Philips 1000 Series FlexDrawer Air Fryer review

Tom's Guide

6 days ago

The Philips 1000 Series FlexDrawer Air Fryer is unlike any air fryer I have tried before. The draw is one large tray that can be converted into a dual basket fryer. Sounds good on paper, but this setup didn't suit me.
The air fryer is easy to use and has presets, like most of the best air fryers, to make setting up cooking times that much faster. And it is fast since it uses RapidAir Plus Technology which forces the air to circulate around the fryer.
However, I found the large tray awkward to use when split in two as I couldn't give the food a quick shake without disturbing the other side. The contents at the top of the basket also cooks faster when the tray is split in two.
You can find out more about how I got on in my full Philips 1000 Series FlexDrawer Air Fryer review.
Price
£159
Capacity
7.5QT
Weight
5.8kg
Dimensions
17.2 x 11.9 x 11.6 inches
Controls
Touch sensitive buttons
Modes
6 presets
Temperature range
104 - 392°F
Unfortunately, for any Americans looking to upgrade their trusty air fryer, the Philips 1000 Series FlexDrawer Air Fryer is currently only available for purchase in the U.K..
The air fryer is priced at £159 on Amazon U.K., but can also be purchased directly from the Philips online store for £133. If you would rather have an air fryer with two fixed drawers, the Philips 3000 Dual Zone air fryer is priced at £179/$199 and also has the rapid air technology but has two fixed trays.
It is currently unclear whether the FlexDrawer style air fryer will become available in the U.S. but we will update this page when we find out more.
The Philips 1000 Series FlexDrawer Air Fryer has more of a basic design when compared to other models like the Philips Air Fryer 3000 Series and the Philips 3000 Dual Zone — but the FlexDrawer is designed to be a cheaper offering.
The air fryer has a plain matte black finish with a glass finish on top for the touch screen controls. It has a cooking temperature range of 104 - 392°F, so it is perfect for a range of cooking needs. It has six preset cooking modes, including frozen potato snacks, steak, chicken, muffins, vegetables, and reheat. I was most impressed with the muffin preset, as it gave a perfect bake.
The FlexDrawer means that the air fryer can be turned into one large tray or two compartments, with the addition of a divider in the middle. However, the two compartments are conjoined, and I found this to be really inconvenient.
Usually when making tater tots I would take the tray out and give them a shake to make sure they were cooked evenly. But since I was using the other compartment to cook pizza at the time I couldn't do that, and the tots ended up being crispier on top.
When the large tray is split into two sections, the temperature and cooking time can be altered independently for each, and they can be synced or matched. To switch between the single or dual zone settings is easy with a click of the 'XXL' basket button.
The two compartments are far smaller than a normal air fryer drawer. The total capacity is 7.5 quarts, so each tray is about 3.75 quarts. This is about the same as the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer, which also splits one large tray in two. However the 1000 Series has less cooking room than the dual basket fryer I'm used to, like the Ninja Dual Zone Air Fryer.
The large tray has two handles on either side of the drawer, and while this was easy to pull out, it was a little awkward to maneuver compared to the usual pull out drawers with the handle on the front.
That being said, for cooking larger things like fish or a whole chicken, the option for a larger tray is perfect to cater to both needs.
The cord at the back of the Philips 1000 Series FlexDrawer Air Fryer is very short at about two feet, so the unit has to sit next to a power outlet. There is storage on the back of the fryer to wrap the cord if you need to store the fryer elsewhere though.
The Philips 1000 Series FlexDrawer Air Fryer did a great job at evenly cooking my food, but I still prefer the results I got from the Philips Air Fryer 3000 Series (which is available for purchase in the U.S.) as I felt the RapidAir Technology worked better in a single basket setting.
Both air fryers use RapidAir Plus Technology. This means the base of the air fryer basket has a star shape with peaks and troughs that aid the circulation of air through the tray. The FlexDrawer Air Fryer has two of these star shapes to cover both compartments.
I cooked some frozen sausage rolls, and each one was evenly cooked on the top and bottom without the need to flip them over thanks to the RapidAir Technology. This is the most even cook I have achieved when testing out air fryers.
I was also impressed at the puff from the pastry — further testament to how even the cook was.
I cooked some frozen tater tots to test the frozen potato snacks preset on the air fryer. They were finished cooking in just 12 minutes and were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.
I did notice that the tots on top of the basket were slightly more browned, but I couldn't combat this since the basket is hard to shake anyway because of how large it is, and I had a small pizza in the other half of the basket.
The cheese on top of the pizza was pretty well done, but still tasted fine. Despite this, the air fryer was able to cook the pizza base all the way through.
The Philips 3000 Series was able to cook the pizza without burning the cheese so I think the FlexiDrawer may have let in some heat from where the tots were cooking. The cooking zones are described as independent by Philips, but since the zones are conjoined, there is bound to be some heat transfer.
The air fryer was able to perfectly cook halloumi sticks in just six minutes at 320°F using the timer and temperature control for the independent zone.
The air fryer is incredibly quick and works well for cooking party food for big groups of people when you need to keep up with demand. Needless to say, everyone in the office loved these.
To see how the air fryer worked with hard vegetables I cooked some butternut squash and zucchini croquettes.
The veggies became really tender and stayed juicy. The outside crisped up nicely to hold it all together. These only took 12 minutes to be perfectly cooked.
Let me start by saying, these turned out to be the ugliest muffins ever… but they were so good!
Now that we are past their looks, I'll tell you that they were perfectly cooked with a slight crunch on top and moist in the middle while using the muffin preset on the air fryer. Despite appearances, they lasted all of three minutes in the office and had glowing reviews!
Clean-up with the Philips 1000 Series FlexDrawer Air Fryer is very easy. The whole tray is dishwasher safe so you can save on washing up by hand.
I decided to wash it by hand as I think the entire tray of the FlexDrawer is far too big to justify taking up space in the dishwasher. The fryer has a non-stick coating so with a little dish soap and a wipe it was sparkling again — no scrubbing required.
The cord wraps around the back of the air fryer for easy storage and at only 5.8kg it is light enough to pick up and move when not in use.
While the Philips 1000 Series FlexDrawer Air Fryer is easy to set up and operate, I don't think the flex drawer is for me. While it is a great space saver as you get a large tray and two smaller baskets in one, it is just awkward to use.
The basket is hard to shake since it is so large anyway, but you also can't check how one side of the dual tray is doing without disturbing the other since they are conjoined.
That being said, the air fryer is fast and the RapidAir Technology works well to evenly cook the contents, but when the tray is split the top of the tray cooks much faster.