Goodbye air fryer the new nine in one kitchen gadget that influencers love but many furious home cooks call a scam for the lazy

On a drizzly Tuesday at 18:47, the familiar dinner spiral begins: you’re squinting at a chicken breast that’s only half defrosted, there’s a child at the table sulking while doom-scrolling TikTok, and the worktop is already packed with gadgets that once promised to “change your life”.

That’s usually when someone floats the idea: “We should just buy that new nine-in-one thing everyone’s banging on about.”

You’ve seen the clips: glossy, perfectly lit videos where an influencer taps one gleaming button and-somehow-produces lasagne, yoghurt, dehydrated kale crisps and a whole roast chicken, all without a single splash on the tiles. Next to this sleek multi-function “miracle”, the once-untouchable air fryer suddenly looks stubby and dated.

The catch is that more and more home cooks are saying the miracle is mainly marketing-and some feel properly duped.

From air fryer favourite to nine-in-one “miracle”: what changed?

Spend more than sixty seconds scrolling and the formula becomes obvious: the same worktop, the same overhead camera angle, the same carefully staged puff of steam curling out of a bowl.

First, the air fryer dominated, selling the fantasy of crunchy chips with none of the guilt. Then came the blender boom, the juicer phase, the sous-vide flirtation. Now it’s the nine-in-one wearing the crown as the newest “must-have” bit of kitchen tech.

In one box, it claims to handle pressure cooking, slow cooking, sautéing, steaming, air frying, baking, yoghurt, rice, and dehydration.

Nine verbs. One appliance.

That’s the sales pitch.

Consider Emma, 34, in a one-bedroom flat with a kitchenette so tight two people can barely pass. After watching a creator pull out a full three-course meal from a single machine on Instagram Reels, she gave away her air fryer to “upgrade” to a nine-in-one. The Reel hit 2.3 million views; Emma received a parcel on her doorstep the size of a small washing machine, plus a manual hefty enough to qualify as light reading.

During week one, she went all in: chickpeas under pressure, potatoes via air fry, and banana bread that somehow managed to be overbaked on the outside and damp through the middle. By week three, the nine-in-one had been relegated to a corner of the worktop, cable wrapped, silently judging her each time she reached for a normal saucepan.

This cycle repeats for a reason. These machines aren’t marketed as mere tools; they’re framed as a shortcut to a different version of you-the person who batch cooks on Sundays, eats “clean”, and never ruins dinner again. Brands and influencers push that storyline because it hits a nerve: people are knackered, time-poor, and still want something resembling a home-cooked meal without turning the kitchen into a disaster zone.

So the nine-in-one isn’t competing with the air fryer purely on features. It’s competing on fantasy.

The blowback arrives when that fantasy collides with real life: cramped kitchens, chaotic evenings, and a learning curve conveniently omitted from sponsored posts.

Why some people love the nine-in-one multi-cooker… and others call it a scam for the lazy

In the right hands, a nine-in-one really can rescue weeknights. The happiest owners often share a surprisingly unglamorous habit: they rely on two or three modes repeatedly rather than trying to “use all nine” like a badge of honour. A common favourite is pressure cook followed by air fry-you can cook chicken thighs until tender, then crisp the skin in the same pot.

Or you can tip in rice, stock and vegetables, press a preset, and get on with life without hovering over the hob. The “secret” that satisfied users repeat (and it is genuinely useful, if dull) is to pick two modes that fit your routine and treat everything else as a bonus rather than a promise.

The anger comes from a different place. It’s not usually anti-gadget people raging; it’s buyers who were sold the idea of guilt-free meals at the push of a button and ended up with another bulky object demanding space. One dad of three described buying a nine-in-one to “stop ordering takeaway”, persuaded by a TikTok that presented it as the simple fix for busy families. He tried to cook everything in it-pasta, roasts, one-pot dinners. Some meals were brilliant; others came out oddly soggy or strangely overcooked.

Within a month, on genuinely hectic nights, he’d drifted back to the oven and microwave. The nine-in-one, in his words, became “a very expensive rice cooker”.

The phrase “scam for the lazy” shows up in furious Reddit threads and Facebook groups, but it masks a more awkward truth: people aren’t lazy-they’re overloaded. What stings is the gap between the advertising (perfect meals, no effort, minimal washing-up) and reality (timings to learn, recipes to tweak, parts to clean, and yet another thing to store).

And if we’re being realistic, hardly anyone runs through the full routine every single day. When you’re exhausted, even choosing the right mode can feel like one more decision on a day full of them. That’s where the resentment sits: between the promised autopilot and the work that still remains.

One more factor rarely covered in the hype videos is running costs. A nine-in-one can be efficient for some tasks because it’s a smaller enclosed space than a full oven, but it can also run for a long time on slow cook settings-and not every household benefits equally. If you’re buying in the hope of saving money, it’s worth checking wattage, typical cook times, and whether you’ll actually replace oven use or simply add another appliance to the mix.

How to decide whether a nine-in-one will earn its keep-or just become clutter

A practical way to cut through the noise is to do a quick “typical week audit” before you buy anything. Use a scrap of paper or your phone notes and list what you actually cook from Monday to Sunday-not the fantasy menu, the real one: frozen pizza, scrambled eggs, frozen veg, pasta, leftovers, maybe a roast now and then.

Then look at that list like a slightly irritable friend and ask where a nine-in-one would genuinely step in. If you almost never cook dried beans, stews, big cuts of meat or large batches of grains, a pressure cooker mode is unlikely to transform your routine. If your week is mainly reheating, toasting and quick pans, your oven plus a decent frying pan may keep doing the job quietly and well.

There’s also an emotional layer that most spec-heavy reviews skip. Some people feel oddly judged by “smart” appliances, as if needing help with basics is a personal failing. Others feel a creeping shame when the gadget sits unused, like it’s proof they lack discipline.

That shame is heavy-and entirely unnecessary. Kitchen tools are meant to work for you, not the other way round. A helpful rule of thumb: if an appliance doesn’t make your day-to-day life easier within a month, that isn’t a character flaw. It simply means it’s not your tool. No moral judgement required.

Practicalities matter too. The glossy videos never show ventilation, steam and smells in a small flat. If you’re planning to use air frying or sautéing regularly, think about where it will sit, whether there’s an extractor fan, and whether you can comfortably lift the inner pot when it’s hot and full. The safety and convenience are as important as the feature list.

For those still undecided, it can help to box the decision into a few blunt checks:

• Do you already cook at home at least three nights a week?
• Do you often make stews, broths, grains, or batch meals?
• Do you have worktop or cupboard space that won’t drive you up the wall?
• Are you prepared to learn one or two functions properly over a few weeks?
• Would you be fine with it becoming a “three-in-one” for you, rather than a full “nine-in-one”?

If most of your answers are no, your odds of frustration go up. If you’re nodding along, a nine-in-one may quietly earn its place.

One last, often-overlooked tip: protect yourself from buyer’s remorse. Check return windows, keep the packaging until you’re sure, and consider buying second-hand if you’re curious but cautious. These machines are common on local marketplaces in barely-used condition-often from people who discovered they preferred the simplicity of an air fryer and a pan.

Beyond the hype: what the nine-in-one argument reveals about modern cooking

The row over the nine-in-one isn’t truly about stainless steel and plastic. It’s about time, tiredness, and the subtle pressure to “do it all” even in your own kitchen. For some people, this appliance is a genuine lifeline-one way to put together halfway decent food between night shifts, commutes, children’s homework and everything else life throws at them.

For others, it represents a trend they’re fed up with: technology swooping in to “fix” something that wasn’t fundamentally broken, while nudging basic skills-like chopping an onion or boiling pasta-further to the side.

Most of us know the feeling: you look at a gadget and wonder whether you bought a tool or a promise. The air fryer wave proved how quickly an appliance can become a status symbol and then, just as quickly, a dust magnet. The nine-in-one may follow the same arc-or it may settle into the background as simply another option.

The more useful question isn’t “Is this a scam for the lazy?”, but “What kind of help do I actually want in my kitchen?” Some people will stick with a trusted pan and oven, some will embrace the all-in-one approach, and plenty will land in the middle-mixing and matching tools the way they mix and match recipes. That middle ground, away from both hype and outrage, is where most real dinners are made.

Key point	Detail	Value for the reader
Match tool to habits	Audit a typical week of meals before buying	Avoid spending money on gadgets that won’t suit real life
Use a few functions well	Focus on 2–3 core modes instead of chasing all nine	Less overwhelm and more genuine time saved
Drop the guilt	Appliances are helpers, not tests of discipline	Less shame and more freedom to keep, return or resell what doesn’t work

FAQ:

• Is a nine-in-one really better than an air fryer? Not by default. An air fryer is simpler and often quicker for small, crispy jobs like chips or nuggets. A nine-in-one tends to shine for pressure cooking, stews and batch meals, but it can feel slower and bulkier for fast snacks.
  
• Will a nine-in-one replace my oven? In very small kitchens, sometimes-at least to a degree. In most homes it ends up working alongside the oven rather than fully replacing it, particularly for baking and large trays.
  
• Is the food actually healthier? It can be, if it helps you cook more whole foods and fewer ultra-processed options. The appliance itself doesn’t automatically make meals healthy; ingredients and portions still do the heavy lifting.
  
• Is the learning curve really that steep? The basics are manageable, but getting timings and texture right takes trial and error. Plan for a couple of disappointing meals before you lock in your reliable recipes.
  
• What if I already own an air fryer and a slow cooker? If they already suit your routine, you may gain very little. A nine-in-one makes more sense if you’re short on space or you’re replacing several broken or rarely used appliances in one go.