Martin Lewis issues huge warning about using air fryers instead of ovens to cook food

There are countless topics that we look to television star and finance journalist Martin Lewis for advice on.

The MoneySavingExpert founder is famed through the nation for his nifty tips and tricks on the likes of how to tell if you're paying too much of your student loan back, and when the 'right time' is the buy your first home.

What many of Martin's followers didn't expect, however, was that the 51-year-old This Morning favourite actually has some words of wisdom to share when it comes to the surge in air fryer usage.

In the last few years, millions of at-home cooks are relying on this mini cooking device to whip up their breakfasts, lunches and dinners.

After all, they're smaller, quicker, and arguably safer to use than the traditional oven, so why not?

And with TikTok housing a plethora of specifically air fryer-friendly recipes, they've quickly become a kitchen staple.

That said, though, Martin has issued an urgent warning to all those air fryer lovers out there who frequently opt to cook their tea in the handy appliances rather than their oven.

Now, in case you're not in the know of how air fryers function, they basically work by circulating hot air around the food to cook it in a similar way to a fan oven.

While they're great for delivering that 'fried' finish on a whole bunch of different foods, there are seemingly additional hidden costs attached to air fryers and microwaves when compared to ovens.

The This Morning star had a stern warning for home-cooks. (Karwai Tang/WireImage)

Lewis issued Brits with the warning over the price it takes to run air fryers during an episode of The Martin Lewis podcast.

"A microwave, I believe, gives you consistent heat whereas an oven is warming up to full temperature and then topping it up so it isn’t running at full power the whole time," he explained.

The 51-year-old continued: "If you’re doing a jacket potato for 10 minutes in the microwave it is going to be cheaper than doing a single jacket potato in an oven for an hour and a half.

"However, if you were doing a full roast dinner and you were cooking many of them, that is where it's probably cheaper than putting five or six jacket potatoes in a microwave because each additional object you put in a microwave, you need to keep it on longer because a microwave just heats the individual object."

Summing it up, Lewis concluded: "General equation is, find the wattage of an item, then work out how many kilowatts or what fraction of a kilowatt it's using, then multiply that by 34p per hour of use."

Martin warned that air fryers can be extremely costly. (Hazal Ak/Getty)

He added: "The problem with the equation for heating equipment is an oven is going to be about 2000W.

"If you had a 1,000W microwave and you put it on for 10 minutes, one KWH for a sixth of an hour, a sixth of 34p is about 6p, shall we say? So it’s 6p turning the microwave on for that amount of time. So yes it’s a very useful equation."

'Which?' a consumer group, also found that the traditional method of an oven is better to cook large quantities of scran.

But, with smaller amounts with appliances like air fryers, they state: "We’ve found these products cost less to cook certain foods than conventional ovens."

The more you know - eh?

Topics: Food and Drink, Hacks, Life Hacks, Martin Lewis, Money, Air Fryer

Rhianna Benson

Rhianna is an Entertainment Journalist at LADbible Group, working across LADbible, UNILAD and Tyla. She has a Masters in News Journalism from the University of Salford and a Masters in Ancient History from the University of Edinburgh. She previously worked as a Celebrity Reporter for OK! and New Magazines, and as a TV Writer for Reach PLC.

@rhiannaBjourno