Bella - Pro Series 3.5qt Air Fryer - Black With Stainless Steel Accents

Review of the Chefman Bella – Pro Series 3.5-qt Air Fryer. At the time of this review the price of the unit is $39.99 is original price of $59.99. I am not going to compare this unit to let’s say a Ninja Foodie as they are really 2 different air frying units. The Chefman Pro series is an outstanding entry level while the Foodie does a bit more and is larger than this unit so I have seen some comparisons. I will not do that here. This is a simple Air fryer with analog timer, adjustable temperature dial and very easy to use and operate. It has a main unit with a food basket and a basket trey as well. The unit is egg shaped black with stainless steel accents. Looks good in your kitchen. The small booklet inside the box includes a cooking chart for all kinds of food preparation, temperature setting and time. In my review I used this to air fry some chicken breasts and also steamed some veggies and I was very pleased with the results. The unit is not loud, it can release some heat from the rear air blower but not smoke. When I air fried the chicken breast, I did not use any oil or water and it cooked a full trey of three chicken breast strips in approx 12 minutes and the chicken was air fried very well, no oil added and was very moist. The vegies were steamed with less than ½ cup of water and the results were very fresh steamed veggies in approx. 8 minutes. The unit is also extremely easy to clean as well with its dishwasher safe food basket. Both items were all cooked evenly and well cooked. This unit really is special due to its entry level pricing and quality of the food preparation is very impressive.

I’ve used the Bella Pro Series 3.5qt Air Fryer about 10 times in the last 2 weeks. This isn’t my first air fryer experience, so I had a good idea of what I could use it to cook. The labeling on the front of the cooker basket says the Bella can air fry, bake, saute, steam, grill, and roast. I’ve managed to try the air frying, saute, steam, and roasting capabilities. The fryer is small enough to hang out on my counter without getting in the way, and I have been using it often enough. For me its just a little big to put away and get out all the time. There are only 3 components for you to interact with on the Bella. The main unit that houses the heating element and timer, the fryer basket, and the rubber footed fryer tray. Depending on the type of cooking you want to do will determine how you set up the fryer tray. Baking and sautéing won’t use the fryer tray. The fryer tray has 3 rubber feet which press against the inside of the fryer basket. These feet hold the fryer tray in place allowing you to set the depth of the tray. Depending on what or how you are cooking your food. When I steamed some veggies I shift the tray up a bit to allow for more water in the bottom. For the most part though the tray went all the way to the bottom for what I was cooking. The heating element does a nice job of heating up quickly and circulating the air inside. It takes maybe a minute and a half to come to temp, so you can factor that into your timer settings. For the most part the fryer does of great job of cooking food thoroughly. I’ve cooked breaded chicken breasts, corn dogs, fresh cut sweet potato fries, mixed veggies, chicken stir fry, and green bean casserole. Everything was cooked really well, and much like all the other air fryers I have used. I’ve also used it for reheating leftovers. This is the best use for these little air fryers in my experience. So, the Bella, as far as cooking stacks up pretty well. When it comes to cleanup, you only have 2 items to clean. Both are dishwasher safe, but I would recommend cleaning up the fryer tray a bit first. Stuff can get pretty caked on to it. I found a few downsides to the unit though. The manual is pretty lacking to be honest. Without some prior knowledge to how air fryers work, I can see this as a detriment to novice users. It does provide some general timing guidelines for cooking a couple of common food items. Unfortunately, the manual doesn’t do a great job of outlining how to use the cooker other than the air frying capability. The recipes in the back might touch on it a bit, but its not explicit. I found an issue with the timer as well. There’s no way to pause the timer if you are pulling the basket out to check – not a big issue but kind of annoying. The timer also has a dead zone for the first few minutes. For example if you just want to bump the timer up an extra 2 minutes (from zero), it will run for a few seconds and turn off. You have to turn it to almost 5 minutes extra to avoid this dead zone. Certainly annoying, and something to be aware of when you are adding a little extra time. Another issue I have, one that’s actually present in a lot of air fryers like this, is the shape of the unit. The shape makes it difficult to pick-up and move the unit without the basket in place. I wish these air fryers would have some additional hand holds on the sides to help pick the cooker up. I only say this because after you cook and pull the basket out, the only place to grab to move the cooker is in the area the basket used to be. This poses a problem if the heating element is still hot because you would definitely grab onto a hot surface. Overall the Bella does a really nice job of cooking, which is the ultimate goal. Food comes out well cooked. I wish the timer setup was improved, and the manual a little clearer. But overall this is a nice little air fryer for the price. .

Tested it on chicken, works great. Cooked fully all the way, no grease, no oils. Did not burn the insides at all. Definitely recommend for those who are single or living in small space.

The Bella Air Fryer does what it's designed to, but the whole notion that this "fries" food is misleading. This is the first time I have tried an "Air Fryer" and I'm not sold on it after this. The design of this Air Fryer is pretty simple. At the bottom is a pull out "basket", at the front is a timer knob, and the top has a temperature control knob with a Power and Ready LED above it. There is also a vent on the back top of the machine, and a power cord attached to the lower back. Inside, above the basket, you can see the heating element, and there is a fan contained in the body. It's fairly tall, but not too wide and deep in it's cylindrical design. From an overall feel, the Bella Air Fryer is average in most ways. The entire machine exterior is plastic, except for a stainless steel accent at the top. Most of it feels pretty good, but some of the plastic feels a little cheaper than I would like in a kitchen appliance that will see regular use. The few stainless steel or chrome looking accents break up the monochrome all-black look. The temperature button on the top has a little resistance when spinning and doesn't feel cheap in that regard, but there is a little bit of lateral movement when touching it which cheapens the feel. The timer on the front feels better without as much movement. The basket is metal with a non-stick coating, and there is a non-stick tray that fits inside. The handle to the basket feels okay, but it could be a bit more solid or heavy-duty. At the end of the day I think the Bella Air Fryer is constructed well enough to last with care, but it doesn't feel built to take abuse. I feel like it could be improved to inspire confidence that it can handle daily use. In operation, it works fine. The timer worked consistently, and the heat setting seemed to work as set. It indicated temperature very quickly, showing that it heats up quickly. I didn't test the interior temperature with a probe thermometer, but it cooked my food according to the recipe consistently, so I will give it the benefit of the doubt. The vent on the back was blowing out enough air to move my paper towels behind it. Additionally, the fan is pretty quiet during operation, especially compared to my past experiences with convection toaster ovens. I have confidence that everything was functioning correctly, and operating it was really simple and straight forward. I gave it the rating it has because it does actually cook food well. Because it heats up quickly, it is also fairly convenient. My biggest issue, though, as mentioned in the beginning, is that calling this a "fryer" is misleading. It's more like a compact convection oven in a different configuration. I have tried "frying" several things, and the reality is it bakes them. The pictures show fish I coated in homemade breadcrumbs, and they came out like they do in my oven. Other items I cooked in it produced similar results, finishing more baked than fried. To me, this makes sense based on how this works and is constructed. A fan, a heating element, and no oil means this is just a stylish convection oven. Realistically, this just heats up faster than a typical convection oven, and cooks faster because it's a smaller space to manage with the fan moving the air around evenly. If you approach this like a compact convection oven, I think it does a good job and serves a niche market. The basket size is small compared to many convection toaster ovens, so it's not going to serve large groups. However, we have a small camper that this would serve well as a primary way of cooking various items for a couple people when traveling. Because it doesn't take up a ton of space it works well for that purpose. Though, in all honesty a convection toaster oven would probably do just as well. If you're looking for truly fried food coming out of this you will be very disappointed.

So, if you want to forego the bells and whistles of a super-fancy combo unit because you're not quite sure what to expect from an air fryer, this is a good "starter unit" that clearly won't break the bank while still giving you some great tasting food in return. Setup is about as simple as you can get: load the food in the basket, turn 2 dials, one for temperature, one for the timer and you're off to the races! That's it...no "food type" settings or complex adjustments--just make sure you've got a recipe in hand so you know how hot you need it for how long because air frying, as we discovered, isn't an exact science. Even with the recipe book in hand, we turned two frozen dishes on two different occasions into a pile of charcoal shavings in our first week alone. Actually, recipe "book" is a bit generous; there's a frying chart, but really only about 5 recipes in the box so you're going to need to hone your Google-fu or experiment a bit to find your rhythm with this unit. Now, maybe it was just us, but it took us a while to get the perfect blend of cooking time and temperature down for frozen foods. In the end, we would recommend shaking or stirring any frozen product at least every 4-5 minutes even if the instructions say otherwise--we promptly burnt the first batch of frozen onion rings by strictly following the instructions. But once we got the hang of things, chicken wings, hot dogs, and hamburgers all came out just fine. Fresh foods were a different (good news) story entirely--we tried some various veggies, all of which turned our wonderfully. Our favorite were homemade zucchini fries--we felt the end results were much better than what we could get in a restaurant serving the same thing. No matter whether it's frozen or fresh, you're going to want to check the basket at LEAST once at about the half-way point unless you want to risk continually burning your foods like we started out doing. Fortunately, if you pull open the drawer to check on the meal, the fryer's safety features kick in and the heating element automatically cuts off--and won't kick back on again unless you fully shut the drawer so you'll know if you've got things right before you walk away. When you're done, the nonstick frying basket and crisping tray are very easy to clean with just a little soapy water and a soft cloth. Note that with entry-level pricing, you are going to get what you pay for. For example, this may say it is a 3.5 quart unit, but it really didn't seem to cook anywhere near that amount--we had to cook multiple batches of our favored zucchini fries using a recipe that only called for two zucchinis! The metal for the pull out drawer (actually called the frying basket) and the insert crisping tray also feel paper thin. If you're careful with it, you can likely wring the purchase price in value out of the fryer before it breaks or gives out, but it does feel a little on the ultra-budget side overall--like any decent bump and your fryer could be toast :-( These small observations aside, this fryer still came out to a good value in our estimation--it's easy and fun to use and the results, once dialed in with a little experience, really are delicious. Easily recommended, especially if you don't know if an air fryer is right for you; if you need a gift for someone who may or may not end up using it a lot; if you're cooking for just one person; or if you simply don't have a lot of space in your kitchen but still want to try the benefits of air frying at home.

This cooker was very simple to use and easy to clean. That’s two important factors. I did make some hot-dogs in the cooker as a test and they were delicious, plump and juicy. The hot-dogs tasted like they were grilled. See the attached photo. You do have to pay attention to how fast items will cook. The little instruction booklet was careful to say anything you cook should be observed at ½ the cooking time. This turned out to be important as the hot-dogs cooked in about 2/3 of the expected time. So test a bit before you get into cooking larger amounts of various items. You can cook fresh or frozen foods as well like French-fries and that is a great plus. Since you cook without oil, this is a healthier way to cook vegetables and many other foods. The instructions tell you and I would recommend putting the cooker on a heat-safe surface. The outside of the cooker does not get hot to the touch, however be careful when you pull the cooking “chamber” out of the cooker as it will be hot inside. There is a part that sits in the bottom of the “chamber” that keeps food from touching the bottom and both the “chamber” and this part are non-stick – very nice. I would recommend this little wonder for cooking foods relatively fast, healthy and with a super flavor.

This was my first time to use and airfryer and I have to say it was really easy. Zero setup. Out of the box, wash the bin and you are ready to use. I tried the recipe that came with it but it was hard to understand and was cryptic. I went to their website and it gave me a recipe for wings that took too long. So I just used an online simple recipe and it worked great. The wings came turned out great. Crispy and full of flavor. No oil was needed. The fat dropped off the wings. Also tried potato wedges. Same results. Clean up was a cinched. Temp and timer controls were easy. No cons here.

I will admit, I was a little intimidated to use an air fryer because I thought it would kind of complicated, require "out of the norm" cleaning, and just would not be worth the effort. I couldn't have been more wrong! This is a great product as it's super easy to use and make food, and has made some of the best fries (waffle fries, seasoned fries, etc) and popcorn chicken I've had in years! The item itself doesn't require any "setting up", but I would say when it comes to cooking items, do make sure to follow the provided instructions or go by the food item's instructions that are provided (sometimes on the back of food packages, they will instruct you how to cook the food with an air fryer). When it comes to the amount of food that you may be able to make, I'd say that at maximum, you'd be able to prepare enough food for 3-4 people at full capacity, but that's subjective of course. As a bonus, this product is very, very easy to clean, and not too big and bulky, making it easy to store. As a special note, one thing that I'd recommend doing when cooking food, which the product manual itself suggests, is turning over/shaking up the food you're cooking about halfway through, so it cooks thoroughly. I would definitely recommend this product to anyone wanting to try out air frying! I'm looking forward to testing out other foods pretty soon!