My favorite air fryer is at its lowest price since Black Friday

I was a late conversion to air fryerspartly because I was worried about versatility: how many wings, nuggets and fries do you need? (Do not answer. The answer will incriminate you.)

THE Typhur Dome 2 is the air fryer that has erased that worry, adding pizza, browned meats, grilled asparagus, and toast to that list, not to mention the perfect crispy bacon. This is an innovative device which has most of the functions of a classic auxiliary oven, but with much more powerful convection.

After testing over 30 air fryers over the past year, the Dome 2 is the one I recommend by far as the most powerful, versatile, precise, and fast air fryer I’ve ever used. I’ve been evangelizing for this thing since I first tried it last year. But the only big downside is always the price: it is listed at $500 and rarely drops much below $400.

So imagine my surprise when I saw the Dome 2 dropped to $340 for Amazon’s spring sale, the lowest I’ve seen it since Black Friday. If you’re looking for an upgrade to your old basket air fryer, now is probably a good time. The sale lasts until March 31.

Fast, versatile, app-controlled cooks

So why is the Dome 2 my favorite air fryer? Typhur, a technology company based in San Francisco but with engineering and manufacturing ties to China, has reinvented the form and function of the classic basket fryer by creating a wider, shallower basket, with individually controllable dual heating elements.

This means the Dome 2 has room for a pizza in the freezer and can apply direct heat from the bottom to add char flecks and crispiness to the crust, much like a grill combination oven. The Dome’s shallow basket also allows you to distribute ingredients in a single layer for excellent air circulation, while heating on both sides. I can crisp up two dozen wings in just 14 minutes (or 17 minutes if I fry them hard). The Dome also toasts bread evenly and crisps bacon without smelling homemade, in part because it has a helpful self-cleaning feature.

The temperature accuracy is between 5 and 10 degrees from the target and the fan can adjust its speed depending on the cooking mode. And the smart app is actually useful, with around 50 recipes ranging from asparagus to éclair to London Broil flank steak that can be synced up at the touch of a button. But note that some functions, such as cooking, require the app to operate, and the device is more countertop than taller basket fryers.

The Typhur probe oven is also on sale

The Dome 2’s basket is, however, a little shallow for a whole bird or large roast. If you want a convection appliance for larger meats, I often recommend the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro, which is one of my favorite convection toaster ovens. This is a (very) smart oven and air fryer that doesn’t make wings and fries as crispy as basket fryers, but is more versatile for roasting large proteins like a whole chicken. The Breville is also on hot sale right now, down 20 percent.

A pretty promising new air fryer oven from Typhur is also on sale right now. The Typhur Sync Oven costs just $250, a modest but welcome reduction of $50 off the regular price. I’ve been testing the Typhur Sync since the end of last year. This is a countertop convection oven with a built-in probe that allows you to reheat chicken, pork loin, or beef roasts to your desired temperature. The probe attaches to the top of the oven and charges there.

When you remove the probe, the oven automatically switches to probe cooking mode. You choose the type of meat you’re cooking and your preferred doneness, and the oven takes it from there. This works well, although sometimes I would like to have more control and visibility over the ambient temperature of the oven when using probe cooking: I have to let the oven take control. But probe assistance eliminates a lot of guesswork and worry, especially in the case of pork loin.

Otherwise, when you’re not using the temperature probe, the Sync is a classic and quite capable air fryer toaster oven. It toasts bread evenly and maintains temperature precisely. It’s a fairly small oven in terms of footprint, but still big enough for a 6-pound chicken or a 12-inch pizza. You will probably have small burn marks in the aluminized steel drip tray, but that is a known danger of toaster ovens.