Review: Wilfa Dualfry Grill 10L Airfryer AFG-10

Since we did our big test of airfryers last autumn, Wilfa has gone from two models to 10 models that meet different needs. They come in different sizes, price ranges and formats. Like this Dualfry Grill, which has an extra large capacity, not because the basket is deeper, but because it’s extra wide. In fact, it’s half a metre wide, just like a microwave. The box contains a grill rack and a pizza tray. However, it doesn’t come with recipes or a beginner’s guide.

Construction and cleaning

As mentioned above, this model is exceptionally large, so you should measure your counter space before you buy it. The construction feels solid with impact-resistant plastic and thick metal, which explains why Wilfa offers a 5-year warranty. The large basket has a removable grid, which unfortunately has a tendency to fall off if you try to pour the finished food. A little caution is required. The basket slides quite easily and has no issues with getting stuck.

Unfortunately, as the basket has a window, it can’t be machine washed as the window would be damaged. But in the two months we’ve been using it, keeping it clean by hand has actually been just fine. The non-stick properties are good because nothing has actually burnt, although we have cooked ribs with BBQ sauce, which is known to burn when dripping. Wilfa recommends scrubbing the exposed heating element with a dishwashing brush.

Handling

The large touch panel has buttons to adjust the heat and time and switch on the light. There are also quick buttons for French fries, chicken, steak, pizza, fish, shrimp, heat maintenance and drying. The great thing is that you can customise them yourself. For example, if you get better results with a different time and temperature for your fries, you can simply reprogram the preset programme. Very neat!

But what drives us crazy is that you have to preheat it before you can start cooking. It simply stops when it reaches temperature and refuses to start cooking until you pull out the basket, put the food in and close it again. If you’re experienced, you can calculate the heating time and simply set a total time for everything. But there are no easy solutions here. You have to stand and wait for several minutes, pull the basket out and put it back and pretend you didn’t have the food in it to begin with. It’s stupid and you should be able to switch it off.

Preparation

We set it to 180 degrees and after the annoying preheating that took just over 2 minutes, we expected it to be 180 degrees. In fact, it was only 140 degrees! And it took almost 6 minutes, which is very slow, for the temperature curve to flatten out. But still not at 180 degrees, but at 160! Over the next few minutes, it slowly rose one degree at a time to eventually reach 170-174 degrees. This might be an acceptable deviation if you’re putting something in the oven for 20 minutes, but if it’s only going to be there for a short time, you need to take into account that the oven is far too cold for the first few minutes.

Surprisingly, it turned out that what really affects cooking is the size. Not so much for the result as for what you can cook in it. With previous air fryers, we cooked simple dishes for one or two people. But with the Dualfry Grill, we discovered that it can actually cook a frozen pizza, short ribs or a large oven dish of gratin. As a result, we haven’t used the oven once since we started using it! We also like the extra high temperature which, in combination with the grill grate, actually produces grill marks.

Conclusion

At first, we were sceptical about the low but extra wide format, which makes the Dualfry Grill take up a lot of space on the kitchen counter. But it’s precisely this format that makes it possible to cook things that don’t fit in a regular airfryer and made the regular oven superfluous throughout the test. Also note the extra high temperature and the grill grate to get a proper surface. However, we were annoyed that you can’t opt out of preheating and that it takes so long to heat up.