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The air fryer market continues to grow at a dizzying pace, and people's love for the appliance of the moment shows no sign of waning.

Whether you're new to this air frying caper or looking to upgrade your current model to something bigger or better, a few brand names probably keep cropping up in your search for the perfect machine. 

Two of them are likely to be Philips and Kmart Anko: they're among the most searched-for air fryer brands on the internet.

Philips and Kmart Anko are among the most searched-for air fryer brands on the internet

We test tens of air fryers each year, and these two brands are often among the models that our kitchen expert Fiona Mair puts through their paces in our dedicated kitchen lab.

Fiona has tested hundreds of appliances in her 28 years in the ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳test kitchen, so we asked for her expert opinion on how these two brands compare.

After 28 years in the ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳test kitchen, Fiona really knows her way around appliances.

On this page:

• Kmart Anko vs Philips: Which air fryer brand is best?
• What air fryers does Kmart sell?
• What air fryers does Philips sell?
• Are Kmart air fryers any good?
• Are Philips air fryers any good?
• Kmart and Philips air fryers compared

Kmart Anko vs Philips: Which air fryer brand is best?

What's right for one home cook could be wildly insufficient for another, so there's no 'best' air fryer as such – it all depends on your particular needs. 

Your budget, how you cook, what you cook and which features you'd like, are just some of the factors that come into play. 

But it's also important to take other factors into consideration, such as:

• how reliable a brand's appliances tend to be overall
• the brand's track record for customer service and satisfaction
• technical support and repairability

Brand reliability

Philips is a well-known brand in the appliance world: it's been around since the 1890s, producing a wide range of products from kitchen appliances and TVs through to personal care appliances and smart lighting. 

The Dutch company has been making air fryers for around a decade. 

Kmart Anko needs no introduction. Like Philips, the budget retailer was early to the air fryer game in Australia and has been selling different iterations of the popular appliance for many years now. 

The extremely low price point in comparison to other brands has made Kmart models a very popular choice amongst air fryer enthusiasts.

Anko branded products are now also available at Target, and both stores sell the same range of air fryers, so even if you don't live near a Kmart you may have another option to pick up one of these budget appliances.

Spending more on an appliance won't necessarily guarantee you better performance, quality or longevity

Fiona Mair, ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳kitchen expert

Obviously they're very different companies, but they both make very popular air fryers – albeit at different price points.

"Spending more on an appliance won't necessarily guarantee you better performance, quality or longevity, and we've tested many cheaper appliances that outperform appliances costing several times more," says Fiona.

But when you're paying as little as $35 for an air fryer (the cheapest Anko air fryer), the appliance is likely to be made from cheaper materials – that's how they can produce them for such a low price.

And you might find it harder to have a cheap appliance repaired: it can be difficult to locate replacement parts, and you could end up spending as much (or more) than the purchase price having it repaired by a professional. 

On the other hand, established brands like Philips tend to have plenty of spare parts available, easier-to-access customer service, and make their appliances with better quality parts and materials. 

Plus, a larger, older company that solely makes appliances can invest more money in research and development in its products than a discount retailer that sells a broad range of products, of which appliances make up only a small part.

When you're paying as little as $35 for an air fryer, it's likely to be made from cheaper materials

Something else to consider is that the more functions an air fryer has, the more there is that can potentially go wrong – whereas a simple, straightforward model has only a few moving parts, so to speak.

Again, it all comes down to what kind of features you want, how much you want to pay, and how you plan to use your air fryer.

Overall brand vs individual model

"Don't assume that just because one product from a brand is good that all their products are," says Fiona.

"In our testing, we sometimes see significant differences in performance between models from the same brand. Buying on brand alone won't necessarily guarantee you'll end up with a good product."

Buying on brand alone won't necessarily guarantee you'll end up with a good product

Fiona Mair, ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳kitchen expert

To make sure you're not buying a poor appliance from a good brand, check the results of each model in our detailed air fryer reviews before you buy.

Manufacturing and warranty

Kmart offers a 12-month warranty on its air fryers, which are made in China.

Philips air fryers are also manufactured in China and have a warranty of two years.

Range and price

There's obviously a considerable price difference between Kmart Anko and Philips air fryers, and both brands make a variety of sizes and styles.

Kmart's 12L air fryer oven costs $119.

What air fryers does Kmart sell?

The Anko range currently includes nine air fryers. The range does vary, with models being introduced and discontinued throughout the year. (These models are also available in Target stores.)

• 900mL mini air fryer: $35
• 1.2L mini air fryer: $39*
• 5L single-drawer silver look air fryer: $59
• 5.3L single-drawer air fryer: $69
• 5.75L single-drawer air fryer: $79
• 6.2L window air fryer: $89
• 9.5L twin air fryer: $119
• 12L air fryer oven: $119
• 25L air fryer and oven: $139*

*Out of stock online at time of writing

A note about air fryer capacity

The capacity you see displayed on the box isn't always entirely accurate. Some manufacturers calculate it based on the entire space inside the air fryer, but not the actual cooking space.

One air fryer that supposedly has a 6L capacity actually only fit 4L when our experts measured it.

For newer models, we report on the measured usable capacity, plus the number of chicken nuggets that can fit in a single layer in the cooking basket. (Surely chicken nugget capacity should become a standard measurement for every kitchen item!)

The Philips 7000 Series Combi XXXL air fryer has an RRP of $749.

What air fryers does Philips sell?

At the other end of the price spectrum, Philips' air fryers start at $199 for the 4.1L single-drawer Air Fryer Essential.

The range extends all the way through to a whopping $699 for the 8.3L Air Fryer Combi XXXL. 

It's the most expensive air fryer in our review, costing even more than multi-cookers with air fryer function such as the Ninja Foodi SmartLid, which is priced at $450.

These are the Philips air fryers in our current review:

• Philips Air Fryer Essential HD9200/21: $199
• Philips Essential Airfryer XL HD9270/21: $349
• Philips Air fryer 5000 Series XL HD9280: $349
• Philips 3000 Series Dual Basket Airfryer NA352/00: $349
• Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Airfryer NA551/00: $499
• Philips 7000 Series Air fryer Combi XXXL Connected HD9880/90: $699

Are Kmart air fryers any good?

While we can't reveal the results of our rigorous testing (that's available exclusively for ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳members), we can tell you more generally how Kmart air fryers have performed, both in our most recent tests and over the years.

Kmart Anko air fryers have been hit and miss. A few have performed quite well, with one even receiving a ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳Expert Rating of 84% and being recommended by our experts. It was rated as 'Excellent' for cooking crumbed chicken, marinated chicken wings and roast pork.

Others achieved ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳Expert Ratings in the 70s, but weren't quite good enough for our experts to recommend them. Some of them were rated as 'Excellent' on some of our tests, but fell down in others, receiving just 'OK' scores.

With some Kmart Anko air fryers you'll only get what you pay for, while with others you could end up with budget brilliance

However, a number have also hovered around the bottom of the pile, with a (now discontinued) 3.2L model scoring just 64%. The Kmart twin air fryer (which is also discontinued) was similarly disappointing – keep reading for a full rundown of how it performed.

One thing's for sure, though: Kmart's air fryers are consistently far cheaper than any other brand, so if you're looking for a cheap fry buy, Kmart models won't break the bank. However, with some models you'll only get what you pay for, while with others you could end up with budget brilliance.

The only way to tell is to check our detailed air fryer reviews to see how they compare.

Are Philips air fryers any good?

Philips air fryers have historically been more consistent than Kmart models. Two of the 13 Philips fryers that we've tested have been recommended by our experts, with the rest ranking as 'good'.

Many of them have been let down by their ease of use score, which is a measure of how easy they are to assemble, store, use and clean.

Philips air fryers have historically been more consistent than Kmart models

And, of course, they're far more expensive than comparably-sized Kmart models. In some cases they're worth what you pay for them, but you might also find cheaper air fryers from different brands that perform just as well as or even better than Philips products.

Kmart and Philips air fryers compared

Kmart Anko 5.3L Air Fryer vs Philips Air Fryer 5000 Series XL

The price gap between these fryers is fairly significant: $260 extra for the Philips.

For that kind of dollar difference, you'd expect more features and fancier technology, and the Philips does deliver these, but perhaps not to the extent that you'd expect for the money.

The Philips has a digital display with touchscreen controls, whereas the Kmart is more old-school with dial controls; one for temperature and one for time. 

And of course there's the Philips Wi-Fi app called Home ID. Our experts say it's easy to set up and navigate, with easy-to-follow recipes, photos of ingredients and step-by-step instructions.

When you select a recipe, the air fryer will display the program, including the temperature and cooking time. You can even start the air fryer through the app.

Neither scored especially well for cooking frozen chips

Surprisingly, though, the Philips doesn't sound alerts to remind you to shake or turn your food, and it doesn't make any sounds when you select functions, which can be disconcerting. However, you can adjust the time and temperature settings on the Philips once the cooking process has begun.

You can also adjust the time and temperature while you're cooking with the Anko model. However, the dial controls may not be very accurate: they only have 20°C increments for temperature and 5-minute increments for the timer.

Our experts gave both models similar scores for ease of use, but neither scored especially well for cooking frozen chips. We have also tested these air fryers on how well they cook crumbed chicken, roast pork and marinated chicken wings, and scored them on how easy they are to use and clean. 

The full details are listed in our air fryer reviews, available exclusively to ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳members. In these reviews you can also find details on how much each of these air fryers cost to run. 

Kmart Anko twin air fryer vs Philips dual basket air fryer

Full disclosure: this Kmart Anko dual air fryer has been discontinued since we tested it, and it's been replaced by a different twin model.

Since the newer model's only recently been released, we haven't had a chance to test it yet (but it's on our experts' to-do list!).

What we can do, however, is to explain how the previous iteration of Kmart's twin air fryer performed to give you some insights that can help you make up your mind. And we'll tell you about Philips' twin air fryer so you have a point of comparison.

So how do they compare? Unfortunately it's not great news for Kmart fans.

If you were buying an air fryer solely for cooking hot chips (a perfectly valid reason!), then you would've been sadly disappointed by the Kmart model: our experts scored it just 40% on this test.

It did handle marinated chicken wings and roast pork reasonably well (our experts rated it as "very good" for these), but even these niche skills couldn't save it. Its ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳Expert Rating was just 67% – one of the lowest scores of all the air fryers in our review at the time. (For context, the lowest-ranking model in our current review scores 62%, so the Kmart model wasn't a great deal better.)

How do they compare? Unfortunately it's not great news for Kmart fans

The Philips twin air fryer has the edge in terms of convenience: you can set it so the two baskets finish cooking at the same time, even if you're cooking different foods with different time and temperature requirements, and you can set both baskets to cook at the same time and temperature if you're just making one big batch.

The Kmart machine didn't have these features, so you needed to enter time and temperature manually for each basket, even if you were using the same time and temperature for both.

A twin air fryer that lacks the 'sync' and 'match' functions can make the simple task of air frying far more complicated and time-consuming than it ought to be.

Fortunately, Kmart's new twin-drawer air fryer does have a sync setting so you won't have to do all those calculations just to make some chicken nuggets and chips.

The new model is the same price – $119 – which is very cheap for a twin air fryer. We can't speak to whether it's a good buy at that price, but we suggest you proceed with caution given Kmart's previous attempt at a dual-basket air fryer. 

Want to know more? We break down the Kmart twin air fryer's performance, share tips and help you answer the question "Should you buy a twin air fryer?".

Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.

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