Air Fryer - Power Pulsing or not?

[wildebus]

Wondering if anyone knows the answer to this question .....

Take the typical Induction Hob ... If you run at full power , it uses the full power. But if you set it to a lower setting, it does not run at the lower power, it runs at the full power for a time, then turns off, then full power, etc. cycling between the two to average the power setting chosen and you see that in a pan of water with the water bubbling, stopping, bubbling, etc.
The typical Microwave works in the same way, power cycling between full and on to average the power set.
This is important to know as if you are using an Inverter, you don't want the power of the Hob or Microwave to exceed the Inverter rating.

Now the question ... Does an Air Fryer do this pulsing power cycling or is it a more basic device where if you set it at 50% of the max power, it draws 50% of the power all the time (rather than 100% for half the time and 0% for the other half)?
I *think* it is a fairly dumb device when it comes to the power as they are usually an electric element (like a kettle or old-fashioned electric cooker coil) that is powered and a fan above it that pushes the heat down to the food basket, but I would be interested if anyone actually knows (I am just guessing).

reason for question is got to get myself a new one (see Air Fryer recall post) and thinking could maybe get a more powerful bigger one and restrict using it to a lower power when off-grid but could 'unleash' it if hooked up?

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Would a clamp meter not tell you if it's pulsing or not? Of course, you don't want to damage the lead, but a short split extension would work.

 

[wildebus]

Would a clamp meter not tell you if it's pulsing or not? Of course, you don't want to damage the lead, but a short split extension would work.

It would - except I haven't bought the air fryer I am interested yet

 

[Molly 3]

On mine their is no change of running note but it dose thermostatically lower the pre set temp as setting ,.ir dose not shut off heat .

 

[Landyseverywhere]

Ours (oven type and a second drawer type) are clearly controlled by a thermostat turning element on and off,like most electrical heating appliances

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Ours is basically like two very small ovens with an overhead heating ring like old cookers used to have, I forget what they were called.

 

[Floydster]

My one does pulse

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Our hob pulses, quite annoying really.

 

[wildebus]

I think I have come to the conclusion that I need to get one that will work with the inverter at max power.
Thinking about it, you don't really get to chose the power on an Air Fryer, but the temperature? And if you lower the temp in order to lower the max power I guess you may not be say crisping up the food enough sometimes?

 

[trevskoda]

Air fryer just switches of and on, the lower you set temp it just shuts down more often, same as m wave or any element cooker which all have no bleed resister or load switch, way to complicated to do, so simple of on timmer is the order of the day.

 

[merl]

I think I have come to the conclusion that I need to get one that will work with the inverter at max power.
Thinking about it, you don't really get to chose the power on an Air Fryer, but the temperature? And if you lower the temp in order to lower the max power I guess you may not be say crisping up the food enough sometimes?

As far as I know turning the active device inside a microwave oven (the magnetron) on and off at regular intervals is the only way to reduce the cooking power, this is because the magnetron needs X amount of voltage to work, below that it doesn't work at all so there's no half way house with a magnetron.
Our air fryer pulses and I'd expect all others to also pulse too. I've never come across an electric oven that didn't pulse. it's easier to do electrically and thinking about it an on/off thermostat system would perform better too.
If it didn't pulse then the warmup time would suffer according which would be a bad thing and also the temperature would be influenced more by the quantity and temperature of the food placed in the oven.