ÌÇÐÄVlog

Kmart vs Philips: Which air fryer should you buy?

The air fryer market continues to grow at a dizzying pace, and people’s love for the appliance 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.

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

Fiona has tested hundreds of appliances in her 29 years in the ÌÇÐÄVlog test kitchen, so we asked for her expert opinion on how these two brands compare.

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 products tend to be overall
• the brand’s track record for customer service and satisfaction
• technical support and repairability

We surveyed 690 ÌÇÐÄVlog members to ask them what they think is most important in determining a good air fryer. Ease of cleaning was the most important feature respondents look for in an air fryer, followed by price, ease of using the air fryer, reliability, large capacity and type.

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 instore and online, so even if you don’t live near a Kmart you may have another option to pick up one of these budget appliances.

Kmart and Philips 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 $39 for an air fryer (currently the cheapest Anko air fryer available), 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. Because they’re a global company, there’s also often more information online about repairs, maintenance and use

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.

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.”

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.

What air fryers does Kmart sell?

The Anko range currently includes 14 air fryers which are sold at both Kmart and Target.

The two retailers have a high product turnover, with new products being released and others discontinued at a dizzying rate.

Since they’re not on the market for long, this means that almost as soon as we’ve tested one Anko air fryer, another is discontinued and we need to remove it from our review.

The only currently available Anko model in our review is the $49 Kmart Anko 4L Air Fryer Space Saving, which is available in white, pink, green and yellow.

But we regularly test Anko air fryers, so watch this space – we’ll publish test results for other Anko air fryers very soon.

At the time of writing, the air fryers on Kmart’s website range in price from $39 for a 2L mini air fryer, all the way through a 24L air fryer and oven and a 9.6L dual layer air fryer, which both sell for $129.

What air fryers does Philips sell?

Philips’ air fryers sit at the other end of the price spectrum to Anko models, starting at around $230 and going all the way up to $699.

The Philips Airfryer 2000 series 6.2L has an RRP of $229, with the smaller Philips Air Fryer Essential selling for $230.

The range extends all the way through to a whopping $699 for the Philips 7000 Series Air fryer Combi XXXL Connected.

It’s the most expensive air fryer in our review by a fair margin: the second-most expensive is a $500 multi-cooker that has 14 different functions

Philips has 17 air fryers in their range, and the models we’ve tested include:

• Philips Airfryer 2000 series 6.2L: $229
• Philips Air Fryer Essential: $230
• Philips Essential Airfryer XL: $299
• Philips Air fryer 5000 Series XL: $349
• Philips 3000 Series Dual Basket Airfryer: $399
• Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Airfryer: $499
• Philips 7000 Series Air fryer Combi XXXL Connected: $699

Are Kmart air fryers any good?

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

Anko air fryers have been hit and miss. A few have performed quite well, with one even receiving a ÌÇÐÄVlog Expert Rating of 84% and being recommended by our experts. Unfortunately this model has since been discontinued.

Other models we’ve tested achieved ÌÇÐÄVlog Expert Ratings in the 70s, but haven’t been 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.

However, a number have also hovered around the bottom of the pile, with a (now discontinued) 3.2L model scoring just 64%. A 9L twin air fryer (which is also discontinued) was similarly disappointing, scoring only 67%.

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 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 14 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 rates how easy they are to assemble, store, use and clean.

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

The small air fryer: Kmart Anko vs Philips

• Kmart Anko 4L Air Fryer Space Saving: $49
• Philips Air Fryer Essential: $230

The price gap between these fryers is significant: $181 extra for the Philips.

For that kind of dollar difference, you’d expect a bigger capacity, fancier technology, more features and far better performance, but the Philips doesn’t necessarily deliver all of these.

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

The Philips has an app called Home ID that gives you access to recipes, photos of ingredients and step-by-step instructions. But you can’t use it to control the air fryer like you can with other connected devices, which begs the question: why have an app at all when you already have internet recipes at your fingertips?

(The app connects with other Philips air fryers, but not this particular model.)

Our experts marked both models down for their controls, which aren’t very easy to use, and neither scored especially well for cooking frozen chips.

One delivered excellent results for chicken nuggets, while the other nailed cooking marinated chicken wings, but overall there isn’t really a great deal of difference between these two small-sized air fryers in terms of performance.

ÌÇÐÄVlog product expert Kim Gilmour bought the Philips Essential years ago. “It’s still going strong and it’s a mainstay in our household!” she says. “It’s basic but it works.”

The full details are listed in our air fryer reviews, available exclusively to ÌÇÐÄVlog members.

The twin air fryer: Kmart Anko vs Philips

• Kmart Anko 9L Twin Air Fryer: $119
• Philips 3000 Series Dual Basket Airfryer: $399

For a twin air fryer, $119 is cheap. You’ll need to spend an extra $280 for the Philips dual basket model, but do the results justify the extra spend?

We’ve tested two $119 Kmart Anko twin air fryers: one received a dismal performance score of 65%; the other scored 81% for performance. The lower scoring model has since been discontinued and the higher scoring model currently appears to be unavailable to buy. Kmart does have a currently available twin air fryer that appears to be very similar to the higher-scoring 9L model we tested, though it’s not identical.

The Philips outperforms both the Kmart models we’ve tested, but you’ll need to weigh up if it’s worth the extra money.

The extra money will buy you more convenience: you can set the Philips air fryer so the two baskets finish cooking at the same time, even if you’re cooking different foods with different time and temperature requirements. Or you can set both baskets to cook at the same time and temperature if you’re just making one big batch.

The Kmart machine doesn’t have these features, so you need to enter time and temperature manually for each basket, even if you’re 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.

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?”.

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Rebecca Ciaramidaro

Rebecca Ciaramidaro is a Content producer in the Household team at ÌÇÐÄVlog. Rebecca writes about a wide range of children's and household products, ranging from cots and strollers to ovens, BBQs, espresso machines and electric blankets. And also grocery items such as nappies, sanitary pads and laundry detergents. Previously at ÌÇÐÄVlog, Rebecca worked as a  Test officer in the kitchen lab. Rebecca has a Bachelor of Science (Nutrition and Food) from the University of Western Sydney.

Rebecca Ciaramidaro is a Content producer in the Household team at ÌÇÐÄVlog. Rebecca writes about a wide range of children's and household products, ranging from cots and strollers to ovens, BBQs, espresso machines and electric blankets. And also grocery items such as nappies, sanitary pads and laundry detergents. Previously at ÌÇÐÄVlog, Rebecca worked as a  Test officer in the kitchen lab. Rebecca has a Bachelor of Science (Nutrition and Food) from the University of Western Sydney.

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Alice Richard

Alice Richard is a Content creator and marketer. Alice writes on a range of topics, from health insurance to heaters and BBQs to bargain-hunting, always with the aim to help consumers find the best products to buy, and which to avoid. Alice can take vast amounts of data from ÌÇÐÄVlog product tests and turn it into content that is easily digestible and fun for readers.  Alice has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland.

Alice Richard is a Content creator and marketer. Alice writes on a range of topics, from health insurance to heaters and BBQs to bargain-hunting, always with the aim to help consumers find the best products to buy, and which to avoid. Alice can take vast amounts of data from ÌÇÐÄVlog product tests and turn it into content that is easily digestible and fun for readers.  Alice has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland.