Table Top Hob vs Air Fryer: Which Should You Buy First?

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If you’re setting up a 13A kitchen from scratch and can only buy one appliance to start, which do you pick — a table top induction hob or an air fryer? It’s the most common question on forums, and the answer depends entirely on how you cook. Here’s the breakdown.

This is a real dilemma for anyone moving into a flat with no built-in cooker. You’ve got a standard 13A socket, a worktop, and a budget of maybe £50–£100. Do you get the ability to boil, fry, and simmer, or do you get the ability to roast, bake, and crisp? It’s hob versus oven, and there’s no single right answer.

What Each One Does

Table top induction hob: Replaces your hob rings. Handles boiling, frying, simmering, searing, stir-frying — anything you’d do on a stovetop. A good single-ring portable induction hob (like Daewoo Portable Induction Hob) costs around £50 and draws 2,000W from a standard 13A socket.

Air fryer: Replaces your oven. Handles roasting, baking, chips, pizza reheating, chicken, veg — anything you’d do in an oven, only faster and crispier. A mid-range air fryer (like Ninja Dual Tray Air Fryer) costs around £60 and draws 1,300W.

Quick Comparison Table

The Decision Tree

Buy the Hob First If You…

• Cook from scratch — If you make pasta, stir-fries, sauces, eggs, or anything that starts in a pan, you need a hob. An air fryer can’t boil pasta or fry an egg.
• Do a lot of one-pot cooking — Curries, chillies, soups, stews start on a hob and can finish there too. You don’t need an oven for any of these.
• Have a microwave already — A microwave covers reheating and basic cooking, so the hob fills the bigger gap. Microwave + hob covers more territory than microwave + air fryer.
• Eat fresh food more than frozen — Cooking fresh veg, meat, and fish nearly always needs a hob. You can’t properly sear a steak or stir-fry fresh veg in an air fryer.
• Are on a very tight budget — A good single-ring induction hob costs £50 or less. That’s the cheapest way to get proper cooking capability.

Buy the Air Fryer First If You…

• Live on oven-ready food — Frozen chips, chicken nuggets, pizza, ready meals. An air fryer does these better than a conventional oven, and you can’t do them on a hob at all.
• Have a gas hob — If your flat has a working gas hob but no oven, the air fryer fills the oven gap perfectly. No need for a table top hob.
• Batch cook — Air fryers excel at roasting batches of veg, meat, and potatoes for meal prep. You can cook a week’s worth of roasted veg in 20 minutes.
• Rarely boil or fry — If most of your meals are oven-ready or pre-prepared, the hob is wasted on you. You’d use it once a week.
• Have limited time — Air fryers cook faster than ovens. A jacket potato takes 40 minutes in an oven but 25 minutes in an air fryer. Frozen chips take 12 minutes instead of 25.

What About a Microwave?

If you already have a microwave, the decision changes. A microwave handles reheating, defrosting, and basic cooking (rice, steamed veg, jacket potatoes). The gap it leaves is:

• It can’t fry, sear, or boil properly (hob territory)
• It can’t crisp or roast (air fryer territory)

With a microwave in place, the hob becomes the more urgent purchase because it covers cooking tasks the microwave can’t touch. The air fryer is a nice-to-have for crispiness.

Without a microwave, the hob still wins for most people — you can boil pasta and reheat soup on a hob, but you can’t crisp anything in a saucepan.

If You Can Only Afford One Right Now

The honest answer is buy the hob first. You can cook a surprisingly wide range of meals with a hob and no oven: pasta, stir-fries, one-pot curries, fajitas, omelettes, soup, risotto. None of these need an oven.

An air fryer alone is more limiting. Without a hob, you can’t boil pasta, fry an egg, or make a sauce from scratch. You’re stuck with things that can be roasted or baked — which is a lot of things, but not everything. After a week of air-fryer-only cooking, most people end up frustrated that they can’t make the simple pan-based meals they’re used to.

The types of meals you can make with a hob only:

• Spaghetti bolognese
• Stir-fried noodles with veg
• One-pot curry and rice
• Omelettes and frittatas
• Soup from scratch
• Fajitas and tacos
• Poached or fried eggs on toast
• Pancakes
• Steak with pan sauce
• Risotto

The types of meals you can make with an air fryer only:

• Frozen chips and chicken nuggets
• Roasted vegetables
• Baked potatoes
• Chicken wings
• Fish fillets
• Sausages and bacon
• Reheated pizza
• Small cakes and muffins

The hob list is broader and more aligned with everyday cooking. The air fryer list is more snack-oriented and convenient.

The Ideal Pair

That said, the ideal pair is both. A single-ring induction hob (like Daewoo Portable Induction Hob) at around £50 plus an air fryer (like Ninja Dual Tray Air Fryer) at around £60 costs about £110 total. That’s less than a single mid-range built-in hob, and together they cover more cooking tasks than a full-size cooker.

The 13A pair covers about 85% of what a full-size cooker does, for a fraction of the cost and zero installation.

Real Renter Scenario

Aisha’s story: Aisha moved into a one-bedroom flat in Leeds with nothing but a microwave. “I had £100 to spend on cooking equipment. I spent £45 on a single-ring induction hob and £55 on a small air fryer. For the first month, I used the hob for everything — pasta, curries, stir-fries, omelettes. The air fryer sat in its box. Then I tried roasted veg and chicken thighs in the air fryer, and suddenly I was using both every day. Two years later, that same £100 setup is still my entire kitchen. I’ve cooked everything from full roast dinners to birthday cakes. I wouldn’t swap it for a full-size cooker.”

What About Running Costs?

Both appliances are energy-efficient compared to their full-size counterparts, but there’s a difference:

Induction hob: An induction hob is 84% efficient. Boiling a litre of water costs about 3p. A 15-minute stir-fry costs about 5p. The hob only uses power when it’s on and a pan is on it, so there’s no waste.

Air fryer: An air fryer is effectively a small convection oven. A 20-minute roast at 200°C costs about 12p. It’s more efficient than a full-size oven (which might cost 25p for the same job) because the chamber is smaller and preheats faster.

Running both: Running an induction hob (2,000W) and an air fryer (1,300W) simultaneously would draw 3,300W — too much for a single 13A socket. But you can run them sequentially from the same socket, or use two different sockets on the same ring main. In practice, you’re unlikely to need both at full power at the same time.

Which Brands Should You Look At?

Induction hobs (budget): Esparanza EKH006 (£50), Russell Hobbs 2-zone (£70), Breville single-ring (£65)
Induction hobs (premium): Tefal IH2018 (£90), Duxtop 1800W (£80)
Air fryers (budget): MurphyRichards 480010 (£60), Tower T17068 (£55), Salter EK4146 (£50)
Air fryers (premium): Ninja AF100UK (£120), Philips Essential Airfryer (£100), Cosori Pro LE (£110)

Both types are widely available at Argos, Currys, Amazon UK, and John Lewis.

The Short Answer

Need to boil or fry? Hob first. Already have a way to boil or mostly eat oven food? Air fryer first. Best of all? Both. For around £110 you’ve got a complete cooking setup that runs off 13A sockets and fits in a cupboard.

For more 13A kitchen ideas, see our guide to cooking without a built-in cooker and the complete guide to 13A cooking setups.