Gourmia 6 Quart Digital Air Fryer: Specs
Size: 11 x 12.5 x 13.9 inches
Weight: 11.92 pounds
Capacity: 5.8 quarts
Controls: Digital
Modes: Air Fry with presets, Bake, Broil, Roast, Dehydrate, Reheat, Keep Warm
Smart features: None
The Gourmia 6 Quart Digital Air Fryer has a lot going for it. It’s among the best at giving food the kind of crunch you love when it’s fried without a vat of oil and it won’t break your budget. Its digital controls include helpful prompts and the basket can be safely cleaned in the dishwasher, making it very convenient to use.
Its only downsides are its ho-hum design and the fact that the the exterior can grow hot in places during operation. However, once you’ve read our full Gourmia 6 Quart Digital Air Fryer review, you will see why it’s one of our top picks.
Gourmia 6 Quart Digital Air Fryer review: Price and availability
The Gourmia 6 Quart Digital Air Fryer is available at Costco for $56.99 and Walmart for $74.51. It is available in black.
Gourmia 6 Quart Digital Air Fryer review: Design
Sitting on the countertop, the Gourmia Digital Air Fryer looks like a large barrel, measuring 11 x 12.5 x 13.9 inches. It has a handle on the lower half for pulling out the basket.
On top there’s a large digital display with small buttons for the various pre-programmed settings. These are each displayed with both a name and an icon — for example, one says seafood and shows an image of fish. When it’s not operating, the display goes to sleep for a streamlined look. We find the design somewhat generic; it’s functional, but not easy on the eye.
Gourmia 6 Quart Digital Air Fryer review: Cooking performance
The Gourmia 6 Quart Digital Air Fryer scored best for chicken wings and brussel sprouts. It also just missed the top spot for breaded chicken as well. The only food type which it struggled with was freshly cut French fries — these just weren’t up to scratch compared to others we had on test. Although, this might be because the recommended cooking time was only 15 minutes, which is much shorter than what other models suggested.
When you program the Gourmia Digital Air Fryer by selecting one of the pre-programmed settings or selecting your own temperature and time, it automatically goes into a preheat mode and then prompts you when to add your food. Most air fryers immediately begin counting down the cooking time after preheating, but the Gourmia gives you 5 minutes to add your food before it begins cooking — useful if you’re not as organized as you hoped! This is also helpful as you sometimes need a minute or two to open the basket and arrange your items.
Halfway through cooking, the air fryer reminds you to turn your food, which is also useful. You always have the option of deactivating the preheat and turn reminder if you want as well. If you want to add more time after cooking, it’s helpful to turn off the preheat as it skips this step.
If filled to the brim, the Gourmia basket would hold 6 quarts, but in actuality you probably only want to cook about a pound of food or as much as you can place in one layer on the bottom of the basket.
Brussels sprouts, chicken wings, and breaded chicken breasts all came out appetizingly browned and crispy as well as moist and tender. Frozen crinkle French fries didn’t come out quite so even or tender, but were fairly crunchy. The Gourmia struggled to produce hand cut fries that tasted anything like the kind you get from deep frying though. These didn’t compare to other models we tested in terms of tenderness or moistness.
On the roast setting, in 50 minutes including the preheat, a 3-pound chicken came out with a crisp, browned skin and tender meat. While the skin on the bottom was flabby, we’ve found that this is typical of roast chickens unless they’re cooked on a rotisserie or turned during roasting. After cooking, we popped the basket in the dishwasher and had virtually no cleanup, whereas oven-roasted chickens leave spatters to wipe up and a messy roasting pan to scrub clean.
We cooked four 4-ounce hamburgers in the Gourmia Digital Air Fryer. After a quick preheat, they cooked for 10 minutes. As with all air fryers, they came out looking broiled rather than grilled or pan fried, which is to say there was no crusty browning. However, there was also no splattered stovetop or pan to clean up.
Gourmia 6 Quart Digital Air Fryer review: Ease of use and cleaning
You can easily program the digital controls without referring to the manual. When you press the buttons they respond zippily. It’s also easy to pull the basket out of the unit and place it back inside. Inside the basket there’s a rack on which you place your food.
During cooking, the plastic housing on the bottom of the sides reached temperatures as high as 157°F, which is way too hot to touch. So, you will need to keep an eye on any small children while it’s in use. The handles and controls remain at room temp. As it operates, the Gourmia has a dBA reading of 60, which is just above the average noise produced from an air fryer — about the equivalent to a humming air conditioner.
Both the basket and the rack are coated with a nonstick finish which makes them easy to clean if you choose to wash them by hand, but you also have the option of putting them in the top rack of the dishwasher.
With this air fryer, you get a short but thorough user manual. Also included is a soft-cover cookbook with 40 recipes and cooking charts.
Gourmia 6 Quart Digital Air Fryer review: Verdict
In our opinion, the Gourmia Digital Air Fryer is one of the best models out there. It almost always gives great air fried results and can also be used effectively for roasting and broiling. The digital controls are particularly helpful and cleanup is pretty much a non-event as the basket can go in the dishwasher.
It might not be the one for you if you want to make fresh fries on a regular basis, but it scored well for the majority of recipes otherwise. Be cautious of small children though, because of the hot exterior.
It’s not a particularly attractive product either, but we’re big believers that function is more important than design. It’s less than half the price of our winning air fryer as well, the Cosori Smart Wifi Air Fryer 5.8qt. It didn’t quite take the top spot of best value air fryer — the GoWISE USA 3.7 Quart 8-in-1 Air Fryer nabbed this as it scored similarly and is $3 cheaper, so Gourmia just missed the spot!
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