Gone are the days when we only have the option to cook or fry our foods with lots of oil or fats. We now can use kitchen appliances such as air fryers to use little to no oil to “fry” our food. Therefore, you can have healthier fried food that still gets crispy.
We want to dig deep into “Nuwave” vs. “PowerXL” air fryers for today’s topic. The exciting thing about these two great appliances is that they both cook or fry food with less oil and still produce similar cooking results.
Now, when an air fryer is combined with a convection oven, you’ll get a particular function that can cater to any of your cooking tasks.
It can be confusing to choose between these two versatile kitchen appliances. If you’re in this situation, you don’t need to worry much because we’ll give you a detailed comparison between the NuWave and Power air fryers.
What’s An Air Fryer? A Quick Look
Briefly, let’s delve into what an air fryer is. When you hear about an air fryer, it’s a portable convection oven specially made to simulate deep frying. With an air fryer, you won’t need to immerse your food in oil to fry; therefore, you won’t need to deep fry your French fries and the like.
Several brands make air fryers; however, the Philips company introduced the very first table-top convection oven in 2010. As of today, the name air fryer is used more generally. So, let’s give Philips credit.
The Power air fryer is another excellent brand, and it’s safe to say it’s one of the best air fryers you can find on the market. Nuwave also has its air fryer brand, another excellent option. However, we would like to know which is better, NuWave or Power air fryer. Continue reading, and you’ll find out soon which is better.
How Does An Air Fryer Work?
Technically, frying doesn’t occur with an air fryer, and actual frying requires the traditional method of putting food into the hot oil.
How, then, does an air fryer work? Hot air circulates around the food you put into the air fryer, giving rise to that crunchy and crispy texture. With an air fryer, you only use a little oil or none at all. Therefore, if you want a healthier frying choice, an air fryer can offer you this.
Cooking with Shane Thursday night edition. (Everything cooked in the nuwave airfryer. Bone in pork chop. Beets and Broccoli pic.twitter.com/gKckGiG4aR
— Sooner Shane (@ShanePosey1) November 1, 2018
NuWave Oven: A Quick Description
This oven, known as Nuwave, was released to the market in 2002. This brand currently has two versatile models: the NuWave “Elite” and the NuWave “Pro Plus.”
One exciting feature of Nuwave is using infrared technology to cook the food.
NuWave Oven: How It Works
NuWave ovens make use of 3 different methods for cooking, and these 3 methods include infrared, convection, and conduction. Let’s briefly look into how these work.
- Conduction
The most basic form of heat transfer comes from conduction. Once your oven is preheated so the interior is hot, you can insert your cold food to make it warmer. The heat inside the range will be transferred to the food, heating your food.
- Infrared Heating
This infrared heating technology feature is unique to NuWave. So, this infrared feature works by utilizing energy waves absorbed by the food to heat it up. When it comes to an infrared oven, microwaves are transferred with the help of reflectors and shields.
- Convection Oven
The convection feature utilizes the air fryer to cook food. Hence, it implies that hot air circulation is used, and a fan blows this hot air to cook the food.
NuWave vs. Power Air Fryer: Which Is Right For You?
Let’s compare these two brands and their features, specifically the PowerXL Air Fryer Grill and the Nuwave BRAVO XL Air Fryer Oven model.
These two fryers have similar looks. However, the Power XL is mainly an air fryer. Then the other, Nuwave BRAVO XL, was initially known as a conventional oven.
These kitchen appliances perform various functions, including air frying, grilling, dehydration, baking, toasting, etc. These kitchen appliances can perform other tasks but can only be named by some functions. Therefore, they are called by their primary function, which is ‘air frying.’
Understanding the significant differences between these fryers will give you a better understanding of what sets them apart before you decide to choose one. So, let’s compare NuWave vs. Power air fryers below.
First is the versatile, 8-in-1 kitchen appliance. The primary function of this cooking appliance is as an air fryer, and the secondary functions include roasting, Rotisserie, grilling, baking, pizza, reheating, and toasting.
This smart oven is convenient for your kitchen and will cook your food quicker than a traditional oven. This oven offers an air frying function for your favorite foods, and you can also bake, toast, dehydrate, grill, roast, broil, and reheat your foods.
Design & Appearance
Power XL has a sleek design built to process a more substantial food quantity. This excellent air fryer can singlehandedly execute functions equal to what multiple machines can do. Therefore, you can cook various foods with it.
It has this design of two racks that enables multiple ingredients to be placed in different spots. And you can cook other dishes at the same time. But this machine is still limited in capacity (930 cubic inches) as compared to Nuwave.
The Nuwave XL design is stainless steel on the outside. We admire the tempered glass door, which is heat-resistance. Then it features excellent cooking racks. It’s large enough to cook food that can feed a big family, and the cooking basket has a good capacity. It’s a great machine that can fit on your countertop without taking up much space.
Heating Element & Functionality
The Power Air Fryer XL grill has 3 heating elements. Then NuWave, on the other hand, has 5 heating elements, which offers a faster cooking time. There’s no denying that the Nuwave cooker gets the upper hand regarding heat distribution.
When using the Power XL to cook, you might make the mistake of either under-cooking or over-cooking your food. Some grilling experience is required to utilize the Power XL. Nuwave tends to be more user-friendly.
Size & Capacity
Nuwave has a larger capacity of about 1728 cubic inches. Now, because the Power XL Air Fryer Grill is primarily an air fryer, it has a smaller capacity of 930 cubic inches. Hence, since Nuwave Bravo XL is a large air fryer, more food can be cooked than Power XL, making it ideal for a large family.
Power & Wattage
You can guess the power of these two air fryers based on their number of heating elements. Nuwave Bravo XL, which has more heating, gives 1800 watts of power. On the other hand, a Power air fryer with a lesser heating element is rated at 1500 watts.
Heat & Temperature Range
The temperature range for Power XL is 200 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, and Nuwave Bravo XL will give you a temperature control range of 180 to 500 degrees. You will notice that both fields share high values, and this is for different purposes.
Take a look at the PowerXL; this is made to cook meats and heavier foods that take more time to cook. But Nuwave Bravo XL offers higher temperatures for cooking food which gives faster cooking time.
Add-Ons & Accessories
Nuwave Bravo XL accessories include a baking pan, air fry basket, two racks, broiler tray, crumb or drip tray, pizza server or cutter, pizza peel, and Nuwave cooking club app. It’s capable of cooking up to a 12-inch pizza.
Power XL Air Fryer Grill accessories are a stainless steel mesh fryer, stainless steel cooking fryer, non-stick grill pan, Rotating Rotisserie, Rotisserie spit, non-stick griddle, and accessory kit.
Preset Cooking Functions
Power XL grill offers 6 preset cooking functions, and Nuwave bravo XL provides 12.
Cooking Methods
The two air fryers work by utilizing the traditional conduction method as well as the latest convection method of cooking.
Pros & Cons
To further provide details about the differences between the Nuwave Power air fryers, let’s delve into their pros and cons.
NuWave Bravo XL: Pros & Cons
Pros
- Offers a flexible cooking performance
- Ideal for large families or a small party
- The air frying basket can accommodate plenty of food
- Gives a rapid heating performance
- Versatile kitchen appliance
- Sits comfortably on a counter
- Great as a toaster oven
- Drastically reduces grease and oil use
Cons
- The outer part can get very hot
- Might take up a lot of space
- It may get smokey when cooking fatty foods
- Can be loud
Power XL Air Fryer: Pros & Cons
Pros
- Multiple cooking functions
- Offers healthy cooking options with little to no oil
- Unique grilling features
- Comes with a recipe book
- Amazing accessories
Cons
- The fryer may get smokey
- It can be quite noisy
- The fryer can become hot
More Options: NuWave Brio 7-in-1 Air Fryer Oven & Power Air Fryer XL
The Nuwave Brio 7-in-1 and Power Air Fryer XL are other air fryer designs made from the brands we’ve been talking about; Nuwave and Power, respectively. Let’s briefly look into their unique features below.
Nuwave Brio 7-in-1 Air Fryer
This air fryer brand has incredible features to fry or cook your favorite foods. We like the 100 pre-programmed presets for grilling, baking, broiling, air frying, defrosting, reheating, toasting, etc. Furthermore, it has extra memory capacity, so you can save your own recipes!
You’ll enjoy the ease of use of this air fryer, and it always offers healthier cooking options. Fewer calories and messy oil issues are drastically minimized, making your “fried” food healthier.
More features include the one-touch digital control, an easy-to-read white display, a reversible rack, non-stick surfaces, and so on.
Power Air Fryer XL
This excellent air fryer utilizes fast air technology to operate. Instead of using oil for cooking, this air fryer will surround your food with Turbo Cyclonic air, giving your food a crispy texture.
This air fryer product will fry your food with no messy oil or added fat, giving you the best results regarding healthy nutrition. We’re obsessed with the options that make it easy to preset foods like chicken, steaks, French fries, shrimp, full roasts, and baked goods.
Enjoy the privilege of preparing your favorite quick meals, and you’ll make them using less oil. You can get the home-cooked taste of your favorite comfort meals while cutting back on some of the unhealthy additives.
Final Thoughts
The Nuwave and Power air fryers are the perfect appliances to add to your kitchen. However, when it comes to choosing between either of them, we’ll advise you to go for the one that suits your needs. Judging from our detailed review of these two air fryer brands, we trust you’ll make the right decision for you.