Emeril Lagasse 26 QT Extra Large Air Fryer ELAF-26Qt

ORIGINAL REVIEW POSTED 06.14.2023:

I had this unit for just under a week and while I enjoyed its versatility, I thought I would share the issues I had with it.

FIRST: Do not take the numerous user statements in the SEE ALL 877 ANSWERED QUESTIONS section that state the unit comes with the Grill Plate for factual; in FACT it does NOT come with it…it can be ordered on emerileverday.com for $24.99 plus tax. The unit comes with 2 half-width crisper trays, 2 half-width baking pans, an XL (full width) baking pan, an XL (full width) oven rack, a rotisserie set, a rotisserie fetch tool, a drip tray, the divider to switch from one large cooking area to 2 half-width individual cooking areas, and an extremely disappointing instruction booklet. The two items NOT included, but that are pictured in the instruction booklet, are the Grill Plate and the XL (full width) Crisper Tray; both need to be ordered from the manufacturer’s website because they are not available on Amazon. The XL Crisper Tray is $19.99, the Grill Plate is $24.99…both are taxable but ship free from the site.

SECOND: While the instruction booklet shows you how to use the controls on the unit, it is extremely vague on how to actually ‘cook’ with the air fryer. For example…it lists that French Fries should take 18 minutes to air fry at 400 degrees. While this is ‘factual’ the book does not tell you that the cook time does NOT include preheating the unit first to start the air fry cooking at 400 not room temperature. Most frozen foods tell you not to thaw them out before baking/cooking. If you set the unit to 400 degrees and the time for 18 minutes and put the fries on the crisper tray before hitting START, the initial warm up time from room temperature to 400 degrees (about 4-5 minutes) thaws the fries before the oven gets to 400 and at the end of the 18 minutes you are left with soggy fries.
NOTE: I tried looking on the Emeril website for clearer instructions for ‘cooking’, watching a number of videos that don’t answer the cooking questions I had, and even called support 3 times for assistance. The phone support team do not know the products they are supporting and can only read the basic unit functions that are printed in the instruction booklet.
Both the website and phone support are HORRIBLE IMHO. Try searching for the optional accessories for the unit from your phone and you will get an immediate migraine!!

THIRD: There is no direct way to preheat the oven for AIr Fry mode. I found a work-around by simply initiating a preheat for a ‘baking’ cycle, and when it is preheated, put the food in the oven, close the doors and cancel the baking cycle; then program and start the Air Fry cycle as you would for the food you wish to cook. Emeril…this should be changed (preheat SHOULD be an option for air fry mode!)

FOURTH – (SAFETY ISSUE/MAJOR DEFECT ISSUE):
This unit’s fans would turn on by themselves sporadically while the unit was powered OFF; LCD panel and control knobs completed dark – no lights whatsoever!!! A quick search for the issue on the web returned numerous issues with Emeril’s fryers control panel malfunctioning leading to overheating and catching fire. For people who had experienced these issues early in their being reported…the support team’s answers to the issues were that the user should always unplug the unit when not in use! I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t unplug my toaster or microwave when I’m not using it…and isn’t that what an OFF MODE is for??! The reported issues were made initially more than 2 years ago, so I am hoping the issue has been resolved by now through a revised or new control panel. While my specific issue of the fans turning themselves on was not noted, it coincides with the issue of the faulty control panel.

FIFTH – (COSMETIC DEFECT ISSUE):
The door handles were not aligned properly; the left door was 3/16 of an inch lower than the right door. This does not impede functionality at all. For over $300, I expect the unit’s construction to be well made and assembled with true to plumb standards.

Why Amazon doesn’t list the contents of the box in the listing is beyond my comprehension; that should be standard of ANYTHING sold on Amazon or online at all! When I realized the grill plate was not in the box, I called Amazon telling the rep that the information in the See All 877 Questions section was wrong. To date the answers to those questions have not been corrected. Later, at the 6th day of owning it, I again called AMAZON to, mostly, address the issue of the fans as they were IMHO a safety concern. I presumed that being less than a week old, the Amazon response would be to return the unit for a replacement or refund – nope! The customer rep at Amazon, transferred me to Emeril’s support team…which took over 20 minutes to accomplish due to high call volumes at Emeril Support. She told me that she would call me back in 4 days to make sure the issue was resolved. After she transferred me, I had to go into the issue all over again with the Emeril Rep, who finally instructed me to call Amazon back to initiate a return/replacement order because it was less than 30 days old. The Amazon rep wasted a good hour of my time by sending me to the manufacturer’s support team for something that should have been immediately deemed ‘defective’ or a ‘LEMON’.

In the end, I used the Amazon APP to return the unit. Within 3 hours of dropping the unit off at UPS, Amazon issued my full refund and I ordered another identical unit. I hope the issues of the first do not follow to the second; being able to cook 2 different items any way at the same time is priceless and a MUST HAVE for any kitchen, again IMHO! 😉

UPDATE TO REVIEW 06.17.2023

I received the second Air Fryer yesterday. The doors are properly aligned; one minor cosmetic issue resolved. Again, no grill plate, but that issue isn’t going away for the units sold on Amazon. A bit of research shows the part number of the Amazon unit is: DZEL24-01. The unit sold on the manufacturer’s website is DZEL24-02; it comes with the grill plate AND the XL Crisper tray. But, to be honest…the Amazon price is a bit lower, but not enough to purchase those two missing accessories. ☹️

As for the safety issue, I have had it plugged in for about 16 hours now and haven’t had any issue with the fan…YET! (Knocks on wood) 🙏🤞😇
If I have any issues with the replacement unit, I will post another update!

We bought this for my elderly Mother who wanted something easy to use and clean as she’s never used an air fryer before. She breezed through the instruction manual and was able to start air frying almost immediately thereafter. The unit has several convenient trays, a rotisserie, and an included manual and sample cooking instructional book.

The only flaw with this is not with the physical unit itself, but rather the included recipe/cooking book. Attention to detail in writing the recipes and reviewing what was written by actually doing was not done. For example, the rustic bread recipe stated to place the dough on the rack for baking (similar to oven rack), yet common sense would tell me the dough would fall through during the baking process. So I checked for videos of this unit and the same rustic bread recipe and sure enough, the video showed the user following the recipe EXACTLY and the bread flowed through the rack. Clearly the recipes were not tried as per written. Moral of this story: if it doesn’t make sense as written, adjust as necessary based on your knowledge or research as needed. Aside from this minor issue, the oven is perfect in operation, cleaning, and functionality.