Tefal Easy Fry Pizza FW4018G0 air fryer review: The shape of air fryers to come?

If you’ve yet to be tempted by the air fryer bandwagon, Tefal’s Easy Fry Pizza could be the one to reel you in. That’s because it offers something different to many: enough flat space for cooking a good-sized pizza. Not a few teeny snack-size pizzas or a personal pizza that leaves you wanting more, but a proper 11-inch base, making it great for families, sharing or delicious leftovers.

In this, it’s strayed from the tried-and-trusted formula of a deep drawer with enough height to cram in a whole chicken; the most you’ll squeeze in here is poultry pieces. Instead, though, you’ll be able to bake frozen or fresh pizza in minutes without turning on your oven – making a substantial saving if you eat pizza often.

More importantly, it’s no one-trick pony: it does most of what a bigger air fryer would: air fry chips, sizzle bacon, crisp up food from the freezer, bake and dehydrate. Even better, I had minimal issues with it during testing and was impressed with its performance, range of functions and ease of maintenance.

Tefal Easy Fry Pizza FW4018G0 Air Fryer review: What do you get for the money?

Small air fryers are commonplace so you might be wondering what sets Tefal’s Easy Fry Pizza FW4018G0 air fryer apart, from say, the Tower T17023 2.2l air fryer or the similarly priced Ninja Air Fryer Max Pro 6.2l AF180UK.

The most noticeable difference is that it’s compact in a different way – rather than being narrow and tall, it’s short and wide, sacrificing height for flat area in its non-stick drawer. What this equates to is a drawer that measures 27 x 27.5cm (WD) internally. Meanwhile, the height inside is shallow at just under 6cm, meaning that any food chunkier than that will graze the opening as the drawer is opened and closed.

Although the drawer has low sides, the Easy Fry Pizza still offers 4.5 litres of cooking space: allowing you to fit in up to 1kg of chips, a 27cm pizza or 30 chicken wings. All in, it’s an appliance that only measures 38 x 34 x 19cm (WDH) and weighs 4.9kg: meaning you can easily stash it in a cupboard or deep drawer when not in use.

The other thing that’s different about the Easy Fry Pizza is how it cooks. Rather than relying on an element above the food and a fan to circulate heat around, there’s a second element below the drawer. This is especially useful when baking pizza, helping to crisp the base, while for other foods, there’s less need to turn throughout cooking.

Unsurprisingly, even though it’s a compact appliance with a smaller cavity than some, the Easy Fry Pizza can be a little power-hungry: rated 2,200W, one hour’s usage at 200°C consumed 0.74kWh of electricity, which at a rate of 25p per unit would cost around £0.18.

There’s a good range of programmes. As well as separate default settings for both frozen pizza and fresh, you’ll find auto modes for everything from fish and vegetables to bacon, cookies and nuggets. All of which can be toggled in time and temperature within set parameters. For example, the dehydrate programme can be set to run between one and 12 hours, and can dip down as low as 40°C.

An extra incentive is Tefal’s repairability guarantee, so you’ll be able to obtain replacement parts for the next 15 years.

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Tefal Easy Fry Pizza FW4018G0 air fryer: What’s it like to use?

Controls are the area where the Easy Fry Pizza impresses least. While it has a sleek digital touchscreen – when the appliance isn’t on, all you’ll see is a power button lit-up – the rest of it isn’t that intuitive to use.

Most of the auto cooking modes are represented by icons of food. Some, such as vegetables and fish, are clear, yet others, such as nuggets, could leave you puzzled if you didn’t have the instructions to hand. Annoyingly, these are scrolled through using an additional button, represented by a chef’s hat, which isn’t next to the programme icons. Instead, it’s located at the bottom of the panel.

It would be easier if each food icon was a button in itself, like the buttons for frozen and fresh pizza. Helpfully, the pizza buttons are named, too, rather than being icons.

The Easy Fry Pizza has a viewing window, so you can check on the progress of dinner. However, it’s fairly narrow; during testing I struggled to see how brown food had become. There’s a light, which has to be turned on using the touchscreen, but it doesn’t help that much, especially if you’re cooking greasy foods that leave splashes on the window. Plus, once you open and close the drawer, the light switches off, leaving food in the dark once more.

What I did like is the Easy Fry Pizza’s time and temperature settings. Each programme can be adjusted using up and down buttons, plus you can change time and temperature after it’s started. The countdown timer and heat are clearly displayed in the centre, so you can check on them at a glance.

Tefal Easy Fry Pizza FW4018G0 air fryer: How well does it cook?

One of the Easy Fry Pizza’s headline claims is that you can bake fresh pizza in six minutes, so I was keen to put this to the test.

The programme preset is the same duration – six minutes – at 220°C, just shy of the appliance’s top temperature of 230°C. I used a premade thin crust pizza with extra cheese on top. After the time had elapsed, the pizza emerged with good browning on top. Underneath, it wasn’t hugely crispy but neither was it doughy. The edges were firm and crisp, and I didn’t feel it needed additional cooking time. I did note, however, that a few bits of cheese had blown off. This is probably due to the more intense fan than in an oven, so I would suggest making sure fresh toppings are firmly in place.

The setting for frozen pizza is the same temperature but with an increased cooking time of eight minutes. I deliberately chose a frozen pizza with a thick crust compared to the fresh one I baked. Again, I felt this was sufficient cooking time: cheese was well melted and browned, the base was crisp, as was the crust, and although the vegetables on top were slightly singed, they weren’t burnt. More importantly, the base and crust weren’t hard and dry, which is a common problem when oven-cooking frozen pizza straight from the freezer (as it can dehydrate while frozen).

Next, I prepared a 500g batch of fresh chips using soaked, rinsed and dried potato pieces tossed in a small amount of oil. The programme defaults to 180°C – a lower temperature than most, which cook at 200°C – for 25 minutes. I shook the chips twice during cooking as per the advice, and the results were excellent. Browning was consistent, with only a few pale chips, and they were fluffy in the middle and crisp at the ends. The smaller chips were pleasingly crunchy.

I also used the Easy Fry Pizza to cook chicken drumsticks on the dedicated programme. I was able to fit eight into the drawer comfortably but there may be room for a couple more depending on the size and if you allow for shrinkage.

Even though the Easy Fry Pizza has two heat sources, some of its cooking advice still includes turning the food. However, for the drumsticks there was no such suggestion. Normally, I would turn chicken pieces in an air fryer to ensure even cooking, but in this case, I left them to roast for the full 25 minutes at 200°C without opening the drawer. At the end of the programme, the drumsticks had crisp, golden-brown bubbly skin. The meat was cooked through, with no pink remaining.

Tefal Easy Fry Pizza FW4018G0 air fryer: Should you buy it?

Whether Tefal’s Easy Fry Pizza FW4018G0 Air Fryer is a good fit for you largely depends on how often you eat pizza: its shape, functionality and two of the programmes are dedicated to baking it. It’s best thought of as a compact pizza oven that works as an air fryer rather than the other way around. Fortunately, it handles both of these functions effortlessly – I was impressed with its performance throughout testing.

I also loved how little space it took up on the worktop compared to other air fryers, and the ease with which it can be stored. If you have a small kitchen that doesn’t have much available vertical height for a standard air fryer, the Easy Fry Pizza will be ideal.

Where it may come unstuck is capacity. There isn’t the space to cook foods that other air fryers accommodate, such as a whole chicken or joint of meat. In that instance, you may find a bigger air fryer more useful, such as the Salter EK5876, or an air fryer oven, such as Tefal’s Easy Fry 10-in-1.

But if you’re looking for an air fryer that offers something others don’t – and you’re partial to a pizza party – Tefal’s Easy Fry Pizza FW4018G0 air fryer makes a great buy.