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It's hot where I live...really hot.  Smoky right now (sorry, rest of USA) because I am in Northern California surrounded on 3 sides by huge wildfires.  I live alone (cook small) and have been considering buying an air fryer. Mostly this would allow me a very hot appliance that can sit out there on the back deck and compete with Mother Nature to roast us all to smitherines.  Is an air fryier really the right appliance?

I have a french-door countertop oven which works reasonably well (outside).  But I would like to be able to roast veggies or cook other really-hot recipes like sheet pan dinners and have doubts about the power and longevitiy of this "toaster oven".  To those who are posting about cooking a half-dozen cookies or warming up crisp-fried leftovers, why would you use an air fryer instead of a small oven?  Lifespan of even expensive toaster ovens seems to be shortened by such high-heat usage after a couple of years.  

What do you think?  [Purchase of yet another big gadget is really not the issue, as most AF's run around $100, do-able]

I love my airfryer. I use it often especially in summer. It makes great falafels, curly fries, patties etc. 

I also cook outside with my multicooker in summer. Cooking inside attracts flies as well as heating up the house.

We have never had a toaster oven BUT we do have a small front opening Cuisinart air fryer (with adjustable temperature) and we love it.  We did originally purchase a basket style model which simply had "ON/OFF" and we returned it as many of the recipes in my books do give a specific temp. It does not live on our counter top (no room!)  but it is not at all cumbersome to move back and forth from its home in another room.  We make perfectly crispy "everything" in it and have also made small roasts, flank steak, "unbreaded" chicken thighs/breasts, various veg & some different "sheet pan" style dinners.  As I have commented before - I can see how this would be a pain if you are cooking for a large group but for the 2 of us...it's a great way to cook indoors (espcially during the very hot/ humid summers we also get).  I started with the Skinnytaste books (One & Done and the Airfryer book) and I am happy with pretty much everything we've made.  I also expt a lot prepping "regular" recipes and then cooking them in the airfryer.  I can not comment on its longevity but we really do love this thing.  Our model (identifiable as the one with 2 knobs instead of 4) is currently listed on 2 different Canadian online sources as either $159.00 or $169.00 (obviously in CA dollars).  Good luck with your decision!

I have the Instant Pot branded air fryer lid for the Instant Pot, and it does a good job. It's great for things like frozen fried things (egg rolls, etc.). But it's really a single serving sort of appliance size for those sorts of things. It has 2 layers, round 7" in diameter. Using both layers at the same time is a bit tricky and involves removing the (hot) inserted rack -- I've found a combination of a chopstick and tongs to be the best overall option. For a true sheet pan type dinner, in this, I think you would be limited to what you can get into one 6" round cake pan. Other top loading air fryers have a similar capacity problem from what I read about them while researching the air fryer lids. I only went this route for compact storage and baking possibility in a van-conversion RV where space is limited.

I think the front loading ones are a much better option. And if you are going to go that route, air fryers are really just convection ovens. And there are now combi-ovens, which combine convection with the possibilty of steam/moist heat, which has all sorts of baking possibilities.