Beko ExpertFry Dual Zone Air Fryer FRL5388 Review
A well-priced air fryer that comes with a load of useful extras
Verdict
Not just a dual-drawer air fryer, the Beko ExpertFry Dual Zone Air Fryer FRL5388 is also a grill and comes with a wide range of accessories. It’s a touch overwhelming to use at first, but get used to the controls, and this model can deliver great results across the board. If you don’t need the highest temperatures and want quality results at a more wallet-friendly price, look no further.
Pros
- Large capacity
- Useful bundled extras
- Good results
Cons
- Controls slightly overwhelming
- Maximum temperature is 200°C
Key Features
- CapacityThis air fryer can take a generous 8.5-litres of food, spread over two compartments.
Introduction
If you air fry a lot, then a dual-basket model can make life much easier, letting you double up the amount that you cook or for cooking different food simultaneously.
There’s been a spate of cheaper dual-drawer air fryers, with the Beko ExpertFry Dual Zone Air Fryer joining the fray.
Design and features
- Lots of space
- Good range of accessories
- Slightly confusing interface
Like all dual-drawer air fryers, the Beko ExpertFry Dual Zone Air Fryer is quite a beast that will dominate any counter that it’s put on, so you’ll need a fair amount of space to store it. Across its two drawers, it has a large 8.5-litre capacity, which puts it somewhere in size between the Ninja AF300UK (7.6 litres) and the AF400UK (9.5 litres).
With this capacity, there’s easily enough space to cook a dinner, consisting of two different ingredients for two to three; or double up for cooking one item, such as chips, for a larger number of people. While there are other lower-cost dual-basket air fryers, such as the Chefree AFW20, Beko distinguishes itself with extras.
Each drawer ships with a crisper plate for standard air frying, but there’s also a skewer holder for grilling, complete with five skewers.
Beko also provides a multi-tier rack, so you can place food on different levels for grilling or dehydrating.
Powering the Beko ExpertFry Dual Zone Air Fryer on for the first time, it was a touch confusing to use. Like so many air fryers, it falls into the trap of having a huge number of buttons across the top, rather than a simpler layout, as with Ninja’s air fryers.
There’s a manual mode for air frying, which is the most useful mode once you know what you’re doing. Then, there’s a icon shaped like a chicken, which is poultry and, confusingly, fish. There’s a vegetable option, which is for chips and for frying other food.
An oven mode is for cakes and bread, although the size of the drawers limits how much you can fit in; for most bakes, one of our best ovens will be more useful.
A reheating mode is useful for crisping up old food, such as pizza, although it’s nothing you can’t do manually. Defrosting uses warm air, although if you’ve got a microwave, that will be easier to use.
Then, there are three useful modes: grill, skewers (for the accessory) and a drying mode, which is for dehydrating food.
Once you’ve selected a mode, you can set the temperature and time that the air fryer should run for. This model has a fairly low maximum temperature of 200°C; more expensive models will go up to 240°C or higher.
As this is a dual-zone air fryer, you can choose to match the cooking mode to both zones, doubling up the total you cook, or there’s a Smart Finish mode. This latter option gets both zones to finish simultaneously, when using different settings.
Only the grill mode has a preheat option; if you want to preheat for air frying, just add a few minutes to the programme and drop the food after a couple of minutes.
I like the chunky handles on the drawers, which make it easy to pull food out part way through cooking to give it a shake, for even cooking.
At the end of a cooking session, the drawers and crisper plates can be washed with soapy water or put in the dishwasher.
Performance
- Even cooking
- Good grill results
- Not the crispest results
I put the Beko ExpertFry Dual Zone Air Fryer through a variety of cooking tests to see how well it does.
First, I started with a batch of chips cooked at 200°C. I found that they cooked very evenly, with a nice crispy exterior and soft inside. It’s hard to get better results than this.
At the same time, I used the grill to cook sausages, getting them to finish at the same time.
While the sausages benefitted from turning every few minutes, the end result was worth it. Grilling sausages, and other meats, helps get good results without a tough exterior.
I then cooked hash browns at the maximum temperature of 200°C. While the final results were good, the hash browns didn’t have the crunch that an air fryer with a higher temperature can give.
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
You want good results and two drawers
Cooking well in all of my tests, this air fryer is excellent value, particularly as it’s also a grill and ships with a load of accessories.
You want higher temperatures
If you want to get the absolute crispiest results, then look for an air fryer with a higher maximum temperature.
Final Thoughts
It’s a touch confusing to use at first, and the relatively low maximum temperature means that the Beko ExpertFry Dual Zone Air Fryer can’t deliver the crispest results. That all said, this air fryer offers quite astounding value, especially considering the cooking modes it offers and the range of accessories in the box.
If you want good results at a price that only single-drawer air fryers are normally available at, then this is a good choice. If you want something different, such as a model that can steam, check out my guide to the best air fryers.
How we test
We test every air fryer we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as our main air fryer for the review period
We cook real food in each air fryer, making chips, frying sausages and cooking frozen hash browns. This lets us compare quality between each air fryer that we test.
You might like…
FAQs
It can take up to 8.5-litres of food, split across its two drawers.
This model goes up to 200°C, which is a little lower than with a more expensive model, so you won’t quite get the crispiest results with food that needs higher temperatures, such as hash browns.
Full specs
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
