REASONS TO BUY
Great cooking performance
Relatively easy to clean
Inexpensive
REASONS TO AVOID
Mediocre temperature accuracy
GoWISE USA 3.7 Quart Programmable Review
This model offers good performance at a relatively low price
Credit: GoWISE USA
RELATED: Best Air Fryers of 2024
Our Verdict
For those looking for the convenience of a dedicated air fryer on the cheap, the GoWISE 3.7 Quart offers great performance at quite a low price. Not only does this model make some of the best onion rings and fries, it is also the easiest to clean of all the fryers we tested. It even has an easy to use interface. Really the only downside to this machine is its relative lack of temperature accuracy, which means you may get slightly different results each time you use it, and it may not handle more creative recipes as well as some other fryers. If temperature accuracy and very consistent results are important to you, there are some slightly better models, but they're more expensive.
Our Analysis and Test Results
The GoWISE 3.7 Quart offers the best performance to price ratio of all the models we tested, making it the perfect choice for those that want a dedicated air fryer that can get the job done, but want to make the smallest investment possible.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
Performance Comparison
Despite a relatively low street price, the GoWISE 3.7 Quart was at or near the front of the pack in all of our tests, making it one of the higher scoring models that we tested.
Cooking Performance
The GoWISE 3.7 Quart absolutely nailed some of the foods we prepared in our cooking tests, and even food it didn't excel at cooking came out tasting enjoyable at the very least. This earned it one of the highest scores in this metric.
The GoWISE was the best in the field when it came to cooking both onion rings and sweet potato fries. Its onion rings were exceptional; they were crunchy and golden, yet remained nice and tender inside. Though we still haven't found an air fryer that could make truly crispy sweet potato fries, the GoWISE came the closest. Its sweet potato offerings had a bit more crunch than the competition, and tasted a bit less soggy.
Outside of fries and onion rings, the GoWISE's results in our cooking tests fluctuated a bit. Its tater tots tasted nice and crispy, but cooked a bit more unevenly than many other models. When making doughnuts it cooked very evenly, but failed to get that little bit of crispiness on the outside that you'd want in an ideal doughy treat. Chicken breast proved the most difficult dish for this machine, as it failed to get much of a crisp on the outside and left a rather stringy, chewy texture on the inside.
The GoWISE generally does great with traditional fried foods like onion rings and fries, but has some struggles with meat.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
Overall, we don't think any of the GoWISE's weak points in our cooking tests are deal breakers (unless you're planning to make a lot of chicken), and its top-notch performance in the onion ring/fry genre can make up for less than stellar doughnuts. However, if you're going to be trying a bunch of different recipes/cooking styles, things might be a bit hit or miss with this machine. If that's the case, you'll probably want to consider spending a bit more on a model with more consistent temperature.
User Friendliness
Offering both a nice interface and numerous cooking settings, a slightly less than ideal fry basket design is the only thing that kept the GoWISE from earning a top score in our user friendliness testing.
This machine offers a slew of 8 different cooking modes: warm, chips, chicken, steak, shrimp, pork, cake, and fish. It also offers a temperature range of 170˚ to 400˚. Selecting your desired cooking mode, temperature, and cooking time is easy as there are dedicated buttons for each and a large LCD screen that lets you know what's been selected.
Dedicated buttons for most functions make controlling the GoWISE quite easy.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
The only complaint we have about the GoWISE's overall user experience is the fry basket. It's not particularly difficult to remove and replace, but it does tend to stick a little bit. That means you have to pay attention when removing the basket, and often use two hands. This isn't a huge deal, but some models like the Ninja Air Fryer feel slightly more precisely engineered with a basket that easily slides in and out every time.
The fry basket is both large and doesn't slide in and out very smoothly, usually making its removal a two-handed process.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
Ease of Cleaning
Of all the models we tested, the GoWISE is the easiest to clean. Even super clingy foods failed to create too much of a cleaning kerfuffle.
No matter what food we threw at the GoWISE, it easily came off with only moderate scrubbing and didn't leave any kind of a lasting mess. The frying basket is relatively smooth without the grooves and tiny holes of other models, leaving no place for grease and grime to easily hide. Our only minor complaint in cleaning this fryer is that the texture of the frying basket can sometimes pull some fuzziness off of softer sponges, but apart from wearing out your sponges a bit faster a quick rinse completely alleviates this problem.
The GoWISE fry basket's holes are large enough that grease generally doesn't build up, making cleaning fairly easy.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
Temperature Accuracy
The GoWISE's temperature accuracy does tend to waver a bit. In our testing it tended to run a bit cold. At temperatures set below 350˚ it was generally 10˚ too cold, and as we raised the set temperature up to 400˚ that discrepancy increased to 15˚. Increased temperature accuracy is one benefit you do enjoy if you upgrade to some spendier models.
Value
Though the GoWISE USA 3.7 Quart has a relatively high list price, it generally sells for less than half of it. At the average street price, it is quite a good value, offering nearly the same overall performance of the top-scoring models for around 30% less.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
Conclusion
The GoWISE USA 3.7 Quart is the best value per dollar that we've found in any dedicated air fryer. Though some temperature inaccuracies can lead to slight inconsistencies in its cooking, it generally serves up delightfully crispy food for substantially less than the competitors.
—Max Mutter and Michelle Powell
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