I've been a fan of air fryers for a while now and this is my second one. The first one I had was the basket design and I loved it but wanted something bigger. To properly cook food in an air fryer, you need to have things spread out enough that the hot air can get completely around everything, kind of like hot oil. So, the photos you see of people filling up their basket fryers completely with fries is not really a good idea if you want everything to cook evenly. Also, for something that takes up precious counter space in my small kitchen, I wanted it to have additional uses. By getting this one, I was able to get rid of my toaster oven, which I use quite often. And this one can cook more than one piece of toast at a time so that was a bonus. The main purpose, however, is still the air fryer and while this works well, there are some drawbacks. I think the larger size makes it less efficient and therefore things don't seem to be getting as crispy as they did in my old air fryer. I do a lot of roasted veggies (carrots, potatoes, broccoli) and it takes longer to get them to the nice roasted level (a bit of charring around the edges). Same with chicken. Again, I think the overall size slows it down so one of the pros about this unit is also one of the cons. The big con with air frying is that this unit takes forever to preheat. As an example, I like to air fry broccoli. Toss it with some olive oil and spices and in my old air fryer, it was crispy and perfect in about 7 minutes (at 380-400 degrees). However, it takes that long for this air fryer to even heat up and I've noticed that things do cook best if you wait until it reaches the higher temps to put them in (foods with oil on them need to be cooked at high temps if you want them to get crispy and not just oily). So, now I wait 7-10 minute for it to heat up, and then the broccoli takes at least 10 minutes to cook at 400 degrees. So, it takes about three times as long to make it compared to my old air fryer. Not a huge deal overall, but disappointing and unexpected. If time is a big issue for you, this unit is less efficient than the basket fryers. Another thing I actually loved making in my old fryer was steak. About 4-6 minutes and it cooked a decent medium to medium-well steak and would kind of char the outside a bit, which is what I wanted. This fryer will cook it fairly well, but I discovered it's good for cooking the inside and not so good for the outside. So, I cook the steak in the fryer to get it to the desired level of inside cooking and then quickly flash fry it in a cast iron pan that is already heated on high -- about 30 seconds on each side does it. Again, no big deal but more time. On the other features, pretty much the same. I've tried baking items and it works well -- just takes longer to heat up. I've also recently used the pizza setting to heat up pizza and at least on that one you can just put the pizza in while it's preheating as it's pretty much done by the time it reaches the temp you set. And it does a good job -- certainly better than the microwave as it browns and crisps it instead of just heating it and making it soggy. One nice thing this unit has that my basket unit didn't is different slots to put the pans to cook things differently. For example, to broil you put the pan in the very top slot so the food is closer to the heating element. And it's helpful that the different slots are labeled so you don't have to read or memorize the directions to know this. Speaking of the controls, they are good and typically easy once you've used them a few times. I like that they are digital as things are much more precise than trying to figure out a manual wheel timer that never seems to be accurate. The timer on this is very good and it alerts you with beeping when the preheating is done and when the cooking timer is up. It's just a bit confusing that you have to again push start at that time or it won't actually start cooking. I get that this is so the timer starts at the right time, but it can be confusing the first few times you use it. The other thing is that it takes a while for the lights to go off once you have canceled cooking so I tend to unplug it when not in use. I do that with a lot of my appliances anyway so no big deal. I haven't yet tried the dehydrating feature so I'll update my review as soon as I have because I'm excited for that one. I'll also try out a few of the other settings, but I've used the main ones enough to talk about them. Toast does what you'd expect, bagel seems to do what toast does just more heat on the top than the bottom, and I'm not sure what the difference is between bake and cookies because I didn't realize cookies needed their own setting (I think that one is kind of an add on to make it look cooler by having extra settings). I'll also try the rotisserie setting at some point because that one looks awesome but messy. Ferment is probably the only one I probably won't use. As for the cleaning, well, that is definitely much more difficult than my basket air fryer. That one, I could easily take out the basket and soak the inside with hot water and some dish soap and then just rinse it clean after dinner. Or, pop both parts in the dishwasher. It was fairly quick and easy to clean and even if I forgot about it for a day or so, a quick soak got it clean. This one, however, is a bit more difficult as there are more parts. Granted, I knew this going in but didn't quite anticipate the cleaning time. To keep things easier, I quickly learned to cover the bottom drip pan in foil. Much easier than trying to clean it after each use. And I can keep the foil on for a while unless it gets really dirty from one use. The glass door actually cleans quite easily if you clean it right away before things dry and cook onto the glass. It seems to have a coating to help with this but I do recommend wiping it down after each use. I had read other reviews about stuff dripping down in between the glass door and the bottom drip pan so I just put a paper towel under the door if I'm cooking something particularly juicy. Then use the same towel to wipe down the glass and down in the space between the door and drip pan. If you clean that after each use, it doesn't get bad. The hard thing to keep clean in this air fryer is the air fry tray. It doesn't appear to have a non-stick surface so definitely spray it with some oil beforehand or you will have food cooked to it that won't soak off even after sitting in hot, soapy water for hours. I pretty much destroyed a scrubby sponge getting the burnt bits of whatever off it. Things get stuck in between the wires and stay there. The broiler pan, however, it easier to clean and appears to be nonstick. And be aware that this unit gets really hot while you are cooking things so be careful about keeping anything on top of it or directly next to it. I basically have the directions and my silicone mitt and that's it. Toasty! Lastly, on the noise this one is maybe a bit louder than my old air fryer but not noticeably so. It has to be loud because of the convection, but it's not loud enough to really be a bother and my living room is right next to my kitchen so I'm about 15 feet away while it's cooking. I certainly don't have to turn the TV up tons to hear over it. I think it helps to give it space between it and the wall and other appliances to keep the air flow clear and it seems less loud when it has proper space. Overall, I'm happy with it because of the extra features. If it were being used only as an air fryer, I would probably go back to the basket style, but the extra uses in this unit make it worth the extra cooking time and clean up. The size is bigger but it replaced my toaster oven and old air fryer so I actually gained some space. I also don't need to keep a dehydrator or toaster so it makes up for it size with those uses as well. Most of the other features are also on my oven, but it's nice to not have to use the oven to c
