Midea 2 Zone Air Fryer assessment: tremendous air burner, horrible software, and lots of sticker shock

Midea 2 Zone air fryer
Midea released a new air-fryer that can cook up to two items at once. We’re curious to see if the price is worth it. Let it be known that I am extremely skeptical of any kitchen gadget trend that gains traction on the social media. I laughed at the Instant Pot and noted that the crockpot, which I bought on super-steep sales in 2013, was probably just as good. From 2008 to 2018, I used the Westinghouse rice cooker/vegetable steamer my mom got as a present in the early 1990s. I don’t own a microwave. I hate to store things I don’t use regularly. I need to make sure that every appliance I own has a place in the crowded kitchens I find myself in. For me, this has been a toaster, an electric kettle, and a slow cooker. When air fryers first appeared on the market several years ago, I said I would never buy one. It was only a convection-oven, after all. In 2017, my mother gave me an air fryer which sat unused in the cupboard for about a month. After years of reliable service, my beloved toaster-oven finally died. Instead of buying a new toaster, I decided to unbox the air-fryer I had been given. You may be wondering if this was the life-changing event that everyone on TikTok or Instagram has led you to believe. In a single word, no. It didn’t make my life any easier or the food I prepared taste better. It was fast and convenient, in a way my toaster oven wasn’t. Air fryers became my new favorite. When Midea asked me if I would like to try out a new Air Fryer, I thought it might be worth a shot. The Midea 2 Zone air fryer is a unique take on air fries. It combines a basket-style airfryer on top with a toaster-oven-style airfryer on bottom. I was skeptical – would it really be an improvement over my existing air fryer? Let’s start by stating that this is a large countertop device. It measures 15.7 inches high, 14.6 inches wide, and 12.5 inch deep. This is a large amount of counter space. It weighs over 20lbs so you may not be as eager to move it from your counter. If you have limited counter space, an air fryer might not be the best investment. It’s not worth it unless you intend to use it almost every day, which I do. It’s not the first dual zone air fryer that I’ve seen. Ninja’s DualZone XL comes with two 5-quart baskets, but they are placed side by side. This makes it a much larger appliance. Midea 2 Zone Air Fryer Review: A fairly standard BasketBut, it differs to some of the dual-zone air fryers in that it does not combine two air frying pans. It has a traditional air fryer on top, and a toaster-oven-like compartment at the bottom. The toaster-oven compartment has a convection feature, so you can air fry in both compartments. Midea claims the air fryer can hold 11 quarts of food, but I disagree. The top basket may hold six quarts but the bottom compartment will not. The bottom compartment is about the size of a toaster and you can’t stack things on it like in an air fryer basket. It can still hold a nine inch pizza or one Marie Callendar ready to bake frozen pies if you want to heat them up. Sync Finish was the main reason I was eager to test out the Midea 2 Zone air fryer. Sync Finish allows you to cook different foods at the same time, but have them finish together. When enabled, the airfryer will start cooking the item that takes the longest time to cook and then hold the second item in place until the timing matches. This feature is great if you don’t want to worry about estimating cooking times for each item. The Midea 2 Zone air fryer was put to the test. I almost always skip breakfast and opt for a black coffee instead. When it comes to lunch, I also don’t make healthy choices. When I remember, on some days I will drink one of the “nutritionally complete meal replacement shakes”. Sometimes I will just crack open a can and eat the spaghetti-os at my desk. On some days, especially those that are particularly busy, I will skip lunch completely. What can I tell you, I’m a young millennial. I’ve tried to eat more real food at lunch, but it has often been a piece air-fried precooked chicken breast. It’s better to have something with it, but sometimes I wish I had more. Meal prep is not something I do often because I don’t always have the time to prepare a meal in the middle. I also don’t own an oven or microwave. The Midea 2 Zone air fryer promises to change that by allowing you cook two things at once. To test this, I decided to make a real meal that I could cook completely hands-free in just 20 minutes. I decided to add roasted asparagus along with my usual chicken breast and rice. I lightly oiled my chicken breast and seasoned it with my favorite margarita spice before dropping it into the basket of the air fryer. I oiled and seasoned my asparagus before putting it in the toaster compartment. Midea 2 Zone Air Fryer Review: The bottom compartment works similarly to a toaster oven. I set the chicken for 375 degrees and 20 minutes, and the asparagus for 390 degrees and 8 minutes. I enabled Sync Finish and started cooking. I put my quick-cook risotto in my rice cooker with hot water, and set it on to cook. Twenty minutes later, I opened my Dual Zone Air Fryer and saw what I had. Midea 2 Zone Air Fryer Review: It overcooked the chicken, which was admittedly quite easy to do. The asparagus were perfect. I added some fresh lemon juice, and crushed red pepper flakes. It was so good, that I made it again when I cooked dinner for me and my partner a few hours after. The chicken was moderately dried, though it looked drier than what it was. This is what happens when you use frozen precooked chicken breasts. However, it does show the differences between air fryers. My old air fryer wouldn’t have cooked it this far. I expected a certain amount of trial and error and I’m not that bothered by a dry chicken breast. If I were to do it again, I would probably lower the temperature by another 10 degrees, and reduce the cooking time from 20 minutes to 15 minutes. Overall, I thought it was a good meal that only took me five minutes to prepare. It’s definitely more respectable than a canned Spaghetti-o. Since then, I have used it to air-fry french fries, roasted cherry tomatoes and peppers and reheat leftover pizza. I’ve even baked some frozen cookies. It’s handled every cooking task that I’ve given it. But that doesn’t make it perfect. Midea 2 Zone Air Fryer Review — The Good: Let’s begin with the positives. There are many things to like — and I do mean many. Hardware-wise, it’s pretty sleek. Cleaning is easy My previous air fryer was difficult to clean and I didn’t do it as often as I would have liked. It’s gross, but it happens. Midea 2 Zone Air Fryer Review: Clean up is easy — just pop out your tray and wash it in your sink.However the Midea 2 Zone Air Fryer has an easy cleaning process. Midea claims that it is dishwasher safe, even though I don’t own a dishwasher. I can easily remove the tray from the fryer basket and wash it in the sink. The fryer basket is also easy to clean. The toaster-oven tray can be cleaned with hot water, soap and elbow grease. It’s perfect for small families or small spaces. That’s not to say it doesn’t take up a large portion of your counter — it does. If you’re a couple or a single person, it’s well worth keeping on your countertop. The Midea 2 Zone air fryer can easily cook food for two people. The convection heating and its small size means that you don’t waste time cooking two pieces of meat in a large oven. You wouldn’t buy this air fryer for a family of five, but I understand that you might. An air fryer will be less useful than a large oven for baking a tray of chicken nuggets and fries. If you’re a single person or have a small household, having something so easy to use and to clean is a great option. It doesn’t heat your kitchen. This is why I am an air fryer convert. I live in an old house, which is 144 years. I don’t use central air. I cool my downstairs with a single window-mounted air conditioner that is also made by Midea – the Midea U shaped Air Conditioner. It’s not an option to turn on my oven when the temperature outside is 80 degrees. I don’t even like cooking on the stove. This is not a feature unique to the air fryer in question, but air fryers generally. Like toaster ovens they don’t raise your house’s temperature the way an oven would. If you want to save energy, or if your house is too cold, an air fryer can be a great investment. Sync Finish is a game-changer. I hate trying to balance the act of getting everything to the table hot and prepared. I’ve never been very good at it. This probably explains why I prefer one-pot meals and sides that don’t require serving hot. Midea 2 Zone air fryer — Sync Finish has to be the best feature. Now, whenever I roast vegetables, I know they will be ready at the same time that my protein is, which I find great. Even if I mess up the cooking time for one item, another can be kept at a low temp, ensuring that everything is still warm when it reaches the table. It’s worth noting that Sync Finish does not only apply to Midea airfryers. Instant, the same brand who makes the Instant Pot that I criticized at the start of the review, also has a 2-basket airfryer with Sync Finish. Midea 2 Zone Air Fryer Review — The Bad Despite the fact that it has many useful features, it is not perfect. I was surprised at how frustrated I became with a kitchen appliance, especially one that appears to work. Setup was extremely frustrating. I’ll get into the app below, but first let me say that the setup of this device was the most frustrating I’ve ever had to do. Midea advertises the fact that you can use this device right out of box, but it also works with an application. I usually avoid smart appliances, because they tend to complicate simple things. It’s my job as a reviewer to look at this kind of thing, so I didn’t want to skip this feature. But damned, if I wasn’t proved right again. I downloaded SmartHome from the App Store according to the manual. Then I opened it. The app did not automatically detect the air fryer. I was asked to manually add the device. Sure, fine. Midea 2 Zone Air Fryer Review: I had no clue what to do.I scrolled down the app and found the Midea Air Fryer category. There were four images that were nearly identical, but had model numbers. I checked the model number on my device. None of them matched. It’s off to a good start. I took the plunge and chose the air fryer that looked the most like mine. It did connect to the air-fryer. I’m not sure what to think of that. I guessing at what it was asking me, I clicked on the control knob. It worked again, but I can’t understand why it had to be so difficult. The slots on the fry tray are too wide. This is a small complaint, but I will share it. The slots in the fry tray are large enough to allow small food items like shoestring fries to fall through. This isn’t a big deal, but it will mean that a few fries will fall through the basket when you shake it, or that some will get stuck halfway through and be difficult to remove. The fact that there was no documentation on how you could change the Fahrenheit to Celsius was one thing that drove me crazy. It’s not a big deal to me because I have a degree in science, so understanding Celsius is second nature. I’ve done enough baking and half the blogs I read don’t come from the United States. If you have a teenager who is hungry come home with a bunch pizza rolls, then it’s not as ideal. I found a video on YouTube of a man with the same issue. The manufacturer told him to hold down the top and bottom temperature buttons together for three seconds. It worked. For whatever reason, your air fryer does not remember that you have changed it to Fahrenheit when you cook the next time. I’m curious to know why it was designed this way. Midea 2 Zone Air Fryer Review — The ugly I have been banging this drum for what seems like a decade, but I still want to know why the majority of smart home products apps are still terrible. The SmartHome app doesn’t even always work well, which makes it more frustrating. I use the same application to control my window air conditioners and it works flawlessly. This leaves me wondering about the part of the air fryer that is so frustrating. I’ll set time and temperature in both the top and bottom compartments, and then enable Sync Finish on the app. When you hit “start”, it resets the temperature for both the top and bottom compartments to 200 degrees Celsius. They are then started simultaneously. Midea 2 Zone Air Fryer review: the app consistently resets the cooking time and temperature to the same for both compartmentsSometimes, it also just sets whatever I’m cooking to cook for 20 minutes. It is therefore pointless to control the air fryer via the app. The app is riddled with typos, misspellings and the recipe section can be confusing to navigate. This is not just a SmartHome problem – it’s a problem with many smart products apps. If we insist on smart home devices, then we need to improve the apps that go with them. Is the Midea 2 Zone air fryer worth it? Yes, but I also love this airfryer. I love it. It does everything I need. It’s true that my list of features is short — it can cook large amounts of food and is very easy to clean. It doesn’t take over my entire counter which is great considering I have very little counter space. This air fryer is made more attractive and useful with the addition of Sync finish. This thing is expensive and I assume that a large part of its price is due to the fact that it is “smart.” Midea’s $250 price tag for an appliance that is usually sold for less than $60 feels like a slap on the face, especially since the app is barely usable. Even other dual air fryers are closer to the $200 mark that the $250 one. It’s a lot more expensive than what I would normally recommend. Let’s not ignore the discounts. The Midea 2 Zone Air Fryer can be purchased at Amazon for just $179.99. If you buy it now, you’ll get an additional $40 off. This brings the $249.99 price down to $139.99, a savings of $110. At that price, it’s still not cheap, but I can recommend it. Just don’t bother using the app. Midea 2 zone air fryer – Pros Smaller footprint compared to other dual air fryers
Easy to clean
Midea 2 zone air fryer – Pros Fantastic Sync Finish – Cons Terrible App controls
Wireless setup can be confusing
The cryptic controls will switch it to Fahrenheit
Buy at Amazon