This Top-Opening Air Fryer Adds Moisture While It Crisps Your Dinner

Somewhere along the way, making fries became an activity that required a mysterious black drawer and the faith of a medieval villager. Put potatoes inside. Hear humming. Pull the drawer out to investigate. Repeat until dinner or a small domestic argument. SMEG’s top-opening air fryer gives the potatoes a window, which feels like a modest but meaningful improvement in potato transparency.

The SMEG AFC01 Dual Flavour Air Fryer is a countertop cooker with a flip-open lid, a removable basket, and two cooking modes. One uses circulating hot air for crisping. The other adds controlled moisture through a small water reservoir, aiming for food that stays tender inside while browning outside. Your chicken gets a little assistance. You still have to remember you bought chicken.

It also looks unusually tidy for an appliance whose primary social circle includes frozen chips. The squared body has rounded corners, a matte finish, and a raised, silver-edged top. There is no enormous drawer handle protruding into the kitchen like an airport baggage claim.

A lid that opens upward, and dinner you can watch

The unusual part is how you get into it. Instead of dragging a basket toward you, the top flips open and the basket lifts out. Silicone handles provide the grip. That changes the everyday routine: you reach down into the cooker, then remove the basket when you need to serve or clean it.

It also changes where the fryer should live. A top-opening design needs room above it. Before assigning it a permanent home underneath a low cupboard, picture that lid fully raised. An appliance can look wonderfully compact while still having ambitions in the vertical direction.

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A transparent viewing band and an internal light let you check cooking progress with the lid shut. That is useful for anyone who treats dinner like a parcel delivery and checks its status every ninety seconds. Looking through the window avoids opening the cooker just to find out whether the food has started to brown.

The controls are touch-operated, with an LED display. The front keeps its clean appearance while the working interface sits on top. This is a cooker for people who would prefer their countertop appliances to look slightly less like a submarine control station.

Crispy, or crispy with a little moisture management

Crispy is the straightforward hot-air mode. Juicy+Crispy combines that airflow with SMEG’s built-in moisture spray system. The idea is to help preserve moisture while the outside cooks, rather than asking every piece of food to emerge with the personality of a crouton.

The reservoir holds 60 milliliters of water. It is a small tank integrated into the top, not a separate bottle you have to find somewhere to park. SMEG describes the system as creating controlled humidity during cooking. That is a more useful explanation than assuming every setting turns the appliance into a conventional steamer.

These are two cooking approaches within one basket. The name Dual Flavour does not mean two independently controlled drawers. If your usual dinner depends on running two different temperatures at once, that distinction deserves attention before the nice finish distracts you.

There are seven automatic programs plus a manual setting, and the presets can be customized. The practical choices cover a fairly recognizable week of eating:

• Chicken wings or legs, plus a separate roast-chicken preset.
• Meat, fish, and shrimp programs for different main dishes.
• Chips and vegetables for the supporting cast.
• Manual time and temperature adjustments when your meal refuses to fit a button.
• A viewing window and light for checking progress without repeatedly opening the lid.

Those presets are starting points, not tiny chefs living inside the touchscreen. Food thickness, quantity, and the result you want still matter. The ability to change settings is therefore more valuable than simply having a handsome row of options to poke.

The numbers behind the neat little cube

SMEG’s UK specification lists a maximum capacity of 7.3 liters. That describes the basket’s capacity, rather than promising a particular number of servings for every recipe. A batch of vegetables and a whole chicken occupy space in very different ways, despite both insisting they are dinner.

The published temperature range is 40 to 200 degrees Celsius. The appliance weighs 5.6 kilograms, so it is worth deciding whether you want to leave it out or regularly move it between a cupboard and the counter. The countertop may win that negotiation.

The UK version’s electrical specification matters for readers elsewhere. It is listed for 220–240 volts with a Type G plug. It should not be treated as a standard US countertop appliance merely because an international product page is easy to open. Look for the appropriate local model and electrical compatibility before ordering across borders.

SMEG says the fryer does not require preheating. That makes the advertised routine pleasantly direct: prepare the food, choose the settings, and cook. It does not remove the need to follow the supplied instructions, but it does remove one possible opportunity to wander away and forget why the kitchen is making noise.

The basket gets to leave for cleanup

The removable basket and rack are dishwasher-safe according to SMEG. The company describes their ceramic nonstick coating as made without PFAS. That statement applies to the specified coating; it is not an invitation to put the entire electrical appliance in the dishwasher and hope for personal growth.

The lift-out arrangement is especially easy to understand when you see the parts separated. There is the main cooker, the deep basket, and the rack. Fewer mysteries at cleanup time are welcome, particularly after a meal that somehow generated four more dishes than the number of people eating it.

Available finishes include Matte Black, Matte White, Matte Emerald Green, and Matte Storm Blue. The design sits in SMEG’s Collezione range and uses a plastic body with an anodized aluminum front panel. Its appeal is partly functional and partly that you might actually enjoy seeing it next to the kettle.

Who should make counter space?

This makes the most sense for someone who wants one roomy basket, likes being able to watch food cook, and is interested in the moisture-assisted mode. The flip-open design is the feature to picture in your own kitchen first. It is distinctive, but the right placement matters more than whether it matches the toaster’s emotional energy.

For the quick version before dinner calls a meeting:

• SMEG AFC01 is a top-opening air fryer with a removable 7.3-liter maximum-capacity basket.
• Crispy uses hot air; Juicy+Crispy adds controlled moisture through a 60 ml tank.
• Seven customizable presets are joined by a manual setting.
• The illuminated window lets you watch cooking progress.
• The basket and rack are dishwasher-safe, with a ceramic coating SMEG says is made without PFAS.
• The UK version requires 220–240 V and uses a Type G plug.

The UK shop lists the fryer at £199.95. At the time of writing, its individual options showed Matte Black, Matte White, and Matte Emerald Green available, with Matte Storm Blue sold out. The page also carries a general sold-out notice, so check the selected color’s purchase status before planning dinner around its arrival.

Product details and article photographs: SMEG UK. The potatoes may finally have a window, but they still cannot tell you when you have forgotten the salt.

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This Chicken Decanter Stands On Chicken Legs, Comes With Two Chicken Glasses This Portable Grill Has A Deep Fryer In The Center, Is Perfect For Tailgating and Camping This Glass Air Fryer Lets You Cook, Serve, And Store Dinner In One Bowl This Rubber Chicken Bag Is Absolutely Egg-cellent For Chicken Lovers