All the new things...

Renee Diaz
Jun 26, 2019
4 min read

Disclaimer: Some of the products in this review may have been discounted or sent for free. All of my views and opinions are completely my own, honest and unbiased.

Magic Chef Manual 1.6 Quart Air Fryer

Works great for reheating and great small size

I received this as a gift and really like it. I can't really use it for larger meals but it works well for my lunch or heating items for my toddlers. It's great because it doesn't take up much space in my small kitchen. The price is good for what it does but I don't like that there isn't much info, aside from the booklet, about temperature. I would've liked the ability to adjust the temperature instead of just adding more time. I tried the grilled cheese and it took too long. I tried reheating flautas (crispy tacos) and they came out awesome. When I made some without oil, they came out baked and too dry for the kids to enjoy. I will pretty much just use this for reheating or use it for making frozen food that has oil on it already like french fries or mozzarella sticks. Also, my slice of leftover pizza was awesome. It works a lot like a toaster oven but on a much smaller scale. Good deal though and I'm happy I have it.

Update review: I like this little cooker but I have a larger one I use for our larger family. I really do like the size of the Magic Chef one but it just didn't seem useful enough to keep it with a family of 5. I feel like I would end up only using it for lunch or myself and miss out on doing large scale meals because of it's tiny size. I also don't need 2 appliances that do the same thing. A friend of mine tried it out with me and didn't fall in love with it, so it went to the next person I had in mind, which is my sister in law. I don't know if she has used it yet but I like to think that when she does. she'll be really happy with crispy fries and crispy leftovers.

ree — Lighter flautas are without oil in the air fryer

ree — Reheated leftovers cooked to perfection. Oh so good!

Magic Chef Water Dispenser (Black or White)

I gifted this to my grandma because she was having issues with her other water dispenser, which was a different brand. She's older and slightly less patient and wanted a dispenser for hot water immediately. We set this up for her in about 10 minutes from box to the space where her old dispenser was. It was really simple to set up and she had hot water pretty quickly after. The cold water took a little bit of time to come in but once it was in, she was good to go. She also really liked that her dispenser has the water underneath because she won't have to lift the water and place it on top, which is much more difficult for her these days. The price was a little high but comparable to others on the market with the same features. Overall, it's a good buy for her and works exactly how she wants it to.

Update: My grandmother still loves this machine. She was the inpiration for mine and the reason why we've kept ours. It's been a blessing for her family but she does just refill the giant container with filtered water from jugs at Aldi. She pays about $.89 per gallon instead of $7 per 5 gallon container. She loves this machine and my kids use it all the time when we're visiting. It was expensive but a very good appliance for her lifestyle.

ree — Reusing water bottles instead of killing the earth... kind of.

Magic Chef Top Loading Water Dispenser

Cold Cold water all of the time!

I had no idea that I would love this water dispenser so much. I try to do my best to drink water everyday but it usually slips my mind and I really only like cold water. If we don't have ice, I won't drink it, which is silly but true. My grandmother wanted a water dispenser and she swore by it once she had it so I thought it might be time to have one in our home too. Much to my surprise, we go through more than 5 gallons a week, as a family of 5. With me and my husband working out and the warmer weather upon us, we are just drinking this water up! This dispenser is easy to assemble and I found it to be cheaper than other versions out there. When it arrived we took it out of the box and had it set up with the top loading water bottle and it gave us cold water a short while later. I'm not sure exactly how long it took to get to it's coldest but we had cold water about 5 minutes after we set it up. We haven't used the hot water because of the season and I don't want the electric bill to be high but it's a good addition for our family because I like coffee during the winter and the easy accessibility will be helpful when we turn that setting on. One of the features I wish it had was some kind of lock so little hands wouldn't play with it. That's the only issue we've had with the dispenser, little kids want to play with water all the time. So to do a 180 on that, I do like that they can grab their own water when they actually need it. It's helped make them a bit more independent and they really enjoy that little job of theirs. I think maybe sometimes out electric bill might be higher and maybe this was a splurge but honestly, it's helped us to drink water so much more that it's kind of worth the cost of electricity and buying water every week. I really like this dispenser and I think for the long term it's a healthy investment for our family.

Update review: We spend so much money on water still and it's still worth it. I did notice yesterday that there is a little switch on the hot water side that you have to move in order to get hot water. This works as a lock which is great for when we switch the hot side on during colder seasons. It is currently switched off.