I’ve been using this Philips air fryer with steam for months and I can’t recommend it highly enough at its lowest price yet

The Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer XXL Steam has a rather ungainly name but I’ve been using it at home since January this year and can’t recommend it highly enough – especially since it’s a rare air fryer that also gets you steam cooking.

And ‘rare’ is the right word here. In Australia, you can get a Tefal and Sunbeam air fryer with this additional cooking mode, but that’s about it. Which makes this Philips stand out in a very crowded market.

What’s even better is that the Philips model is going really cheap right now on Amazon – discounted by a very scrumptious 40% that drops the price down to just AU$248 from its usual RRP of AU$499. That’s AU$101 less than the previous discounted price on Amazon, making this a fantastic bargain indeed!

What I really love about this Philips 5000 Series air fryer with steam is that it offers a few extra modes. One of them is a combination of air frying and steaming in one go. Called air fryer+steam mode, it works really well for meat that can easily dry out when just being air-fried. For example, you can use this mode to cook pork belly in this mode, then shift to only air fry to crisp the crackling. I’ve done it and the results were fantastic. I even used this mode for (skinless) chicken drumsticks. I reckon this might be a good mode to use for baking too, but don’t take my word for it – I’m not much of a baker at the best of times.

The availability of steam doesn’t stop there – there’s even a steam-cleaning mode that runs a 15-minute steaming, then requires you to wash the basket, and a final five minutes of air drying in the appliance itself.

And that brings me to my two complaints with this air fryer – the steam functionality is only available in one basket. Which means you need to plan your menu carefully so you can use the smaller basket to just air fry. Also, if I have to manually scrub the large basket anyway during its steam-cleaning cycle, what’s the point? Still, it loosens the grease that makes said scrubbing easy.

You can find out more in my detailed Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer XXL Steam review, but despite my issues with its steam capabilities, I would still recommend it, particularly for just AU$249. You’ll be hard pressed to find something as versatile as this for such a price. But hurry as I don’t think this discount will be around for long – it’s part of Amazon’s Big Smile Sale, which ends tomorrow (Sunday, March 23) at 11:59pm.