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Reviewed: The Massive Typhur Dome Air Fryer is Perfect for Families
by Josh Kirschner on January 29, 2024
As an active home cook who prepares dinners for my family 4-5 nights a week, I often use an air fryer to churn out beautifully roasted vegetables or smaller entrees quickly. It’s the perfect solution when I don’t want to heat my full-sized oven (or the oven is already in use) and does a better job – both cooking far faster and browning beautifully.
The challenge I have with most air fryers, though, is their limited cooking capacity. When all three kids are home, it can be difficult to fit enough food into the tray, even for a side dish.
Typhur recognized this dilemma when they launched their massive new Dome Air Fryer. While its total capacity is roughly equivalent to other larger air fryers at 5.6 qt, that space is spread over a wide 12.6” x 12.6” x 2” cooking tray (139.5 sq in because of the rounded corners), letting you fit more chicken wings, fries, or veggies in a single layer than with deep basket-style fryers or smaller toaster oven/air fryer combos. The trade-off is that while the two-inch height is perfect for those ingredients, taller items, such as a whole chicken, will need to be spatchcocked or broken down to fit.
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How it cooks
I put the Typhur Dome to the test over two months in my home to see how it faired. Overall, it was quite impressive. The Dome can churn out batches of beautifully browned dishes in almost no time.
Typhur claims its cooking speed is up to 30% faster than other air fryer models due, in part, to its “cyclonic” air distribution. In my experience, it was about 10% faster than my Cuisinart toaster oven/air fryer combo. Regardless, the Dome cooks plenty fast. Chicken wings are done in as little as 16 minutes (though I add a few minutes because I like mine extra crispy). And, I sometimes found myself burning dishes like brussels sprouts during my first attempt because the Dome is so unexpectedly quick.
With the timing nailed down, the Dome delivers evenly browned food across the entire tray surface, with no need to shift things around during cooking. Bottoms were also well-browned without flipping, though a little flip helps get things evened out. These chicken thighs came out with super crispy skin and perfectly cooked moist meat.
Beyond air frying, the Dome will also roast, broil, toast, and dehydrate. The broiling is equivalent to what you would expect from a good toaster oven but not on par with the nice char I can get from my full-sized gas oven’s broiler element. Toasting is even across the seven slices I fit on the tray surface, though mostly only browns the top, resulting in something halfway between toast and bagel mode. And while I can roast a whole chicken nicely in my Cuisinart toaster oven, it’s too tall to fit in the Dome.
For these reasons, the Typhur Dome isn’t a total replacement for your toaster or toaster oven, so it will either require shared counter space (19.7” x 15.6” x 9.6” external dimensions) or moving it in and out of storage when you want to use it.
Typhur Dome Air Fryer basket next to 10-inch Lodge cast iron skillet
Read more: GE Profile Smart Smoker Brings BBQ to Your Kitchen Counter
Controls are great, app is terrible
The controls on the Typhur Dome are simple and easy to use. There are five preset modes (Air Fryer, Broil, Dehydrate, Roast, and Toast) and five food presets (Bacon, Fries, Frozen, Steak, and Wings). Each corresponds to a default temperature and time, which can then be adjusted up or down to suit the recipe. The touch-sensitive adjustment buttons are large and well-lit, as is the display showing the mode, temp, and time.
I found the preset modes somewhat underestimated cooking times. For example, fries came out underdone on the Fries mode, but it was easy enough to throw them back in for a few more minutes.
The Typhur can also be controlled with its companion app. However, the app only offers a small range of recipes that can be sent to the air fryer via WiFi, along with the same five modes and food presets on the buttons and the ability to adjust for time and temperature. But you can’t turn the oven on remotely with the app – that requires standing next to it and manually pushing the start button on the oven. The app will notify you when your food is done, which is perhaps its most useful general feature.
You may be tempted not to load the app at all, EXCEPT that Typhur oddly chose to make the Dome’s cleaning mode – 60-minute standard or 120-minute deep clean – available exclusively through the app. Why they didn’t add a button for this on the oven itself is more than a little puzzling.
Read more: The Typhur InstaProbe Is Our New Favorite Instant-Read Thermometer
The Dome is nearly noise-free
Typhur rates the Dome between 50-55dB, and I found that the Dome is whisper-quiet during operation. Alright, maybe a loud whisper, but significantly quieter than other air fryers I’ve tested. I often had to lean in to confirm it was even running.
Cleaning is a breeze
The frying tray and basket benefit from both having a non-stick ceramic coating and being dishwasher safe. Food residue came right off, which is a big change from the metal baskets of typical air fryers, where I feel like I’m constantly scrubbing those little crispy bits from between the wires.
The bottom line
For pure air frying efficiency, the Typhur Dome absolutely excels. It has a large cooking surface and delivers the fastest, most even results from any air fryer I’ve tested. It’s easy to use, easy to clean, and even looks good doing it.
The flip side is that it takes up an awful lot of counter space. Unless it can replace your toaster oven, you may find it necessary to pull it out only when in use and then re-store it, as we do in our New York City kitchen. And the $499 retail price is targeted at well-heeled buyers.
That said, the cooking benefits for me far outweigh the storage hassles. If getting super crispy chicken wings on the table for my family in under 20 minutes means a little extra lifting, I’m all in. The Typhur Dome has earned the honor of a place in my standard routine, and that’s the highest praise I can give.
[Image credit: Techlicious]
Josh Kirschner is the co-founder of Techlicious and has been covering consumer tech for more than a decade. Josh started his first company while still in college, a consumer electronics retailer focused on students. His writing has been featured in Today.com, NBC News and Time.
