The Typhur Dome's control panel is a breeze to use: Just choose a mode or preset and press Start. (Rick Broida/Yahoo News)(Rick Broida/Yahoo News)
Hi, welcome to my spaceship. Here's the control panel, sleeping pod, android copilot and, of course, air fryer. What's that? Oh, no, NASA didn't engineer it; you can buy the air fryer for your own spaceship if you want.
Because, yes, "Typhur Dome" not only sounds like something out of science fiction, it looks like it as well. This sleek, glossy, metallic cooker features a huge basket, Wi-Fi connectivity and more. The question is, does all that justify its relatively high price? Here's my Typhur Dome air fryer review.
VERDICT: I have mad love for this oven, but the price is hard to justify — unless you buy it on sale. There are other large-capacity air fryers that do more and cost less.
Traditional air fryers have deep, relatively small cooking baskets that, let's face it, aren't very practical. Foods like French fries and vegetables do better when they're spread out and have space between them. And good luck fitting more than a slice or two of pizza into the typical basket.
The Dome bills itself as an air fryer oven, which is accurate because it has a large, shallow basket — one with room enough for 32 chicken wings, 10 strips of bacon or an entire 12-inch pizza.
Needless to say, it consumes a decent chunk of counter space — it measures 17.3 inches deep by 15.5 inches wide by 9.7 inches high — but looks mighty cool while sitting there. The 5.6-quart basket features a removable crisping plate that, like the basket itself, is dishwasher-safe (but very easy to rinse clean thanks to its nonstick coating).
The oven relies on touch controls embedded into an LCD; just choose your desired temperature and cook time and tap Start. There are five cooking modes available — air fry, roast, broil, toast and dehydrate — and five presets: fries, wings, steak, bacon and frozen. While these options cover the basics well enough, it's worth noting that some air fryers have more modes (bake, reheat, etc.) and presets.
If you're so inclined, you can install the Typhur app and connect your phone to the oven via Wi-Fi. The app not only sends notifications, like when cooking is complete, but also serves up a couple dozen Dome-specific recipes — each with preprogrammed temperature and cook times. Once you've prepped your ingredients, you can simply tap Start Cooking and the app will fire up the oven.
Unfortunately, it doesn't provide any additional cooking modes or presets, and it has one irritating flaw: When you remove the basket from the oven, the app notifies you roughly every 60 seconds. There's no way to disable it; your only options are to put the basket back in or turn the oven off.
One interesting feature I've not seen elsewhere: Self-Clean Mode. This is designed to remove oil and stains from inside the oven, though it's hard to see if there's actually any buildup in the heating element and fan area. The clean and deep-clean cycles take 60 and 120 minutes, respectively, and can be accessed only from within the Typhur app.
So other than being large and futuristic-looking, is the Typhur Dome functionally different than other air fryers? As a matter of fact, yes.
I used the Dome to cook and reheat a variety of items, and it performed splendidly with all of them. It's easy to operate and admirably quiet, emitting only a low fan noise. I liked the design of the big, shallow drawer, which offers the kind of space that you typically get only from extra-large air fryer ovens, but with the simplicity of a handle basket. It not only makes it easier to add and remove food, but also simplifies food-flipping (because you don't have to try to angle a spatula way down into a deep, narrow drawer).
According to Typhur, the Dome is "number one in cooking speed" and "30% faster" — but compared with what? When I asked for further explanation, a company representative said the oven "needs 30% less time than other common players in the market."
This can be a challenging claim to test, but I started with a Just Bare frozen chicken breast that I often air-fry for sandwich purposes. The heating instructions indicate 17 minutes at 360 degrees, which is what I've always followed with my Ninja air-fryer oven. I checked it after 14 minutes in the Dome and found it fully heated through and crispy. That's not 30% less time, but it's certainly faster.
When I reheat cold pizza, I typically do it for about 6 minutes at 300 degrees. Here the Dome needed the full time; any less and the pizza wasn't fully warmed. Similarly, I used toast mode with a single piece of bread; it came out golden brown in exactly four minutes — no preheating required, which is unusual for air fryers.
So this oven may be faster at cooking some things, but perhaps not everything. If you're following air-fryer preparation instructions on something like frozen chicken nuggets, plan on doing some experimenting; you may indeed need to subtract some time.
I did encounter one wrinkle: Because the basket is so shallow, you need to be careful when lining it with parchment paper (which some people do to simplify cleanup). Unless the paper is sufficiently weighed down by food, the edges can curl and come in contact with the heating element. Nothing caught fire, but the edges definitely burned.
Having lived with the Typhur Dome for several months now, I can safely say it's one of my favorite air fryers to date. I'm as enamored by the quiet operation and giant basket as I am the futuristic, eye-catching design.
The Typhur app could use a few tweaks, but those are easy enough if the company takes the time. Mostly, my challenge lies with the price: At its regular price of $499, this is definitely on the high side for an air fryer — even one that looks this cool. If your kitchen budget allows, I think you'll be very happy with it. But if you want a countertop oven that can do more for less, consider something like the Ninja Foodi SP301, which sells for $300 and offers 13 functions to the Dome's five.
The reviews quoted above reflect the most recent versions at the time of publication.