
"The Oster DuraCeramic is a quality air fryer that is much more than just a pretty design."
The Oster DuraCeramic is not only one of the most uniquely designed air fryers available on the market, it may be one of the most distinctive domestic appliances we’ve ever seen. Its ball shaped exterior placed on a small stand is unlike any other air fryer, but manages to be practical as well as simply different. It has a tilt motion cooking method and a transparent lid which allows for even cooking, without you having to ever open the lid while cooking is ongoing. By combining its interesting shape with the convection-style cooking seen in many air fryers, the Oster DuraCeramic is a great air fryer that successfully justifies its $90-100 price tag.
Design
Of course, the most immediately noteworthy feature of the Oster Duraceramic is its outstanding design. While most air fryers have their own removable basket that you fill with your food, the Oster has a bowl inside its unit which can rotate in either a level or tilted position when in use. However, you may find that the air fryer is still somewhat tilted even when put in the level position. For foods with some weight to them, this shouldn’t be an issue, but for lighter foods such as bread, there may be some movement inside the fryer. Due to its unique shape, the Oster is small enough to fit easily in most areas of your kitchen.
With dimensions of 16.7 x 14. 13.3 inches and a weight of 14.4 pounds, the Oster Duraceramic is both easy to place all around your kitchen and light enough to move around your home whenever you want. Another interesting feature of the air fryer’s design, is its transparent lid that allows you to keep an eye on your food while its being cooked. This feature means that you don’t have to keep opening up the fryer in order to have a look at your food, and since the bowl moves around in a rotating motion, there is no need shake a basket in order to get the most even cooking like there is in many air fryers. As its name suggests, this air fryer is ceramic and, unfortunately, it only comes in one colour. However, its stylish yet uncommon shape certainly makes up for the lack of choice you have in terms of colours.
Ease of Use
Since the Oster Duraceramic operates in such a different manner to many air fryers, it was interesting to see how it performed in terms of cooking. Thankfully, the Oster did not disappoint. While you may find that this air fryer takes longer to cook certain foods compared to other air fryers, you’ll mostly be very pleased by the results. When cooking chicken, the Oster creates a soft and pleasant interior, although the outside of the chicken can be quite hard and tough. However, the Oster cooks quite evenly the majority of the time. With a capacity of 3.2 quarts, the Oster Duraceramic is most definitely not the largest air fryer in the world, though its ball-like design most likely contributes to this. On the other hand, the design enables you to watch your food whilst it’s being cooked, a feature that is rarely seen in many air fryers.
This, along with the rotating inner bowl, mean that you don’t have to regularly shake the food that you’re cooking to get the most even result, which can be really convenient for you if you’re busy. Another advantage of the Oster is that it’s pretty easy to clean. The inner bowl is both dishwasher friendly and easy to clean by hand and it should not take you too long to thoroughly clean your the air fryer. Despite its many positives, the Oster also has a few drawbacks too. For example, it can get rather hot while in use and you should do your best to avoid touching the fryer while you’re using it. Since the Oster releases so much heat through its vents, it can become quite inefficient and take much longer to cook your food. Furthermore, the rotation mechanism in the inner bowl sometimes doesn’t work quite as well as it should. Since this is what allows for your food to be cooked evenly, if this fails to work properly, you may occasionally end up with food that is not cooked as even as you’d like it.
Features
The Oster DuraCeramic only has two cooking modes, which are grill and dual heat. When the air fryer is in dual heat mode it uses convection heat assisted by a fan, and its tilted position in order to cook food evenly and thoroughly. Once the fryer has completed its cooking, the auto-shut off feature automatically switches the unit off to ensure safety for the user. Compared to a lot of air fryers that have several different pre-set cooking modes, the Oster is not the most versatile air fryer that we’ve ever seen. However, this air fryer does come with its own roasting rack and measuring spoon to help you through the cooking process, which is very helpful. There is also a cool-touch handle that allows you to remove the inner bowl safely when it is too hot to touch. While there is a helpful LCD screen that allows you to set your cooking time, the Oster DuraCeramic lacks the ability to set your own cooking temperature, which means that you may have to do a bit of guessing when following recipes that instruct you to cook at a certain temperature. This isn’t particularly convenient and it would be much more beneficial if you were fully able to set your own cooking temperature.
Pros | Cons | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| ||||
|
| ||||
|
| ||||
|
Final Thoughts
Overall, the Oster DuraCeramic is a quality air fryer that is much more than just a pretty design. It’s round shape as well as its rotating and tilting mechanisms, make it stand out from the majority of air fryers and shows that you can make quality food in an air fryer. While it’s not the most versatile of air fryers available on the market, the Oster has some convenient and innovative design features that can justify its price of $90-100. Though there are more modestly priced air fryers out there, very few of them are as spectacular and noteworthy as the Oster DuraCeramic.