Review: Typhur Dome 2

Air fryers are nice, but they take soooooooo long to cook wings. And where’s my smart app? And why can’t I bake a pizza?

I had precisely zero of these thoughts until last month. That’s when the Dome 2 arrived at my doorstep—a king-sized, retro-futuristic air fryer from Silicon Valley kitchen startup Typhur that sorta looks like an alien spaceship as imagined by a little boy in the 1960s. But that shape is maybe fitting: In some ways, this Typhur can feel like the air fryer of the future.

At the very least, the Dome 2 is the rare air fryer that feels new. I’ve tested two dozen air fryers in the last six months alone, and the Dome is one of only a couple to offer any particular innovation since Philips rolled out the first air fryers 15 years ago.

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

I’ve got a few gripes with the Dome’s control panel, granted. It’s also a Hoover for counter space, and it costs as much as a cheap laptop. But thanks to an innovative two-burner design and some smart temperature control, the Typhur Dome 2 can cook crispy wings faster than any air fryer I’ve ever used. It will grill a mean cheese sandwich, char a fillet of meat, and tan the bottom of a frozen pizza. And its brushless motor makes it preternaturally quiet, often more hushed than the ambient noise of my house. And a self-clean feature means it's been mostly smoke- and smell-free for the time I've used it. Here’s the rundown.

The Shape of 2

The first thing you’ll notice about the Dome 2 is its shape. It’s different, and not just because of the squared-off bulbousness of its exterior. (I still can’t decide whether it looks more like a B-movie flying saucer or the head of a cartoon robot.)

The 5.6-quart air fryer basket is shallow, but broad enough to lay out a 12-inch pizza or two dozen party wings. This broad basket allows you to spread out food into a single layer across the bottom of the basket, offering even airflow. Which is to say, the Dome leans in hard to exactly what an air fryer does and is, with the main trade-off that it's now very difficult to air-fry a whole chicken. If you're a whole-chicken air-frying person, you'll have to spatchcock the heck out of it.

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

The temp is also accurate, a rare quality among air fryers. (Instant Pot and Philips also keep accurate temp.) The Dome 2 stays within 10 degrees of target temperature, as measured by a wireless ThermoPro TempSpike Pro ($106) I've found to be accurate for tracking ambient oven temps. The Dome 2's success should maybe be no surprise: Typhur’s other main product is a line of wireless thermometers that rank among WIRED’s favorites.

On the one hand, I could wish for a window to watch the cook without opening the basket. On the other, the Typhur is well-shielded. The fan noise is low enough I don't hear it if I'm standing by the fridge. Heat vents out the back, so the device's surface doesn't get overly hot. And smells are likewise shielded: This is now my preferred way to cook bacon, because the grease doesn't smell up the house for hours. The bacon fat, collected at the bottom of the basket, is reusable.

So far, so good. But what sets the Dome 2 apart from almost every other air fryer—including the previous generation Dome—is the added dual burner that allows the device to heat from both the top and the bottom of the frying basket. Only a few basket fryers have tried out this feature, including a Cosori Dual Blaze ($180) that had a hard time keeping accurate temp during my air fryer testing.

This adds up to two main qualities for the Dome 2: Food cooks fast. And food cooks evenly. Bacon crisps up like the air in Wisconsin. Even truly crappy crinkle fries will do the same. Wings air-fry to done after 14 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, about four minutes faster than other basket fryers. Add two more minutes to fry them “hard,” the way they do it in the wing belt extending from Ohio to the hot wing’s birthplace in Buffalo.

Blow Wind Blow

But especially, the dual burners add versatility. Each of the device's settings now has multiple variables to play with. You can toggle the speed of the convection fan. But you can also change the distribution of power to the top or the bottom burner.

Typhur lets you control this the way sophisticated toaster ovens like Breville's do: through settings like “grill” or “broil” that modulate both fan speed and primary heat source. The grill setting combines the crispness of an air fryer with direct heat from the bottom of the basket—meaning I can brown and even lightly grill-char a pair of chicken legs at 450 degrees Fahrenheit, leading to deliciously crispy-fatty skin. This is also how the oven does pizza and pancakes, heating each from below but at a much lower fan setting to avoid drying out the crust or batter.

This said, Typhur doesn't make its settings overly easy to parse, except via a recent blog post that still requires a little parsing. I'd love if the device or app offered indicators to show which burners were most active, and the speed of the fan, for each setting. But for now, below is a handy chart explaining the various cooking modes.

In general, the higher the fan speed, expect more browning or crisping on the surface as the air draws across the surface and steals the moisture—which is the main reason air fryers are so effective at creating crispy food. That said, too much fan can dry out the food over time.

Live By the App, Die By the App

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

But you won't get full use out of the Dome 2 unless you pair it to your phone. Many functions aren't accessible from the eight-button control panel on the device itself. The app's most straightforward bonus is a 48-deep menu of recipes designed specifically for the Dome 2. These range from simple recommendations for bacon, chicken legs, or asparagus to air fryer cakes and cookies, and chicken cordon bleu.

Once you choose a recipe, you can tweak both temperature and time, based on how much food you've added or how thick you've sliced your bacon. Then click start, and the device's setting will pair up with the recipe on the app. You'll still have to physically press start on the device, as a safety measure.

But many useful functions are app-only, including dehydrate, bake, and roast—plus an added Steak preset. No baking or steaking if the Wi-Fi's down! (The Wings and Bacon presets, oddly, are the buttons on the device that are most similar to the baking function.)

The self-clean function, which heats the oven at high temps to burn gunk off the heating elements, is also app-only. The basket and griddle grate are coated with PFAS- and PTFE-free ceramic nonstick, and it's pretty easy to wipe clean—but the self-clean, meant for monthly use, is a good backup for the oven interior.

Price aside —this Typhur isn't cheap—reliance on the app is one of the main sticking points on an otherwise terrific device. (Though I'd also like more visibility on fan speed and primary burners.) I've accepted, for whatever reason, that my Google TV is a brick without a remote or a phone app. But I guess I still want to be able to bake cookies when my phone's dead. Maybe I need to learn to stop worrying and love the smart kitchen.