Wonderchef Greenlife Air Fryer Review: Veg-only presets with great value 

Browse the pre-set menu options on most air fryers, and you'll find mostly chicken, fish, and bacon. For vegetarians, that display is an irritation that happens each day. In many Indian kitchens, it would be nice to avoid this display each time one turns the appliance on. Wonderchef's solution is the Greenlife 6.5L, which it claims to be the first air fryer in India with only pre-set menus for vegetarian dishes. My initial reaction was that this is a gimmick. But this is not the case, even though it is not suitable for all.

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Specifications

Design and the window

The Greenlife is a shiny black appliance, with a brushed finish strip on its front side and a chromed handle on the basket. The shiny surface accumulates dust and lint easily, so make sure you always have a cleaning cloth at hand. There are no physical buttons on the device; everything is managed through a touch screen, where the ten presets appear as picture icons. The device is lightweight and easy to transport from the countertop and back.

The more important feature, however, is a viewing window. The Havells device which I use at home does not have one, and every time a dish requires turning, I have to remove the basket, which results in loss of heat and guesswork. With the Greenlife all you have to do is to watch the color change and turn the food whenever needed. And while with some dishes the importance of such ability may be disputable, with cheese balls and kebabs the accuracy of turning determines the end result.

The veg-only menu

Let me argue for the label first. India has a large number of vegetarians, and a lot of these houses take their vegetarianism very seriously. A vegetarian consumer who must navigate past chicken, fish, and bacon on his or her own device has every right to be a bit irritated. A clear set of presets for veggies addresses this issue. There are ten presets: French fries, cheese bread, baked potato, veg burger, onion rings, kurkuri bhindi, pizza, vegetables, cake, and defrost. 

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Let’s talk about the reverse part now, and that is very personal. I fry many dishes based on chicken and bacon in my Havells, and preset timings for them is what made me start. They helped me to get my basic idea, and then I just modified the timings and temperature to get the food in the desired state. In the case of the Greenlife, the initial point is lost. You can set your time and temperature settings yourself, and thus, non-vegetarian foods can be fried. But here you start from scratch based on your experience and memory rather than preset one.

Performance

The fries, the makhana, the cheese balls, and even the pizza all turned out well. I have no complaints regarding the basic items; the performance is what I expected from a 6.5L air fryer at this price range.

However, the one flaw with the air fryer was the fries preset where, while most pieces were cooked well, there were a couple of pieces that got undercooked and two pieces got burned. The cooking result was great, but the presets just serve as a starting point and not a guarantee. This sounds familiar because this is the same reason why I highly valued my Havells presets.

Since the presets only allow vegetable dishes, I tested the fryer by cooking chicken – leg pieces and kebabs by setting the time and temperature myself. Both came out great. The restriction in terms of presets does not limit anything except the use of shortcuts.

When it came to the performance of the Greenlife, it was as good as my Havells air fryers. This is not a fair comparison since I have been cooking with my Havells for a while now, and I cook without the aid of their presets. But with the Greenlife, I had to rely on them.

But there was no smoke. All the functions like preheating, turning the food, and cleaning the ceramic-coated basket were as expected from an air fryer. And this is what I liked about it – nothing surprising in a kitchen appliance, which is great. An air fryer that requires you to give some thought is one that you will never use.

Price

It has a MRP of Rs 13,100. But you can easily get it on most online stores for Rs 6,499, and that makes it quite good value. Six-point-five litres capacity, ten pre-set functions, setting time and temperature, in-built memory, display window, and a warranty of two years – all these features make it a strong contender at that price.

There are many air fryers in this price segment, and I haven't tested all of them either. I will not say that the Greenlife is the best among them. I will just say that this is one product you will not regret purchasing.

Should you buy it

Buy it if you run a vegetarian household and want an air fryer whose presets match what you cook. Buy it if you want a window and a 6.5L basket for three to four people without spending much. It did everything I asked of it, and it is not a product you would be unhappy with.

I might not buy it myself. I cook a lot of chicken and bacon, and presets for those are how I get started and then tweak. Without them, I lose a shortcut I use all the time. If you are in the same camp, you can still cook non-veg on the Greenlife, but expect to find your own timings. And if you expect the presets to be perfect every time, the fries will correct you.

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