There are two main types of home insurance: buildings and contents. As a tenant, the only insurance you need is contents insurance – also known as ‘renters’ insurance’. Your landlord is responsible for buildings insurance which covers the structure of a rental property. Renter insurance isn’t compulsory – but it is a good idea. For a relatively small amount of money, you can protect your belongings against a whole list of unfortunate events.

According to the Money Advice Service, the average renters home insurance policy costs just £57 a year. ‘The decision about whether or not to insure the contents of your rental property is usually up to you,’ says Greg Wilson, founder of price comparison site Quotezone.co.uk.

‘It is your own stuff, after all. However, some landlords might add a clause to their tenancy agreements requiring the renter to take out tenants’ insurance – so it could be a contractual obligation even though it won’t be a legal one.’

What is renters’ insurance?

Image credit: Future plc/David Giles

Imagine you’re moving home. Everything that you own and would take with you is considered to be contents – things like your TV, clocks, clothes, gadgets, sports equipment, and so on. Everything which stays in its place is considered to be part of the building (like the bathroom or the kitchen sink). Contents or renters’ insurance protects your belongings against events out of your control such as theft or damage.

Tenants need this kind of cover because the insurance your landlord holds doesn’t cover your stuff – meaning you could be out of pocket if something happens to it.

A common worry among renters is their possessions being stolen in the event of a break-in. But burglary isn’t the only thing insurance will protect you from. There are plenty of other reasons too such as damage or destruction due to the weather, leaks, flooding, burst pipes, and fires. Hopefully none of these things will ever happen to your home – but you can’t be too careful.

Wilson adds: ‘Renters’ insurance is basically another name for tenants’ insurance, and is a type of insurance policy specifically designed to protect the contents of the rental property that belong to you.

‘In practice this means that a good policy should cover your furniture, rugs, books, clothes, gadgets and electrical equipment. Paying out if any of those items are damaged or destroyed by a fire or flood, or stolen during a burglary. Some policies will also cover valuables that you usually carry with you, such as your engagement ring, your watch, and so on.’

Why should I have renters’ insurance?

Image credit: Future PLC/ Colin Poole

Think about the situation you would be in if all your possessions were destroyed in a fire or flood, or if your most valuable items were stolen. Could you afford to replace all your things? Most people would struggle to buy everything again – so this is where insurance can help.

Leanna Donkin, partner at House Partnership, says: ‘Tenants are advised to take out their own contents insurance for the possessions that they bring to the rental house. There is usually a clause (or two) within the tenancy agreement relating to the landlord’s insurance policy. The tenant should ensure that they are familiar with this so that they can adhere as required and not invalidate the landlord’s insurance.’

It would normally take a catastrophic event for you to lose everything you own, but being burgled, having your bag stolen in the pub, being mugged for your phone, or having your bike nicked are a lot more common. However, research from MoneySupermarket.com found that only two in five tenants (40%) have renters’ insurance, despite it being pretty cheap. Many tenants mistakenly think they are covered by their landlord’s insurance.

Kate Devine, insurance expert at MoneySupermarket, says: ‘When you consider the overall cost of the possessions we own – from furniture to tech and electronics – assuming you’re covered could be a very costly error. That’s why it’s so important to ensure that you have the right contents insurance in place. ‘

‘Policies are very affordable, with some of the best on the market cheaper than an annual streaming subscription. On top of this, many policies also include tenants’ liability cover which provide you with protection in case you damage items in the property that you’re responsible for.’

What does renters’ insurance cover?

Image credit: Future plc/Simon Whitmore

Renters’ insurance policies vary as to what they actually cover. Before you buy a policy, it’s important to check both the risks and events you are protected against, and which of your possessions are covered. A comprehensive renters’ insurance policy will protect your belongings against:

• Damage or loss due to fire and smoke
• Theft and vandalism if someone breaks into your home
• Damage or destruction caused by storms and floods
• Household leaks such as water or oil from pipes or appliances in your home
• Tenants’ liability if you damage something belonging to your landlord

The kinds of possessions that will be covered on a renters’ insurance policy include:
• Furniture
• Gadgets (such as cameras, smartwatches, and smartphones)
• Electrical items (such as computers, tablets and TVs)
• Clothes
• Cash
• Musical instruments
• Sports equipment

Out of home cover – what you should know

The most basic renters’ insurance policies will only cover your possessions while they are in your home. If you want your stuff to be covered while you are out and about, you’ll need to make sure your policy includes ‘personal possessions’, ‘away from home’ or ‘out of home’ cover. This is included as standard on some policies, but you’ll need to pay extra for it on other policies.

This type of cover is really important because we often carry around our most expensive possessions such as mobile phones, laptops, and smartwatches. These items are fairly likely to be lost or stolen too – for example, how many people do you know who have lost their phones?

High value items cover

When you take out renters’ insurance, the insurer might ask you about ‘high value’ items and ask you to list these separately. These might be things like jewellery, mobile phones, laptops, art or bikes. Some home contents insurance policies give you an individual cover limit per high value item, such as £2,000. Other contents insurance policies offer a total cover limit for all your valuables, such as £20,000.

Bikes

Image credit: Future PLC/ Tim Young

If you’re a cyclist, you should check your bike is comprehensively covered both in your home and outside of it. You’ll normally need to list your bike as a high value item. Most policies stipulate that your bike must be locked to something securely fixed to the ground with a decent lock to be covered outside of your home.

Serious cyclists might be better off buying cycle insurance which covers more expensive bikes and includes personal liability cover – this covers you if you hit and injure someone else.

Accidental damage cover

Some renters’ insurance policies include accidental damage cover. Accidental damage is defined as ‘sudden and unexpected damage to your property or contents by an outside force’. This includes things like spilling a glass of wine and staining the carpet, or knocking over your TV.
Accidental damage cover is sometimes included in renters’ insurance, but it’s more commonly sold as an optional extra. This policy add-on is particularly useful if you have kids that might break things or draw on the walls when you’re not looking.

Legal expenses cover

Another type of cover that can be added to your policy for a small fee is ‘legal expenses’. This will cover the cost of legal proceedings in a number of scenarios if you need to take action or defend a claim.
Claims can relate to things that are nothing to do with your home such as personal injury disputes and employment tribunals.

Digital download cover

Another renters’ insurance add-on you can buy is digital download cover. This will pay to replace any digital content, such as music, films, books and games on lost or stolen phones, laptops or tablets.

What doesn’t renters’ insurance cover?

All insurance policies come with ‘exclusions’. Exclusions are clauses in a policy which state what items, or events, are not included in the cover provided. Typical exclusions in a renters’ insurance policy might be:

• Damage to camping gear or sporting equipment while it’s being used
• Belongings left on display in a car or other vehicle, even if it’s locked
• Possessions left unattended in a public place – for example, if you leave your phone in the pub
• Items bought to run a business other than clerical work (for example, a massage table)
• Damage caused by wear and tear
• Poor maintenance or botched DIY
• Negligence – for, example, you won’t be covered if you leave your home unlocked
• Theft by someone you invited into your home such as a lodger or party guest
• Anything that happens if you leave your home unattended and unchecked for 30 consecutive days or more

How to buy renters’ insurance

Image credit: Cece Wilden

Consider the following points:

How much cover do you need?

When you buy renters’ insurance, you need to make sure you have sufficient cover to the value of everything you own. To work this out, go from room to room in your home and write down how much everything is worth. The total value of your contents is called the ‘sum insured’.
Some insurers no longer ask you to specify sums insured as they provide automatic cover up to a set limit, normally £50,000. Others use a ‘bedroom rated’ system whereby the insurer works out the amount of contents cover needed based on the number of bedrooms you have.

What type of cover do you need?

If you live in a shared house, or student accommodation, you can buy renters insurance to just cover the contents of your room. Some insurers also offer ‘common areas’ cover to protect things you leave in space shared with other people such as the living room. If you live alone, or as part of a household such as a couple or family, you can buy one policy to cover everyone’s possessions.

Think about your excess

The ‘excess’ on an insurance policy is the amount the policyholder has to pay in the event of a claim before the insurance pays out. On a renters’ insurance policy, there will normally be a compulsory excess but you can add a voluntary amount too. The higher the total (compulsory + voluntary) excess, the lower your premium will be.

Shop around for cover

Make sure you compare different renters’ insurance policies and premiums before making a decision. Don’t just buy the cheapest policy – make sure the policy is right for you. Price comparison sites such as Gocompare.com, CompareTheMarket.com and MoneySupermarket.com make shopping around and comparing policies quick and easy. When you’ve chosen a policy, you can normally click through to the insurer’s site and buy it.

Pay annually rather than monthly

Renters insurance premiums are quoted as an annual price – but you will also be given the option of paying monthly.
This will work out more expensive as insurers effectively give you a loan for the premium amount and add interest on top. So, it’s cheaper to pay for your annual cover upfront.

Don’t let your policy ‘auto-renew’

Many insurers will ask you to agree for your policy to auto-renew. This means that after a year the company will generate a new price for you and, if you don’t take action, automatically charge your debit or credit card and then cover you for another year. This might sound great – but it’s not. Insurers hike their prices each year so auto-renewal normally results in paying more for insurance than you need to. Instead, head back to the price comparison sites to search for a cheaper policy.
‘Shopping around online and switching provider regularly is one of the best ways to ensure you are not paying over the odds’ advises Ursula Gibbs, director at CompareTheMarket.com. ‘Potentially saving hundreds of pounds each year. Don’t get complacent over your renewal price; check to see whether you can get a better deal elsewhere.’

The post Renters insurance guide: to safeguard personal belongings appeared first on Ideal Home.

Using the best air fryer will completely transform the way you cook. Sure, they’re known for offering healthy low-fat cooking alternatives, but air fryers are also major time-savers that come packed with smart features for roasting vegetables or making perfect potato wedges from scratch.

With many people taking advantage of the New Year to turn to a healthier way of cooking, the best air fryers are immensely popular right now. Many have baskets that lift out of the air fryer drawer, meaning any fat and juices can be drained away after cooking. This will leave you with crispier food, and a lot less fat on your plate.

Another reason to invest in an air fryer is the speedy cooking. If you love to cook frozen food or need to whip up speedy salad toppings for weekday lunches, an air fryer can seriously reduce the amount of cooking time needed. This is because the cooking area is so much smaller than an oven, meaning it heats up in just a fraction of the time. Because they essentially work as a small countertop convection oven, the best air fryers will also circulate hot air around your food from all angles as it cooks, meaning it is constantly heated as opposed to simply cooking from above.

Recent research from USwitch found that an air fryer will cook chips 6 minutes faster than an oven, and cooking meatballs will shave a neat 15 minutes off your cooking time. This is great news for your energy bill, and for any hungry housemates who want a speedy dinner when it’s dark outside. Much like the best slow cookers, we consider them to be a kitchen essential this time of year.

We loved the Instant Pot Vortex Plus 6-Quart 6-in-1 Air Fryer because it’s reasonably priced and allows you to cook large portions at once. For an option that will cook multiple elements of a meal all in one go, the Ninja AF300UK Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer was also a firm favourite.

1. Cosori Pro LE Air Fryer L501

Best air fryer for under £100

Size: 27.2 x 27.4 x 30.2 centimetres
Capacity: 4.7 litres
Programs:Chicken, chips, frozen, steak, seafood, veggies, bacon
Reasons to buy: 

• Air fries to perfection
• Smart up-top controls
• Shake reminders for even cooking
• Removable insert for easy cleaning
• Drawer is dishwasher-safe

Reasons to avoid: 

• The preset timings are a little off, but can be adjusted

Amazon’s best-selling air fryer held up well under our tests, too. The Cosori Pro LE Air Fryer L501 has a smart look and a range of custom presets that will come in handy for low-effort cooking. It’s also adjustable, just press to increase or decrease the temperature or timer to achieve your perfect result.

We enjoyed the fries this air fryer produced on the chip setting. They were crisp and evenly cooked, and the cooking time was well below average which is a winner for hungry homes! That did mean we had to turn it down from 20 minutes to 30, but this was easy enough to do. You’ll get a reminder to shake your food halfway through on some settings. If you’re in the middle of a particularly riveting piece of telly then it may be a distraction, but you can simply press a button to switch off the reminder for no interruptions.

Included with the air fryer was a recipe book with loads of great tips. We made the buffalo cauliflower, chicken wings and more recipes from the book and found it a great help for those getting started with air frying. The large capacity makes this a top choice for families. We also loved that the insert means you can easily clean the drawer and basket in the Cosori Pro LE Air Fryer L501, simply put them in the dishwasher. The insert lifts out simply to allow you to reheat dishes with sauce.

Ideal Home rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Read our full Cosori Pro LE Air Fryer L501 review

2. Ninja AF300UK Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer

Best air fryer for multi-drawer cooking

Size: 35 x 37.5 x 31.5cm
Capacity: 7.6 litres
Programs: Air Fry, Max Crisp, Roast, Bake, Reheat & Dehydrate
Reasons to buy: 

• Superior air frying
• Sync or Match two useful zones
• Both drawers are diswasher-safe
• It can cook an entire meal, fish in one drawer, chips in the other

Reasons to avoid:

• A large option for most kitchens

What’s better than one air fryer? Two, in one. The Ninja AF300UK Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer comes with two distinct air frying zones that allow you to air fry your fish and chips individually, or bake a side dish such as mac and cheese while you air fry chicken. You can match or sync these two drawers to make sure all elements of your meal are complete at the same time.

The Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer also comes settings to reheat, dehydrate, roast, and bake. Its Max Crisp setting is designed for frozen food and we found that it gave us next-level frozen chips, fish fingers, and other freezer staples. It also cooks food in record time, because there’s no preheat time and its temperature can be easily adjusted. This air fryer gave us crispy chips and wedges every time, and always cooked our meat through completely. We even used it to make cauliflower wings, which were an unexpected triumph. The trays can be a little deep to reach into, so make sure you use non-stick cookware to take your food out when it’s done. The exterior stays cool though, even when it’s cooking at 240 degrees.

The instructions come with a recipe test with fun hints and tips for ideas to try in your air fryer. This included ideas we’d never considered before, such as brownies or fajitas. It is on the large side at 35 x 37.5 x 31.5cm, but if you can spare the space, it’s a game-changer.

Ideal Home rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

3. Instant Pot Vortex Plus 6-Quart 6-in-1 Air Fryer

Best air fryer for powerful design

Size: 28.6 x 22.9 x 29.8 cm
Capacity: 5.7 litres
Programs: Air fry, roast, bake, reheat, dehydrate, grill
Reasons to buy: 

• Amazing air frying, and it does so much more
• Smart brushed finish
• Speeds up cooking significantly
• Made some of the best fries we’ve tried

Reasons to avoid: 

• Controls are noisy

The Instant Vortex Plus wowed us with its speedy and delicious cooking. It has a removable air fryer insert that slots neatly into the base of the air fryer drawer, and you can remove this if you want to reheat rice, bake cupcakes, or even roast some potatoes for your Sunday lunch. That’s right, while the Instant Vortex Plus is an immense air fryer, it also does a lot more thanks to its six cooking modes. You can even use it to dehydrate.

We enjoyed how speedy the Instant Vortex Plus was when it came to cooking frozen food. Frozen chicken fillets that would usually take 20 minutes only took 12, and sweet potato fries that would usually take 40 minutes only took 25.

The controls are touch-operated, and you can change the temperature and time using the dial at the front of the fryer. The brushed metal finish also elevates the look, and we thought it was a real treat to look at when left on the kitchen counters.

Ideal Home rating: 5 out of 5 stars

4. Instant Vortex Mini Air Fryer

Best air fryer for 2 people

Size:35.2 x 35.1 x 30.1 cm
Capacity: 2 litres
Programs: Air fry, bake, reheat, roast
Reasons to buy:

• Seriously good value
• Easy to use
• Colourful, fun design
• Does more than just air fry

Reasons to avoid:

• The small capacity isn’t ideal for everyone

Instant Brands is known for creating amazing air fryers and smart countertop appliances in the US, so we were first in line to review this new model when it launched in the UK. The Instant Vortex Mini Air Fryer not only wowed us with its value-for-money, but it also impressed us in testing. Despite the limited capacity, it was able to air fry our (somewhat crammed-in) chips evenly with just a shake or two from us halfway through.

This air fryer is perfect for small kitchens. It has a removable basket liner that can drain away fat from bacon and juices from chicken, but take it out and suddenly you can bake, roast and even reheat in this beauty.

You can pick up the Instant Vortex Mini Air Fryer in a range of fun colours. We tried it in red, but the blue option is quite fetching. There is also a white for clean kitchens, and a failsafe matte black. The display is very intuitive, and can be controlled with touchscreen settings and a tactile dial.  The only con? It’s not great for families.

Ideal Home rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Read our full Instant Vortex Mini Air Fryer review

5. Breville Halo Rotisserie Air Fryer

Best rotisserie air fryer

Size:44.2 x 41.6 x 39.4 cm
Capacity: 10 litres
Programs: Air fry, bake, dehydrate, rotisserie, chips, chicken, veggies, steak
Reasons to buy:

• Sleek controls
• All the functions of a mini oven
• Incredible rotisserie
• Great space-saving design
Reasons to avoid:

• It’s a little fiddly

The Breville Halo Rotisserie Air Fryer offers an alternative take on air frying, with a rotisserie attachment that allows you to cook a whole chicken with crispy delicious skin and juicy meat, in just one hour. It also comes with a rotisserie mesh basket, which is what we used to cook our chips. It keeps them spinning as it cooks, meaning that every single crisp was evenly cooked.

Because it’s more of a mini convection oven thanks to the removable mesh wire trays, the Breville Halo Rotisserie Air Fryer doesn’t quite speed up your cooking time as much as a drawer air fryer with single-function design. However, it can be used to bake, rotisserie, air fry, and even dehydrate, and it’s also a well-sized machine to fit in as much capability as you like onto one kitchen counter.

We enjoyed the smart controls, which show the temperature as it preheats, and how easy it is to choose your mode and even illuminate the inside of the oven to watch your food as it cooks. Cleaning is easy too, but our main drawback is that it’s a bit tricky to take out the drawers because they get very hot. Oven gloves are a must!

Ideal Home rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Read our full Breville Halo Rotiserrie Air Fryer review

6. Tefal YV970840 Actifry Genius XL 2in1

Best air fryer for homemade chips

Image credit: Tefal

Size: 48.9 x 38 x 29.5 centimetres
Capacity: 1.7kg
Programs: Chips, breaded items, desserts, nachos, fish and meat, chicken legs, stir fry, ‘world foods’, pie
Reasons to buy: 

• Paddle included to stir your food
• Pair with an app
• Space-age design
• Great for cooking entire meals

Reasons to avoid: 

• Not the best for low-fat

This machine has a huge footprint, so if you’re after a compact air fryer you can pop in a cupboard when you’re not using it then you might want to think again. That said, it’s so technologically advanced, we probably wouldn’t hide its considerable light under a bushel.

It has several things that separate it out from the rest of the air fryer crowd, including nine intelligent cooking modes and a My ActiFry app that features around 300 recipes. However, it’s the integral paddle with dual-motion technology, which stirs the food giving it an even, crisp coating that we think is the game-changer. Not only does it mean you can just leave the ActiFry alone to do its magic, it also allows you to cook dishes such as stir-fries and curries in it, too, using one of the two 1-meal-in-1-go programmes.

It hands-down produced the best chips we tried, with just half a teaspoon of oil and the chicken was well-cooked and juicy inside, although still dryer on the outside than normal frying would produce. It’s a generous size, too, producing main meals for up to five and starter portions for eight.

Because it doesn’t have a classic basket design, you can cook anything from stir-fried rice to fajita-spiced veggies without anything falling out of the slots in the basket. This does also mean that fat won’t drip away from your chips or chicken, so while it’s certainly a tasty pick, it’s not quite as low-fat as some of our other options.

Ideal Home rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Read our full Tefal YV970840 Actifry Genius XL 2in1 review

7. Philips Essential Air Fryer

Best air fryer for small kitchens

Size: 47.6 x 32.8 x 26.3cm
Capacity: 4.1 litres
Programs:Frozen, fish, meat, vegetables, chicken drumsticks, cake, reheat
Reasons to buy: 

• It’s perfect for smaller homes and kitchens
• Easy to clean
• Intuitive to use
• Comes with an app

Reasons to avoid:

• It’s more expensive than some other small options

If you want the best air fryer for a small kitchen or two-person household, the Philips Essential Air Fryer is the one for you. In terms of the cooking quality, it was pretty much on par with some of the larger and more premium brands in this guide. There’s plenty of cooking modes, including fish, meat, frozen food and reheat, and you can choose your temperature manually too.

The basket and drawer can both be washed in the dishwasher, which makes cleaning that much easier. We found the controls a little confusing at first but they’re fine once you’re used to which button indicates which cooking mode.

One complaint we had was the price, which was pretty high when compared to other small air fryers. It is clearly designed for smaller kitchens and homes though, with grooves that make it easy to carry and store, and a lightweight design.

Ideal Home’s rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Read our full Philips Essential Air Fryer review

8. Proscenic T21 Smart Air Fryer

Best smart air fryer

Size: 31.4 x 31.6 x 32.6cm
Capacity: 5.5 litre
Programs: Fries, shellfish, chicken, fish, steak, cake, bread
Reasons to buy: 

• As smart as they come
• Great for those who are new to air frying

Reasons to avoid: 

• The controls are fiddly
• The design isn’t as high-quality as other brands

The Proscenic T21 Smart Air Fryer is certainly a smart option. It’s loaded with preset modes for cooking fish, chicken, chips, bacon and even cake. You can also preheat and keep warm with this air fryer, as well as set a delay timer for when you want your meal to be ready.

If you’ve got an Alexa or Google Assistant speaker, you can pair the Proscenic T21 Smart Air Fryer with it for remote control. If not, opt for the Proscenic app, which allows you to check on your timer or adjust the temperature or settings without leaving the sofa.

We found the controls on the Proscenic T21 Smart Air Fryer a little fiddly in testing, and keen chefs may prefer to set the temperatures of their dishes manually. There are loads of recipes on the Proscenic app though, with timings and air fryer settings that couldn’t be easier to follow. Overall if you’re looking to expand your air fryer abilities, this is a smart choice.

Ideal Home rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

9. Swan Retro Air Fryer

Best-looking air fryer

Image credit: Swan

Size: 34.8 x 24 x 33.7cm
Capacity: 6 litre
Programs: Air fry only
Reasons to buy: 

• Looks lovely
• A generous capacity
• Will match with many Swan appliances
• Dishwasher-safe

Reasons to avoid:

• Less smart settings

Unlike pretty much all the other air fryers we tested, which, to paraphrase Henry Ford ‘you can have in any colour as long as it’s black’, this 5 litre machine was a pleasingly cheerful bright cherry red. It also comes in cream and black so would work well in pretty much any scheme if you wanted to leave it out on the worktop.

If you want something a little easier to operate than some of the more high-tech options, the Swan Retro has a simple temperature dial and a twist-timer at the top. It feels sturdy and has a large interior capacity of 6 litres. At 34.8 x 24 x 33.7cm it’s larger than some options but will work well in family-size kitchens.

We were very impressed by how this air fryer cooked bacon and other meats, but when it came to chips we found that it took longer than most air fryers. The timings were comparable to a regular oven.

The tray and non-stick basket can both be popped in the dishwasher, too.

Ideal Home rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Read our full Swan Retro Air Fryer review

10. Tower Vortex 5-in-1 Digital Air Fryer Oven

Best air fryer for chicken

Size:44.2 x 38.4 x 36.2 cm
Capacity: 11 litres
Programs:Air fry, bake, roast, dehydrate, rotisserie
Reasons to buy: 

• It’s a real multi-tasker
• Makes a mean chicken
• Lights up for easy viewing

Reasons to avoid: 

• You lose some of the convenience of a classic air fryer

The Tower Vortex 5-in-1 Digital Air Fryer is more of an American-style air fryer. It’s designed to look like an oven and comes with a drip tray and multiple shelves to cook your food as you would in a regular oven. There are some perks to this design though. Our favourite was the rotisserie function which made some of the most delicious chicken we’ve ever made. A game-changer for roast dinners.

The shelves need to be taken out and switched around mid-cook if you want to achieve an even crisp, which is not ideal and can be a little fiddly. The oven did a great job of creating crispy food though, especially when it came to the frying setting. It can also bake and roast like you’d expect in a regular oven.

A nice touch is the door, which you can see straight through. There is a button to illuminate the fryer as it cooks which allows you to look in and check on your food without opening it. It’s a large option, but a versatile one too.

Ideal Home’s rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Read our full Tower Vortex 5-in-1 Digital Air Fryer review

How do air fryers work?

Air fryers work like a convection oven to circulate air around your food and cook it evenly from every angle. That means any fat you add to the air fryer will circulate around your fries, chicken or fish as it cooks, making it crisp and crunchy. 

Air fryers typically come with an in-built basket that has space for air to get underneath your food, as well as cooking it from above and the side. In the Ninja Dual Zone for example, you can remove this and use the tray like a regular oven tray to add a crisp cheesy top to a pasta bake or roast vegetables and potatoes for convenient mealtimes. Check out the best microwaves for more easy meal prep appliances. 

How to buy the best air fryer for you

Check the air fryer features and programmes

Look for easy-to-use controls for both temperature and time, as these are the most important features on any air fryer. Auto-stop and keep warm functions can be useful but chips, if left for any amount of time will soon lose their crispness. More expensive machines will feature touch screens rather than dial controls, which will help with accuracy.

What else should I look for?

The bigger the basket capacity, the more people you’ll be able to cook for. So if you’ve got a family, then a 5 litre machine (which usually provides a chip capacity of around 800g to 1kg) is probably a must.

A loud beep to signal the end of cooking time is a good idea if you’re using the time to wander off and do something else. Most air-fryers will only cook one food group at a time (ie meat or veg) but some will cook a whole meal in one go if you’re after a one-pot solution.

Are air fryers healthy?

Air fryers are as healthy as the food you cook in them, but one thing you can be confident in is that they’re healthier than deep fat fryers. If you want to cut back on the amount of oil and fat in your food, air fryers are also excellent for crisping up your meal while not submerging it in fat.

Bacon is not particularly healthy, but cooking it in an air fryer means that the fat will drip away from the meat and into the basket, while still rendering and crisping for that perfect bacon sarnie. Air frying is also a way of adding more veggies to your diet. Some of the best things to cook in an air fryer are cauliflower “wings”, which is simply florets of cauliflower tossed in whatever sauce you wish to pair it with.

How much oil do I need to use in my air fryer?

Image credit: Breville

While most recipes call for a teaspoon or half a teaspoon of oil. We found we got a more even coating on some foods by decanting our choice of oil into a small spray bottle and using that. Never use one-calorie oil spray, which is a step too far in the diet stakes we found, producing nasty, chewy fries.

Most of the machines we tested couldn’t be used with fattier meats such as sausages or chicken or duck with the skin on. This sometimes results in meats being drier on the outside. This was where a spray oil came in handy and definitely improved results if not making them as good as if they’d been fried.

Ready for another test? Best kettles

How to make perfect chips in an air fryer

If you’re making fresh chipped potatoes, leave the cut chips immersed in cold water for about half an hour then rinse well to get rid of starch as this will improve the texture once cooked.

Place chips in your air fryer and start to cook as soon as you’ve coated them in the half-teaspoon or so of oil for best results and don’t leave to sit in the fryer once cooked.

The post Best air fryer 2022: for your New Year health kick appeared first on Ideal Home.

Hot or stuffy rooms call for a continuous cooling breeze. But how much does it cost to run a fan? And will leaving one on overnight, or all day in a home office, result in big energy bills?

Fans can be indispensable in warm weather – many of us leave one on low all night to ensure a good night’s sleep, pop one on a desk to combat hot and humid days, or keep it on hand for home workouts.

So how much electricity does your fan use? We’ve worked out how much you can expect to spend per hour to run a fan – as well as how you can prevent your bills from spiralling and save energy at home.

How much does it cost to run a fan?

The good news is that fans are surprisingly energy-efficient, especially when compared to an electric air-conditioning unit.

If you want to work out exactly how much your fan of choice costs to run you’ll first need to work out how much electricity it is using. You can do this by checking the wattage. This should be shown on the fan or the instructions leaflet. Once you know the wattage of your fan, convert this into kilowatt-hours. It might sound complicated, but all you need to do is divide the wattage by 1,000 to give the amount of energy it uses per hour.

Mini models can use as little as 5 watts, while large bladed fans can be more than 100 watts. For example, if you have a 50-watt fan, you would divide 50 by 1,000 to get 0.05. If you are using it for ten hours a day, you’ll then multiply 0.05 by 10 giving you 0.5kW. This is how much energy the fan uses in a day.

To work out the cost, you will need to know how much you pay for one unit of energy (1kw). This should be listed on your energy bill. According to the Energy Saving Trust the national average price (as of November 2021) per pence/kWh of electricity is 20.33p. We have rounded it to 20p for illustration purposes.

Multiply the cost of a unit of energy by the kW output of your fan and that will be how much it is costing to run your fan.

• An example 18-inch bladed floor fan uses up to 110 watts at full speed, which is 0.1 kWh. So if you’re paying 20p for energy,, it’d cost 2p an hour to run. Over 10 hours, it would cost 20p.
• Compared to an example bladeless fan, which uses 56 watts or 0.056 kWh, its cost per hour is just over 1p. Over 10 hours, it’d cost 11.2p.
• An example tower fan that uses 35 watts or 0.035 kWh is even cheaper to run at less than 1p an hour and over 10 hours, just 7p.

Image credit: Nick Pope

Are some fans cheaper to run than others?

While an electric fan might be offering you some relief, for example, helping you if you’re too hot to sleep, the last thing you want is to be hit with a nasty surprise when your electricity bill comes through. So it’s worth knowing that different types of fans will be more affordable to run over long periods than others.

• Bladed fans tend to use the most energy. Typically, the larger the blades, the more energy it needs to turn them.
• Tower fans often have lower power consumption compared to bladed fans but tend to be less effective at moving air, so you may need to have them on a higher setting.
• Bladeless fans, sometimes called air multipliers, draw air in before passing it over small asymmetric blades that increase the pressure and airflow, before pushing it out into the room. This means running them can be more energy efficient than fans with more moving parts.

Image credit: Ti-Media

What energy saving features should I look for when buying a fan?

If you’re shopping for the best fans to save energy, look out for these useful features that make a model as energy efficient as possible.

1. DC motor

Fans that have a DC motor rather than AC will be more energy efficient. For example, the Bionaire ISF004 Desk Fan has a DC motor that uses 63% less energy than a traditional fan. Copper motors can also help reduce energy loss by generating less heat.

2. Timer

Setting the amount of time your fan will run instead of having it on constantly can save energy. Some models, such as the Dyson Cool AM07, have a sleep timer that can be programmed to turn off after preset intervals so it doesn’t have to run through the night.

3. Variable speeds

A choice of more than one speed will help to reduce your fan’s energy usage. Once the temperature is comfortable, turn it down to a lower setting. Look for models with remote controls to make this even easier, so you won’t have to get out of bed, or be distracted from what you’re doing.

Image credit: Future Plc/Dominic Blackmore

How can I cut the cost of running a fan?

1. Turn it off as you go

Fans don’t make a room cooler by themselves, they can only make you feel cooler by moving the air over your skin. If you’re leaving the room, switch the fan off. Once the temperature outside drops, opening a window allows cool air to be drawn into the room, so it could be worth running a fan an hour or so before you get into bed.

2. Close the curtains

‘Letting in the sunlight on a bright day might seem the natural thing to do but this can create a greenhouse effect with up to 30% of unwanted heat gain from windows,’ says Evan Stevens, Head of Environmental Care at Dyson. ‘Keep the windows, curtains or shutters closed during the day to minimise the amount of sunlight entering the home.’

3. Stay frosty

Rather than turn your fan up, use it to cool down the air in the room. Pop a bowl of ice and cold water in front of it. This causes small droplets of cold water to circulate, cooling your skin down faster.

4. Keep it clean

As fans circulate air, they’re prone to picking up dust and other particles. Make sure they’re working as efficiently as possible by wiping down blades, cages and vents while they’re unplugged.

The post How much does it cost to run a fan? And which models are most efficient? appeared first on Ideal Home.

The Ewbank Steam Dynamo is a multifunctional steam cleaner from the makers of one of the world’s first carpet sweepers – the precursor to domestic vacuum cleaners. This steam cleaner is one of many floor cleaning products from the company and has been designed to limit the need for harsh chemicals in your cleaning routine.

It is for use not just on floors, but also has a range of nozzles and brushes – plus a glass cleaning tool – making it suited to myriad jobs around the home. We put it to the test over a few weeks, against a number of cleaning tasks to see how it fared. With some dirty tiles to sanitise and some grubby grout in the bathroom, there was plenty of ways to measure it against the best steam cleaners.

Read on to find out what we thought of the Ewbank Steam Dynamo, and whether it is the right cleaning tool for your home.

Ideal Home’s rating: 4 out of 5 stars

While there are more powerful steam cleaners on the market, the versatility and ease of use of this one is to be commended. It is great value for money and if you have weekly steam cleaning jobs, it is more than capable of blasting germs and stubborn grime on a multitude of surfaces.

Reasons to buy:

• Very affordable
• On-board tool storage
• Compact and lightweight
• Comes with a wide range of tools and you can level up by buying others online
• Heats quickly

Reasons not to buy:

• Well suited to regular cleans, but you may need additional tools for ingrained dirt
• Some tools are hard to attach
• Produces a lot of surplus steam

Ewbank Steam Dynamo

Product specs:

Capacity: 1.5L
Power type: mains
Cord length: 2.4m
Hose length: 1.8m
Wattage: 1500W
Pressure: 54psi/3.4 bar
Dimensions: 86 x 29 x 52 cm
Weight: 3.6kg
Accessories included: 2 x extension tubes, floor cleaning tool, angle adapter, straight adapter, window cleaning tool with squeegee, small nylon bristle detail brush, larger nylon bristle detail brush, nozzle, funnel and jug plus microfibre floor cloth

Who will the Ewbank Steam Dynamo suit?

Family homes that need a regular blast of steam to beat germs and nasties. The nifty little cleaner does stellar work of keeping on top of everyday dirt, but if you are someone who leaves cleaning until grime is very ingrained, you might need something with a more industrial level of power.

Testing the Ewbank Steam Dynamo

My other half has been renovating a Victorian property with all of the ‘perks’. From a mouldy bathroom in a slightly dodgy extension, and new floors that have taken their fair share of dust already, we had plenty to clean. We cleaned:

• Luxury vinyl tile flooring
• Ceramic tile flooring and grout
• Mouldy sealant round a bath and shower
• Shower screen
• Soap scum in a bath

Unboxing

The Ewbank Steam Dynamo is neatly packaged with the hose attached. The other accessories are packed in polystyrene and plastic bags, with the smaller nozzles and brushes ready to stow in the front compartment of the cleaner.

Setting up

Set up was really easy, despite the component labelling in the instructions being a bit lacking. There were numbered parts, but this didn’t seem to be comprehensive, nor was use of numbers for reference in the written instructions themselves that thorough. That said, it was pretty obvious how to put everything together and the actually instructions for operation were great.

You just have to fit the right brush head, nozzle or floor cleaning head and pole before you start. Next, using the jug and funnel provided, you fill the reservoir, plug in the machine and switch it on.

What is the Ewbank Steam Dynamo like to use?

With the machine set up and turned on, it was nearly ready to go. The red light shows the steam cleaner is switched on and after waiting for the unit to heat – which could take 12 minutes but took less than five for us even with a full tank – you check for the orange light to come on showing it is ready to steam. You must fit the right attachment before heating the water and must not remove the water tank cap until the machine has cooled down as the hot water remains under pressure for some time.

To operate the machine, you just press the trigger on the hand gun to emit steam as needed. There is a lock feature for safety – consider it a two step start to prevent accidents.

We then tried a few of the most common steam cleaning jobs.

Steam cleaning the floor

The first task was cleaning the floor. The luxury vinyl tile flooring is only a few months old, but hasn’t had a good clean since installation as we have been busy decorating and wanted to get messy jobs out of the way before a big clean. Dust had settled, and there were a few mucky footprints as we have had various trades in over the last few weeks. It had been mopped a couple of times, but there were some parts that needed a scrub and we also wanted to kill any nasties that might have made their way in during the works. We gave it a quick clean with a vacuum cleaner first to lift fluff and debris.

The floor cleaning head is like a vacuum head and has a brush on the underside. We initially used this without the microfibre cloth as we wanted to use the brush to lift any dirty, but found the cleaner produced so much steam with such a wide head that the floor was getting rather soaked. Though it did dry fairly quickly, the excess water was pushing us to work a bit faster than planned and not spend as long brushing tougher dirt, so we decided to use the cloth provided.

The cloth clipped on really easily and it was much easier to clean the hard flooring with this attached. It prevented over-soaking and worked well with the brush underneath it to lift dirt while offering the heat we knew we needed to kill any germs. As the steam cleaner is so mobile and has fairly good reach, it is not that different to pushing round the best mop for a quick clean, but with the benefit of bacteria killing steam.

The cloth showed how much dirt we were lifting in the process and when I took a clean piece of kitchen roll to the tiles, it showed no signs of dirt left on the floor. The end result was a clean and shiny floor.

• See practical flooring options for your home with our living room flooring ideas

Steam cleaning glass

You can attach the glass cleaning tool directly to the hand gun. It has a rubberised edge to act like a squeegee so you can clean and dry in one step. We found it worked really well on glass and while it didn’t tackled limescale covered shower screen in one go, a second go over got rid of the last bits. It was certainly nice to be able to do this job without a potent chemical cleaner, or using vinegar, which while less harsh than some products, leaves a strong odour.

The instructions warn you of the risks of heating the glass too quickly so note that you do have to ‘prime’ the glass first by directly short bursts of steam at it to prevent heat shock that could shatter it.

Using the steam nozzle and brush attachments

The bathroom is one of the rooms we haven’t ripped out and replaced. The flooring and tiles are in good condition physically but were very dirty, with greyed grout and some mould in places giving the bathroom a very scruffy appearance.

The Ewbank Steam Dynamo has plenty of tools to help give everything a deep clean. We started by attaching the angled nozzle to the gun.

The first place to feel the wrath of the steam nozzle was the floor grout. The nozzle is small enough to focus a highly pressured blast of steam where it is needed – the perfect width for grout cleaning.

It didn’t take long to clean along all of the grout lines, taking it from a dirty grey to an off white in very little time. The image below shows the results. The bottom half the before, and the upper the after. It is noticeably cleaner and looked even more so once the water had dried.

The lower half of the image shows the cleaned grout. It looked even cleaner once it had dried fully

We then decided to clean some grime and mold down the side of the shower screen and around the sealant where water and dust had pooled. To start, we kept the same angled nozzle on, but decided we would get better results if we agitated the dirt with one of the nylon brush heads. There are fairly easy to change in theory but are a snug fit so need a bit of force to be removed and put in place.

This is fairly reassuring as the last thing you want is a loose fitting nozzle flying off under the pressure of the steam, but it does make it a bit tricky to change the heads. And you have to take into account the time needed to let the tool cool between each swap.

There is a rubber washer on each tool to ensure a good fit, and you get a number of these supplied for replacement as needed. Having only used the steam cleaner for a few weeks we haven’t needed to use any spares, so I would be keen to know what the longevity is for them.

With the nylon brush fitted, we went back over the part the nozzle had failed to clean. It was great at getting into all of the creases and fine lines around the bath and sealant. It didn’t leave it completely free from dirt initially, but the steam killed any remaining mould which has since disappeared.

Still, we had to use a fair bit of pressure with the brush to move the dirt in places and left the nylon brush looking a little frazzled by the end. So, if you have a bathroom that has not reached this state and just needs a regularly clean and sanitise, the Steam Dynamo is the perfect tool. For anything more ingrained, you might need a more powerful steam cleaner, or the help of some harsher cleaning products to get a head start.

What else can you clean with the Ewbank Steam Dynamo?

While the Ewbank Steam Dynamo is not the most powerful cleaner, it really is versatile. As well as cleaning glass, floors and grout, you can also use the tools on appliances even outside. It is well suited to lifting grease from dirty oven doors and hobs.

You can buy further attachments for other cleaning jobs, including brass versions of the large and small detailing brushes. These can help with cleaning oven racks and barbecue grills. With these, you can get a bit more oomph out of the steam cleaner, putting it on a level with the more powerful cleaners. These extras are not expensive either – the brass brushes cost between £3.49 and £10. This is a small added cost to keep your top range barbecue looking its best.

Storage and maintenance

Another brilliant feature of the Ewbank Steam Dynamo is that nearly all of the tools can be stored on board. There is room for the adapter (used with nozzles and brushes), two brushes and the nozzle.

The floor cleaner head and pole can be clipped to rear of the cleaner for storage when not in use. This keeps the footprint of the unit fairly small, so it isn’t going to take up too much space in your cleaning cupboard.

After use, you need to make sure the reservoir is empty. We ran out of steam on occasion so this emptied it for us, but when it didn’t we left whatever tool we were using attached and pressed the trigger to expel the steam, simultaneously sanitising whatever head was in use. We left all tools out to dry before storing everything.

The floor head cloth needs rinsing and can be thrown in the wash with towels and other cleaning cloths as needed. The only items that need storage separately are the jug, funnel and cleaned cloth – we use the jug to hold everything together.

Ideal Home’s verdict: is the Ewbank Steam Dynamo worth the money?

The Ewbank Steam Dynamo is a great value buy. It is as good at cleaning floors as some of the dedicated steam mops we have tried and offers lots of other functionality on top of that. So if you like the idea of cleaning your home with nothing but the power of steam, this will help you eradicate germs from every surface – it can even be used on upholstery and carpets.

We did feel it lacked power on very very stubborn dirt, but a second clean or using the brush (and the option of a brass brush for really tough jobs) helped compensate. For the price of this steam cleaner, which is approximately £50 to £100 less than some of the market leaders, you really do get a lot of bang for your buck and accessories are very affordable for those wanting to level up. Yes, it might need a bit of help with long term dirt, but for weekly cleans in homes that haven’t reached a point near to no return it would be perfect.

About this review and our reviewer

Lindsey Davis is Editor in Chief of Homes Ecommerce, looking after product content on Ideal Home. She has tested hundreds of home appliances and accessories, and enjoys the satisfaction of a clean and tidy home – and anything that helps her achieve it.

She was sent this product to test in a home setting which is where we like to test everything, pitched against daily life. We are not given any compensation for our reviews, but may be allowed to keep the product, meaning we can test it over a greater length of time.

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