The Chefman TurboFry air fryer (5-qt.) is a compact model with enough capacity to cook for about 2-3 people. This mid-range model has a simple design, with a few "Air Fry" presets for different foods like fries and fish, but no fan speed adjustment and a narrow temperature range, making it less versatile than some options. It's best suited for crispy fried foods like chicken wings and french fries and includes a "Shake Reminder" to help you remember to shake your food partway through cooking.
Our Verdict
The Chefman TurboFry air fryer (5-qt.) is a decent model. It's fast, and while it doesn't have the best air frying performance, it makes satisfactory, if somewhat undercooked, fried foods like french fries, Brussels sprouts, or chicken wings. Unlike many air fryers, it doesn't have multiple fan speeds for different methods, like dehydrating.
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Cooks quickly.
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Shake reminder feature.
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Makes decent-quality fried food.
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Somewhat small cooking surface area.
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Doesn't maintain a stable temperature.
The Chefman TurboFry air fryer is a 5-qt model, so it's best suited for cooking for 2-3 people. Its basket has a decent amount of surface area for you to spread your food out in a single layer, but some 5-qt models have more surface area, which can improve frying quality. That said, it has a satisfactory performance and cooks food quickly.
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Cooks quickly.
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Makes decent-quality fried food.
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Somewhat small cooking surface area.
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Doesn't maintain a stable temperature.
The Chefman TurboFry air fryer (5-qt.) has decent air frying performance. It's a compact model with a fairly small cooking surface area and a somewhat slow maximum fan speed. It produces decent-quality fried food like chicken wings or fish but leaves many undercooked and under-crisped portions. It doesn't maintain a stable temperature very well, which makes it more difficult to follow recipes precisely. However, it cooks food quickly.
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Cooks quickly.
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Makes decent-quality fried food.
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Somewhat small cooking surface area.
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Doesn't maintain a stable temperature.
The Chefman TurboFry air fryer (5-qt.) is a fast model. It preheats and cooks food quickly.
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Cooks quickly.
The Chefman TurboFry air fryer (5-qt.) has a decent cooking capacity. With a 5-qt capacity, it's not a big model and best suited for serving 2-3 people at once. However, its round basket doesn't have a huge surface area for arranging food in one layer.
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Somewhat small cooking surface area.
The Chefman TurboFry air fryer (5-qt.) is quite compact. It's tall but has a relatively small footprint, so it's not a bad choice for cramped kitchens.
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Compact design.
- 7.2 Air Frying
- 7.1 Large Batch Cooking
Performance Usages
- 7.2 Frying Performance
- 8.1 Cooking Speed
- 7.0 Cooking Capacity
- 7.7 Size
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Chefman TurboFry air fryer (5-qt.) comes in one color: 'Black.' You can see the label for the unit we tested.
If you encounter another variant, let us know in the comments, and we'll update our review.
Compared To Other Air Fryers
The Chefman TurboFry air fryer (5-qt.) is a compact, simple model. It has only one fan speed and a relatively small temperature range, so it's not as versatile as some other air fryers, like the 5-qt Ninja Pro AF141 or the 5.5-qt Ninja Max XL AF161. It has presets for different food items instead of for different cooking methods like baking, and it's best suited for classic air fry recipes like french fries, roasted vegetables, or fish. Unfortunately, it also has a somewhat worse performance since a significant portion of fried food comes out undercooked and not crispy enough.
Test Results
The Chefman TurboFry RJ38-5-T has a 5-quart capacity, enough to serve about 2-3 people. However, compared with the 5-qt Ninja Pro AF141, its basket has a smaller surface area, giving you less space to arrange food in a single layer.
It's not very versatile, so you can't adjust its performance much for different ingredients or cooking methods. It has a narrow temperature range, so it's unsuitable for dehydrating and doesn't get as hot as some air fryers when you want a quick blast of high heat. The fan has only one speed setting, so you can't use a lower fan speed for dehydrating or baking. It's best suited for classic air fry foods like french fries, wings, and vegetables.
- Default: 15 minutes, 400°F shake reminder at halfway
- Meat: 18 minutes, 375°F shake reminder at halfway
- Chicken: 22 minutes, 375°F shake reminder at halfway
- Fish:10 minutes, 350°F, shake reminder at halfway
- Fries: 20 minutes, 400°F, shake reminder every five minutes
It makes decent-quality fried food. If you want to avoid overcooking any part of your food, you'll end up with a significant amount of undercooked parts that aren't crispy enough. Most of it is still crispy, well-cooked, and golden-brown.
It has sub-par temperature stability. It takes a very long time to come back to temperature after adding food, which slows down cooking. It also doesn't maintain a very stable temperature during cooking, which can make it more difficult to accurately follow recipes and cook more delicate foods.