Whether you’re an air frying convert in search of more space and functionality, or keen to trim your energy bills, VonHaus’s VonShef 28L Air Fryer Oven could be a great addition to your kitchen. It combines the capacity of a small countertop oven with multiple programmes and accessories, meaning that you can cook a wide range of dishes, much faster, without turning on your main oven. This makes it ideal for speedy mid-week meals, such as pizza, rotisserie-cooked meat and poultry, and chips from scratch.

Yet it’s not just for fast cooking: its ferment, dehydrate and bake functions allow you to whip up everything from homemade yoghurt and jerky to dried fruit, meringue and bread. Plus, if you don’t have quite enough space for it, there’s an 18L version too.

To compare the VonShef to other recommended models, see our round-up of the best air fryer ovens we’ve tested.

You can also see our round-up of the best air fryers we’ve tested overall. If you already know you’d like a Ninja appliance, have a look at our dedicated Ninja round-up. We’ve also got specific recommendations for dual-drawer air fryers.

Design and Build

• Comprehensive set of accessories
• The open door will overhang a standard kitchen counter
• Not the most intuitive control panel

In order to offer 28 litres of capacity, the VonShef 28L Air Fryer Oven is necessarily quite big. It measures a surface-absorbing 45.2 x 42.9 x 38.7cm, weighs a hefty 11kg and looks much like a compact conventional oven with a drop-down glass door.

Fortunately, its accessories – a rotisserie, two handles, crumb tray, rack, tray (which doubles as a drip tray) and air frying basket – can be stored inside when not in use, so you won’t need to find a place for them. However, when it’s in use on an average-sized worktop with the door down, it’ll overhang slightly.

Two dials for time and temperature flank a control panel that’s a riot of icons and text, making it less than intuitive to set. There are 14 presets: some are icons selected by the menu button, while others are labelled with a word. Two – air fry and defrost – are controlled by their own button, while buttons for turning on the internal light and rotisserie add to the confusion.

In short, you’ll need the instructions to hand for a while. Which is not to say there aren’t some smart features here. Inside, you’ll find six heating elements (four above, two below) combined with a rhombus-patterned panel at the back. This has been designed to help distribute heat evenly for faster, more consistent results.

Performance and Features

• Can fit a 12-inch pizza and up to 1kg of chips
• Plenty of options for cooking settings
• 40-230°C temperature range

The VonShef 28L Air Fryer Oven’s busy control panel isn’t much helped by its instructions. During testing, we found mistakes and omissions that made using it more difficult. For example, default times and temperatures are listed for each function, but some of it isn’t accurate, such as the default air fry time listed as 20 minutes, when it’s actually 30, and the default setting for chips being switched with the one for toasting.

There’s no guide as to the quantity that the defaults are based on, and a lack of clarity surrounding types of food. This means that you’ll need some experience or make sure you’re around to check on the progress of food to avoid over- or undercooking.

What we did like was the ease with which the settings can be toggled to suit. The fan can be turned off, for example, which is good if it’s not required or you’re cooking food that’s prone to blowing around, and the timer doesn’t start counting down until the preheat has finished, so you know how long something has been cooking at the right temperature.

Time and temperature can be altered once the oven has started, and the range is useful – most presets will extend to an hour, while dehydrate will run for 24 hours, and the temperature ranges from 40-230°C. The capacity is also impressive, fitting in a 12-inch pizza and up to 1kg of chips.

As there’s an air frying function as well as a preset for chips, we decided to test the former using frozen hash browns. There isn’t much guidance for cooking food from the freezer, so we opted for 20 minutes at 180°C, the default temperature, using the air fry basket. After the time had elapsed, we found that the hash browns were crisp but more so on the tops than the bottoms, which were distinctly softer. 

Next, we used the basket for making fresh chips using soaked, washed and dried potato pieces tossed in a small amount of oil. The default for this preset was 160°C – much lower than usual when air frying – and 18 minutes – much shorter than most also. We felt this setting would be more suitable for frozen chips rather than fresh, or skinny fries, so we raised the time to 25 minutes and 180°C.

While there was no suggestion of turning the chips, we did so halfway through cooking. Unfortunately, this still wasn’t enough for a consistent batch. The chips emerged mostly pale and many needed more cooking time to crisp up properly.

We also cooked a chicken using the corresponding preset (35 minutes at 230°C) and the rotisserie fork. The fork is designed to hold a whole chicken up to 2.5kg, however, we would suggest there’s some skill involved with a bird this heavy. Once a tray was in place to catch the fat as advised, we struggled to get a 1.5kg bird balanced on the fork without it dragging.

During cooking, the oven emitted a fair amount of steam and some smoke as fat and juices hit the elements at the top of the oven, requiring our kitchen extractor to be on throughout. In addition to this, juices overflowed from the tray and penetrated the join in the door, leaving puddles on the worktop. Despite these issues, the chicken was thoroughly cooked, with browned skin, not too crispy, and succulent flesh.

Clean-up afterwards was the biggest challenge: all the accessories required hand-washing as they’re not dishwasher safe. Despite a lot of scrubbing, we were unable to remove burnt-on grease from the tray and crumb tray, and feel that non-stick coated accessories would be more suitable. The cavity also needs cleaning after every use once it’s cooled: more effort than most air fryers, where the drawers can be easily cleaned by hand or popped in a dishwasher.

Price and Availability

The VonShef air fryer oven has an RRP of £149.99, which is very good value, especially for an appliance with this capacity. You can buy it from VonHaus at this price, but it’s available from Amazon and B&Q for just £129.99. You can buy the 18L model from Amazon for £89.99.

You can compare it with rivals in our best air fryer oven round-up.

Should you buy the VonHaus VonShef 28L Air Fryer Oven?

As an appliance, VonShef’s 28L Air Fryer Oven could use a few tweaks. Some of its presets aren’t quite right and you may find yourself adjusting times and temperatures after you’ve cooked with it a few times. Plus, cleaning it and its kit is a real chore.

But if you can overlook the oven’s quirks, for the price, it offers a lot: plenty of space inside, energy efficient cooking and a price tag that means it’s relatively affordable for most. For those keen to make savings on oven usage, entertainers or large families who need extra capacity, this versatile countertop appliance may be a smart buy.