Need to know
- Kmart and Philips are popular air fryer brands, with models at a range of sizes, styles and prices
- Before you decide on a brand, figure out what kind of air fryer – and what kind of features – will work best for you
- Our experts test hundreds of kitchen appliances each year. Our latest detailed air fryer review includes almost 40 models and can help you find the appliance that best suits your needs.
The air fryer market continues to grow at a dizzying pace, and people's love for the appliance of the moment shows no sign of waning.
Whether you're new to this air frying caper or looking to upgrade your current air fryer to something bigger or better, a few brand names probably keep cropping up in your search for the perfect machine.
Two of them are likely to be Philips and Kmart: they're among the most searched-for air fryer brands on the internet.
Philips and Kmart are among the most searched-for air fryer brands on the internet
We test tens of air fryers each year, and these two brands are often among the models that our kitchen expert Fiona Mair puts through their paces in our dedicated kitchen lab.
Fiona has tested hundreds of appliances in her 27 years in the CHOICE test kitchen, so we asked for her expert opinion on how these two brands compare.
After 27 years in the CHOICE test kitchen, Fiona really knows her way around kitchen appliances.
On this page:
- Kmart vs Philips: Which air fryer brand is best?
- What air fryers does Kmart sell?
- What air fryers does Philips sell?
- Kmart and Philips small air fryers compared
- Kmart and Philips large air fryers compared
- Kmart and Philips twin air fryers compared
Kmart vs Philips: Which air fryer brand is best?
What's right for one home cook could be wildly insufficient for another, so there's no 'best' air fryer as such – it all depends on your particular needs.
Your budget, how you cook, what you cook and which features you'd like, are just some of the factors that come into play.
But it's also important to take other factors into consideration, such as:
- how reliable a brand's appliances tend to be overall
- the brand's track record for customer service and satisfaction
- technical support and repairability.
Brand reliability
Philips is a well-known brand in the appliance world: it's been around since the 1890s, producing a wide range of products from kitchen appliances and TVs through to personal care appliances and smart lighting.
The Dutch company has been making air fryers for around a decade.
Kmart needs no introduction. Like Philips, the budget retailer was early to the air fryer game in Australia and has been selling different iterations of the popular appliance for many years now.
The extremely low price point in comparison to other brands has made Kmart models a very popular choice amongst air fryer enthusiasts.
Spending more on an appliance won't necessarily guarantee you better performance, quality or longevity
Fiona Mair, CHOICE kitchen expert
Obviously they're very different companies, but they both make very popular air fryers – albeit at different price points.
"Spending more on an appliance won't necessarily guarantee you better performance, quality or longevity, and we've tested many cheaper appliances that outperform appliances costing several times more," says Fiona.
But when you're paying as little as $69 for an air fryer (Kmart's cheapest air fryer), the appliance is likely to be made from cheaper materials – that's how they can produce them for such a low price.
And you might find it harder to have a cheap appliance repaired: it can be difficult to locate replacement parts, and you could end up spending as much (or more) than the purchase price having it repaired by a professional.
On the other hand, established brands like Philips tend to have plenty of spare parts available, easier-to-access customer service, and make their appliances with better quality parts and materials.
Plus, a larger, older company that solely makes appliances can invest more money in research and development in its products than a discount retailer that sells a broad range of products, of which appliances make up only a small part.
When you're paying as little as $69 for an air fryer, it's likely to be made from cheaper materials
Something else to consider is that the more functions an air fryer has, the more there is that can potentially go wrong – whereas a simple, straightforward model has only a few moving parts, so to speak.
Again, it all comes down to what kind of features you want, how much you want to pay, and how you plan to use your air fryer.
Overall brand vs individual model
"Don't assume that just because one product from a brand is good that all their products are," says Fiona.
"In our testing, we sometimes see significant differences in performance between models from the same brand. Buying on brand alone won't necessarily guarantee you'll end up with a good product."
Buying on brand alone won't necessarily guarantee you'll end up with a good product
Fiona Mair, CHOICE kitchen expert
To make sure you're not buying a poor appliance from a good brand, check the results of each model in our detailed air fryer reviews before you buy.
Manufacturing and warranty
Kmart offers a 12-month warranty on its air fryers, which are made in China.
Philips air fryers are also manufactured in China and have a warranty of two years.
Range and price
There's obviously a considerable price difference between Kmart and Philips air fryers, and both brands make a variety of sizes and styles.
Kmart's 12L air fryer oven costs $119.
What air fryers does Kmart sell?
The Anko range currently includes six air fryers. Kmart's range does vary, with models being introduced and discontinued throughout the year.
- 1.2L mini air fryer: $39*
- 3.75L single-drawer air fryer: $69
- 5.3L single-drawer air fryer: $89**
- 5.75L single-drawer air fryer: $89
- 9L twin air fryer: $119
- 12L air fryer oven: $119
- 25L air fryer and oven: $139
*Out of stock online at time of writing **On sale for $79 at time of writing
The Philips 7000 Series Combi XXXL air fryer has an RRP of $749.
What air fryers does Philips sell?
At the other end of the price spectrum, Philips' air fryers start at $199 for the 4.1L single-drawer Air Fryer Essential.
The range extends all the way through to a whopping $749 for the 8.3L Air Fryer Combi XXXL.
It's the most expensive air fryer in our review, costing even more than multi-cookers with air fryer function such as the Ninja Foodi SmartLid, which is priced at $450.
There's also the Series 3000 twin air fryer, with an RRP of $349. It was released recently, and unfortunately we haven't been able to test it yet.
Kmart and Philips small air fryers compared
Kmart Anko 3.75L Air Fryer vs Philips Air Fryer Essential
Looking for a petite air fryer? These two are ideal sizes for single people, small families, or those who just want to make a side serve of chips (for example), rather than an entire air-fried meal.
While they might advertise capacities of 3.75L (Kmart) and 4.1L (Philips), you should take these claims with a grain of salt: these measurements can be misleading. Machines this size can fit approximately 500g of potato chips, which is enough for two people.
Surprisingly, the cheaper Kmart fryer has a number of features that you'd expect in a more expensive model
There's quite a price difference here: $130 more for the Phillips, to be precise. So does the extra money buy you a better product with more bells and whistles?
Surprisingly, the cheaper Kmart fryer has a number of features that you'd expect in a more expensive model, such as pre-programmed settings and touch controls. By comparison, the Philips fryer has manual dials for temperature and cooking time, which may not be as accurate as digital touch controls.
What the Philips fryer has that the Kmart doesn't is the Philips fryer NutriU app, which gives you access to a comprehensive guide and recipes (not specific to this exact model, but for Philips air fryers generally), and a few extra functions such as dehydrate and toast.
We've pulled out some features and results from our testing to help you compare, but you can become a CHOICE member to read the full reviews.
Kmart and Philips large air fryers compared
Kmart Anko 5.3L Air Fryer vs Philips Air Fryer 5000 Series XL
The price gap between these fryers is even bigger again: $260 extra for the Phillips this time.
For that kind of dollar difference, you'd expect more features and fancier technology, and the Philips does deliver these, but perhaps not to the extent that you'd expect for the money.
The Philips has a digital display with touchscreen controls, whereas the Kmart is more old-school with dial controls; one for temperature and one for time.
And of course there's the Philips Wi-Fi app called Home ID. Our experts say it's easy to set up and navigate, with easy-to-follow recipes, photos of ingredients and step-by-step instructions.
When you select a recipe, the air fryer will display the program, including the temperature and cooking time. You can even start the air fryer through the app.
Our experts gave both models similar scores for ease of use, but neither scored especially well for cooking frozen chips
Surprisingly, though, the Philips doesn't sound alerts to remind you to shake or turn your food, and it doesn't make any sounds when you select functions, which can be disconcerting. However, you can adjust the time and temperature settings on the Philips once the cooking process has begun, which unfortunately isn't an option with the Kmart model.
Our experts gave both models similar scores for ease of use, but neither scored especially well for cooking frozen chips. We have also tested these air fryers on how well they cook crumbed chicken, roast pork and marinated chicken wings, and scored them on how easy they are to use and clean.
The full details are listed in our air fryer reviews, available exclusively to CHOICE members. In these reviews you can also find details on how much each of these air fryers cost to run.
Kmart and Philips twin air fryers compared
Kmart Anko twin air fryer vs Philips dual basket air fryer
Full disclosure: we can provide expert insights that can help you make up your mind, but we haven't tested the Philips twin air fryer yet, as it was only released recently.
But CHOICE's kitchen expert Fiona has tested many Philips air fryers over the years, and she knows just about everything there is to know about these popular appliances, so she can share her insights here.
We have tested Kmart's twin air fryer though, so we can give you the lowdown on its performance. (Spoiler: it's not great.)
If you're buying an air fryer solely for cooking hot chips (a perfectly valid reason!), then you'll be sadly disappointed by the Kmart model: our experts scored it just 40% on this test.
It did handle marinated chicken wings and roast pork reasonably well (our experts rated it as "very good" for these), but even these niche skills couldn't save it. Its CHOICE Expert Rating is just 67% – one of the lowest scores of all the air fryers in our review.
If you're buying an air fryer solely for cooking hot chips (a perfectly valid reason!), then you'll be sadly disappointed by the Kmart model
The Philips twin air fryer has the edge in terms of convenience: you can set it so the two baskets finish cooking at the same time, even if you're cooking different foods with different time and temperature requirements, and you can set both baskets to cook at the same time and temperature if you're just making one big batch.
The Kmart machine doesn't have these features, so you need to enter time and temperature manually for each basket, even if you're using the same time and temperature for both.
A twin air fryer that lacks the 'sync' and 'match' functions can make the simple task of air frying far more complicated and time-consuming than it ought to be.
But then the Kmart fryer is only $119 – when you're spending that little on an appliance, it makes sense that you'll have to forego a few functions and finessing.
And once you've used the Anko fryer a few times, you'll get the hang of it, Fiona says: "Once you get used to putting in the temperature and cooking time for both drawers separately, it becomes second nature".
Want to know more? We break down the Kmart twin air fryer's performance, share tips and help you answer the question "Should you buy a twin air fryer?".
Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.
