LG has launched a new version of its SolarDOM in South Africa, and the company would quite like you to stop buying separate kitchen appliances.
The new 38L SolarDOM is the first major overhaul of the range in more than a decade and, for this version, LG has added a dedicated Air Fry mode. It joins the microwave, oven, grill, steam and defrost functions already associated with the SolarDOM, while the full list now stretches to 10 cooking modes once grill and convection combinations, proofing and dehydrating are included.
Air frying is probably the most important addition because it gives LG an obvious answer to an appliance that has taken over a lot of South African kitchen counters. Instead of finding somewhere to keep a microwave, countertop oven and air fryer, LG’s argument is that the SolarDOM can cover most of those jobs itself.
“We didn’t build this to win an argument against an existing air fryer,” Carol Guedes, CE Head of Sales at LG Electronics South Africa, said in the launch announcement. “It exists to make the case for not needing one in the first place, and everything else that’s crowding the counter alongside it.”
The Air Fry mode uses the same Charcoal Lighting Grill system found elsewhere in the SolarDOM. It produces infrared heat and LG says it can cut heating time by 30 percent and energy use by 40 percent compared with the company’s conventional sheath heaters. LG also says food cooked using the Air Fry mode can contain up to 72 percent less residual fat than deep-fried food, based on its own testing.
There are heaters at both the top and bottom of the appliance, allowing food to cook from both directions instead of requiring a manual flip halfway through. That’s useful for the obvious things like roast chicken and vegetables, but it also helps explain why LG sees the SolarDOM as more than a large microwave with an air-fry button bolted onto it.
The rounded cavity from previous SolarDOM models has survived the redesign. LG says the shape helps distribute microwave energy more evenly and increases microwave energy density by up to 25 percent compared with a conventional square cavity. The rounded corners should also make cleaning slightly less annoying, since there are fewer places for splattered food to hide.
LG has put quite a lot of the cooking itself on autopilot too. The SolarDOM has 60 automatic cooking options, including an expanded local menu, which means you can choose what you’re making rather than manually working out the right mode, temperature and cooking time every time.
It also connects to the LG ThinQ app over Wi-Fi. The app can track the SolarDOM’s energy use, send cleaning reminders and provide access to LG’s Smart Diagnosis system. None of that is essential to heating dinner, but energy monitoring is at least more useful on a high-draw kitchen appliance than another notification telling you that your washing has finished.
There is an obvious limitation to LG’s one-appliance approach: it remains one appliance. Someone can’t microwave leftovers while another person uses the air fryer if both jobs now depend on the same SolarDOM. A small basket air fryer is also easier to use for a quick portion of chips than opening up a 38-litre countertop oven.
The idea makes more sense when kitchen space is the problem. If the microwave, air fryer and countertop oven are all taking turns doing variations of the same job, replacing them with one machine has some appeal, particularly if LG’s claimed energy savings hold up outside its test conditions.
LG hasn’t announced South African pricing for the new SolarDOM yet. It will be sold through selected retailers and LG’s local online store, giving the company another new product to add to a South African range that has been expanding quickly. LG recently also confirmed that its absurdly thin Wallpaper TV is coming to South Africa, although the SolarDOM is considerably more interested in what’s sitting on your counter than what’s hanging on your wall.
Whether it actually replaces several appliances will depend on how people cook. If your air fryer is used three times a day, it probably isn’t going anywhere. If it spends most of the week sitting next to a microwave and an oven that are also mostly idle, LG has a stronger case.