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We've just tested a talking air fryer
A tech tester for nearly 20 years, Jamie is the Which? expert on smartphones, tablets, and wearables, delivering trusted buying advice.
As the Which? cooking appliance expert, Jamie works with scientists and market analysts to give ovens, fryers, microwaves and more a good grilling. She helps shoppers get the most for their money with trustworthy, science-backed advice.
The top air fryers we’ve tested are easy for most people to use, with clever features such as one-touch automatic cooking that crisps your chips. But what happens when you can’t see the controls, read the display or even get into the box?
The Cobolt talking air fryer tells you, quite literally, what cooking mode it’s in, when to shake your chips and when your dinner’s ready. We thought it might be one of the most accessible cooking gadgets we’ve ever tested. But we needed a second opinion.
We’ve tested more than 70 fryers. See best air fryers for our top picks
Who could use a talking air fryer?
UK-based assistive technology brand Cobolt designed its talking air fryer for cooks like Chris Goodwin, a retired, registered-blind software developer who tried one for us.
We bought two initially, one to put through our usual air fryer lab test, and one for Chris to play around with. We asked him to tell us whether he thinks the talking air fryer is an essential cooking appliance for blind or partially sighted cooks, or a bit of a gimmick.
Most air fryers today feature touch controls rather than physical buttons or dials. They look great, and our lab tests show they are easier to clean. But they’re also likely to be hard to use for the two million people the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) says are living with sight loss in the UK.
'I was a little pessimistic,' admits Chris about the gadget. 'I was sure it would talk, and it would air fry, but would it actually be practical to me as a blind wannabe air fryer chef? Would I really be able to use it independently?'
See our guide to the best TVs for blind and partially sighted people
How does the talking air fryer work?
The Cobolt Talking Air Fryer operates like a standard fryer – you set the cooking time and temperature manually or use one of five automatic cooking modes. It displays this information visually, switching between time and temperature settings every 10 seconds. Unusually, though, it also speaks to confirm your settings, telling you which automatic cooking mode you’re in, the chosen temperature, and the time left to finish cooking.
Years of lab testing have shown us that chips cook best when you shake them halfway through cooking. The Cobolt air fryer helps with this, bossily ordering you to "rearrange the food, rearrange the food, rearrange the food' halfway through cooking. A spoken countdown timer reels off every minute of the final ten minutes of cooking, and even the last 10 seconds. When you reach zero, it sounds an alarm.
Once cooking is finished, a periodic message reminds you the front plate is hot.
See all the non-talking fryers we’ve tested in our air fryer reviews.
So is it a gimmick or a must-have?
'This air fryer is not a gimmick,' Chris told us after trying it, noting more control when cooking. 'I find it a useful tool in the kitchen. I benefit from it as a blind user, as it gives me that little extra independence to do what I want.'
He told us that it would genuinely improve his quality of life.
He also shared a few quirks of the product that could take some getting used to.
Unboxing, setup and instructions
Unboxing can prove tricky when you have impaired vision. Chris says: 'Sometimes I have to shred the box of a new gadget because I can’t work out which flaps to lift to open it. And that’s before I’ve even tried to use it.'
Happily, the Cobolt air fryer came out of the box easily, and without any foul language from Chris. It was also easy to slide the cooking tray into position. He was only briefly stumped by a piece of tape used to hold the drawer closed during transit.
The fryer has a printed instruction manual, a CD version and an additional sheet with information about changing the volume. There are also audio instructions online. There are no Braille instructions, so Chris used the Be My Eyes app to get to grips with it.
Menu and navigation
Chris didn’t find the automatic cooking modes useful, and preferred to set the time and duration manually. He noted that because the mode and power buttons are close together, it’s easy to muddle them up. They could use better differentiation.
Setting the duration and temperature is straightforward and includes spoken feedback. One annoyance is that there’s no option to press and hold the plus button to increase the cooking time. For example, to roast a chicken, you need to press the plus button 42 times to increase the default cooking time of 18 minutes to an hour.
Using the buttons and drawer
The buttons are tactile and light up, but they’re touch-sensitive, so Chris sometimes presses the wrong one by accident. More of each button could be illuminated, rather than just the symbol. The drawer is tactile and slides in and out easily.
'I have a problem with the start and stop button,' Chris said. He found this button hard to activate when pressing it with his finger, while the others seemed fine. We thought this sounded like a fault, so we bought a second model, but Chris had the same experience. However, our lab testers didn’t experience this issue.
Quality of the spoken instructions
The voice is male, and although it's clear, it has a slightly tinny edge. The out-of-the-box volume is loud enough, the speed is fine, but can't be varied, and there’s no lag in the spoken instruction when you press a button.
The voice reminders are largely useful and timely, and the countdown is good. 'I'm not launching a rocket to the moon, though,' Chris said of the 10-second countdown to finishing. 'Then you have the glorious treat of the alarm, which is shrill and like a fire alarm.'
Chris would have liked to change the fryer's feedback level. This was useful for the initial setup, but it can become intrusive once you’ve learned to use it. He said the post-cooking alarm that reminds the user it's still hot feels a little patronising.
Which air fryer brand is the most reliable?
Is it good at air frying food?
Usability is one thing, but cooking quality counts, too, so we also sent the talking air fryer to the Which? lab to test its cooking capabilities, just like we’d do with any other fryer.
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Should I buy one?
Our air fryer expert, Jamie Mayne, says:
‘When we checked the fryer in our test lab, we found that there are no exterior hot spots a blind or partially sighted user could accidentally touch, and the voice warnings that the interior remains hot will be useful for some users.
‘If you’re blind or partially sighted and think the accessibility features would suit you, you should certainly consider this air fryer.’
Our talking air fryer tester
Chris Goodwin is a retired software developer who got hands-on with the talking air fryer for Which?
His vision is limited to light and dark perception, so he’s run into problems most of us have never even considered, let alone experienced.
He values new products that are easy to unbox, set up and use independently.
Find out more about how we test air fryers in our lab.
