GoWISE USA 3.7 Quart 8-in-1 Air Fryer review

If you’ve been wanting an air fryer to crisp and brown everything from French fries to a whole chicken but don’t have much to spend, the GoWISE USA 3.7 Quart 8-in-1 Air Fryer is your best bet. It doesn’t cost much more than taking the whole family out for a movie with popcorn and is one of the top picks from our best air fryers. 

It’s not without fault as the timer can only be set to a maximum of 30 minutes. The baskets also aren’t dishwasher safe, which doesn’t add to its convenience. Having said that, as you will see from our GoWISE USA 3.7 Quart 8-in-1 Air Fryer review, it’s still a bargain for the performance it gives.

GoWISE USA 3.7 Quart 8-in-1 Air Fryer review: Price and availability

The GoWISE USA 3.7 Quart 8-in-1 Air Fryer is available at The Home Depot from $53.74 in black, plum, red and white and at Bed Bath & Beyond from $71.99 in the same colors. 

GoWISE USA 3.7 Quart 8-in-1 Air Fryer review: Design

The GoWISE USA 3.7 Quart 8-in-1 Air Fryer is shaped like a great big egg with the top and bottom lopped off. It’s available in black, white, red, and purple.

A handle extends from the bottom half to pull out the air fry basket and just above there’s an electronic control pad with small buttons for the various functions.

You will need to clear some space for this product on your countertop as it’s a moderate size, measuring 10.5 x 12.5 x 12 inches. 

GoWISE USA 3.7 Quart 8-in-1 Air Fryer review: Cooking performance

Compared to other air fryers we’ve had on test, the GoWISE USA 3.7 Quart 8-in-1 Air Fryer performed best for frying breaded chicken. It also scored quite well for chicken wings, which means it’s a great option if you plan to predominantly fry chicken. 

While the GoWISE doesn’t have a preheat setting and the company doesn’t suggest you preheat, it sometimes takes a little longer to cook than other air fryers. The timer only goes up to 30 minute increments too, so if you’re making something that takes longer you have to reset the timer each time which can be frustrating.

If the GoWISE basket was filled to capacity it could hold 3.7 quarts, which is a standard, smaller capacity size — a larger size of 5 quarts is available in the same model. You should never completely fill up an air fryer basket, unless you’re cooking a single large item like a chicken. As in most air fryers, you can reasonably cook about a pound of food at once or as many items as will fit on the bottom of the basket. The diameter of the GoWise basket is 8 inches, slightly smaller than the baskets in other large air fryers, and we could only cook 3 hamburgers at once, while in others we could cook 4.

Three 4-ounce hamburgers came out browned in the time it took them to cook to a medium doneness of 160°F. However, the browning was similar to the type you get from broiling, not the deep brown crusty results you get from cooking on a grill or even in a skillet. As the burgers cooked, there was some smoking from the GoWISE.

Both Brussels sprouts and breaded chicken breasts came out browned and crispy, but also pleasantly moist and tender. We got uneven results when we cooked frozen and homemade French fries. Although the homemade fries came out tender, the frozen fries were slightly dried-out.

This air fryer doesn’t have a roast setting or instructions for cooking a whole chicken, but as you can roast one in many other air fryers, we roasted a whole bird to see what happened. Even though our chicken was close to 4 pounds and filled the entire basket, after an hour, it came out golden brown with a crisp skin everywhere but on the bottom. In our extensive experience, we’ve found that in a conventional oven, only birds roasted on a spit or turned during roasting will brown on the bottom. The chicken was tender and moist and no fumes escaped the GoWISE; clean-up was as easy as washing the non-stick baskets.

GoWISE USA 3.7 Quart 8-in-1 Air Fryer review: Ease of use and cleaning

Compared to the other air fryers we had on test, the GoWISE USA 3.7 Quart 8-in-1 Air Fryer scored the best for ease of use. Amongst other areas, this takes into account the noise, external temperature, controls, cleaning as well as the user-friendliness of the manual. 

The controls are intuitive to use and you can easily program them without referencing the manual. When you press the buttons they respond zippily. It’s easy to remove the outer and perforated inner baskets together and then slide them back into the air fryer. To separate the two baskets for cleaning, you just press a button. 

It’s unlikely that anyone will be burned by touching the GoWISE when it’s heating. The highest temp we recorded was 124°F on the bottom-right side. The handle and the controls remain at about room temperature. As it operates, the air fryer has a dBA reading of 58.8, which is about the noise level of a loud dishwasher. Compared to other air fryers we’ve tested, this is just above the average, so it’s not a quiet operator.

Both the exterior and the interior baskets are coated with a nonstick finish which makes them easy to clean by hand — a good thing as GoWISE doesn’t recommend washing them by machine, which is a big drawback to this model.

With this air fryer, you get a thorough use and care manual with cooking charts as well as a soft-cover cookbook with 100 recipes to choose from.

GoWISE USA 3.7 Quart 8-in-1 Air Fryer review: Verdict

We think the GoWISE USA 3.7 Quart 8-in-1 Air Fryer is the best value in an air fryer. Like all air fryers, it’s a large space-hogging appliance and not particularly attractive but it’s dependable for crisping and browning and can even roast a chicken.

It’s actually a great choice if you’re a fan of chicken as it scored well across the board for breaded chicken, chicken wings and whole chicken. It’s also the highest scorer for ease of use, so ideal if you want an air fryer with a user-friendly design. It didn’t quite beat our winning air fryer, the Cosori Smart Wifi Air Fryer 5.8qt, but you’re paying more than double the price for this small difference. If you shop around, you can get the GoWISE at an incredibly low price.