors get the boot first – seems people in America don’t like their parents or grandparents.
Last month my bill doubled and we weren’t using much at all – I was cold 90% of the time. The bill keeps saying every month that it’s an actual reading, not estimated, meaning someone actually comes out and reads it. With people refusing to work and access not easy, I cannot believe that someone comes out every month to read over a hundred meters. It used to be where I used to live that I could read my own meter. I could also test by shutting off all the breakers in my unit, then check the meter to see if it was still running. That’s not allowed any more, at least not here – by law? I don’t know, but in a state that favors the landlords over the tenants, I don’t doubt it.
Usually what that means is the management is stealing electricity from individual tenants to offset the costs of the common areas. As it is, the building receives a monthly benefit amount for each unit in the building from the USA government to service the hallways etc. who knows what happens to that? One can’t complain to the city, since the city won’t prosecute landlords for something all landlords do – according to the slum lord I talked to. I believe him.
So here I am, doing what the other tenants do to lower my costs, I buy an air-fryer that has the following components: toaster, bake, convection bake, broiler, convection broiler, air fryer, and warm operations.
I won’t know for a couple months how it affects my electric bill, by then winter will be over, but in a place where people are not financially allowed to heat their apartments or air-condition them, it doesn’t make much difference, because nothing they do can reduce their costs. It’s all on the utility companies now. We’re all doing without, so the rich people can have their cake and eat it too.
There is an inequity there that needs to be remedied now, not next year. And don’t dole out help to the neediest of the needy; that leaves a huge swath of seniors left in the cold who deserve better – much better.
I’ll be back with the first results of my experience with an air fryer. A little intimidating at first glance. Many people claim in the reviews on a lot of the units that they get really hot on the outside; that’s probably why I waited till now to get one. I did follow set up instructions on wiping everything down. Then I heated it at 400 degrees and there was no significant heating of the outside and the noise level wasn’t an issue like it seems to be with a lot of people.
Till next time…
Later gators,
Sharon
ANIMAL-FREE SOUS-CHEF™ 