GoWISE USA 8-in-1 Electric Air Fryer Review

Published July 16, 2015 by Susan LaBorde 24 Comments

Rating: 4.6 Reviewed by Susan

The GoWISE USA 8-in-1 Electric Air Fryer was extremely popular a few years ago when air fryers were brand new and choices were limited. Today, it is still selling quite well and now comes in a variety of sizes (click to see them all on Amazon). This model air fryer gives you a 3.7 quart cooking capacity, timer, adjustable temperature with auto shut-off, and most other features you find on the leading brand.

This model ranks high for consumer satisfaction for producing good results, and it’s noted for being simple to use and easy to clean up. If offers all the features and performance that most people want in an air fryer, and the price is still very reasonable.

See the GoWISE Air Fryer on Amazon

Table of Contents

Features
Size & Capacity

What’s Included with this GoWISE Air Fryer?
Optional Accessories
Customer Reviews
Pros & Cons
GoWISE USA Air Fryer Review: Summary

Features

3.7 Quart Capacity
Timer (up to 30 minutes)
Automatic Shut-off
Adjustable Temperature Control
8 Cooking Pre-sets
1500W – 120V, 60Hz
1 Year Limited Warranty

Note that you can extend the warranty for an additional 60 days if you go to the manufacturer’s website after purchase and register it. Details about this are in the owners manual.

As you can see, the GoWISE offers all of the best “bells & whistles”. Its timer includes an alert that will beep when the cooking cycle is complete, and then the unit will automatically shut itself off.

The manufacturer no longer states that the parts are dishwasher safe, but the cooking basket does have a non-stick coating that makes it easier to clean.

Note that the pot itself is not meant for cooking. If you plan to bake or cook liquid foods you’ll need to buy the baking pan, which is sold separately (see the baking pan under Optional Accessories below). For the most part the mesh basket is designed for solid foods. However, something like meatballs will also work fine, and the basket allows excess grease to drain off. Your food items just have to be firm enough to stick together and not sink down through the openings in the basket.

The digital control panel allows you to select the exact time and temperature settings you want, or for convenience you can use one of the 8 pre-sets. You can also first select a pre-set and then adjust either the time or the temperature up or down. The pre-programmed settings are:

Warm-up (for preheating the air fryer) – 5 minutes at 176°F
Chips (for all us Southerners, that’s “fries”) – 20 minutes at 392°F
Chicken – 25 minutes at 356°F
Steak – 15 minutes at 356°F
Shrimp – 20 minutes at 320°F
Meat – 20 minutes at 356°F
Cake – 30 minutes at 320°F
Fish – 20 minutes at 392°F

It’s always helpful to take a look at the owner’s manual before you buy: See instruction manual here. It isn’t huge by any means, but it does give you a close-up look at the parts as well as a brief section with a cooking guide and tips.

Among all the questions and reviews on Amazon there are several complaints about defective or broken units. In every case I found, there was a response from the manufacturer requesting that the unhappy customer contact them. The fact that the company is monitoring online reviews*, and responding, seems to indicate they want their customers to be happy with purchases, and the company is being proactive in trying to address and resolve problems.

Note: As of October, 2022 I no longer see much evidence of the company monitoring online complaints and reaching out with offers to help resolve issues.

Overall, most consumers are very satisfied with the results they get with this air fryer. You will find some complaints, but in many cases that may be due to mistakes by the user. Unless you’re already experienced at air frying, you should expect at least a small learning curve, but the manual provides a number of helpful tips. For instance, if your food is cooking unevenly, you may need to stop and shake or turn it halfway through the cooking process. You also may have overloaded the basket, and it may take a little trial and error to learn the difference between “full” and “too much”.

There is also now a very small recipe booklet available from GoWISE at Air Fryer Recipes Volume 1. Don’t get too excited because it only contains 14 recipes. However, it’s a nice variety of dishes – fries, sandwiches, meats, fish, desserts, appetizers – so that gives you a good guide to help you adapt your own ideas and recipes. You’ll also find extra tips in the “trouble shooting” section.

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No matter which brand or model you choose, all of the recipe booklets provided by the manufacturers are quite small. For best results you really should invest in a good quality cookbook with tips and recipes especially for air fryers. For help see our Air Fryer Cookbook & Recipe Guide.

We highly recommend: The Air Fryer Bible: More than 200 Healthier Recipes for Your Favorite Foods

Size & Capacity

Exterior Dimensions: Approximately 11″ wide x 9.5″ deep x 12.5″ high (according to customers)

Interior Capacity: 3.7 quarts

Weight: 13 pounds

Like all airfryers, the GoWISE is a large appliance that makes a pretty big footprint. Of course it’s all about your priorities, but keep that in mind if you have very limited space or a tiny kitchen.

What’s Included with this GoWISE Air Fryer?

This model includes only the mesh basket, which is suitable for air frying, roasting, and grilling. (All of these air fryers claim you can grill in them, but to my mind, that’s a very loose definition of “grilling”.)

If you plan to bake or cook liquid or semi-liquid foods, you’ll need to also buy the baking pan. For that see Optional Accessories (the very next section).

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Optional Air Fryer Accessories

Air Fryer Baking Pan

For anyone who wants to get the most from an air fryer, the baking pan is highly recommended. For a complete explanation, read my post about “The Must-Have Pan”.

Air Fryer Baking Pan for Gowise Philips NuWave Cozyna Power Faberware Secura and more brands – Fit all 2.75QT 3.7QT, 5.3QT, 5.8QT

The key feature of these pans made specifically for air fryers is the handle. It makes ALL the difference when you’re trying to lift a pan full of hot food from your air fryer basket.

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Customer Reviews

As of this update (October, 20122, there are thousands of online reviews of this GoWISE model, and percentage wise, complaints are still relatively few. The only legitimate problem I found were several reports that the non-stick coating started peeling off the basket of units that were still fairly new. This unit does have a one year limited warranty, so if you experience that or any other problems you should contact the manufacturer.

All of those complaints are in the Amazon customer reviews for this product. As mentioned before, early on GoWISE would respond to every one of them with a request that the customer contact the company to give them a chance to respond. At some point in time they seem to have stopped.

Aside from that, a few other folks complain about poor results – foods that are burned or cooked unevenly or just didn’t taste good. Most hilarious is the one guy who said this is a good product for when you run out of oil. Well, you’ve got to figure that attitude will play a role in your satisfaction. No one claims you’ll get the exact same taste as when you deep fry in grease. What you do get is a taste that’s very close and much, much better for your health.

I’d compare it to pie crust. If you’re old enough, you can remember how absolutely wonderful your grandmother’s pie crusts used to be. You’ve tried every recipe and trick in the book, but yours is never as good as hers was. That’s because back in the day, Grandma was using real, old-fashioned, 100% lard. You can still buy that stuff, and you can make a crust every bit as delicious and as flaky as the old timey kind, but knowing what we know now, do you really want to eat that?

The people who get the best results are those who keep an open mind and also take time to read the instructions. Don’t expect perfection on your very first attempts, and do be willing to experiment a little.

Over 90% of consumers have given this air fryer 4 or 5 stars and are delighted with it. It’s easy to use, and it’s easier to clean than wiping up grease spatter all over your kitchen from deep frying. You’ll find plenty of reports of successful, tasty results with french fries or sweet potato fries, chicken pieces and chicken nuggets, fish sticks and tuna steaks and other types of fish, and yes, a few have even baked cakes.

Average Customer Rating (Out of 5 Stars): 4.6

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Is it made in the U.S.A.?

To my knowledge, none of the popular air fryer models are 100% made in America. That includes the GoWISE. Though that “USA” in the brand name might seem misleading, the fact is that this product is made in China and distributed in the U.S.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Many of the same features as the leading models
Easy operation and clean-up
Majority of users happy with cooking results
Most reports of customer service experiences are positive

Cons

Large, takes up a lot of room (like all air fryers)
No cookbook included, only a few recipes on GoWise website
Pan for baking or liquids & very soft foods costs extra
Some users complain of burnt, under-cooked, or unevenly cooked foods