Ninja French Door Air Fryer and Countertop Oven: one-minute review

The Ninja French Door Air Fryer and Countertop Oven is an efficient and flexible cooking appliance. It has 10 cook modes: Air Fry, Air Roast, Whole Roast, Bake, Pizza, Broil, Reheat, Dehydrate, Toast, and Bagel. You can quickly cook or heat up just about anything you can fit into its extra-large cooking area.

It pre-heats in seconds, and cooks your food faster than you would expect. Obviously we like fast-working appliances, but it also means you need to keep an eye on your food as it cooks. You can't just follow the directions on the prepared food box and walk away; I found that this appliance cooked some frozen items faster than the box directions indicated.

The Ninja French Door Air Fryer and Countertop Oven uses "Cyclonic Air Technology." It does allow for speedy all-over cooking and eliminates the need to rotate your food mid-cycle that many air fryer require. However, if you like to put foil and/or parchment paper down on your cook tray, make sure it's anchored down with food on all four corners. Otherwise, it will go flying up into the upper heat elements. Ask me how I know that.

Overall, I was very happy with the The Ninja French Door Air Fryer and Countertop Oven. While some parts of the foods got blackened while other parts remained pale, the difference wasn't enough to affect taste. Everything I made came out delicious.

Ninja French Door Air Fryer and Countertop Oven: price and availability

• List price: From $279.99 (about £210 / AU$420)
• Only available in the US, unless imported

The The Ninja French Door Air Fryer and Countertop Oven is available at many major retailers both online and in stores. Find it at Amazon, Target, Best Buy, Walmart, Crate & Barrel, Ninja's own website, and more. It starts at $279.99 (about £210 / AU$420) but is currently only available in the US unless your import it.

The stainless steel version retails for $279.99 while the other shades are $20 more. It comes in four colors: Stone and Gold (mostly gold,) Black (with rose gold hardware,) Stainless Steel (as seen in my photos,) and Cyberspace (dark gray with gold hardware.)

• Value score: 4/5

Ninja French Door Air Fryer and Countertop Oven: specifications

Ninja French Door Air Fryer and Countertop Oven: design and features

• French doors open easily with one hand
• Spacious interior fits a pizza or whole chicken
• Simple, intuitive controls

The Ninja French Door Air Fryer and Countertop Oven looks great on the counter. The French doors give it a more upscale look and the control dials are simple and uncluttered. I feared that French doors would require two-handed opening, but that's not the case. The doors work in tandem, so pulling or pushing either door handle moves both doors. The doors are glass, and there is a lightbulb inside, so you can easily see what's cooking.

The power button is on the top left side of the control panel. On the right, a large dial spins to select mode, time, and temperature. Press that same dial to start and stop cooking. Next to the dial are four buttons: Temp/Shade, Mode, Time/Slices, and the light bulb.

The rest of the control panel is black when not in use, but lights up when you turn the oven on. It shows all of the cooking modes (Air Fry, Air Roast, Whole Roast, Bake, Pizza, Broil, Reheat, Dehydrate, Toast, and Bagel) and pertinent information for your current mode. For example, when you're toasting, the panel shows the number of slices and the shade you've chosen. If you're using one of the oven or air fry modes, the panel shows the time and temperature.

The Ninja French Door Air Fryer and Countertop Oven does take up a fair bit of counter space, but since it replaces both a toaster oven and an air fryer, I didn't mind. It's quite spacious inside, it easily fits my favorite frozen pizza and could fit a modestly-sized chicken. Included accessories are a five-quart air fry basket, sheet pan, broil rack, and a recipe booklet. The interior cooking rack can be moved up or down to accommodate your desired foods. According to Ninja, the cooking surfaces do not contain PFAS. The crumb tray at the bottom is removable for easy cleaning.

The Ninja French Door Air Fryer and Countertop Oven preheats in just 90 seconds and heats up to 450F / 232C. It cooks with cyclonic air, which does a couple of things. First of all, it cooks your food all over without you having to move your food around mid-cycle like you do with many air fryers. According to Ninja, the oven cooks up to 60% faster than conventional ovens and you can use 75% less fat than traditional frying in air fry mode.

This cyclonic air feature also means that if you like to place parchment paper or aluminum foil on your bake tray, you must use caution. The cyclonic air will suck it up into the heating element if you don't have it fully weighed down with food at every edge. Yes, I found that out the hard way. Luckily I was standing close by and cut the power before it caught fire.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Ninja French Door Air Fryer and Countertop Oven performance

I tested many of the Ninja French Door Air Fryer and Countertop Oven's cooking modes. I had to start with toast, of course. You can adjust for the number of slices and the shade you like, so it's easy to have toast exactly the way you like it. It does take some trial and error. I first did a single slice at level three and got one very dark edge. Later, I did two slices at level four and they both came out perfect.

I tested out Air Fry mode with a number of different foods. I made frozen French fries according to the package instructions (though I did end up adding a little more time) and they came out just right, crisp on the outside and soft and fluffy inside. Another time, I made frozen crinkle French fries. There were some very dark spots, but they tasted quite good.

I also made some sweet potato fries from scratch in Air Fry mode. They don't look pretty, they are covered with dark spots, but I like them that way. They were delicious, nice and soft on the inside. I wouldn't say they were super crisp on the outside, but I barely used any oil. The more oil you use, the crisper your food turns out.

I made tofu in Air Fry mode, with just a simple baking soda coating. It turned out beautifully, nice and crispy on the outside and soft inside.

I made frozen veggies several times, in a number of different modes including both Air Fry and Air Roast mode. I find that the 'air' modes dried out the frozen vegetables a bit, which was what I wanted. Frozen veggies can be quite soggy when cooked in other ways, and I was very happy with how they turned out.

I also made a one-pan meal in Air Roast mode. This included a veggie burger, frozen vegetables, and fresh vegetables. This came out great and only took 15 minutes.

I didn't roast a whole chicken, but I did make a couple of chicken breasts in Whole Roast mode. They came out perfectly, nice and juicy, and I can't think of an easier and faster way to make chicken breasts.

I made frozen pizza in Pizza mode. The first time, I followed the box instructions without watching, and it cooked so fast that it was nearly black at the end (though not too burnt to eat.) The second time, I watched it more closely and stopped it before the time the box indicated. This time it came out great. It's a bit dark around the edges, but it's a big, thick pizza and it was perfectly cooked in the center.

I made some very simple 'bagels' in Bake mode. The dough is just Greek yogurt and self-rising flour. These came out amazing — golden brown on the outside and fluffy inside.

I tried out Reheat mode on two different restaurant leftovers: chicken parmesan and a quesadilla. Both reheated beautifully in just five minutes, without getting burnt or dried out at all.

I was continually surprised by how quickly the Ninja French Door Air Fryer and Countertop Oven cooked a variety of foods. While some foods did get a bit blackened around the edges, they never tasted burnt. Everything I made was thoroughly cooked in the middle and tasted great.

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Should you buy the Ninja French Door Air Fryer and Countertop Oven?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

Ninja French Door Air Fryer and Countertop Oven: also consider

If the Ninja French Door Air Fryer and Countertop Oven isn't for you, here are some other options you might consider.

How I tested the Ninja French Door Air Fryer and Countertop Oven

• I tested many of the different cook cycles
• I used it pretty much daily for a month
• I cleaned it as needed, which wasn't often

I cooked, heated, and reheated a variety of foods, both frozen prepared foods and fresh food from scratch. I used the Air Fry, Air Roast, Whole Roast, Bake, Pizza, Reheat, and Toast cycles multiple times. Over the course of a month, I used it daily, often multiple times per day. I made both fresh and frozen vegetables many, many times. I heated up frozen pizza. I made french fries, both from scratch and frozen, multiple times. I baked two-ingredient "bagels" many times. I reheated a couple of different restaurant leftovers. I air fried some tofu. I made chicken breasts and veggie burgers several times. I toasted bread just about daily.

Read more about how we test.

First reviiewed June 2026

Do you have a broken kitchen appliance lurking at the back of a cabinet? Perhaps an air fryer that's stopped heating, or a blender with a broken seal? You're not alone. According to research from appliance manufacturer Tefal, 88% of British people have at least one unused appliance at home, and over a third have three to five in what Patrick Lucereau, Marketing Director at Tefal UK, calls a "kitchen graveyard".

The problem is partly due to recycling awareness; people know they can recycle paper and glass, but many don't realize that small appliances can be recycled too.

However, the best thing to do is keep your appliances out of the "kitchen graveyard" in the first place by taking proper care of them, with careful cleaning and maintenance. Here's how to show your small appliances some love and give them a long and useful life.

Also remember that if a small part of an appliance breaks (like a lid or a seal), the manufacturer often sells replacements or can send you one if you write to their support department.

Air fryers

Air fryers get greasy — it's in their nature — but regular deep cleaning will help prevent dirt building up and causing problems like overheating and bad smells.

Most of your air fryer's components, including the baskets, racks, and trays, are removable for easy cleaning, and the basket almost certainly has a non-stick coating that prevents food and dirt from getting truly stuck on. Always read the instruction manual before you start washing, and avoid harsh and abrasive cleaning products that could damage the surface.

Don't have the manual anymore? Find your air fryer on the manufacturer's website, and you should be able to download a PDF copy.

When it's time to give your air fryer a proper deep clean, start by unplugging it and making sure it's cool, then soak a cloth in warm, soapy water, wring it out so it's just damp, and use it to clean any grease and fingermarks from the outside of the appliance. When that's done, rinse the cloth, wring it out again, and wipe the machine down to remove any soap left behind.

Don't be tempted to use glass cleaner if your fryer has a window; the next time it heats up, so will any residue left on the glass, releasing fumes. Instead, clean it the same way as the rest of the exterior, then buff away any streaks with a dry cloth.

Now look inside your air fryer. If you notice food stuck to the fan blades or heating element, clean it off with a new toothbrush. If the model allows it, remove the rubber or silicone seal, give it a good wash with warm, soapy water, rinse, and let it dry before replacing it. Dirty seals are a common cause of odors, so keep on top of maintenance to avoid unpleasant smells.

Whatever you do, don't be tempted to submerge your air fryer in water or try to clean it by using it to heat water or cleaning chemicals.

Espresso machines

Espresso machines also benefit from deep cleaning, which will keep them brewing like new. Every part of the machine that comes into contact with beans, water, or milk is a potential breeding ground for bacteria (and can even grow mold), so it pays to keep up with maintenance.

You should give your coffee maker a quick clean each time you use it, a thorough clean at the end of the day, and a descaling every month, or after brewing 100 cups of coffee (whichever comes first).

Each time you prepare a brew with a manual espresso machine, make sure you rinse the brew group, purge the steam wand, and wipe the outside of the wand with a damp cloth. At the end of the day, empty and wash the drip tray, wipe out the portafilter basket with a damp cloth, and hand-wash the handle and basket.

If you have an automatic coffee maker, things are more complicated because moisture and stray coffee grounds inside the machine create a perfect environment for things to grow. At the end of the day, remove the side panel, take out the brewing group, and rinse it according to the manufacturer's instructions. Remove the waste coffee grounds container, empty it, and wash it with soapy water. Empty and wash the drip tray, too, then use a damp cloth to clean up any coffee grounds you can see inside the machine.

When you're done, leave everything out to dry thoroughly overnight, and leave the side panel off the machine so moisture can evaporate.

Whatever type of espresso machine you have, also clean the water tank at night and fill it with fresh, clean water in the morning.

It's also worth cleaning the bean hopper and grinder from time to time, since oils from coffee beans can build up and eventually go rancid, while debris can get caught in the grinder burrs and cause them to stick.

Blenders

With the right care, your blender can last for 10 years or more — trust me, my faithful Dualit has been going even longer!

You should never immerse your blender's motor unit in water. Instead, detach the jug or blending cup and wipe the outside of the base with a damp cloth. If the jug is dishwasher-safe, this will be the easiest way to get it completely clean, but make sure you read the manual to see how you should clean the blade unit and seal.

If the jug isn't dishwasher-safe, fill your blending jug about a third of the way up with warm but not boiling water. You can add a very small amount of dish soap at this stage, too, but not too much, or you'll end up with a mountain of suds.

Turn the blender on to give the soapy mixture a good whizz around before emptying the jug and rinsing it with water. Leave the blending jug to fully dry before placing the lid back on, as this could cause damp odors to build up.

If there are any pieces of food left around the blade assembly, remove them with a small, stiff-bristled cleaning brush or an unused toothbrush.

Recycling

All of these tips will help ensure your kitchen appliances have a long, useful life, but eventually a motor will wear out, or a heating element will give up the ghost. When it does, don't stuff the broken gadget in a cupboard and forget about it — a surprising number of small household appliances can be recycled, and it's easier than you might expect.

In the US, Best Buy accepts small kitchen appliances for recycling in-store, or you can request a mailing box if you can't take them in person. Staples and Walmart also offer programs that will accept e-waste, including kitchen appliances. Take a look at MRM Recycling and Earth 911, where you can enter your ZIP code to see e-waste recycling facilities near you.

In the UK, Currys and B&Q take small electrical items for recycling, and your local recycling center might accept them, too. To see your options, visit recyclemyelectricals.org.uk and enter your postcode or address, then enter the type of appliance you want to get rid of. Depending on the type of item you have and its condition, you can choose whether you'd like to donate, repair, or recycle it, and the site will show you locations within a five-mile radius where you can do that.

Tower Elite 11-Liter Flexi Drawer Air Fryer: 30-second review

The Tower Elite 11-Liter Flexi Drawer Air Fryer offers up a huge cooking capacity at a price which undercuts pretty much any other serious contender on the market. If you’re looking for capacity and flexibility bang-for-your-buck, look no further.

Is this the best air fryer out there? Not exactly, but for families on a budget it’s hard not to recommend Tower’s large basket machine.

Not only can you cook a whole chicken or pizza in this air fryer, it also comes with a handy divider transforming the single drawer into a dual-basket offering, allowing you to cook separate foods, at different temperatures, for different durations, simultaneously — and it works much better than I expected.

It does have a few key competitors including the premium Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer (with a 10.4L basket), and the almost equally affordable Philips 1000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer (that only has a 7.1L basket), but with the Tower being the cheapest of the trio you’re looking at a unique proposition.

It’s not perfect. The large basket is heavy when fully loaded and is handwash only, while the controls aren’t overly intuitive, and the cooking presets don’t always deliver the results you want.

There is some trial and error required in the cooking process, but once you’ve got a feel for how it cooks, the Tower Elite 11-Liter Flexi Drawer Air Fryer can deliver delicious food, from cakes, to chicken, to fries.

Tower Elite 11-Liter Flexi Drawer Air Fryer: price and availability

• Affordable £119.99 list price, but…
• It’s often reduced to sub-£100, great value for such a large capacity
• Available in the UK, but not in the US or Australia

The Elite 11-Liter Flexi Drawer Air Fryer price is £119.99, although it is regularly discounted making this large capacity cooker even better value.

At time of writing (March 2026), I’m seeing it available for £99.99 on the Tower website, and £89.10 on Amazon, with similar prices at plenty of other third-party retailers.

That’s considerably cheaper than its main, single-drawer, larger capacity competitor, the Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer, which is twice the price of this Tower.

The Philips 1000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer is closer in price to the Tower, but still costs more and has a smaller cooking capacity.

The Tower Elite 11 air fryer's list price is equivalent to about $160 / AU$230, but it's not available in the US or Australia.

• Value score: 4.5/5

Tower Elite 11-Liter Flexi Drawer Air Fryer: specifications

Tower Elite 11-Liter Flexi Drawer Air Fryer: design

• Huge 11-liter basket is great for family meals, and divider provides dual basket flexibility
• Controls and overall look don’t compete with premium air fryers, but that’s expected at this price point
• Basket can be heavy when fully loaded, and it’s handwash only

With its sizable 11-liter basket the Tower Elite 11 Litre Flexi Drawer Air Fryer is, unsurprisingly, wide (39.2cm) and deep (39.8cm).

It can dominate the worktop in smaller kitchens, but its horizontal design (unlike the vertically tall Philips 4000 Series Stacked Dual Basket or Ninja Double Stack) means height is kept to just 30.5cm, allowing it to sit neatly under wall-mounted units, and slide into cupboards when not in use (assuming they’re wide enough).

The matte grey finish provides a sleek, modern aesthetic, while the large, glossy black front panel adds a splash of space-age to the look.

It’s smart, without pushing the boundaries of air fryer design, and on closer inspection I found areas where Tower has cut corners to keep the price point at a tempting level.

The buttons and dial felt a little cheap under my finger, with some travel and wiggle to them. Clicks don’t feel smooth, and having used premium Philips and Ninja air fryers recently, the lower quality finish here was even more noticeable.

This isn’t a massive negative though, and it’s to be expected at this price point. Plus, overall the air fryer feels sturdy so I don’t worry about long-term use, as long as you’re relatively gentle with the controls.

The main attraction is the massive 11-liter cooking basket though, which slides into the front of the machine, and there's a reassuring clunk when you correctly interest the basket, letting you know it’s snugly in.

What’s particularly nice is the addition of a removable divider panel which you can slide down the middle of the basket, allowing you to have two separate cooking zones. This gives you the flexibility of a dual drawer air fryer, while also giving you a single larger basket when you want to cook bigger items such as a pizza or a small chicken.

But with great size comes great weight. Fully load the basket, and you’ll find it gets rather heavy. This is especially problematic when cooking has completed and you’re attempting to remove the basket while it’s very hot.

I found that putting a couple of heat mats directly in front of the air fryer and pulling the basket straight out onto them helped alleviate the tricky maneuvring of the larger basket. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you’ve cooked a few times with the Tower Elite 11-Liter Flexi Drawer Air Fryer, you should be able to find a process that works for you.

Another small frustration is the basket, grill tray and basket divider are handwash only, meaning you can’t just pop them in the dishwasher. The non-stick coating on these parts means grime comes off easily with a bit of elbow grease, but the size of the basket can be awkward to wash in smaller kitchen sinks.

• Design score: 4/5

Tower Elite 11-Liter Flexi Drawer Air Fryer: performance

• Solid all-round cooking performance, but not always perfect
• Basket divider works surprisingly well for dual cooking
• Controls not overly intuitive and take time to get used to

The Tower Elite 11-Liter Flexi Drawer, as its name suggests, offers excellent flexibility in its cooking chamber. It comes with a single base plate which sits across the whole drawer, but also a dividing panel you can slide down the middle to create two separate zones.

I was unsure how this one piece of metal in the middle of the drawer would perform at allowing foods to cook at two different temperatures, but to my surprise it works well.

There are two heating elements in this air fryer — left and right — allowing you to set different temperatures and cooking durations for left and right, and that’s exactly what I did with my veg (carrots and broccoli, thanks for asking) and homemade fries.

The fries had a much longer cooking time than the veg, and at a higher temperature, but I was able to cook both simultaneously without cremating the vegetables.

I used the vegetable and fries presets for this cook, and while the broccoli cooked well, the carrots and the fries could have done with longer. The carrots were still a little hard, while the fries weren’t as crispy as I would have liked — although they were cooked through.

It’s all part of the trial and error nature of air fryer ownership. It takes time, and several cycles, to understand how types of food cook in a new air fryer, with the details in the instruction manual more of a guide than a hard rule.

I was also able to use the Smart Cook function, where the air fryer will sync the two sides of the drawer to finish at the same time. It’s triggered by selecting the time and temperature for each basket and then pressing the Smart Cook button.

The only issue is, there’s no visual cue to tell you the mode has been selected until you press start to set the air fryer going. This led to me realizing once cooking had started that I hadn’t set it up properly.

When properly engaged, the digital display on the side with the shorter cooking time displays ‘HOLD’ (but only once you’ve pressed start) until the other side's cook time decreases and matches, at which point cooking will start for the shorter duration side as well. It’s a useful feature, but one I wish was easier to set up.

The controls aren't the most intuitive either, and I found myself checking the manual a few times during the first few days to remind myself of the order things need to be set. I’ve found the controls on Ninja and Philips air fryers to be more straight forward.

During cooking I found the sides of the air fryer get the hottest, with my temperature probe reading 38 degrees. That’s not as warm as some air fryers I’ve used, which is good news if you have other appliances or items close by.

Being able to remove the middle partition means you can fit large items into the 11L basket of the Tower Elite 11-Liter Flexi Drawer. There is space for a whole chicken, or in my case a pizza.

Using the dedicated pizza setting (150 degrees C for 12 minutes), it cooked well on top, and the edges were crispy. However that crisp didn’t extend across the whole base, with the middle still a little doughy. I could have left it in for a few more minutes, but I fear the topping would have burnt.

Sliding the partition back in, the Tower Elite impressed when it came to baking. I made a blueberry loaf which rose wonderfully on one side of the basket, while on the other side my chocolate muffins also baked nicely. The muffins didn’t darken on top as much as I expected, but I can confirm they still tasted great.

With no window on the basket, you’re not able to keep an eye on things while they’re cooking, you have to remove the basket from the air fryer, which pauses the program. This isn’t a surprise considering the affordable nature of the Tower Elite 11 Litre Flexi Drawer, but if you want to see your food while it cooks you’ll need to look at more expensive machines.

I also cooked tempura chicken pieces using the chicken program (200 degrees C for 25 minutes), and these came out with a beautifully crisp batter, while the meat remained succulent on the inside.

The preset programs include a shake reminder, which the air fryer chiming part way through cooking to remind you to shuffle the food in the basket.

• Performance score: 4/5

Should you buy the Tower Elite 11-Liter Flexi Drawer Air Fryer?

Buy it if

Don’t buy it if

Tower Elite 11-Liter Flexi Drawer Air Fryer: also consider

How I tested the Tower Elite 11-Liter Flexi Drawer Air Fryer

• I used the Tower Elite 11 Litre Flexi Drawer for two weeks at home in my kitchen
• I cooked a wide variety of food with it, including chicken, pizza, fries, cakes and vegetables
• I tested the different cooking functions, and the cleaning process

I used the Tower Elite 11 Litre Flexi Drawer for two weeks at home, where I cooked a wide variety of food and meals.

From crispy tempura chicken, homemade and frozen fries, and various vegetables, to baking loafs and muffins, as well as an entire pizza, I ensured this air fryer was put through its paces.

I cooked using the whole basket, just one side with the divider in place, and on both sides, at different temperatures and durations, to experience the full versatility on offer. I tried out a number of the preset cooking options, as well as experimenting with my own settings to improve results.

I even slipped on a pair of marigolds to handwash the basket, tray and divider, as these are not dishwasher safe.

Philips 4000 Series Stacked Dual Basket Air Fryer: 30-second review

The Philips 4000 Series Stacked Dual Basket Air Fryer is an accomplished, premium air fryer which provides solid cooking performance in a space-saving design.

It finds itself in a currently small sub-market of air fryers, with only a handful of rivals also offering the dual-stack baskets on offer here. The leader, and our current best air fryer, is the similarly priced Ninja Double Stack XL.

Both of these models offer a large cooking capacity (across two baskets), without the wider footprint you get with the traditional, side-by-side baskets design.

The Philips beats the Ninja in a couple of key ways. First up, its baskets have windows and a light, allowing you to keep an eye on the food you’re cooking without having to open the basket to check.

Secondly, the controls on the Philips 4000 Series are easier to see, and more intuitive to use, taking the hassle out of working out functions, temperatures and cooking times.

What’s not quite as good though are the quick start instructions when you take the air fryer out of the box for the first time, and the full manual is only accessible via a smartphone app.

It’s also only available in one colorway; black and gold. It’s a bold choice and it does look smart — although it won’t be to everyone’s taste, nor will it sit as well in traditionally-styled kitchens.

Cooking performance is solid though, and it was able to handle the various meat, vegetables and sweet treats I threw at it.

For those looking for a stylish, statement air fryer that also delivers versatility and practicality, and are willing to pay a bit more for the privilege, I would recommend the Philips 4000 Series.

Philips 4000 Series Stacked Dual Basket Air Fryer: price and availability

• £269.99 / AU$449 list price makes it one of the most expensive air fryers
• But it’s regularly discounted by around £100 / AU$100
• Available in the UK and Australia, but not in the US

With a list price of £269.99 / AU$449 (about $360), the Philips 4000 Series Dual Stack is one of the most expensive air fryers on the market, but do keep an eye out for discounts.

I've seen it reduced to £169.99 at Amazon UK, Currys and John Lewis in the past, and AU$349 at Amazon Australia, making this double drawer air fryer a far more tempting proposition for families looking for a large capacity cooker.

That’s the same list price as the excellent Ninja Double Stack XL which we gave five stars to, but considerably more expensive than the £149.99 Tower Vortx XL Dual Stack.

This model is available in Europe and Australia, but is not on sale in the US.

• Value score: 4/5

Philips 4000 Series Stacked Dual Basket Air Fryer: specifications

Philips 4000 Series Stacked Dual Basket Air Fryer: design

• Vertically stacked baskets offers space-efficient design
• Premium build with a bold black and gold finish
• Clear, intuitive controls, although touch-sensitive panel won’t be for everyone

Ninja laid the foundations for the double stack air fryer back in 2024, and it’s no surprise other manufacturers have jumped on the trend, offering large cooking capacity with a narrower, space-saving footprint.

The Philips 4000 Series Stacked Dual Basket brings a premium black and gold aesthetic to challenge Ninja’s market-leading air fryer. It’s a striking look, and one that might divide opinion. It’ll look great in a modern kitchen that uses one of the two colors. With my white countertops and blue cabinets, it certainly stands out on the work surface. The glossy, reflective front of the fryer is also a bit of a dust- and fingerprint-magnet, and needs regular wiping to keep it looking fresh.

I was pleased to see both 5L baskets and their base plates were dishwasher safe, making cleaning up after cooking much easier (although the handles of the baskets do collect water). A damp cloth is all that’s needed for the exterior of the machine, and a soft brush to gently clean the heating element.

Another nice touch, and something the Ninja doesn’t provide, is a cooking window on each basket, and an interior light, allowing you to keep an eye on the food inside. I much prefer air fryers with windows, as it helps me gauge when I need to shake or turn food.

It’s especially useful to see what’s going on without opening the baskets and pausing the cooking when you're first getting used to new air fryer, and starting to understand cooking times. It’s not an exact science and each air fryer is different, so the windows are a great visual aid.

There aren’t any accessories included in the box, unlike the Ninja Double Stack, which comes with a pair of stainless steel racks, doubling the usable space in its baskets.

You’ll want to be mindful of what food you’re cooking too, as both baskets have holes on their rear wall for air circulation. That means anything particularly wet could ooze out of the back and into the machine.

What didn’t impress was the setup instructions, or lack thereof. You get an IKEA-style, printed pictorial guide in the box that covers the absolute bare minimum, but stops short of providing any explanations, details or cooking tips. Even IKEA instructions are better than these.

For the full details you are forced to download Philips’ free HomeID app, where you can register your air fryer and then access the full manual, along with cooking guides and recipes. The tips and tricks articles, along with the recipes are nicely presented and easy to follow.

It’s disappointing the same care hasn’t been given to the manual, which is just a PDF file requiring much scrolling and zooming on a phone to be able to read it. A printed copy would be far more useful, or even a digitized version with page-turning and a search feature.

A quirk of this particular air fryer design sees the air exhaust located on the left of the appliance, and you are warned not to position this side of the air fryer within six inches / 15cm of a wall to prevent overheating, or close to any food products. You’ll need to have a quick think about where you’ll be placing the Philips 4000 Series before committing to the purchase.

Thankfully, once plugged in the air fryer is easy to use. The touch-sensitive controls come to life with rear illumination on the large, glossy black section above the baskets. The layout and labelling are clear, making for an intuitive experience — unlike some air fryers I’ve used where the buttons aren’t always so self explanatory.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Philips 4000 Series Stacked Dual Basket Air Fryer: performance

• Sync and copy functions make using both baskets together easier
• Six preset cooking programs, but temperature and time can easily be adjusted

The Philips 4000 Series Stacked Dual Basket Air Fryer does well to provide a premium cooking experience.

You get six preset modes — frozen potato-based snacks, steak, fish, vegetables, chicken, and reheat — which give you a set time and temperature. You can fine tune these, and you'll probably find yourself adjusting these the more you use the air fryer and get an understanding of how long, and at what temperature, different foods require.

Copy and sync are both handy functions. Copy allows you to match the temperature and time settings for one basket, to the other. This saves you having to go through the setup process a second time, and it’s a handy time-saver if you’re cooking an extra large portion of fries for the whole family.

Sync is my personal favorite though, allowing me to set each basket to a different duration and temperature, but have them both finish at the same time. It’s easy to set up, and works very well.

There’s a shake reminder too, which has the machine beep during through cooking to have you slide out a basket and give the contents a toss to ensure even frying. For longer cook times, you’ll get multiple shake reminders. You can turn off this reminder though, which is useful when you’re using the air fryer for baking.

Another nice touch is the fact Philips says you don’t need to preheat the air fryer, meaning you can toss food into the baskets right away and get cooking.

Using the frozen potato-based snacks program, I loaded a basket with 18oz / 500g and set it going, at 390 Fahrenheit / 200 Celsius for 26 minutes. I was prompted to shake the basket twice, with 13 and seven minutes remaining.

The fries cooked well enough, with a crispy exterior and fluffy middle, but they didn’t brown as much as I’d like. Adding a few more minutes to the cooking time will get you a darker color and crispier finish.

I also tried cooking fresh fries in the air fryer. The manual (accessible via the app) suggests chopping potatoes into fries and then soaking them in water for 10 minutes. Once I had gently patted the excess water from the fries I added a splash of oil and popped them into the basket.

Results were similar to the frozen fries — they could have done with a few more minutes to gain color and extra crispiness, but they cooked well overall.

I was impressed with the baking prowess of the Philips 4000 Series as I used both baskets to cook chocolate muffins and a blueberry loaf simultaneously. Both bakes rose nicely, and produced a bouncy sponge.

Similarly to the fries, the muffins stayed quite light in color, as they missed the darkening you’d get in a conventional oven.

I put the dual-basket setup to the test once again when I cooked sausages and vegetables, which needed different cook durations. Thankfully, the time sync feature worked well here, with both baskets completing cooking at the same time, allowing me to focus on the mash and gravy.

The sausages were evenly cooked, while the broccoli had a delightful crunch to it. I par-boiled the carrots for a few minutes before adding them to the basket with the broccoli, to allow them to cook at the same rate.

A quick word of warning, the top of the Philips 4000 Series gets the warmest while cooking, and I measured temperatures of over 140 Fahrenheit / 60 Celsius during operation. Make sure you don’t leave anything sitting on top of the air fryer, and for those of you who have low-hanging wall units in your kitchen, be mindful of having enough space between them and the top of this air fryer.

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Should you buy the Philips 4000 Series Stacked Dual Basket Air Fryer?

Buy it if

Don’t buy it if

Philips 4000 Series Stacked Dual Basket Air Fryer: also consider

How I tested the Philips 4000 Series Stacked Dual Basket Air Fryer

• I used the Philips 4000 Series for two weeks at home in my kitchen
• I cooked a wide variety of food with it, including fries, cakes, vegetables and meat
• I tested the different cooking functions, and the cleaning process

I spent two weeks using the Philips 4000 Series at home to cook a variety of food. I tried out the preset programs, and also freestyle the settings from time to time.

I air fried meat, baked cakes, and roasted vegetables during my testing, and used a temperature probe to record how hot the exterior of the machine got during use. I evaluated how each food item cooked in the two baskets, and assessed how the finished results were to eat.

I also followed the setup instructions and cleaning process, to understand how easy the machine is to get going and maintain. For more details, see how we test, review, and rate products on TechRadar.

• Smeg has launched two new combi microwaves: the MOC01 and MOC02
• The MOC01 has microwave and grill options, with multi-stage cooking
• The more versatile MOC02 also offers air fryer and fan oven modes

Smeg has just launched a combination microwave, air fryer, fan oven, and grill that can prepare virtually any dish — and looks great while doing it. The Italian company is well known for its stylish appliances, including its iconic retro refrigerators, and the new MOC02 combi microwave is no exception. With sleek lines and a choice of four colors (matt black, white, emerald green, and storm blue), it would look perfect alongside kitchen gadgets like the BCC13 coffee maker, which received a full five stars in my review.

The MOC02 combi can do everything from defrosting frozen meals to cooking crispy chicken wings. Better yet, you can use multi-stage cooking to switch from one mode to another. For example, you could use microwave mode to quickly bake a potato, then switch to air fryer mode to crisp the skin once the inside is soft.

According to Smeg, the MOC02's fan oven mode uses microwave energy in addition to convection, enabling it to cook food much faster than a regular oven, cooking a salmon fillet to flaky perfection in just 10 minutes. It's available today direct from Smeg's online store for £449.95 (about $600 / AU$850).

If you don't need all of the MOC02's cooking functions, there's also a new microwave and grill combo, the MOC01, which has the same stylish looks but without the air fryer and fan oven functionality. Its multi-stage cooking makes it particularly good for dishes like pasta bakes that need crisping on top after cooking.

The Smeg MOC01 is on sale now from Smeg's online store and third-party retailers for £349.95 (about $500 / AU$700).

If your budget won't quite stretch that far, take a look at my full roundup of the best air fryers I've tested in the last few months, which includes some more affordable combi cooker options like the Ninja 5-in-1 Grill and Air Fryer. Also consider the Smeg Combi Steam Oven, which offers air frying, convection cooking, and steaming all in one appliance, without a microwave option.

• The IKEA Gåtebo is a microwave, air fryer, and grill in one
• It costs $199 / £150 / $299, which is much less than most combi cookers
• Paired with the compact Tillreda induction stove, it could replace your oven

IKEA's three-in-one Gåtebo microwave has proved incredibly popular since its launch in Europe last year, and now it's available worldwide for just $199 / £150 / $299. It's no bigger than a regular freestanding microwave, and is packed with so many cooking functions that it could easily replace a regular oven for a small household.

Just imagine what you could do with all that extra space. You could fit a dishwasher if you don't already have one (one of the greatest kitchen appliances ever created), have under-counter bins for sorting trash and recycling, fit a full-size water softener, or just have an extra cupboard for all your oils and spices.

Microwave and air fryer combos aren't a totally new concept, and they're a great option if you've resisted buying an air fryer due to a lack of space. Even the compact Ninja Double Stack still has a footprint of 11 x 18.5in / 28cm x 47cm, which is substantial when you're already coping with a cramped workspace.

The Gåtebo's cooking options include microwave, grill, air fry, defrost, warm up tea/coffee, and two combination cooking modes (microwave and grill, and microwave and convection). Not sure where to begin? The manual provides detailed instructions for favorites like french fries, potato wedges, chicken wings and nuggets.

But what about rice and pasta? Well, ditching your regular oven doesn't have to mean losing your stove. IKEA has a vast array of cheap induction hobs, including the portable Tillreda, which costs just $74.99 / £45 / AU$49, and can be hung up or tucked out of sight when you're not preparing dinner.

The Gåtebo is remarkably cheap, too. For comparison, our current top-rated microwave / air fryer combo is the Samsung Combi Smart Microwave Oven, which is more than double the price at £329 (about $440 / AU$660).

I've yet to get my hands on the Gåtebo to test its cooking powers for myself, but I'm hoping to review it soon, and see whether it deserves a place in our full roundup of the best air fryers. Who knows, it might even dethrone the Samsung Combi.

Air fryers cook your favorite foods with minimal oil, but they still get greasy and need regular cleaning to stay fresh. Even the best air fryers require maintenance, but the good news is that it's a lot easier than cleaning an oven, and with the right equipment, it'll only take a few minutes.

Air fryers use powerful fans to circulate hot air around your food, cooking it quickly and evenly. That also means crumbs and grease tend to spread inside the machine. Thankfully, many of your air fryer's components are removable for easy cleaning, including the basket and any trays, and the basket has a non-stick coating that helps prevent food and oil from adhering to the surface.

Before you get started, check your air fryer's manual to see whether the manufacturer recommends using or avoiding certain cleaning products. The methods listed below will be fine for almost all models, but it only takes a moment to check. If you don't have the paper manual, you can search the manufacturer's website to find a PDF version.

Clean the exterior

Before you do any cleaning at all, you need to make sure your air fryer has completely cooled down. Cleaning it while it’s still warm will not only risk you burning yourself on any hot elements, but it can also damage the machine.

Unplug your fryer and soak a cloth in warm, soapy water. Ensure you squeeze excess water from your cloth before wiping the exterior of your machine. Don’t be tempted to use any harsh cleaning sprays or disinfectants, as these could cause the outer shell of the appliance to peel off, or the chemicals could end up inside the machine.

If you’re using an air fryer that has a glass window, it might seem intuitive to use a glass cleaner spray to rid the window of any smear marks. However, when you next use your machine, and it heats up, the residue from the cleaning solution will also heat up and may release fumes you'd rather avoid. Instead, finish cleaning the exterior by using a dry cloth to buff away any smears.

Clean the inside

Many air fryers have removable parts that are dishwasher safe. This makes life a lot easier if you’ve just made dinner and need to clean up quickly. If there are large pieces of food stuck to your air fryer basket, however, it’s best to remove them first to avoid clogging your dishwasher's filter.

Because air fryers are designed to work without much oil, the cooking baskets are normally covered with a non-stick coating. In order to maintain your machine properly, it’s important not to damage this coating, and the best way to do that is by only cleaning it gently.

If you need to remove dried-on food, then you can soak the basket in warm water and dish soap, and then gently ease the food away with a wooden spatula. Steer away from metal utensils as they will damage the coating.

For the remaining parts, repeat the process using warm, soapy water and a cloth, and give them a thorough wipe without leaving excess water. If you notice any food stuck in the fan or elements, a clean, unused toothbrush is an ideal cleaning tool.

Never immerse your fryer in water, or try to clean it by heating liquids in the basket.

What to do if your air fryer smells 

If your air fryer is smelling strange, there are a few potential causes. First of all, if it's fairly new and it’s giving off a plastic-like smell, it’s likely that you just need to run it for a few minutes without any food inside to burn off any manufacturing residue.

If you’re getting a smoky smell or you can smell burnt food when what you’re making is showing no signs of burning, there may be crumbs or bits of food left in the machine or stuck in the fan. Follow our advice above for removing debris with a toothbrush.

Finally, the smell might be from a meal that you previously cooked, and despite your best cleaning efforts, the odor just won’t budge. In this case, wipe the inside with a sliced lemon, then rinse off the juice per our instructions.

One more thing...

Using silicone or paper liners in your air fryer can help keep it clean, but make sure they don't block airflow or touch the heating element. Paper liners can blow around inside the basket and will need to be weighed down with enough food.

Always make sure your air fryer is fully dry before storing it (especially interior components like the heating element) and keep it in a dry, well-ventilated place to avoid corrosion and bad smells. Closing the lid while the inside is still damp will result in bad odors, and if your machine has a plastic seal, this could become a home for bacteria.

Ninja Crispi Pro: one-minute review

The Ninja Crispi Pro 6-in-1 Glass Countertop Air Fryer is the plus-sized version of the Ninja Crispi 4-in-1 Portable Glass Air Fryer Cooking System. Instead a traditional drawer-style air fryer, the Ninja Crispi Pro is a stand to which you can attach different-sized glass cooking containers. Since the glass containers are separate from the frying mechanism, they can be used for both storing and serving in addition to cooking. The handles stay cool so they can go directly from the fryer to the table without potholders or trivets. Lids are included for storing your food in the glass containers. The Ninja Crispi Pro 6-in-1 Glass Countertop Air Fryer comes with two cooking containers, the small one has a 2.5-quart capacity and the large one holds six quarts and can even be used to roast up to a 7.5-pound chicken. There is also a medium four-quart size which is sold separately.

Six cooking modes let you make a variety of dishes: Max Crisp, Air Fry, Bake/Proof, Roast, Recrisp, and Dehydrate. Select your mode, temperature, and cook time as desired. Since the containers are glass and there is a light bulb inside, you can easily keep an eye on your food as it cooks. This is an easy-to-use, flexible air fryer, and all the food I made came out well. Note that with its multiple cooking containers, it does take up a good bit of storage space.

Ninja Crispi Pro: price and availability

• List price: $279.99 (about £209 / AU$421)

The Ninja Crispi Pro 6-in-1 Glass Countertop Air Fryer is available at all major retailers both online and in brick-and-mortar stores such as Amazon, Target, Macy's, Best Buy, Ninja's own website, and more. Choose from four color options: Cyberspace (dark gray), Bone (off-white), Rose Quartz, and Ash Gray (light gray). The retail price is $279.99 USD and it comes with two cooking containers including crisping trays and storage lids: 2.5-quart and 6-quart.

• Value score: 4/5

Ninja Crispi Pro: specifications

Ninja Crispi Pro: design and features

• Small and large cooking containers go from air fryer to table to fridge
• Six cooking functions
• Interior light

The Ninja Crispi Pro 6-in-1 Glass Countertop Air Fryer has a modular base that sits on the counter and two interchangeable glass cooking dishes, 2.5-quart and 6-quart. Ninja also makes a 4-quart medium size, but that will be sold separately. The cooking dishes have stay-cool handles so they can go right from the fryer to the table. Lids are also included so you can store your leftovers. The glass cooking containers, including the metal crisper plates and storage lids, can be washed in the dishwasher or by hand if you prefer.

The air fryer itself has a modular base, which can be moved up or down depending on which glass cooking container you'll be using. Place the base at the highest notch to use the small container or at the bottom notch for the large container. There is a middle notch for the medium cooking container (not included.)

Once you've adjusted your modular base to the correct height, put your food on the crisper plate within the glass cooking dish and slide the dish onto the base. This can be a bit fiddly, but once you get used to doing it, muscle memory kicks in.

The controls are quite intuitive. Power on the air fryer and turn the knob to select your cooking mode: Max Crisp, Air Fry, Bake/Proof, Roast, Recrisp, or Dehydrate. Tap the temp button and turn the dial to adjust the temperature. Tap the time button and turn the dial to adjust the time. Press the center button to start cooking. Illuminate your food at any time by pressing the button with the light bulb icon.

I wouldn't say the Ninja Crispi Pro 6-in-1 Countertop Glass Air Fryer is the prettiest appliance I've ever seen; air fryers rarely are. It does take up a bit of counter space. You could store it away when not in use, but it's pretty heavy. The bottom is weighted to counterbalance the cooking mechanism at the top, making it difficult to take in and out for frequent use. You could keep one container in the air fryer on the counter and store the other away to minimize how much counter space it takes up, but either way, it's a space commitment.

Still, the Ninja Crispi Pro 6-in-1 Countertop Glass Air Fryer is well-designed for maximum flexibility with its extra-large cooking container, particularly for people with larger families or who entertain frequently. The smaller container is perfect for snacks and smaller portions. Its six cooking functions cover all the bases.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Ninja Crispi Pro: performance

I made a dozen different foods, utilizing all of the different cooking modes, and everything I made came out delicious! As with any air fryer, you'll want to flip or rotate your food partway through cooking. And I noticed that using a small amount of oil or cooking spray made for better results; without it the food was a little bit dry.

I used Air Fry mode to make: potato wedges from scratch, frozen egg bites, frozen veggie burger, tofu from scratch, frozen french fries, fresh vegetables, and frozen "air fryer" Mexican corn. Everything came out well, crispy on the outside and tender inside. I'd actually never made tofu from scratch before and I was surprised how easy and delicious it was!

Roast mode worked beautifully for the Brussels sprouts and mixed peppers I made. Perfectly browned, tender, and delicious. As a vegetarian, I didn't make one, but the 6-quart container allows you to roast a whole chicken of up to 7.5 pounds.

I made a simple two-ingredient "bagel" (greek yogurt plus self-rising flour, and, ok, Everything Bagel seasoning makes three ingredients) in Bake mode, and it came out perfectly. Such a simple and delightful treat made quickly in the Ninja Crispi Pro.

Max Crisp mode gives you the highest temperature range, which is great for vegetables if you like them blackened as I do. The zucchini and tomatoes I made came out great. The sweet potatoes look frightening but they were deliciously sweet and tender inside!

I used Dehydrate mode to make dried fruit for the first time. It took a full seven hours on a low temperature, but it worked. The apple chips had a leathery rather than crispy texture, but they tasted good.

Cleanup is pretty easy. The air fryer mechanism doesn't really need to be cleaned other than wiping it down with a cloth occasionally, and it cannot contact water. The glass cooking dishes, metal crisping plates, and plastic lids can be easily washed by hand or in the dishwasher. Sometimes the spatter gets really baked on, requiring some serious elbow grease to remove. I'd imagine this is the case for all air fryers, it's just that you can't see all the spatters in a dark metal cooking drawer. I actually feel better knowing my cooking container is getting completely clean, so it's worth the extra scrubbing to keep it pristine.

• Performance score: 5/5

Should you buy the Ninja Crispi Pro?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

Ninja Crispi Pro: also consider

If you're not sure about the Ninja Crispi Pro 6-in-1 Glass Countertop Air Fryer, here are some other options to consider ...

How I tested the Ninja Crispi Pro

• I tested the various cooking modes multiple times
• I used it for weeks to prepare a variety of food items
• I cleaned it after every use

I love to eat and I do try to eat healthy even though I don't particularly enjoy cooking. I prepare the majority of my meals at home rather than getting takeout. So, I'm always looking for quicker ways to make healthy and delicious food. I tested the Ninja Crispi Pro 6-in-1 Glass Countertop Air Fryer by making the following foods: lots of different fresh veggies using different cook modes, frozen egg bites, frozen french fries, fresh french fries from scratch, bagel from scratch, marinated tofu, frozen Mexican corn, frozen veggie burger patty, baked sweet potatoes, and dehydrated apple chips.

Read more about how we test.

You've got an air fryer for Christmas – welcome to the club! Now the only question is what to cook first. The possibilities are (almost) endless, but you need to get to grips with your new kitchen bestie with some easier dishes first. So, I've picked 10 things every air fryer newbie needs to try first - staples you can, and likely will, use most regularly.

There's no point in walking before you can run. Every air fryer is different, and each has its own quirks and features, but our list below is made up of things pretty much any air fryer can handle. Whether you want to feed the clan at breakfast, whip up a quick lunch, or impress your loved ones with a mouth-watering roast, this list has got you covered.

If you don't yet own an air fryer but are thinking of picking one up in the January sales, take a look at our guide to the best air fryers, which includes something for every household and every budget.

1. Bacon

Let's start with the basics, air fryer bacon is a must-try for every newbie - and it'll likely become something you do pretty regularly if you're a meat eater. Air frying bacon is quick, much less messy than oil frying, and results in crispy, delicious bacon almost every time. The best part of air frying bacon? You don't need any oil at all, the natural fat of the bacon is enough.

All you need to do is line your air fryer basket with a single layer of rashers, being sure not to overlap them as much as possible, and then use the bacon setting on your air fryer (if there is one). If there's no bacon setting, cook the bacon for five minutes at 200C/392F. If your air fryer is smaller, or you're cooking a lot of rashers, you may need to do this in batches.

2. Fries

Again, we're sticking with something more simple, to get you used to cooking with your air fryer. Fries are another staple of any air fryer owner - whether frozen or fresh. Making fresh chips doesn't take much longer than their frozen counterparts - especially with an air fryer – and can even be a cheaper alternative.

I find Maris Piper potatoes are best for making fries. Wash and peel one potato per person, then cut the potatoes into 1cm (0.3in) thick fries – in my experience, the easiest way to do this is to slice the full potato into about 1cm slices, then cut these chunkier slices into 1cm wide sticks lengthways. At this point, you can submerge the uncooked fries in a bowl of water for a few minutes to remove some of the starch, then pat them dry – but this isn't a necessity and you can just give them a quick rinse and dry.

In a clean, dry bowl, add a tablespoon of your chosen oil (I prefer olive oil) and toss the chips in them. At this point you can add some seasoning if you like, but not too much. Put your chips into the air fryer basket, ensuring it's not too overcrowded, and set to the recommended chips program or for about 25 minutes at 200C/392F. Give them an occasional shake to make sure they're cooking evenly.

Fries can be a bit temperamental so you may need to experiment with your air fryer to find the optimal temperature and time.

3. Grilled sandwich/toastie

Want a quick lunch? An air fryer grilled sandwich (or toastie for those of you in the UK) is just what you need. It takes just a few minutes and you can put damn near anything in a toastie - so what's not to love? There's not just one recipe for making a toastie in an air fryer, but I recommend Good Food's air fryer cheese and ham toastie, which elevates a classic. If you want to use different ingredients, simply ensure you butter the outside of your bread slices and put the filling on the non-buttered sides. Then, cook your toastie for 10 minutes at 190C/374F.

4. Chicken wings

While reviewing the Cosori TurboBlaze and Cosori Dual Blaze Twinfry air fryers, I tried out Cosori's own Louisiana dry rubbed chicken wing recipe - and it's now my ultimate air fryer go-to. Chicken wings are delicious in an air fryer anyway, but this one is my absolute favorite as it's easy to do and uses herbs and spices you likely already have in your cupboard if you're a keen cook. The result is succulent wings that are crispy on the outside and packed with flavor, making them perfect for when you're hosting or in need of a quick dinner.

5. Baked potatoes

A baked potato is an easy but delicious meal, and your air fryer is going to make it easier to cook them. Simply cover your baked potato in oil, salt, and pepper, prick the skin a few times with a fork, and put it in the air fryer basket for about 40 or 50 minutes at 200C/392F - it may take a bit longer if you want the skin super crispy. Once it's ready, you can slice it open and add your favorite topping - maybe even some of the bacon you made.

6. Roast potatoes

Who doesn't love a roast potato? They're a staple of roast dinners and perfect for cooking in an air fryer. Air fryer roasties are crispy on the outside, but soft on the inside, and so easy to do it's criminal.

My go-to air fryer roast potato recipe comes from John Kirkwood, whose handy YouTube video gives you step-by-step instructions for making tasty roasties - without having to parboil them. Depending on your air fryer size, and the number of people, you may need to do these in batches, but once they're done you can easily can your own tasty seasoning. Rosemary and a pinch of salt is an undeniable classic, though.

7. Roast chicken

Once you've become more accustomed to your air fryer, making a roast chicken should be easy peasy - just make sure that the chicken you buy is the right size for your air fryer basket. There are lots of ways you can make a roast chicken in an air fryer, but I find Cook It Real Good's recipe to be the most flavorful I've tried. The result is moist meat, with crispy, tasty skin. How long it will take to cook will largely depend on your air fryer model and the chicken's size, though, so it's worth checking if it's at the right temperature with a meat thermometer before you serve.

8. Roast beef

We've mastered the chicken, now it's time for the roast beef. Beef can be hard to get right, especially if you have picky guests who want it cooked a certain way. I find Cosori's air fryer roast beef recipe is a hit in our house. The finished product has a more American than British feel to it. Like with the chicken, I found recipes that include a lot of dry seasoning are the best for getting a flavorful roast meat with a crispy top - but if you want something more traditional, you can try other options.

9. Veggies

With your meat mastered, you can now start working on air frying some vegetables as a side dish. If you're lucky enough to have a big air fryer, you may even be able to do both at the same time! The cooking time of vegetables varies with an air fryer, with the likes of carrots, for example, using a different temperature than broccoli. So, I advise (from experience) not to throw all your veggies in together and hope they cook well.

I suggest the best vegetables to try first are carrots. Make sure you don't cut them up too small or they could fall under your basket, add a tablespoon of oil to them to coat (and any seasoning you need), and then put them in the air fryer in a single layer - not overlapping - for 10 to 15 minutes at 190C/375F. Like the fries, though, they may take some trial and error to get right.

10. Steak

You might be thinking: you can't make a steak in an air fryer. But, everyone's favorite swearing chef, Gordon Ramsay, has proved you absolutely can - and definitely should. Ramsay's coffee and chilli rubbed ribeye steak recipe is the ultimate test for your air fryer, but properly delicious. Combine it with your air fryer chips and veggies, and you've got a spectacular dinner that will blow away your loved ones - and have them buying their own air fryer.

Air fryers have been the top piece of viral kitchen tech for so long you’d think the trend would have long since run out of fuel. But we have no doubt that some of the best air fryers you can buy will once again be among the most-gifted Christmas presents of 2025.

But how versatile are these things really?

I tried cooking nine different British Christmas food classics – and most will be familiar to you if you're in the US or elsewhere – to see if air fryers really can replace an oven and/or your other kitchen gadgets. True air fryer believers will tell you they can, even though these things are basically just tiny ovens with a more proactive fan that flings heat around in a more aggressive manner.

The rules for my challenge: no other cooking tech is allowed. If water is being heated, it’s getting air-fried, and we’re using one of the most basic air fryers out there. A word of warning though: make sure to check your air fryer's manual before cooking or heating anything unusual, as in some of the experiments below.

We’ve steered away from some of the obvious culinary picks, like pigs in blankets, which these days may well come with air fryer cooking instructions. And we did not attempt to stick an entire turkey into an air fryer to see what happened – ours isn’t nearly big enough, for starters.

Aside from some predictable wins and losses, there were a few surprises in our great big festive air fryer cook-off. Here’s how it went – starting with something easy.

1. Mince pies

• Will it air fry? score: 8/10

An air fryer is ideal for heating up that staple of a British Christmas, the mince pie. It takes less time and less electricity than a conventional oven, and they're done within a few minutes. The question here is how much browning of the pastry we want to see in the process of heating the filling.

And this is particularly important for mince pies with an ultra-fine dusting of sugar, which will get taken out (or at least caramelized) pretty quickly under intense heat.

2. Mashed potato

• Will it air fry? score: 7/10

Air fryers are famously good at making chips and roast potatoes. But how about mashed potato? The usual method is, of course, to boil and then mash. You can get similar-ish results by throwing whole potatoes in the air fryer, baking them, scooping out the insides and – as usual – chucking in a load of butter/margarine and some seasoning.

The end result tastes fantastic, but we did think this method makes it a little bit trickier to weed out the last of the lumps ,as the moisture level of the potato is going to be more variable, and lower, than when using the classic boiled method.

3. Brussels sprouts

• Will it air fry? score: 7/10

We do not doubt that there are great Brussels sprout recipes that involve an air fryer, but just flinging them in with a bit of seasoning is not the way to go.

I actually tried two methods here. Half of the sprouts were placed into the air fryer, naked. The other half were wrapped in foil with a bit of water, in an attempt to half-steam them. Neither method produced fantastic results.

The naked sprouts ended up super-brown on the outside with an inconsistent cook on the inside. Our foil-wrapped sprouts ended up looking better, but again they were a little too inconsistent.

An air fryer is likely better for finishing off sprout dishes than cooking them from raw.

4. Gravy

• Will it air fry? score: 2/10

Trying to prepare gravy in an air fryer is the culinary equivalent of watching brain-rot social media content. It’s pointless and not nourishing – and you should definitely check your air fryer's instructions before attempting it.

Even at higher settings, the gravy never seems to get that hot. And you end up with a scum of evaporated gravy solids around the edge as the process runs on. Does it work? Sure. But there’s really no reason to prepare gravy this way.

5. Yorkshire pudding

• Will it air fry? score: 8/10

For the uninitiated, Yorkshire pudding is a savory baked dish made with eggs, flour, milk, and fat that's typically served with roast meats – for Americans, it's similar to a popover, but generally larger, and often bowl-shaped to hold gravy.

The rapid heat you can get with an air fryer may make it even better than a conventional oven for Yorkshire puddings, but you’re not going to fit a full platter of the things in a normal air fryer, of course.

As ever, the key is to heat the oil first in whatever receptacle you choose to use, and then give it a good amount of time with the air fryer drawer completely closed in order to keep the heat level nice and high.

I got surprisingly good results, ending up with a fairly light and well-risen XL-size Yorkshire pudding on my first attempt.

6. Stuffing

• Will it air fry? score: 9/10

It’s no surprise to see that stuffing works well in an air fryer, as they do a good job with most foods you’d typically use a fan-assisted oven for. We made six stuffing balls, with slightly more water in the mix than suggested.

What we got was a crispy outer with a soft and pliant inside. Lovely stuff. And there’s no reason a dishful of stuffing wouldn’t fare just as well in an air fryer.

7. Christmas pudding

• Will it air fry? score: 6/10

Another favorite of us Brits, Christmas pudding is certainly not a 'pudding' in the US sense of the word – it's a steamed cake-like dessert made with dried fruits, suet, spices, breadcrumbs, eggs, and alcohol (usually sherry or brandy, or, even better, both). We expected this one to be a bust, as most of the ways you'd cook a Christmas pudding are all about retaining moisture. And, as our cheap, single-serve pudding had to be removed from its plastic dish so we could safely place it in the air fryer, the outlook was not good.

The results were surprisingly solid, though, no doubt buoyed by the fact a tiny Christmas pudding doesn’t need that long to cook. The edges were turned into a sort-of caramelized rind that were a nice contrast to the rest of the pudding – and it didn’t end up dry, which is the main thing I'd feared.

8. Cranberry sauce

• Will it air fry? score: 6/10

Americans enjoy cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving, and it's an equally indispensable condiment for us Brits if a turkey is the Christmas-dinner centerpiece. A bit of orange juice, a bit of brown sugar, a load of cranberries, and you can have it all done within 20 minutes or so of cooking using the traditional pan method; the cranberries contain pectin, which helps thicken out the sauce as it cools. But the air fryer method does require a bit of extra attention.

In most air fryers, the heat filament is not actually that far from whatever you’re cooking. And this risks your cranberries burning, not to mention making weird noises, particularly in the early stages. It’s all doable with the occasional stir, though, not to mention making the mixture isn’t boiling over.

9. Mulled wine

• Will it air fry? score: 0/10

Here’s a car crash we didn’t expect. Obviously an air fryer would never be the most sensible or quickest way to make mulled wine – basically wine heated with spices such as cinnamon and cloves, and optional extras like orange peel – and you should try this one at your own risk, after checking your model's instructions. But, my goodness, this one went awry.

We didn’t try to simply heat up pre-made mulled wine. We stuck a load of red wine in some pyrex, shoved in a couple of mulled spice bags along with some slices of orange. It’s not the purist’s way, but it’s something.

However, in a bizarre turn, whenever I checked on how it was doing around a quarter of the mulled wine mix had made a bid for freedom, ending up on the bottom of the air fryer. And we know how clean most of those are.

Thankfully we’d cleaned it just before the mulled wine episode, but whatever turbulence the fan created with those orange slices and spice bags, it was a bad scene.

Ninja is the biggest name in air fryers, and for good reason – its compact cookers deliver consistently great results, and there's a huge variety to choose from. Whether you're cooking fries for one or preparing a family-sized Christmas dinner, there's a Ninja air fryer for you. The only problem is deciding which one to buy – and that's where I come in.

I'm TechRadar's kitchens expert, testing dozens of small appliances every year, and after hours of cooking and kilos of fries, I've put together this definitive list of the three Ninja air fryers I'd recommend to my own friends and family. There's something here for every household, and here at TechRadar we've put each one through a thorough battery of tests to make sure they can air fry, roast, bake, and reheat just as well as Ninja claims.

However many people you're cooking for, and whatever size kitchen you're working with, read on to find out which Ninja air fryer is best for you.

Best for families

Ninja Double Stack

If you're looking around your kitchen and wondering whether you even have room for an air fryer, the Ninja Double Stack is the one for you. It has two drawers, giving you enough space to cook a full family-sized meal – but rather than sitting side-by-side, they're one on top of the other with a control panel on the side, meaning this air fryer has a considerably smaller footprint than a conventional two-drawer option. It's a design that's often copied, but (in my opinion) never bettered.

The Double Stack offers six cooking modes (air fry, max crisp, roast, bake, dehydrate and reheat) and all are winners, During our cooking tests, fries and chicken wings turned out perfectly without any additional oil, and we found there was no perceptible transfer of heat between the two drawers, even when they were set to very different temperatures.

We tested the Sync and Match cooking modes by preparing an assortment of tapas dishes that would usually require careful management to accommodate their different cooking times and temperatures, and the Double Stack handled them with ease, ensuring they were all ready at the same time and cooked to perfection.

The disadvantage of the two-tier design is that there's no removable divider between the two drawers like there is in some traditional-style air fryers, so you can't cook one large item like a chicken. Instead, you're restricted to two smaller portions, but when you're cooking a full meal with protein and sides, that's exactly what you need.

Read our full Ninja Double Stack review

Best compact

Ninja Crispi

The Crispi is an unusual air fryer, designed to be carried around rather than tethered to your kitchen counter. It consists of a set of resealable glass containers that hold your food until it's ready to cook, and a 'PowerPod' lid that contains the heating element and fan that will heat it up. It's particularly well-suited to reheating and crisping up leftovers at lunchtime, but as we discovered in our tests, it's also great for cooking small meals from scratch.

It has four cooking modes – air fry, reheat, bake, and max crisp – and although we wouldn't really recommend it for baking (the Ninja 5-in-1 Grill and Air Fryer below is much better for cakes and bread), the other settings didn't let us down.

There is a bit of a learning curve to cooking fresh vegetables with the Crispi – they need just the barest spritz of oil and cook surprisingly fast – but once you've got the knack you'll be able to enjoy delicious veg anywhere with an electrical outlet. Diced sweet potatoes turned out particularly well, and we were able to use the max crisp setting to crisp up the leftovers later in the day.

Convenience foods like nuggets, protein waffles and veggie tots all turned out brilliantly without any extra oil at all, as did frozen fries. Panko-crusted tofu was another winner too, with the Crispi proving surprisingly versatile.

If you're a frequent traveller, have a particularly small kitchen, or just enjoy a hot lunch at work, the Crispi is the Ninja air fryer for you.

Read our full Ninja Crispi review

Best multi-function

Ninja 5-in-1 Grill and Air Fryer

This super-versatile Ninja air fryer doesn't just fry – it can also grill, bake, dehydrate, and roast, and does them all extremely well. During our tests we found it particularly good at cooking meat thanks to its temperature probe, which helps ensure your food is properly heated all the way through without drying out. We've never had such good steak from an air fryer.

It has a generous 5.7-liter cooking capacity, but is surprisingly compact and didn't dominate our test kitchen like some other fryers we've tested. You get two ceramic-coated plates that slide into the cooking pot, a grill plate, and a crisper plate, which should serve all your dinner-making needs.

It's operated using a bright digital display paired with large control buttons that are easy to use even when you're in a rush to get a meal on the table. The screen will also show your food's internal temperature when you're using the probe, as well as a countdown of resting time once it's finished cooking. It's all very useful and well thought-out.

Not only does it cook meat, fries and vegetables to perfection, this is one of the few air fryers we've tested that does an excellent job baking bread and cakes. Our garlic and parsley flatbreads cooked to perfection in just a few minutes, and it could easily replace a conventional oven if you're only an occasional baker.

It's relatively pricey for an air fryer, with a list price of £199.99 (roughly $250 / AU$420), but now that it's been around for a few months you can often find it for a discount. This particular Ninja air fryer is only available in the UK, but if you're in the US or Australia the Ninja Foodi 6-in-1 Indoor Grill is almost identical.

Read our full Ninja 5-in-1 Grill and Air Fryer review

Whether you're cooking a quick dinner after work, crisping up leftovers, roasting vegetables or feeding a hungry household, a good air fryer can make everyday cooking faster, easier and often cheaper to run than using your main oven. They heat up quickly, use little to no oil and can deliver crispy, evenly cooked food in a fraction of the time of a conventional oven.

Our expert reviewers have tested dozens of air fryers, from affordable single-drawer models to premium dual-basket and smart designs. Every model is put through the same standardized cooking tests before being assessed for ease of use, cleaning, build quality and value, so our recommendations are based on hands-on testing rather than manufacturer claims.

Air fryers can also help reduce energy use for many everyday meals. According to price comparison site GoCompare, they typically cost less to run than a conventional oven, making them a worthwhile investment if you regularly cook smaller portions or don't want to heat your whole kitchen.

After all our testing, the Ninja Double Stack is our top overall pick thanks to its excellent cooking performance and space-saving design. But whether you're shopping on a budget, cooking for one or need enough capacity for family meals, we've found an air fryer to suit every kitchen and every type of cook.

You've probably heard that Amazon Prime Day is underway. Despite the name, it runs for four days this year, having kicked off on June 23 and ending on June 26. We've been tracking air fryer deals throughout the event and, while discounts haven't been especially exciting so far, prices can change quickly. We keep the retailer listings beneath every recommendation in this guide up to date, so you can easily see the latest offers. One deal worth highlighting is the versatile Ninja Crispi Pro 6-in-1 Glass Countertop Air Fryer, which is currently discounted by 17%.

The best air fryers

The best air fryer overall

With most air fryers, the more generous the cooking capacity, the more counter space you'll need to sacrifice. This Ninja model cleverly avoids that issue by stacking its baskets one on top of the other, rather than side-by-side. It's such a smart design, we gave it the prize for Best Air Fryer in the 2024 TechRadar Choice Awards. Each drawer holds 5qts / 4.75L, and you can create even more cooking space by slotting in one of the provided trays. Although do note that the tall-rather-than-wide approach means you won't get able to fit in, say, an uncut pizza. (If you just need something compact and don't need a large capacity, head to our guide to the best small air fryers.)

In our review, our tester noted no compromise in performance with this new design approach – the Double Stack delivers the same excellent performance as other Ninja air fryers we've tested. A wide range of different cooking modes make this model ultra-versatile, while the Sync and Match functions take all the pain out of cooking foods with different timing requirements – select your cooking mode, set your finish time and, if you're synchronizing the two baskets, select the cooking times for each, and it'll do the math for you. There's also virtually no heat leakage between the two trays, which is good news if you’re dealing with precise foods or don't want to waste energy when only using one basket.

The main down-side here is that the Double Stack is pricier than other dual-basket air fryers, so if you don't need to save on counter space you could get something as good for a lower price. But if you have a small kitchen, it could be well worth the extra investment.

Read our full Ninja Double Stack review

The most versatile air fryer

The Ninja Crispi Pro 6-in-1 Glass Countertop Air Fryer is all about flexibility. Its modular base works with two included glass containers, a 2.5-quart for snacks and a 6-quart for bigger meals, so you can cook for yourself or a crowd. The glass containers can be used for cooking, serving, and storing leftovers. Handles stay cool and lids make storing extras simple. Compared with the original Ninja Crispi, the Pro has larger containers and more cooking modes, making it better suited for families or entertaining.

We put all six cooking modes to the test. Max Crisp, Air Fry, Bake/Proof, Roast, Recrisp, and Dehydrate all delivered. Everything we tried came out tasty and well cooked, from crispy sweet potato wedges and roasted vegetables to homemade bagels and even marinated tofu. The interior light makes it easy to check on progress, and cleanup is simple thanks to dishwasher-safe glass and crisper trays.

It is on the larger side and takes up counter space, but the versatility makes it worth it. If you want one reliable cooking appliance that can handle everything from quick snacks to big dinners while keeping your food easy to serve and store, the Ninja Crispi Pro is worth your attention.

Read our full Ninja Crispi Pro 6-in-1 Glass Countertop Air Fryer review

The best budget airfryer

This versatile twin-drawer air fryer has a list price of £199 (about $250 / AU$400), but you can find it online for half that price, making it incredible value. It's a great-looking appliance too, with a matt black finish and champagne-toned accents, though it's also relatively large so you'll need to measure your kitchen counter to make sure it'll fit comfortably.

It has several features you'd expect to find in much pricier models, such as synced timing so you can cook two different foods and have them finish at the same time. It doesn't have as many presets as some others, but those it does offer will cover all the essentials (including steal, fries, chicken, and pizza), and in our tests they performed very well. We also achieved good results for other dishes by paying close attention to the instructions in the manual, which helps take the guesswork out of preparing your favorite meals.

There are a few quirks, and we found that it wasn't ideal for baking, but the Russell Hobbs Satisfry punches well above its weight and you won't find a better air fryer for the price.

Read our full Russell Hobbs Satisfry Dual Basket Air Fryer review

The best air fryer/microwave combo

If you don't have room for both an air fryer and a microwave on your kitchen counter, this multifunctional cooker from Samsung combines them into a single appliance - and it works as a convection oven and a grill as well.

During our tests we found that the Samsung Combi took a bit longer than a standard air dryer to crisp our fries, but it was extremely versatile. There's a huge array of presets, but the intuitive controls make them easy to find and select, and the mobile app allows you to control it from afar. We were particularly impressed by its capabilities as a convection oven, and could see it replacing a freestanding oven in a small kitchen if you're particularly short of space, or need to make room for a dishwasher.

It's certainly not small, and it's pricier than most of the single-purpose air fryers in this guide, but it has a smart design that won't look out of place in a modern kitchen, and it can replace so many other appliances that it does represent good value.

Read our full Samsung Combi Smart Microwave Oven review

The best portable air fryer

Technically you could carry any air fryer around with you, and use it wherever there's an electrical outlet, but doing so would be extremely cumbersome and awkward. That's where the Ninja Crispi comes in. Rather than a drawer, your food is held in resealable glass containers that you can carry around and store in the fridge like regular Tupperware. When you want to cook, just remove the regular lid and attach the Crispi PowerPod, which contains the heating element and fan, and switch it on.

It's an interesting design, and during our tests we were impressed by how well it handled everyday dishes like fries, which turned out perfectly golden on the outside and fluffy inside whether they were fresh or frozen.

Baking in the Crispi proved less successful, but since this is mostly an air fryer designed for heating and crisping, that shouldn't be too much of an issue in everyday use.

Cleanup is refreshingly simple because you don't need to clean the PowerPod – only the glass containers and lids, which are dishwasher-safe or can be washed by hand. We also tried using paper air fryer liners, which made things even easier.

Read our full Ninja Crispi review

The best air fryer for small households

It's hard to believe the Series 6 is Bosch's first air fryer – it performs so well and so consistently – and it's an excellent choice for couples and those living with one or two housemates.

During testing, one of the first things that struck us about the Series 6 Air Fryer is how compact it is considering its 7-liter capacity. If you want lots of cooking space but don't have room on your kitchen counter for a full-size dual-drawer fryer, this is definitely an option to consider.

This fryer has a relatively small number of presets (just eight) but they all worked very well during our cooking tests, and we were impressed by the instructions in the cooking guide, which generally kept guesswork to a minimum. Fries (both frozen and home-made), chicken, and meat-and-veg skewers were all done to perfection. We prepared the skewers using the Series 6's grill accessory, which is good, but can be a little tricky to remove after cooking.

We did, however, appreciate that so many of this air fryer's components are dishwasher-safe, so we didn't have to spend time at the sink after dinner.

Read our full Bosch Series 6 Air Fryer review

The best extra large capacity air fryer

This extra-large air fryer has enough cooking capacity to feed a family, delivers consistently good results for a wide range of foods, and is very reasonably priced too. If you're looking for a fryer that can cater for a crowd, it comes highly recommended. It's not available in the US, though. If you're outside the UK, the closest model is the Philips 3000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer.

According to our reviewer Vic Hood, "when the 1000 Series works well, it's excellent: chicken is succulent with just enough crispiness on the skin, muffins are soft inside without being dry, and chips (homemade and frozen) are golden and fluffy inside."

The biggest downside for us is the instructions. You'll have to go online to get the full manual, and even then, the food and cooking time tables provided aren't as detailed as we'd like. However, the app is packed with great recipe ideas, and the fryer's presets work well.

Read our full Philips 1000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer review

The best air fryer and grill combo

This is the best multi-functional air fryer we've tested this year, and its roast, grill, bake, and dehydrate modes blew us away during testing.

It's a particularly great choice if you enjoy meat thanks to its built-in heat probe, which helps ensure your dishes are properly heated all the way through, but still moist and juicy. Our chicken and beef were cooked to perfection, as were our burgers.

We rarely achieve great results when baking with an air fryer, but the Ninja 5-in-1 is the exception. We made perfect herb flatbreads and blueberry muffins, which were evenly cooked and (in the case of the muffins) perfectly risen, just as if we'd made them using a conventional oven.

Only the air frying mode let us down slightly, producing somewhat inconsistent results until we got used to its idiosyncrasies. If you're looking for an air fryer to replace your oven though, this would be a solid choice. It's big enough to feed a family of four, and super versatile (though the grill takes a little more scrubbing than most air fryer accessories).

Want to save on a Ninja air fryer? Check out our Ninja discounts for the latest deals on high-performance cooking essentials.

Read our full Ninja 5-in-1 Grill and Air Fryer review

The best air fryer with steam

The super chic Smeg Combi Steam Oven is a lot more than just an air fryer. It also functions as a small convection oven, just the right size for preparing a cake, loaf or a pan of muffins, and as the name suggests, it has a steam mode that's ideal for keeping meat and fish succulent.

It also has an excellent range of preset modes for different dishes, and during our tests these worked extremely well, taking any guesswork out of cooking. Our reviewer Karen Freeman prepared frozen and freshly made fries according to the instructions, and reported that "In both cases, the fries came out crisp on the outside, soft on the inside, and totally delicious."

Roasted vegetables and veggie burgers also turned out perfectly (even sprouts), and both frozen and homemade pizzas "came out perfect: lightly browned, fully cooked in the middle, not burnt anywhere."

There are a few potential drawbacks. For example, in addition to its high price tag, this multi-function appliance probably won't be able to replace your oven if you're cooking for more than two people - it's just not large enough inside. It also proved somewhat tricky to de-grease. It could be an excellent choice for individuals or couples in small living spaces though, freeing up valuable space under your kitchen counters.

Read our full Smeg Combi Steam Oven review

We also tested

We've tested 45 different air fryers here at TechRadar. Here are some of the ones we've tried that didn't quite make our shortlist:

If I see the words 'sticky sauce' on any menu, chances are I’m ordering whatever food it comes with. Even more so when I’m eating in a Chinese restaurant where the sticky sauces are full of sweet, salty and spicy Asian flavours.

However, in all my years testing the best air fryers I’ve tried (and failed, many times) to replicate the sticky, crispy chicken from my local takeout. That was until I discovered this air fryer sesame chicken recipe while scrolling TikTok.

The sauce uses quite a lot of ingredients, in small amounts, so it can seem expensive if you don’t already have them in your pantry. It also makes a bit of a mess of your air fryer basket.

On the plus side though, once you’ve bought all the bottles and spices you can make this recipe dozens of times before they run out – which I have done. You can also put parchment paper in the basket to avoid the mess, or even add the chicken to the sauce and heat in a separate pan.

I made mine in a Ninja Foodi Max Air Fryer. When it came to adding the sauce, I removed the chicken pieces from the basket and placed them directly inside the fryer to stop the sauce falling through. If you have a similar design, this is worth bearing in mind.

Ingredients

Chicken

• 300g chicken breast or thigh pieces
• 3 tbsp flour
• 1 beaten egg
• 100g panko breadcrumbs or crushed cornflakes

Sauce

• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 3 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
• 1 tsp rice wine (or rice vinegar)
• ½ tsp Chinese five spice
• 3 tbsp sriracha
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tsp grated fresh ginger

To serve (optional)

• Sesame seeds
• Sliced spring onions
• Chopped red chilli

Equipment

• Air fryer – I used the Ninja Foodi Max
• Cooking spray
• Three bowls for the flour, egg, and breadcrumbs

Method

This recipe is from @boredoflunch – a home cook who has sold multiple cookbooks and whose video version of this sticky air fryer chicken recipe has been watched 4.7 million times.

1. Prepare your chicken

Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Coat each piece first in flour, then dip into the beaten egg, and finally into the panko breadcrumbs (or cornflakes) until fully coated.

2. Air fry until golden

Arrange the coated chicken pieces in your air fryer basket, in a single layer, and lightly spray with cooking oil.

Set your air fryer at 200 C / 400 F for 14 minutes, shaking or turning the pieces halfway so they cook evenly on all sides. I like to spray the underside of the chicken, once they’ve been turned over so one side isn’t drier than the other but you don’t need to do this.

3. Make the sticky sauce

While the chicken cooks, mix all of the sauce ingredients together – sesame oil, soy sauce, honey, sweet chilli sauce, rice wine, Chinese five spice, sriracha, garlic, and ginger – in a bowl until combined.

4. Coat and serve

Once the chicken is cooked, pour the sauce over the top while it’s still inside the air fryer basket. Give the basket a toss until every piece is coated and cook for another 2-3 minutes at 200 C / 400 F.

Serve with rice, and top with sesame seeds, spring onions, and sliced chilli for an extra hit of Asian flavours.

Pickles are one of those foods that you either love them or hate them. You’re either the one picking them out of your burger, or the one collecting the extras and I’m firmly in the second camp. So when I came across this air fryer fried pickle recipe, I knew I had to give them a go.

I’ve been testing the best air fryers for years and I’ve never thought to make fried pickles. Despite having coated and fried just about any and all meats and vegetables I can think of. They’re incredibly versatile and you can coat them in all sorts of spices and different types of crumbs. I like dipping mine in sriracha mayonnaise but they’re also perfect with burger sauce.

They’re great for sharing with friends or on your own and they come together in about 15 minutes. I made mine in a Ninja Foodi Max Air Fryer but whichever model you’re using the method stays the same – simple, consistent, and maybe even enough to convert any pickle-skeptic friends.

Ingredients

I haven’t included exact measurements below as I recommend you make these pickles according to your own tastes. I’m not great with spice, for example, so I use less chilli but more garlic. It also depends on how many pickles you’re frying, so feel free to experiment.

• Pickle slices
• Flour
• Garlic powder
• Paprika
• Onion powder
• Chili powder
• Salt
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup panko breadcrumbs (or crushed cornflakes)

Equipment

• Air fryer – I used the Ninja Foodi Max
• Cooking spray

Method

This recipe is inspired by @quotetheraven2 whose video version of these air fryer fried pickles has been watched more than 3 million times.

1. Prepare your air fryer and pickles

Preheat your air fryer to 380 F / 190 C. While it heats up, slice your pickles into thick rounds or spears and pat them dry with paper towels. This step helps the coating stick and keeps the pickles from turning soggy. You can use jar pickles – and that’s my preferred type – but just make sure you dry them a little longer.

2. Set up your coatings

In one bowl, mix the flour, garlic powder, paprika, onion powder, chili powder, and salt. In a second bowl, beat the eggs. Add the panko breadcrumbs to a third bowl. This three-step setup gives you a light but crispy coating for your pickles.

3. Bread the pickles

Working a few at a time – to avoid creating an eggy/floury paste – coat each pickle slice in the seasoned flour, then dip it into the beaten eggs, and finally roll it in the panko breadcrumbs. Press gently to help the crumbs stick to the pickles (the finer the crumbs, the better), then put each picking in your air fryer.

4. Air fry until golden

Lightly spray the pickles with cooking spray. Air fry for eight minutes, then flip each pickle over, spray again, and cook for another four minutes, or until golden brown and crisp. Avoid overcrowding the basket and try not to open the lid too many times to get a good, golden crunch.

5. Serve immediately

Carefully remove the fried pickles from the basket and let them cool for a minute or two. Serve hot with ranch, spicy mayo – my favorite is sriracha mayo – or your go-to dip like burger sauce or even houmous.

As soon as the nights start drawing in, I immediately go in search of comforting, indulgent recipes to help me cope with the colder, darker months.

In my years testing the best air fryers, I’ve uncovered some absolute gems like these pumpkin cheesecake enchiladas but mine and my sons’ current go-to sweet treat are these air fryer s’mores.

They taste like they’ve come straight from a campfire, minus the smoke and the mess, and they take just 10 minutes from start to finish. Being in the UK, I swapped the traditional Graham crackers for digestives. They’re thicker but they give the s’mores a buttery sweetness and a hint of caramel that works really well.

They’re everything I love about the original but made with a touch more refinement and zero outdoor effort making them great for an easy weekend dessert, a movie night, or even a late-night sugar fix.

I made these in a Ninja Foodi Max air fryer, but whether you’re using a compact model or a larger basket, this recipe is forgiving and quick – an ideal starting point if you’re curious about air fryer baking or just craving something comforting.

Ingredients

• Graham crackers / digestive biscuits – two per s’more
• Large marshmallows – one per s’more
• Chocolate – one per s’more

Equipment

• Air fryer – I used the Ninja Foodi Max
• Parchment paper
• Spatula or tongs

Method

This recipe is inspired by @femalefoodie, whose video version of these air fryer s’mores has been viewed more than 1.1 million times and counting.

Due to not being able to readily buy Graham crackers in the UK, I substituted for digestive biscuits but any sweet cracker or biscuit will work. Similarly, in my family the bigger the marshmallows the better, but they can be hard to work with. Finally, choose any chocolate you like. I like using sea salt or orange-flavored chocolate but my boys love regular milk chocolate.

1. Heat your air fryer

Set your air fryer to 400 F / 200 C. Put four biscuits into the basket. You don’t need to put them on parchment paper but it does make the s’mores easier to remove when they’re hot.

2. Melt the chocolate

Top each biscuit with a square of chocolate. Air fry for 1-2 minutes just until the chocolate starts to soften and melt. Watch closely to make sure the chocolate doesn’t burn.

3. Toast the marshmallows

Place one marshmallow on top of each melted chocolate biscuit and cook for another 2–3 minutes, or until the marshmallows are golden brown and puffy.

4. Assemble and serve

Remove the s’mores carefully from the air fryer. Top each with another digestive biscuit, press gently to sandwich together and serve immediately while warm and gooey.

Tip: If you like them slightly less messy and soft, chill the s’mores for a minute or two before eating. The chocolate will firm slightly, giving a balance of crunch and melt.

• Ninja has released an extra-large version of the glass Ninja Crispi air fryer
• The Ninja Crispi Pro has six cooking modes and a maximum capacity of 6qt
• It's available to buy now in the US for $279.99 (about £210 / AU$430)

The Ninja Crispi is one of the best air fryers we've tested this year at TechRadar, and now an XL version is available for cooking even larger meals. The Ninja Crispi Pro has the same basic design as the original portable Crispi, but a much larger capacity

The original Crispi is Ninja's smallest air fryer, and is compact enough to cook your lunch at the office, at an Airbnb, or anywhere you have access to an electrical outlet. The Crispi Pro takes that design and scales it up. So you can keep it on your kitchen counter and use it to cook Thanksgiving dinner for the whole family (not just crisp up the tasty leftovers).

Like the classic Crispi, the Crispi Pro consists of a set of glass containers with resealable lids, which you can use to store or marinate your food before cooking, and to serve it once it's ready. Whereas the original Crispi has a lid containing the fan and heating element (known as the PowerPod), the Crispi Pro also has a base that sits on your work surface. When it's time to fry, simply slide the glass dish into place and use the digital controls on the front to pick a program.

Frying without strings

The Ninja Crispi Pro has six cooking modes (two more than the original Crispi): air fry, bake, roast, dehydrate, max crisp, and re-crisp. It comes with two cooking containers – 2.5qt and 6qt – and an additional 4qt dish is available to buy separately if you need something in between.

It's available to buy now direct from Ninja for $279.99 (about £210 / AU$430), and comes in four colors: cyberspace (dark blue), ash gray, bone, and rose quartz. It's currently only available in the US, but I wouldn't be surprised if it launches in the UK before Christmas, so you might want to start thinking about your turkey and sprouts.

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Air fryers have come a long way in the past decade and today they’re sold in a vast range of sizes for a mix of budgets with a host of features beyond just frying.

What started out as a simple way to make fries with less oil has grown into one of the most versatile and popular countertop appliances you can buy. So much so, they’re used by economists when tracking inflation and sales jumped 140% last year even as other appliance sales struggled.

As someone who has been reviewing the best air fryers since they first rose to fame, I’ve cooked everything from fried chicken that rivals KFC to French Toast and even Krispy Kreme-style donuts in my air fryer. In that time, I’ve found some surprising foods you can make in the air fryer, as well as which foods to avoid, and I’ve made my fair share of air fryer mistakes. Plus, the bigger and more elaborate the models get, the more complicated and prone to errors they – and I – become.

With this in mind, here are some mistakes I wish I’d known when I first started.

Best air fryer deals

Read on to discover what we wish we’d known when we started air frying - or, if you’ve already decided you want to invest in this handy kitchen appliance, check out the best prices on the best air fryers we like right now:

1. Going by the book

Most air fryers come with a recipe booklet or app that offers inspiration about what to cook in an air fryer - but these don't always include frozen foods or more complex recipes.

This means you will need to experiment. When it comes to frozen foods, I’ve found hotter temperatures are better, as the food needs to thaw and brown at the same time - go too far the other way, though, and the food will burn, so keep an eye on your dish.

When recreating your favorite dishes in an air fryer instead of an oven, experiment with the same temperature you’d usually use. If you find your food is overdone then next time reduce the temperature by 9-18F / 5-10C, or increase it by the same amount if it doesn’t look browned enough (but is cooked through).

The same is true for a dish you’d deep fry such as donuts: set the air fryer to the temperature you’d heat the oil to. However, if it's a dish you’d usually cook on the stove, there are no hard and fast rules regarding temperature, so make sure to do some research and look for dedicated air fryer recipes for the dish you’re planning to cook.

During my year with an air fryer, I’ve found the appliance can speed up cooking by as much as 50%, providing it's a dish you’d usually prepare in an oven. However, Air fryers rarely speed up food prepared on the stove - instead, they ensure the browning and crispness is more consistent, and safer if it's a dish that’s usually deep-fried.

For food that takes around 20 to 25 minutes in an oven, reduce the cooking duration by around five to seven minutes, but be prepared to cook for a few additional minutes if it's not quite to your liking. If it’s usually cooked on the stove, set the air fryer for a similar cooking duration.

2. Not pre-heating

Some air fryers have an automatic preheat function, which activates as soon as you switch on the appliance, while others require a manual preheat. Whichever model you have, don’t even think about skipping this step.

Preheating sees the hot air circulate in the air fryer's cavity bringing it to the correct temperature. This means as soon as you add food to the frying basket or bowl, moisture on the surface will start evaporating immediately, which causes it to brown and crisp.

If you add food to a cold basket, this process will take longer and you’ll find it won’t be as crisp or appetizingly browned after the cooking duration you programmed in.

3. Not adjusting for the size or cut of ingredients

One of the easiest traps to fall into when using an air fryer is assuming that all versions of the same food will cook in the same way. Thin fries, chunky wedges, and potato halves all need different timings in an air fryer. The same goes for chicken: strips, drumsticks, and whole thighs won’t brown or cook through at the same rate. And even then, if you’re using the same food but you’ve cut the chips up in different sizes, or one chicken breast is much smaller than the other, the cooking times will vary.

If you don’t adjust the temperature and time accordingly, you’ll either end up with burnt outsides and raw middles, or food that never crisps.

Sadly, given just how many variations of food there are, and even the sheer number of air fryer models, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. It comes down to trial and error, and this also harks back to the first mistake in this list: don’t take recipe times and temperatures as gospel.

That said, a good rule of thumb is the thicker the cut, the lower and slower you should cook it. Thinner pieces can handle hotter, shorter blasts. Splitting food into evenly sized portions before cooking makes it easier to get consistent results.

4. Overfilling the basket

All air fryers come with a maximum capacity the frying basket can hold, but over the past year I’ve learned that the closer you get to that figure, the less effective the air fryer is at evenly browning and crisping all of the food in the basket. This is because the hot air struggles to circulate around the food the fuller it is.

In my experience, an air fryer basket should be filled to no more than half its height to ensure food is evenly browned and fully cooked within the specified duration. For example, if you have a 6-quart / 5.7 liter air fryer, a 1lb / 454g batch of fries is the maximum amount you can cook to ensure optimum browning.

If you have a smaller capacity air fryer, or a model that has two frying baskets so you can cook different foods at the same time, such as the Ninja Foodi Max Dual Zone air fryer, then you will need to reduce the quantity.

We found in the smaller Instant Vortex Mini, which has a 2-quart / 2-liter capacity, the basket was comfortably able to hold a 0.7 lb / 300g batch of fries without affecting the crisping or browning.

Also when it comes to large items such as bread, cakes or even a whole chicken, the closer the food sits to the heating element in the top of the air fryer, the more likely they are to burn at the point closest to the top, so make sure they are a reasonable distance away from the element. And, of course, be aware of the foods to avoid putting in the air fryer.

5. Not cleaning after every use

It’s tempting to leave the air fryer basket for ‘later,’ but skipping a clean can come back to haunt you. Oil, crumbs, and grease quickly build up and the next time you cook, they can start smoking or burning and that smell can cling to your food, not to mention grease left near a heating element can even become a fire hazard.

Regular cleaning helps your air fryer perform better because clear vents and baskets let the hot air circulate more freely. Most baskets are non-stick and dishwasher safe, so it rarely takes more than a few minutes to wash them out. If you make cleaning part of your routine after every cook, you’ll extend the life of your fryer and keep your meals tasting fresh.

6. Using the wrong oil - or none at all

Yes, they're called air fryers, but technically speaking, frying by definition requires oil or fat in a pan. If you really want that fried feeling to your food, with crispy, golden, and flavorful coating, then you're going to need oil to make it happen.

Most manufacturers will recommend using a small amount with some recipes, but I've found some meals need a little more. You sacrifice some of the health benefits, so experimenting and finding a level that feels right for your needs is key.

It's important to note that you'll want an oil with a high smoke point, though, to avoid food that tastes burnt. We made this mistake when we ran out of sunflower oil and tried olive oil, which pretty much ruined our meal.

• Check out these great air fryer deals

If you already own an air fryer, chances are you’ve tried, and may have even exhausted cooking the basics like fries or chicken wings. You may have even ventured into breakfast and snack territory, but the beauty of the best air fryers is that they’re much more versatile than many people realise.

Beyond being a healthier way to cook, or helping you save money on energy bills, their compact and quick nature means air fryers suit a host of foods and meals. And while there’s no shortage of advice on air fryer mistakes and the foods to avoid cooking in an air fryer, we’ve spent years experimenting to uncover the most surprising foods that do work.

Below we round up nine of these surprising foods that produce great results. We’re sure there are plenty more – and the best way to find out if a new air fryer food type will work out or not is to give it a go.

9 air fryer foods to give a go

1. Pickles

If you’ve ever had fried pickles at a bar or diner, you’ll know how addictive they can be. The good news is you don’t need a deep fryer to make them. Your trusty air fryer can do the job!

Slice dill pickles into coins or spears, pat them dry with a paper towel, then coat them in seasoned flour or breadcrumbs. A quick spritz of oil helps the coating crisp up evenly and you only need to cook them for around eight minutes at 400 F / 200 C, flipping halfway. Take them out and you’ll have crunchy bites with a pickle zing all with far less grease than their deep-fried cousins. Serve with ranch, hot sauce, or a garlic mayo for dipping.

2. Ice cream balls

Yes, you can cook ice cream in an air fryer. And it’s delicious. Deep-fried ice cream is a popular dessert often served in South American restaurants. An ice cream ball is coated in a batter of sorts and deep-fried for less than a minute to create a warm, crisp shell while the ice cream remains intact on the inside.

We recreated this treat and found that Honey & Nut Corn Flakes (or Crunchy Nut Cornflakes in the UK) worked a treat to coat the ice cream. The ice cream balls not only tasted delicious, they're healthier – and the process of making them in an air fryer is safer than deep frying, too.

3. S'mores

If you want campfire vibes without sitting round an actual campfire, especially when the weather dips and the nights draw in, try these air fryer s’mores instead. Assemble your s’mores as usual – Graham crackers or digestives on the bottom, a square of chocolate, and a marshmallow on top – then pop them in your air fryer basket at 350 F / 175 C for 3-4 minutes, the marshmallow puffs up while the chocolate. Top with another cracker to complete the sandwich, and you’ve got a warm and comforting treat, no flames required.

The trick is not to overcrowd the basket because marshmallows expand as they cook, and don’t be tempted to cook them for too long, or increase the temperature. You need to find the sweet spot where the chocolate and marshmallows are gooey but still intact, rather than have them completely melt all over the basket.

For a twist, try peanut butter cups instead of chocolate. You can even flip the script completely and make a s’mores dipping sauce with crackers to scoop up the gooey, chocolatey, marshmallow goodness.

4. Grilled cheese

Also known as a cheese toastie, this air fryer food type may surprise you. The usual way to make a grilled cheese sandwich is on the stove, unless you have a specifically designed appliance for the job.

In the air fryer we found that you can make the sandwich as usual, but spreading a thin layer of butter on the outside of the bread and cooking the sandwich on the crisper plate of the air fryer drawer for six minutes on both sides delivers an delicious, crispy grilled cheese sandwich.

5. Cheese on toast

Don't fancy a sandwich? You can also make air fryer cheese on toast. Load on the cheese and / or use a variety of cheeses to deliver a super-tasty snack.

We worked an egg into the mix, which delivers results in a more oozy top, with the cheese nicely spread out and melted. Season with salt and / or pepper for a punchier flavor.

6. Creme Eggs

We mastered the viral air fryer Creme Egg recipe from last year, and although the initial attempts weren't straightforward, we cracked it (punn intended). The trick is to evenly cover the creme egg in a croissant dough and crank up the temperature of the air fryer.

We also tried air frying a caramel egg, which was less sickly-sweet than the creme egg – so that's worth a go, too.

7. Hard-boiled eggs

Surely you can't boil an egg in an air fryer? Yes, actually, you can! Get the timing and temperature right, and the air fryer will deliver perfect results every time. In addition, in the air fryer you're likely to be able to cook more eggs than you can fit in a typical saucepan, and there's minimal washing up, too. Note that the various cooking times for different-sized eggs in an air fryer aren't far off how long they'd take to cook in a pan, either. We found that air fryer eggs are effortless and taste great, and we're (fairly) confident that you will too.

8. Baked potatoes

The baked potato is a staple meal for many households and although not all air fryers have a "bake" preset, we can vouch that there is such a thing as a baked potato air fryer recipe that works. Depending on your air fryer, it won't necessarily save you money on your energy bills due to the time it takes to make an air fryer baked potato, but we can all but guarantee that you'll achieve a crispy skin and fluffy inside – so it will certainly be worth it.

9. Chickpeas

Arriving in a can, there's very little prep you need to do before cooking chickpeas in the air fryer, and then you'll have a delicious, crunchy, super-healthy snack. Simply rinse, drain, and season; they'll be ready to enjoy within just 15 minutes.

Air fryers are now so popular, their sales are even being used by economists when trying to work out inflation. Not only do they promise faster cooking, lighter results, and an easier way to make meals without drowning everything in oil, but they’re affordable and compact. The best air fryers today even blur the line between fryer, mini oven, being able to handle roasting, baking, reheating and more from your countertop.

Yet while there are plenty of foods, including a host of surprising foods you can cook in an air fryer, they’re far from magic. Push them too far and you’ll end up with uneven (and even raw or dangerous) cooking, disgusting textures, or smoky, messy disasters.

As an occasionally overzealous air fryer user myself, I’ve learned there are some things you shouldn’t do when using an air fryer. I’ve also learned that there are things you shouldn’t even be cooking in one – no matter how many “hacks” those so-called TikTok influencers post to convince us otherwise.

To save both your dinner and your appliance, here are five foods that don’t belong in your air fryer basket.

1. Frozen leftovers

Plenty of air fryers now come with a dedicated 'frozen' button, and they’re great for fries, nuggets, or breaded snacks straight from the freezer, working in the same way a regular oven would. But that doesn’t mean all frozen food belongs in the basket. Dense blocks such as leftover lasagna, casseroles, or family-sized pies can be a problem.

Unless you get the timings and temperatures just right, the hot air quickly browns and hardens the outside while the middle remains cold, leaving you with a burned crust and an undercooked, potentially dangerous core. Even with smaller frozen foods, you need to be careful.

Watch for excess ice crystals – they’ll create steam and make things soggy – and avoid overfilling the basket, since overcrowding stops hot air from circulating and defrosting/cooking the food evenly. If your fryer has a frozen setting, use it for thin, single-layer foods, and always shake or turn halfway through for even results. For anything large or dense, stick to your oven: it’ll save you from disappointment and potential food safety risks.

2. Pasta

Pasta is one of those ingredients that, like rice, just isn’t that well suited to the air fryer on its own. It needs water to cook properly, and dropping raw pasta straight into the basket will only give you brittle, half-cooked shards.

If you boil it in a pan first it fares a little better, but even then tossing it into the air fryer without sauce or some form of liquid usually leads to dried-out, crunchy edges. It is technically possible to boil it in water in the air fryer basket but it’s rarely quick, often hard to control and always dangerous moving a basket full of sloshing boiling water around.

That’s not to say pasta and the air fryer can never mix, you just need to be clever about it. Leftover mac and cheese in a ramekin, topped with breadcrumbs will work. As will a bolognese or other saucy pasta dish. But if your plan is to skip the pot of boiling water altogether, the air fryer won’t save you.

3. Whole roast chicken

Again, an air fryer uses hot air to cook things, and putting a whole chicken to roast in there means that there’s considerably less space for that air to properly circulate and cook things evenly. That’s even if you’ve got one of the bigger models.

More to that point, the part of the chicken that’s closest to the heat source will also likely end up cooking faster than the bottom, which means you’ll end up with a burned top and a bottom that still needs a bit more time to cook. Or worse, a soggy one! If you want the ability to cook roast chicken in an air fryer, you might want to invest in an air fryer oven like the Ninja DT201 Foodi 10-in-1 XL Pro or the Corsori Air Fryer Toaster Oven.

4. Burger

Ok, it’s one thing if you like your burgers well-done – although, also, why?! However, if you want perfectly cooked medium-rare burgers, which is how beef should be cooked and consumed so that it’s still beautifully juicy and flavorful, you might want to skip cooking burger patties in an air fryer.

Keeping a burger patty at medium-rare means that you’ll have to cook it for less time, which means that it might not be enough time for the outside to brown and have a bit of that charring. If you do cook it long enough for the outside to brown, that inside is going to be well-done and dry.

5. Popcorn

Popcorn kernels need between 400 and 460 degrees to pop, and most air fryers don’t get that high, unfortunately. But, if you happen to have one that does reach 400F, like mine does, you might also risk starting a fire.

Popcorn does what it’s supposed to do, which is to pop, which means some of them could accidentally get lodged within the heating element at the top, whether because a piece jumped high enough to get stuck there or there wasn’t enough space to accommodate all the popped kernels in the basket. That’s a potential fire hazard, especially if that piece is still lodged in there while you’re cooking another dish.

Of course there are plenty of tasty meals you can cook beautifully in an air fryer, so why not check out our guides to making french fries in an air fryer, french toast in an air fryer and even fudgy brownies in an air fryer. We can also help teach you the 9 things you need to know about your new air fryer and 6 common air fryer mistakes to avoid.

Ninja is the biggest name in air fryers, and for good reason – it makes many of the best air fryers around – but there are so many models to choose from, you might be struggling to know where to begin.

That's where I come in. I'm TechRadar's kitchen appliance expert, and I've had my hands on a lot of air fryers over the last few years. Each time I put them through the same battery of tests, I prepare fries, chicken, vegetables, and muffins to see how well each one performs against its rivals and which ones produce the most consistent cooking results.

After extensive trials, and bucketloads of fries, these are my three top recommended Ninja air fryers that you can buy right now. There's something for every size kitchen and all appetites, so there should be one that suits you. Happy cooking!

Ninja Crispi

The little Crispi is one of Ninja's most unusual air fryers – and one of the best. Most air fryers are designed to be confined to your kitchen, and Crispi is made for use on the move, and really comes into its own if you're at work or college.

Whereas most Ninja air fryers have drawers, the Crispi opts for reusable glass containers that you use to store your food until you're ready to start cooking (just like regular Tupperware). Stash them in the fridge until lunch time rolls around, then clip the PowerPod lid on top and let the hot air flow. No more soggy leftovers or having to face the horror of a communal microwave.

In our tests, the air fryer, max crisp, and reheat modes all worked very well. Our vegetables cooked particularly well, turning out perfect with just a tiny spritz of oil. It's surprisingly quick, too. Veggie nuggets, falafel balls, and protein waffles "turned out wonderful and crisp on the outside, tender on the inside", and didn't require any extra oil at all.

It's not the best-looking appliance I've ever seen, but that doesn't really matter since it's not going to be hanging around on your kitchen counter for any length of time. It's portable and practical, and that's what matters. You'll be the envy of the office.

Read our full Ninja Crispi review

Ninja Double Stack XL

The Double Stack XL took the prize for best air fryer in last year's TechRadar Choice Awards, and it remains one of Ninja's top models thanks to its two-tier design that lets you cook as much food as a standard twin-drawer fryer, but with a much smaller footprint. Need even more cooking space? Each of its drawers comes with an extra rack, so you can cook two items in each one.

It's not just a thoughtfully-designed fryer, either – in our tests, it delivered consistently great results, helping us prepare crisp fries, tender chicken, and tender salmon with barely any effort, and in a fraction of the time they'd take in the oven.

It doesn't have as many cooking modes as some air fryers we've tested over the years, but it has all the essentials covered (air fry, max crisp, roast, bake, dehydrate, and reheat) and you can customize each one by holding the time and temperature buttons together for a moment, then making your changes.

You can use a different cooking profile for each drawer, and we noticed barely any transfer of heat between the two when they were set to vastly different temperatures. Its baskets are dishwasher-safe too, which is always welcome (we've spent far too much time scrubbing air fryer components after cooking chicken wings).

You won't be able to fit a pizza inside (for that, you'll need a fryer with one large drawer and a removable divider), but for all your other everyday air-frying needs, the Ninja Double Stack XL is hard to beat.

Read our full Ninja Double Stack XL review

Ninja 5-in-1 Grill and Air Fryer

The 5-in-1 Grill and Air Fryer is one of Ninja's priciest models, but it's also one of the best, and even if you're not usually confident in the kitchen, it'll soon have you air frying, grilling, roasting, and even baking like a pro.

During testing, we made good use of its temperature probe, which lets you quickly check the internal temperature of meat and fish, so you can be certain that your dish is properly cooked without being overdone.

It worked particularly well with frozen foods, and we were able to prepare perfect sticky, smoky BBQ chicken fillets from frozen in just 25 minutes. Fries and veggies turned out nicely following the directions in the manual, and we were particularly impressed by how well the Ninja 5-in-1 can bake. We've had a lot of sad experiences trying to make muffins and cake in air fryers, but this is a rare exception to the rule.

We wish that its cooking pot had a handle, which would make it easier to shake our fries for even cooking. However, the biggest downside of the Ninja 5-in-1 Grill and Air Fryer is that, at the time of writing, it's only available in the UK. If you live elsewhere, consider the Ninja Foodi Health Grill & Air Fryer as an alternative for indoor grilling.

Read our full Ninja 5-in-1 Grill and Air Fryer review

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Bosch Series 6 air fryer: one-minute review

German manufacturer Bosch has been a long-standing name in home appliances since it released its first refrigerator back in 1933. So, it's no surprise that the company finally took the plunge into the lucrative air fryer market with the release of the Bosch Series 6 Air Fryer.

You'd perhaps forgive Bosch for having some teething issues with its first-ever air, but the Series 6 has very few. Instead of prioritizing a surplus of extra cooking programs, modes, and features, the Series 6 offers a more streamlined experience, focusing on the quality of life features and cooking programs the average user needs rather than unnecessary add-ons.

There are eight cooking programs, which cover the most typical food types cooked in an air fryer: Keep Warm, French Fries, Poultry, Meat, Fish, Vegetables, Bread, and Small Pastries (because who doesn't love an air-fried croissant?) We found each program to cook food consistently well, though some tweaking may be required for taste, especially when it comes to meats.

These programs are straightforward to use thanks to the air fryer's clear touch controls, while a handful of quality-of-life features make the Series 6 a joy to use. Its illuminated drawer and window allow you to check food without letting out heat, its Shake alert lets out clear, loud chirps, and its included grill rack and skewers allow you to grill food with ease. It's also generally easy to clean with minimal elbow grease and fairly compact given its 7.2-liter capacity.

While the Series 6 is a great appliance overall, it's not perfect. It's one of the louder air fryers this reviewer has tested (hitting 68dB in some cases), and removing the aforementioned metal grill rack and skewers from the basket safely can prove a bit of a struggle. We'd also have loved for the aforementioned grill rack to be securable within the basket to prevent rubbing on the non-stick plate. We also found that it struggled to balance keeping chicken moist inside while crispy outside.

These are minor issues, however, and the Bosch Series 6 Air Fryer provides an excellent experience otherwise. Though it is perhaps more suited to smaller households or those who only wish to cook one food item at a time.

Bosch Series 6 air fryer: price and availability

• Price: £159.99 (roughly $212.58 / AU$329.16)
• Available in the UK, but not available in the US and Australia
• Regular discounts bring it down to around £100

The Bosch Series 6 Air Fryer offers top-tier quality for its budget price tag. At £159.99 (roughly $212.58 / AU$329.16), it costs £40 less than our current best budget air fryer, the Russell Hobbs Satisfry Dual Basket Air Fryer (though it offers less capacity), and is considerably more affordable than premium options, such as the Ninja Double Oven and Dreo ChefMaker.

Unfortunately, this appliance isn't currently available in the U.S. or Australia, but those in the UK can purchase it from Bosch directly or a range of trusted third-party retailers, such as Argos and Amazon.

If its current price tag is a little over your budget, don't fret. Regular discounts at Bosch and other retailers see this air fryer's price dropping to around the £100 mark, saving you nearly £60 on the usual RRP.

• Value score: 5/5

Bosch Series 6 air fryer: specifications

Bosch Series 6 air fryer: design

• 7.2-liter capacity, but fairly combat
• Illuminated drawer basket with window
• Removable handle
• Comes with metal grill rack and five skewers

The Bosch Series 6 offers a 7.2L capacity in a relatively compact design (compared to its competitors). The body of this air fryer is glossy black, with a silver rim around the top, a single drawer basket, and a removable handle. The touchscreen interface is easy to use, with the temperature adjustable in five-degree intervals.

The drawer is illuminated, meaning a light (which you can turn off and on at the touch of a button) comes on when you remove it, and thanks to an oven-like window, you can easily check your food without stopping the cooking process.

The included physical user manual is thorough, making it easy to set up and use this appliance – even if you're a beginner. A physical food guide is also included, which provides a rough cooking guide and tips for each of the air fryer's eight programs. We do wish the food guide were slightly more detailed and included more food types, especially when it comes to cooking vegetables.

The food guide does come with a QR code, though, that leads you to a Quick Start Guide that features a handful of excellent recipes for this specific air fryer. We just wish there were more of them.

This air fryer also comes with a metal grill rack accessory and five skewers that fit into the grill rack. These are a welcome addition for grilling, but we found removing the hot grill rack difficult after cooking due to the depth of the basket and its metal design. We also wish the grill rack could be locked into the basket's plate to avoid it moving around and potentially damaging the plate's non-stick coating long-term.

While the 7.2L basket is a bit bulky, it's easy to hand wash with minimal elbow grease – though, inside the window is slightly trickier to reach. Fortunately, the basket and its plate are dishwasher-proof, though we at TechRadar tend to recommend hand washing anything with a non-stick coat.

The main design drawback of this air fryer is its volume. We logged a max 68dB reading when the appliance was running at its maximum temperature, making it loud enough that we couldn't hear our kitchen TV and could hear it from our living room next door. This is particularly loud for an air fryer (based on those we've tested) and several decibels louder than the 63dB Bosch claims.

• Design score: 4/5

Bosch Series 6 air fryer: performance

• Quality performance across cooking programs
• Useful Shake alert
• Some foods could be crispier

We found the Bosch Series 6 air fryer performed consistently well across its eight cooking programs: Bread, Fish, French Fries, Keep Warm, Meat, Small Pastries, Poultry, and Vegetables.

We started our testing with 500g of frozen fries , utilizing the air fryer's French Fries preset, while tweaking the time slightly as recommended by the food guide. After 23 minutes, we had fairly evenly cooked fries (a couple were slightly over for my taste), but overall, the fries were fluffy inside and golden outside.

Following the frozen fries, we tried 700g of handmade fries, soaked and with one tablespoon of oil, on the same setting, using the exact preset time and temperature. Again, the fries were fluffy inside and golden outside but could have been a little crispier. Unlike other air fryers, however, the Bosch Series 6 didn't leave our fries with overdone ends – a common issue we've encountered with testing.

Next, we tested the grill and skewer accessories. We loaded up each of the five skewers with chicken, onion, tomato, and peppers – but may have overloaded them a little as the five skewers struggled to fit beside each other. My advice: make sure your cuts of veggies and meat are smaller to avoid this.

The skewers sit on indents in the grill rack, which is placed in the basket. We've mentioned our issues with the grill rack generally, but despite the overcrowding, we found our skewers cooked well on the Poultry preset, though some of the vegetables were becoming overdone and the chicken slightly overdone, so we had to remove them a few minutes early. You likely need to adjust this timing based on what you skewer.

We also tried cooking a couple of chicken breasts on the grill rack (with some seasoning and a tablespoon of oil) on the Poultry preset. They came out slightly dry and with not quite enough crisp on the outside for our taste, but overall very tasty.

We had this same crisping issue with drumsticks prepared using a Bosch recipe and dry-rubbed wings (my go-to Cosori recipe), both cooked well and were juicy inside, but the skin didn't crisp up quite enough. The pre-baked petit pains we cooked on the Bread preset, too were soft inside, but not quite crunchy enough outside.

The Bosch recipes are a great starting point for this air fryer, and we particularly enjoyed its roasted cauliflower and egg omelette muffin recipes (both turned out perfect). The apple turnover recipe, while very tasty, resulted in turnovers with overly soggy bottoms – though that's likely down to chef error on my part.

Other presets may require some tweaking of the timings. Sausages on the Beef preset were slightly underdone after seven minutes, which may be down to the fact that they were chunky Cumberlands.

Vegetables, too, like most air fryers, require some experimentation. The food guide isn't very detailed on how long to cook certain vegetables and just covers "Grilled Vegetables." While this was the perfect preset for my chantanay carrots, my broccoli, onions and peppers needed to be removed early to avoid becoming too charred. Again, this is something we've encountered with several air fryers.

Now, if you've read our air fryer reviews before, you'll know we love an air fryer that can bake. The Bosch Series 6 can manage that feat for small cakes and muffins, so we used our usual Ninja muffin recipe with the Muffin preset to test its capabilities. It was perhaps the best result I've had for this test, with the muffins perfectly golden on top, not too dry inside, and little to no overspill.

Overall, the Bosch Series 6 performs brilliantly; however, you may need to experiment a bit to get the right balance of crispness and doneness for certain foods.

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Should you buy the Bosch Series 6 air fryer?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

How I tested the Bosch Series 6 air fryer

I used the Bosch Series 6 air fryer for a week, cooking a wide variety of foods including fries, sausages, fresh vegetables, and pastries. I tested all the air fryer's various modes and cleaned the air fryer in line with the instructions provided in the manual. For more details, see how we test, rate, and review products at TechRadar.

Philips 1000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer: one-minute review

Since Philips introduced the world to the first air fryer back in 2010, the market for this health-conscious kitchen appliance has boomed. Manufacturers like Ninja dominate best air fryers lists, but British Philips continues to improve upon its patented Rapid Air Technology, and its most recent offerings, like the Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Steam Air Fryer, are increasingly impressive.

The Philips 1000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer NA150X isn't quite on par with the 5000 and suffers from some of the same issues around ease of use, but it's also considerably cheaper at £133.99. For that price tag, you get a well-performing air fryer with plenty of room and a handful of useful features, such as a shaking reminder and sync cooking, without bombarding you with a bunch of extras.

When the 1000 Series works well, it's excellent: chicken is succulent with just enough crispiness on the skin, muffins are soft inside without being dry, and chips (homemade and frozen) are golden and fluffy inside. I found the presets are mostly accurate and provide top-notch – though you do need to keep an eye on cooking at times – and the recipes provided in the accompanying Home ID app (though limited) are delicious.

Frustratingly, you have to rely on that Home ID app a lot, especially at the start. Like the Steam Air Fryer, this appliance comes with a limited physical user manual. You need to download the Home ID app to access the full digital manual that gives clear instructions on each button's functionality and the food tables listing recommended weights and food types. While these tables are helpful, they aren't as thorough as others we've seen and don't cover some commonly air-fried foods. For example, I need to know what weight and settings to use for individual vegetables, like carrots and broccoli, more than I likely need to know the weight to cook meatballs with baked gnocchi.

However, once you get to grips with how the air fryer works, the digital interface is straightforward to use. You have the option to cook in one 7.1L XXL basket or to add the provided divider to create two individually programmable baskets – these can also be set to sync and finish cooking at the same time or to have matching settings. This air fryer is surprisingly compact (compared to its competitors) given its capacity, and the deep baskets are deceptively spacious, with a handy Max line indicating how much you can fill each.

The XXL basket and crisping plates are dishwasher friendly (though we always advise against this), and their non-stick coating makes them straightforward to clean – in theory. The XXL basket is cumbersome to clean, especially in a sink, and even if you just use one side, the entire basket needs to be removed and washed. Similarly, if you are cooking two foods at once and need to shake one side, you inadvertently remove and shake the other at the same time.

Ultimately, this is a great air fryer with an affordable price tag, even if the user experience isn't ideal. You may just need some patience (like with many air fryers) to find the optimal settings and weights for foods not listed in the table.

Philips 1000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer: price and availability

• £133.99 at Philips (roughly $181.45 / AU$281.43)
• Available in the UK, but not in the US or Australia currently
• Available at third party retailers like Amazon, but cheaper from Philips directly

The Philips 1000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer is a budget to mid-range appliance at £133.99 (roughly $181.45 / AU$281.43). At that price, it's worth considering if you don't want to shell out £200+ on a premium air fryer like the Ninja Double Oven and Dreo ChefMaker. While it does come with fewer bells and whistles than more premium options, including the excellent Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Steam Air Fryer, it gets the job done. While the results aren't always as consistent, this is a solid air fryer for this price tag.

At the time of writing, the Philips 1000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer NA15X is only available in the UK as the NA150/09 (the Australian model has seemingly been discontinued). In the US, the closest model to the one we tested appears to be the Philips 3000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer, which costs $199.99.

You can pick up the model we reviewed from third-party retailers like Currys or Amazon for £159.99, though you'll save some cash purchasing from Philips directly (£133.99).

• Value score: 4.5/5

Philips 1000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer: specifications

Philips 1000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer: design

• Black modern design
• Fairly compact for an XXL air fryer
• Spacious 7.1L capacity
• Clear digital LED interface
• Cumbersome to hand wash
• Full user manual is digital only

The Philips 1000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer has a matte black body with a black digital LED interface on the top, a glossy black plastic strip around the middle, and two large handles. The XXL basket is pulled out using the handles, like a drawer, and has two crisping plates inside, with each drawer also showing two maximum fill lines, one indicating the max capacity for frozen potato snacks and the other for other food types. A plastic divider is provided, which slides into slots between the two plates, creating two individually programmable, smaller baskets rather than the one XXL basket.

Given its 7.1 liter capacity, this air fryer is much more compact than others we've tested of similar size, measuring 17.23 in (L) x 11.87 in (W) x 11.61 in (H) and weighing 5.8kg. So, while it will take up some room in your kitchen, it's nowhere near as chunky as the likes of the Russell Hobbs Satisfry 9L Dual Basket Air Fryer. If you've kids at home, you'll be pleased to hear it's cool to the touch when on, with the airflow temperature out the back (on XXL cooking) averaging around 43C, and it's not too intrusive volume-wise either, averaging around 60 decibels (again on XXL cooking),

The digital LED interface is clear and easy to use, with minimal clutter on the screen. However, to understand how to use its various presets and functions, you need to download the companion Home ID app using the QR code on the front of the appliance. The physical user manual provided mostly consists of confusing illustrations that try to explain how to use the air fryer, but the digital user manual accessible through the app is much more thorough.

t's extremely frustrating that you can only read the 918-page user manual on your phone as a sort of PDF, though, and if you don't have a smartphone to download the app, you're snookered. This is a recurring issue with Philips air fryers we've found, but at least the QR code on this one works, and the app's recommended recipes are actually pretty tasty.

The digital user manual provides clearer instructions on the air fryer's presets and features, and how to use them, alongside food tables which recommend the weights and settings to use for certain food types. While these tables cover common food types like fries, chicken breast, and muffins, they could be more detailed – and some of the times listed in the tables are slightly different than the presets on the appliance. Instead of recommendations for cooking turkey roulade and veggies, a clear table on the settings for individual vegetables would be much more useful or what type of vegetables to use for the Mixed Vegetable preset would be much more helpful.

Another annoying issue I found with this appliance was cleaning it. While the Philips 1000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer's basket and crisping plates can be put in the dishwasher, and I successfully did, we typically advise not to use a dishwasher to clean anything with a non-stick coating (as this has) to ensure it doesn't wear away over time.

You may have difficulty dishwashing the basket on this one anyway because it's pretty cumbersome and will take up a lot of room in your dishwasher. The entire XXL basket comes out as one and therefore the whole thing must be cleaned, even if you only use one of the baskets within it. While it cleans easily with dish soap and water, it can be a bit tricky to get it in the sink and give it a thorough clean.

While it's a shame Philips has dropped the ball again when it comes to a clear, physical user manual (which would benefit older, less savvy users), once you do get to grips with this air fryer, it's straightforward and convenient to use.

• Design score: 4/5

Philips 1000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer: performance

• What it cooks well, it does brilliantly
• Six presets, mixed accuracy
• Time function to sync cooking
• Copy function to match basket settings
• Quality of life features, like shaking reminder

The Philips 1000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer comes with six cooking presets (Frozen Fries, Steak, Chicken Drumsticks, Mixed Vegetables, Cake/Muffin, Reheat) and three extra functions (Time, Copy, and a Shaking reminder).

When the Philips 1000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer works well, the results are impressive. I started my testing with frozen chips, adding 400g of frozen steak cut fries to one of the smaller baskets and selecting the Frozen Fries/Potato Snacks preset. This automatically adds the Shaking reminder (which can also be selected manually), which sees the appliance chirping about halfway through cooking to indicate when to shake or turn your food.

Frustratingly, this does mean you need to shake the whole basket, whether you want the other half shaken or not. The results were excellent, with the chips cooked pretty evenly (though some were a tad more done than others) and crispy outside but fluffy inside. I had similar results when cooking homemade fries, following the food table instructions, though I had to pull the chips out a few minutes earlier than the recommended time to prevent them from becoming overdone.

The results for chicken wings and muffins were perhaps the best I've had from an air fryer yet. Into the XXL pan, I added six full-size wings coated in a Louisiana dry rub and selected the Chicken Drumstick preset (the food tables have no chicken wing recommendation).

Apart from turning the wings when prompted, I made no changes, and the resulting wings were perfectly crispy outside and juicy inside without being too much of either. Likewise, using a Ninja (sorry, Philips) blueberry and lemon muffin recipe with the Muffin preset in the XXL basket resulted in perfect muffins: soft and fluffy inside but not too dry.

While the recipes in the Home ID app are somewhat limited, at least for my specific appliance, they have stellar results. When you sign up for the app, you choose your appliance and are offered recipes that are suited to your specific air fryer. To start, I tried a green bean recipe that was simple but resulted in the most delicious green beans I've ever had from an air fryer: not too soggy, just perfectly cooked.

The spicy drumstick recipe was even more impressive and produced eight piping-hot drumsticks from the XXL basket that tasted and smelled amazing. Again, they weren't "grab a napkin, quick!" juicy and had just the right amount of crisp on the skin.

But not every food test worked out this well, and I found a lot of my issues boiled down to the food tables not being detailed enough. I'm always intrigued by an air fryer steak preset and have yet to find one that produces pan quality. The Philips 1000 Series has a Steak preset, but the food table only gives a rough weight for the steak and doesn't recommend the type of steak to cook or if the recommended weight (150g-200g) is per steak or total. I opted for two medallion steaks weighing 340g total and added them to one basket.

The food table recommends one basket can fit four steaks, but I seriously doubt it, as I would have struggled to add more than two. How you like your steak is a personal preference, and with no notes on timings for specific doneness, I left the steaks in the full preset time and was left with two leather-like chunks of meat. They were like chewing on old shoes. One side of each was nicely seared, and the other wasn't, and they were drier than the Sahara. This is something you could probably experiment with to get the right level of doneness, but my advice is this: just don't cook steak in an air fryer.

I also had disappointing results with mixed veg. Again, the food table wasn't clear on what type of mixed veg it recommends or whether to add oil, but it does state timings may vary due to preference and to cut the veg roughly. I added the recommended weight in broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower to each basket and selected the Mixed Vegetable preset – making use of the Copy function to match the settings for both baskets. When I shook the veg halfway through the 20-minute cooking time, I saw my cauliflower and broccoli had browned on top, but, on tasting, my carrots weren't cooked properly.

This could, like the steak, likely be rectified with some experimentation, but without clear instructions on what individual vegetable cooking times are recommended or what to include in your mixed vegetables, it's difficult to know off the bat what the best approach is.

Overall, this Philips air fryer is a solid appliance, and it provides great results more often than poor ones. If you've never owned an air fryer before or don't have the patience to get the most out of some of its peskier presets, you may struggle with it. But if you're a seasoned air fryer user or don't mind a few failed attempts before getting optimal results, it's worth the time, money, and potential effort.

• Performance score: 4/5

Should you buy the Philips 1000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

Philips 1000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer: also consider

How I tested the Philips 1000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer

I used the Philips 1000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer for a week, cooking a wide variety of foods including fries, chicken drumsticks, steak, fresh vegetables, and muffins. I tested all the air fryer's various modes and cleaned the air fryer in line with the instructions provided in the manual. For more details, see how we test.

First reviewed May 2025.

Ninja 5-in-1 Grill and Air Fryer: one-minute review

Ninja is a trusted (and arguably the biggest) name in the air fryer market for a reason. Several of the brand's products feature in our best air fryers roundup, thanks to their top-tier performance, but that high quality comes with a premium (sometimes eye-watering) price tag. The Ninja 5-in-1 Grill & Air Fryer EG351UK, too, comes with a premium price tag, but one that's somewhat more affordable than its siblings while offering the same top-grade quality we've come to expect from Ninja. If your air fryer budget maxes out at £200 (roughly $250 / AU$450), this just sneaks in there.

It's still not cheap, but for that price you get a top-notch air fryer and indoor grill that offers pretty consistent results across its five cooking functions. The Ninja 5-in-1 Grill & Air Fryer makes baking, grilling (even from frozen), air frying, dehydrating, and roasting easy, though you may need to use some trial and error with certain foods and functions to get optimal results.

The included user manual and inspiration booklet are helpful, with notes on nearly any question you may have, but the food guidelines can be a bit optimistic at times. This isn't necessarily a deal-breaker but means you should keep a close eye on your food as you get to grips with it, as I had some issues with uneven cooking over overdone foods on the outside with the air fryer function. Thanks to the probe attachment, however, you have several avenues to check when your meat or fish is cooked, giving you some peace of mind.

The issues I had mostly arose with air frying foods and were exacerbated by the 5.7-liter cooking pot's lack of a handle, which made shaking foods like fries and vegetables for even cooking tricky. However, the other cooking functions offered impressive results, delivering perfectly baked muffins, delicious flatbreads and succulent chicken.

Perhaps my biggest issue with the Ninja 5-in-1 Grill and Air Fryer, however, is how much cleaning it requires for maintenance – and how tough it is to keep the appliance and its various attachments (particularly the splatter guard) clean, despite following the included instructions. That's something which could potentially cause further issues with performance over time.

Aside from this, the Ninja 5-in-1 Grill & Air Fryer is a solid air fryer for those who regularly grill and air fry their foods, combining the two in one appliance. If you haven't the space for a BBQ, it offers the same delicious results, with considerably less smoke, and is easy to use for seasoned air fryer users and newbies.

Ninja 5-in-1 Grill and Air Fryer: price and availability

• Price: £199.99 (roughly $262 / AU$419)
• This model is available in the UK, but not US or Australia
• Available from Ninja and third-party retailers

The Ninja 5-in-1 Grill & Air Fryer has a premium price tag of £199.99 (roughly $262 / AU$419), meaning it's one of the more affordable options if you have your heart set on a Ninja. It costs slightly less than the Ninja Foodi Max Dual Zone Air Fryer and considerably less than the Ninja Double Oven and Ninja Combi Multi-Cooker, so if you're after Ninja quality under the £200 mark, it's a great choice.

While this air fryer is on the pricier side, considering it packs in five cooking functions, including the ability to grill, with solid results, it's worth the price tag for those who plan to utilize its various functions. There's also a two-year guarantee included for those who register with Ninja, giving you extra peace of mind.

You can buy this air fryer from Ninja or third-party retailers like Amazon and Argos, with the latter likely to offer discounts during sales periods like Black Friday. You'll find today's best prices below. Unfortunately, this model isn't currently available in the US or Australia.

• Value score: 4/5

Ninja 5-in-1 Grill and Air Fryer: specifications

Ninja 5-in-1 Grill and Air Fryer: design

• Modern black and steel-brushed design
• Thermometer probe for meat
• High-maintenance cleaning
• No handle for shaking

The Ninja 5-in-1 Grill & Air Fryer comes in a black and steel-brushed finish, with its top opening upward (like most grills) to reveal its 5.7L cooking pot inside. In the box, you get two ceramic-coated plates that slot easily into the cooking pot, a grill plate for grilling foods, and a crisper plate for most other cooking functions. On the front is a digital display, with its cooking functions clearly shown below and sizable buttons to adjust its settings.

Despite its capacity, this air fryer isn't as physically intrusive in my kitchen as others I've reviewed. It still takes up a decent chunk of counter room, making it potentially less suited for smaller kitchens but much easier to home than the Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Steam Air Fryer, for example.

This air fryer is about the right size for a household of four, depending on what you plan to cook, with plenty of room for veggies and smaller items on the crisper plate and the grill plate easily fitting four chicken breasts or burgers. However, when it comes to larger items, like a whole chicken, for example, you may have some difficulty. While the Ninja website claims the appliance can fit a 1.4kg whole chicken in the cooking pot, the crisping plate is recommended for roasting, but this means the chicken needs to be smaller, about 1kg.

Fortunately, I was able to use the included thermometer probe to check my chicken was definitely cooked. The probe jack connects to the appliance, with the other end inserted into the thickest part of your meat, and allows you to set the meat type you're cooking (and desired doneness for relevant meats).

The appliance then displays your food's internal temperature and desired temperature and tells you when it reaches that temperature. This is usually a few degrees off the actual temperature the meat should be, as the air fryer tells you to rest the meat and counts down the resting time, too. The guidance on this is pretty thorough in the user manual – and on pretty much everything, in fact – and meant my meat always (internally, at least) was cooked to perfection.

That thorough user manual also comes with instructions on how to clean the air fryer and its attachments – a pretty high-maintenance affair. Ninja recommends hand washing the plates and splatter guard, understandably, after each use. The company even provides you with a cleaning brush with a scraper to help. While handwashing the cooking pot and crisping plate is pretty painless, I found cleaning the ceramic-coated grill plate and splatter guard a challenge (even with the included brush). Tough residue eventually came off the grill plate's many crevices with some elbow grease and soaking, but despite following the instructions and cleaning the splatter guard after every cook, during my week of testing, more and more grease built up on it.

I thoroughly cleaned it after each cook and even followed the deep cleaning instructions, boiling it in a pot, but that tough grease did not come off, and some had even made its way behind the splatter guard. The instructions mostly focus on cleaning the detachable parts rather than the appliance itself, so I tried wiping it off with a cloth to no avail. The problem is that while the Ninja 5-in-1 Grill & Air Fryer is largely smokeless, the tough grease started to cause more smoke, and I could not get it off following the included instructions. Over time, this could become a larger issue. So, for optimal performance, you need to be very thorough in your cleaning of each nook and cranny.

This isn't the only design issue I had with this appliance. In addition to its high-level maintenance, the Ninja 5-in-1 Grill & Air Fryer lacks a handle for its cooking pot, making shaking foods more difficult. Many competitors offer a heat-proof handle to grab, so you can easily shake veggies, chips, and other food items, but the Ninja 5-in-1 only has slightly protruding edges on its cooking pot for this, meaning you need to pick up the whole pot and shake it. This is tricky because you need to lift the 5.7L pot and try and shake its contents evenly, but also because those contents are hot. It's an addition that could have made air-frying certain foods much more convenient.

• Design score: 4/5

Ninja 5-in-1 Grill and Air Fryer: performance

• Air frying results are inconsistent
• Baking, dehydrating, roasting, and grilling are excellent
• Great recipes in inspiration booklet
• Quality-of-life features like automatic preheat function

The Ninja 5-in-1 Grill and Air Fryer has five cooking functions: grilling, air frying, baking, dehydrating, and roasting.

The grill feature is by far the highlight, with the included inspiration booklet offering recipes to help you utilize the feature, alongside tips and recipes for marinades, seasonings, and more. To kick off my testing, I tried one of the booklet's kickstarter recipes: barbecue chicken breasts.

The recipe required frozen chicken breasts, with the cooking time set to take about 25 minutes, which I was a bit skeptical about. However, after 25 minutes and several bastings, I had perfectly cooked BBQ chicken fillets that were sticky and smoky on the outside but succulent inside. This doesn't account for the seven-minute preheat time, with the appliance automatically preheating on most functions. If you're in the no-preheat club, have no fear, as there's a button to skip this if you want to.

Burgers provided the same consistent results, but when the appliance chirped to let me know to flip the burgers halfway through cooking, it didn't give me much time to do so as the time continued to tick on. Frustratingly, this meant the cooking time ended, and the resting timer began, but the burgers weren't done, and I had to reprogram the grill to finish them off as I couldn't easily add on a few extra minutes. To ensure they were cooked, I inserted the probe and set the function to beef and 'medium well', which allowed me to save my food.

While I usually have a control chicken wing rub I use for tests, I decided to use the Everyday Spice rub laid out in Ninja's booklet. After following the booklet's advice of waiting 30 minutes before grilling and checking the food guidelines, I added my wings to the grill. While I followed the recommended time and temperature Ninja gave for chicken wings, mine came out quite overdone on the outside but perfectly cooked and tasty inside.

Again, when cooking any meats in this appliance, I highly recommend utilizing the probe more than the food time guidelines, as it's a safety net if your food appears to be overdone on the outside, but you don't want to pull it out in case it's not cooked inside.

It's not just meats this grill provides solid results for, either. Following another of Ninja's recipes, I made flatbreads for the first time and cooked them to perfection, each taking only two minutes on the preheated grill.

These high-quality results were pretty consistent across the appliance's functions, as I perfectly dehydrated my leftover flatbread parsley in four hours, baked tasty lemon and blueberry muffins, and roasted my aforementioned harissa chicken with (relative) ease, so it was juicy inside and slightly crispy outside.

The only issue I had with the Ninja 5-in-1 Grill & Air Fryer's performance was its air fryer function. I will caveat this by saying a lot of air fryers require some experimentation for optimal results, and food guidelines are helpful but not always 100% accurate. Ninja acknowledges this in a way, noting in its air-frying food guidelines section that its times are a guide, and you need to adjust to your preference, check your food frequently, and shake or toss it. I kept this in mind when testing carrots, courgettes, frozen fries, and fresh fries, and regularly checked on and shook my with some overdone and some underdone. For example, many of my carrots had burnt edges and were almost roasted after roughly 15 minutes, while others were underdone.

Considering this is a premium air fryer, these results were disappointing, especially after the brilliant results of the other functions. Like many air fryers, it may take some trial and error to get optimal results with this function, but if you want an appliance that air fries consistently well off the bat, this may not be the appliance for you.

• Performance score: 4/5

Should you buy the Ninja 5-in-1 Grill and Air Fryer?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

Ninja 5-in-1 Grill and Air Fryer: also consider

Not certain that the Ninja 5-in-1 Grill and Air Fryer is right for you? Here are two other options you might like to consider.

How I tested the Ninja 5-in-1 Grill and Air Fryer?

I used the Ninja 5-in-1 Grill and Air Fryer for a week, cooking a wide variety of foods including fries, chicken wings, fresh vegetables, and muffins. I tested all the air fryer's various modes and cleaned the air fryer in line with the instructions provided in the manual. For more details, see how we test.

First reviewed March 2025.

Kalorik Vivid Touch Touchscreen Air Fryer: one-minute review

The Kalorik Vivid Touch 7 Quart High-Resolution Touchscreen Air Fryer with Window stands out from the crowded air fryer scene in a couple of ways. First and foremost, it has a high-resolution touchscreen. I thought perhaps it was a silly gimmick until I actually tried it. The touchscreen meant that I didn't have to refer to a guide to figure out how to cook a particular item. It's all right there in the menu. For example, if you want to heat up some frozen french fries, just tap the French Fries option from the menu. From there, you choose from House Cut, Wedges, Fresh, Crinkle, Waffle, or Curly. Then you choose your quantity, make any adjustments to time and temperature you wish, and then hit start.

The other feature that isn't necessarily typical for air fryers is the large window and interior light so you can take a peek at your food's progress without interrupting the cook cycle.

Overall, this is a pretty typical drawer-style air fryer with some special touches that make it better.

Kalorik Vivid Touch Touchscreen Air Fryer: price and availability

• List price: $149.99 (about £119 / AU$240)

The Kalorik Vivid Touch 7-Quart High-Resolution Touchscreen Air Fryer with Window is available at many retailers both online and in brick-and-mortar stores such as Amazon, Home Depot, HSN, Walmart, and more. Choose from three color options: stainless steel, graphite, and black. The retail price is $149.99 USD for the 7-quart size. There is also a 5-Quart version, which retails for $129.99 and comes in just one color, stainless steel.

• Value score: 4.5/5

Kalorik Vivid Touch Touchscreen Air Fryer: specifications

Kalorik Vivid Touch Touchscreen Air Fryer: design and features

• High-resolution touchscreen
• Twelve cooking menus
• Window and interior light

The Kalorik Vivid Touch looks like a regular air fryer, with the standard drawer and interior crisping tray. You pull out the drawer by its large handle, place your food on the crisping tray, and air fry your food. However, instead of pressing buttons, the Vivid Touch is operated entirely via touch screen.

To use the air fryer, pull out the drawer and place the crisping tray inside. In the drawer, you'll see markings indicating the level of food you have inside. These markings will come into play when you start a cooking cycle. In certain cook modes, you'll select the quantity of your food of your based on these markings.

The touchscreen menu technically has 12 cooking modes: French Fries, Frozen Faves, Pizza, Chicken, Red Meat, Pork, Veggies, Fish, Seafood, Bake, Vegan, Latin Food, Defrost, Preheat, Reheat, and DIY. In actuality, it's much more than that. For example, if you tap on the Veggies menu, you'll see more options: Florets (broccoli and cauliflower), Whole Corn, Cut Carrots, Cut Zucchini, Brussel Sprouts, and Green Beans. Under Chicken, you can choose from Wings, Tenderloins, Breast, Thighs, Drumsticks and Half Chicken. The Vegan menu includes Veggie Burger, Cauliflower Wings, Vegan Sausage, Tofu, Tempeh, and Seitan. Tap Latin Food and you'll see Chimichangas, Taquitos, Arepas, Platanos Maduros, Enchiladas, and Nachos.

Choose your cooking mode, then choose your specific food. You'll usually be asked to choose your quantity at that point, and also you'll have the option to change the time and the temperature if you wish. Press Start.

At the halfway point, you'll get an alarm telling you to shake (or turn) your food for even browning. This is important, because the heat comes only from the top. If you don't flip your food, only the top will get crisp and the underneath can get soggy. Tap the light bulb icon to turn on the interior light and keep an eye on your food through the window.

You'll be alerted when your cook time is complete. There is an "add two minutes" button you can tap if you like. Otherwise, remove your food and enjoy.

Cleaning the Kalorik Vivid Touch is easy enough, just hand wash the drawer and crisping tray after use. I don't even remove the tray for cleanup. You should also wipe down the interior of the air fryer outside of the drawer as needed.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Kalorik Vivid Touch Touchscreen Air Fryer: performance

I tested a number of foods in the Kalorik Vivid Touch on various cooking modes with varying degrees of success. Generally it works best for air frying pre-made and frozen convenience foods or reheating and re-crisping leftovers. I did try baking in the Vivid Touch and that worked okay, but only when baking very small and thin items.

I can't take credit for the tofu curry dish seen above, my youngest kiddo made this delicious dinner. They seasoned and breaded the tofu, fried it up in the Kalorik Touch and put it together with curry veggies and rice. It was truly perfection.

Frozen French Fries become a perfectly fried treat in the Kalorik Vivid Touch. The fries are crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle. They couldn't be easier to make. Just be sure to shake the drawer at the halfway point; you'll be alerted when you should do so. This ensures even browning.

I made sweet potato "fries" from scratch in the air fryer with just a quick spritz of oil, salt, and pepper. They were delicious, browned on the outside and soft in the middle. I also make lots of fresh veggies and some definitely came out better than others. All of them got blackened, which I enjoy. But for some reason, the cauliflower came out perfect, but the broccoli and Brussels sprouts came out a little bit tough.

Baking in the Kalorik Vivid Touch is possible but not ideal. I baked a quick two-ingredient bread (greek yogurt and self-rising flour) which came out pretty well. You definitely want to keep it thin and small, and even flip it if possible. I made pancake bites in a small silicone muffin mold, and it took two tries to get them right. The key is to fill the molds less than halfway. Fill them up any more than that and they come out burned on top, raw in the middle.

I also attempted corn bread from a mix. I started with a baked the batter in two 5 x 5 inch pans instead of the 8 x 8 inch pan suggested on the box. I made one in the air fryer and the other in my toaster oven. The toaster oven one came out fine but the air fryer one was a fail. Though it was perfectly browned on top, it was raw in the middle.

However, when I heated frozen pre-made waffles in the Kalorik Vivid Touch air fryer, they came out just perfect. Nice and crisp on the outside, fluffy and warm on the inside. I did flip them halfway through the cook time and put a little chocolate on there which melted nicely.

Although I'm a vegetarian, I did make some chicken for my husband. I can barely touch raw meat, but I popped the chicken into the drawer, selected "Breast" from the "Chicken" menu, and it came out great. I did flip it half way as instructed, and I also added two minutes at the end of the cook time because it was a rather thick chicken breast.

• Performance score: 4/5

Should you buy the Kalorik Vivid Touch Touchscreen Air Fryer?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

Kalorik Vivid Touch Touchscreen Air Fryer: also consider

If you're not sure about the Kalorik Vivid Touchscreen Air Fryer, here are some other options to consider ...

How I tested the Kalorik Vivid Touch Touchscreen Air Fryer

• I tested many different cooking modes multiple times
• I used it daily for two weeks to cook a variety of food
• I cleaned it daily

I love to eat healthy meals but I don't really enjoy cooking. I'm always on the hunt for a kitchen gadget that makes cooking quicker and easier. The Kalorik Vivid Touch does that, particularly for crisping up convenience foods so they taste amazing. My husband and youngest (adult) child enjoyed using the Kalorik Vivid Touch as well. Between us, we made: veggie burgers, hash browns, veggie nuggets, broccoli, frozen waffles, veggie chicken nuggets, chicken breast, fresh sweet potato fries, cauliflower, cottage cheese bread, yogurt bread, breaded tofu, corn bread, pancake bites, tater tots, Brussels sprouts, french fries, and reheated pizza.

Read more about how we test.

Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer XXL Steam: One-minute review

There are plenty of dual-drawer air fryers on the market these days, but not too many come with a steam function. And that’s where the Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer XXL Steam comes in – as the name suggests, you can use the steam to not just cook meals, but it can even be used to clean the air fryer.

Cooking with steam means you can make dumplings or steamed vegetables easily, but the Philips 5000 Series XXL also has an air fryer+steam combo mode that I found to be quite handy. This not only cooks meat to perfection, retaining moisture, but also allows for crispy skin and crackling, albeit will need a few extra minutes air frying the perfect results.

In fact, pretty much everything I cooked in the Philips Series 5000 XXL turned out to be really good, although I’d recommend not bothering with the presets. They’re handy as a guide, but unless you have the exact amount of food that preset was meant for, it’s not going to cook your meal to perfection. Given its dual drawers, you can sync cook times, no matter what you have in either of them, but you can’t replicate the settings across both drawers because of their difference in size.

However, having the power of steam means you’ll need to deal with a few caveats. For starters, it’s available only for the larger drawer, so you will need to plan out what food item goes into which drawer before you start cooking. That also means steam cleaning is only available for the larger drawer and it requires you to manually scrub the basket and drawer anyway. So it’s not quite the magical solution I was expecting it to be. Well, at least both drawers, and the basket and tray, are dishwasher safe.

Given how well it cooks, though, it would be easy to recommend, particularly if you want steam cooking. You will, however, need to shell out a decent amount of cash for the privilege.

Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer XXL Steam review: price & availability

• Announced November 2024
• Launch price of £249.99 / AU$499, but available for cheaper now
• Not available in the US at the time of writing

Philips came out with two dual-basket air fryers at around the same time in late 2024 – the 3000 Series and the 5000 Series. Both also have single-drawer options, but it’s only the 5000 Series Dual Basket model that has the steam functionality.

At launch, it came with a list price of £249.99 / AU$499 in the UK and Australia, but can now be had for £179.99 / AU$349. It’s currently not listed for purchase in the US.

I think the discounted price is quite competitive and could be excellent value for some users, especially those who’ll really make good use of the steam functionality to cook (the steam-clean mode is superfluous). That’s not to say it’s cheap, but it isn’t too much more in some markets compared to other dual-drawer models.

For example, the Ninja Foodi Max Dual Zone Air Fryer AF400 (has the model number of DZ401 in the US) costs $229 / £229.99 / AU$299.99 and the Instant Vortex Plus Versazone can set you back $199.95 / £199.99 / AU$399 at full price.

• Value score: 4 / 5

Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer XXL Steam review: specifications

Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer XXL Steam review: design

• 800ml removable water reservoir on top of appliance
• Non-stick coating makes it easy to clean
• Clear touchscreen display, but requires small learning curve to master

If you’re already familiar with dual-basket air fryers, the Philips 5000 Series XXL Steam is not going to look too different, except for one very distinct feature – there’s a small rectangular plastic reservoir on the top to hold up to 800ml of water. It’s translucent, so you can see the level as it gets used up, and it has a cloud icon to indicate what could only be billowing steam. If you don’t notice the water level going down, there’s no need to worry as a warning light will appear on the touchscreen display.

The tank can be removed and washed, and it’s best not to leave any water in there when the appliance is not in use to avoid scale build-up. The good news is that the Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket XXL Steam has a descaling cycling built in, but better safe than sorry.

Like many dual-basket air fryers, the two drawers are different sizes – a larger 6L basket and a smaller 3L one. Philips says the larger drawer can fit a whole chicken in it, but you will need to make sure it’s not too large a chicken, and although the total 9L capacity sounds like a lot, it may not be enough for a family of four. And it’s only the bigger drawer that has steam functionality.

Having two drawers means the whole appliance has a large footprint, but it’s not overly large compared to other similar air fryers on the market. It is, however, slightly taller because of the water reservoir on the top.

The touchscreen display is very clear when it comes on, even if you have bright overhead lights shining down on the reflective surface. The top line of icons are the presets, below which you can choose the time and temperature for each drawer. There’s even the option to sync cooking times if you want. If you’re already familiar with air fryers, you won’t have much trouble finding your way around the functions on the display, although the steam cooking, air fry+steam combo, steam-clean mode and descaling option will be new to most people.

Unfortunately Philips doesn’t provide a proper user manual in the box – it has some diagrams, but they’re not easy to wrap your head around. A detailed manual is available on the HomeID app, which can be accessed via the QR code in the box or on the machine itself, but it’s not easy to find – after some digging, I found a link to the PDF buried in a Quick Guide article for the Series 5000 Dual Basket Steam air fryer.

The rear of the appliance is quite plain, but Philips provides cable management in the form of a clip-on brace. Above this are the two vents that, when you use steam, will puff rhythmically.

All of Philips’ air fryers have one thing in common – the raised pattern at the bottom of the drawers. This is to help the company’s proprietary RapidAir technology circulate hot air within each basket more efficiently. This pattern also means you can’t cook directly in the drawer, as some other brands allow you to do. Both the drawers on the Series 5000 Dual Basket XXL Steam are non-stick, but no mention has been made on what the material actually is. That said, the large basket, the two drawers and the small tray are dishwasher safe.

One thing to keep in mind with the large basket: it might appear square, but it’s not. So if the basket isn’t fitting, just turn it around and slide it in. The basket has small silicone-covered feet that are prone to pressure, which can happen if you’re handwashing it. This causes the feet to move out of position and not let the basket fit back into the drawer – if this happens, you can gently reposition them.

• Design score: 4.5 / 5

Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer XXL Steam review: performance

• Very useful time-sync functionality and shake reminders
• Plenty of presets, but they are guides only
• Not a smart (connected) air fryer

It might take you a while to get used to using steam in an air fryer, but once you do, it’s hard to not keep going back to it – I, for one, couldn’t stop experimenting with it. I used most of the functions on this air fryer and disappointments were rare – it really does cook nearly everything very well. From tender steaks to steamed dumplings, I can hardly fault it.

That said, nothing I made was using the presets. I found very quickly that unless you plan to cook the exact amount of fries, meat or vegetables the presets were designed for, you will not get the right results. The presets on the Philips 5000 Series are guides only, but you can always adjust cook time and temperature for better results.

During my testing I found that manual input of cook time and temperature was the best and, of course, you can always pull a basket out to check on what’s happening to see if any adjustments are needed. Opening a drawer will pause the air dryer – both drawers, in fact – and it automatically restarts when you push the basket back in. Time and temperature adjustments can be made while the appliance is running.

One thing to keep in mind with the Philips 5000 Series XXL Steam is that there is no preheat function here. This isn’t unique to this machine, with others like the Russell Hobbs Satisfry Dual Basket air fryer (available only in the UK) also missing out on it. A preheat would have been nice for things like cooking steaks, but I got good results even without it, albeit after a couple of attempts to get the right temperature and time settings for the perfect cook (medium for me, thanks).

One of the first cooking modes I tried in the 5000 Series Dual Basket XXL Steam was air fry+steam. This feature works by pumping steam and hot air alternately, so you will hear the sound change rhythmically. The chicken drumsticks that I experimented with were tender and moist, but the skin didn't get crispy. I popped them back in for five minutes more at 200ºC for just air frying, giving me wonderfully juicy chicken legs with crispy skin. The other dish I used the air fry+steam function was pork belly and, again, the meat was lovely, but I did have to use the air-fry mode to crisp up the skin. I’d imagine you could even use it to make some cakes if you want a fudgy interior, but I didn’t have any recipes (or ingredients) on hand to experiment with when it comes to baking during my testing of this air fryer.

I found the steam-only function rather useful though. Not only is it good to steam vegetables for a side, you can even make dumplings in this air fryer. The only issue here is the pre-planning. Given you have only one drawer (the larger one) with steaming abilities, you need to figure out beforehand what you should cook in it. For example, if you have a large piece of meat that you want to cook (time-synced) alongside vegetables, you’ll likely need to forgo steamed veg as the meat won’t fit in the smaller drawer. In which case, you will need to use the 6L basket twice, which isn’t ideal. However, if you’re making steamed fish with some roasted vegetables on the side, you can do them both together by putting the latter in the 3L drawer.

I found that the 800ml maximum water capacity in the reservoir will last you no more than an hour’s worth of cooking time, so you may need to refill it if you have anything that needs longer cooking. This Philips air fryer also has a maximum temperature of 200ºC, which isn’t as high as some other air fryers are capable of, but I found it still produces lovely crackling anyway.

Time synchronization works well and I appreciate that there is a shake reminder too. I love me some crispy, deep-fried bitter gourd (a childhood favorite) and I didn’t even need to lay the slices down in a single layer. The shake reminders were great when I just plopped handfuls in each basket to air fry and, at the end of 27 minutes, I had a Tupperware box full of my fave snack.

I cooked halloumi in the air fryer, as well mushrooms, steak and frozen foods. No matter what I threw at it, the results were to my liking, although I will emphasize that the presets won’t necessarily be too useful for first-time users.

As good as the cooking is, I was disappointed by the steam-cleaning function. As wonderful as it sounds on paper, it’s not quite what Philips makes it out to be – you will need to manually wash the basket and drawer to remove all traces of grease and burnt food after a 15-minute steam cycle, then pop it back in for a 2-minute hot-air drying session. Moreover, only the 6L basket has the advantage of steam to loosen caked-in grease. Thankfully both drawers and baskets are dishwasher safe.

Given it uses water, there is a descale mode available, but I haven’t had the appliance long enough to try it and, even after three months, have not seen any deposits in the water reservoir.

So while I would love to score this air fryer higher just for its cooking performance, I have to dock marks for the caveats surrounding the steam functionality.

• Performance score: 4 / 5

Should I buy the Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer XXL Steam?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

How I tested the Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer XXL Steam

• Used for five weeks to cook a variety of meals
• Cooked mushrooms, steak, cheese, chicken, fish and much more
• Tested most cooking functions and presets

For a period of five weeks, I cooked nearly all my dinners in the Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer XXL Steam, as well as some lunches and a few snacks during the weekends. This gave me plenty of time to test several of the presets (I didn’t try the bread one though) and experiment with most of the cooking modes.

I’m not much of a baker at the best of times, but I did try to make some banana muffins in the air fryer, which didn’t quite turn out as I expected them to, but that had to do with my recipe rather than any fault of the appliance.

However, I also cooked various meats in the two drawers to test the roast, air fryer and air-fry+steam combo functions. These included a scotch fillet, chicken thighs and legs, a pork belly and beef sausages – the latter in the smaller basket.

The vegetables I cooked – both air fried and steamed – included broccolini, potatoes, cauliflower florets, carrots and snow peas. I also cooked some halloumi and portobello mushrooms.

In addition to cooking, I also tested the steam-clean mode a few times. I hand-washed the baskets and drawers most of the time but, when space allowed, I even put them in my dishwasher. The only function I couldn’t test during my review period was the descaling as there were no visible marks to tell me if the feature was working optimally or not.

Read more about how we test

[First reviewed February 2025]

Ninja Crispi 4-in-1 Portable Glass Air Fryer Cooking System: one-minute review

The Ninja Crispi 4-in-1 Portable Glass Air Fryer Cooking System is just that. It is indeed an air fryer, and not really more than that, but the design is utterly unique. Rather than cooking in a plastic drawer, your food goes on a metal tray in a glass cooking container with built-in plastic handles and feet. The heating element, which Ninja calls the PowerPod, is placed onto the glass container. When your cooking is complete, simply remove the PowerPod and place the glass container right onto the table for serving.

If you have leftovers, you can just put the included lid on your glass container and stick it in your fridge. The glass containers come in multiple sizes and the PowerPod has an adapter so it will fit on each container perfectly. There are four cooking modes: Bake, Air Fry, Max Crisp, and Recrisp. Each runs at a different temperature range, so you have some flexibility.

Ninja Crispi 4-in-1 Portable Glass Air Fryer Cooking System: price and availability

• List price: $159.99 (about £127 / AU$251)

You can purchase the Ninja Crispi directly from Ninja’s website, where it’s available in a number of bundles containing multiple glass containers. You can also purchase extra glass containers in three different sizes separately: $29.99 for the six-cup container, $39.99 for the 2.5-quart container, and $44.99 for the four-quart size. The standard $159.99 system, which I tested, comes with the large four quart and the small six cup glass container. It’s available just about everywhere that sells air fryers online and in person, such as Amazon, Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and many more.

• Value score: 4.5/5

Ninja Crispi 4-in-1 Portable Glass Air Fryer Cooking System: specifications

Ninja Crispi 4-in-1 Portable Glass Air Fryer Cooking System: design and features

• Heat comes from removable Crispi PowerPod
• Four cooking functions
• Looks functional rather than attractive

The cleverly designed Ninja Crispi 4-in-1 Portable Glass Air Fryer Cooking System is a really a cooking pod, called the PowerPod, and a collection of glass cooking dishes. The cooking dishes, which Ninja calls TempWare Containers, withstand high cooking temperatures and are made just for the Ninja Crispi. You must use Ninja’s TempWare Containers; the PowerPod won’t work on other dishes. A built-in plastic piece adds handles and feet so you can place the dishes on any countertop. Each cooking dish comes with a metal crisper plate that nests inside and keeps the food off the bottom so air can circulate around it.

Place your food into one of the glass dishes on the crisper plate and place the pod on top. The PowerPod fits the small six-cup dish perfectly on its own. If you’re using the larger four-quart dish, you’ll need to use the included adapter for the PowerPod. Choose your cooking function mode: Recrisp (380°-400°F), Bake (375°-400°F), Air Fry (400°-425F), or Max Crisp (425°-450°). Select your cook time by pressing the - or + buttons. Press the start button to begin.

As with most air fryers, you will usually need to flip your food over halfway through the cook time. To pause cooking, simply remove the PowerPod and it will power off automatically. To re-start cooking, place the pod back onto the glass container and hit the start button once again.

The standard bundle comes with the largest glass dish, which has a four quart capacity, and the smallest one, which holds six cups. Ninja also makes a medium 2.5-quart glass dish, which is sold separately. Any of the glass dishes can be purchased separately, and there are different bundles you can buy with varying dish combinations. The handles and feet allow you to use the dishes for serving the food; there’s no need to transfer it to another container. All of the cooking dishes also come with an air-tight lid, so you can use the dishes for storing food as well.

Cleaning the Ninja Crispi is easy. You don’t need to clean the PowerPod, just the glass containers and crisper plates. They are even dishwasher safe, though it is easy enough to just wash them by hand. Though it’s not mentioned in the literature, I was able to use paper air fryer liners which made cleanup even easier.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Ninja Crispi 4-in-1 Portable Glass Air Fryer Cooking System: performance

Though there are four cooking modes, the Ninja Crispi is truly an air fryer. The Air Fryer, Max Crisp, and Recrisp modes all worked pretty much as expected. The Bake mode, however, was a bit disappointing. I tried baking several items, all of which turned out fully browned on the top and raw in the middle. Since air frying in general requires flipping for even crisping, I’m not that surprised that the baking mode wasn’t great. I think baking would be fine for something quite thin, like cookies or very small mini muffins. If you want to make something thicker, like full-sized cupcakes, you’re better off using a regular oven. Of course, most people don’t buy air fryers in order to bake.

I eat a lot of fresh roasted vegetables, so I air fried broccoli, cauliflower, red peppers, brussels sprouts, and sweet potatoes. I used both Air Fry and Max Crisp modes. There is a learning curve, but once I got the hang of it, the veggies turned out delicious with just the barest spritz of oil. You definitely want to remember to flip your food, at least once during the cooking process. When I didn’t flip it, the food did not cook evenly. The Ninja Crispi is very, very fast. It’s a good idea to check your food frequently to make sure you don’t burn it. Even with careful flipping and checking, vegetables tend to brown (or blacken) quickly in some spots before all of them are fully cooked. Raw vegetables tended to come out more blackened and crisp rather than tender.

My favorite vegetable cooked from its raw state was the diced sweet potatoes. They were crisp on the outside and soft in the middle. The next day I used the Recrisp mode to heat up the leftovers, which turned out great.

I made a bunch of veggie burgers, as well as protein waffles, veggie tots, falafel balls, and veggie “chicken” nuggets. They all turned out wonderful and crisp on the outside, tender on the inside. I didn’t need to add any oil to any of these convenience foods.

I hosted a Super Bowl party and air fried some frozen french fries for my guests. The fries disappeared so quickly, I ended up air frying another batch immediately! They were perfectly crisp and evenly browned on the outside and soft and fluffy in the middle. I did nothing to doctor them at all, no oil or seasonings, and they came out just right.

My family got in on the air frying fun. My youngest is a more adventurous cook than I, and they made some panko-crusted and seasoned tofu squares. The tofu was delicious! As expected, it was nice and crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle. They didn’t even have to press and dry the tofu first. I’m a vegetarian but my husband eats meat; he used the Ninja Crispi to quickly and easily cook some chicken breasts. They got nicely browned on the outside (flipping half-way through cook time is a must) and cooked all the way through.

As I mentioned above, I did try Bake mode. First, I made some pancake bites in a little silicone baking dish. The tops browned but the rest was still raw. I actually pulled off all the tops, flipped them over, and put them through another bake cycle. That worked fine. I also baked a (rather thick) protein air fryer cookie with the same results. I did the same thing where I pulled off the top, flipped it over, and put it through another cycle. Again, it was fine that way. So if you do use Bake mode, just be sure your items are very thin.

• Performance score: 4/5

Should you buy the Ninja Crispi 4-in-1 Portable Glass Air Fryer Cooking System?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

Ninja Crispi: also consider

If you're not sure about the Ninja Crispi 4-in-1 Portable Glass Air Fryer Cooking System, here are some other options to consider...

How I tested the Ninja Crispi 4-in-1 Portable Glass Air Fryer Cooking System

• I tested Recrisp, Bake, Air Fry, and Max Crisp modes multiple times
• I used it daily for two weeks to cook a variety of food
• I cleaned it after each use

Although I’m a foodie, I’m kind of a lazy cook. As a wife and mother of three, I used to put more effort into crafting a variety of nutritious meals from scratch when my kids were little. Now that they’re grown, I still want to eat healthy meals, I just don’t want to take the time to cook them. The Ninja Crispi certainly helps me get food on the table fast. My family (my husband, my adult child, and I) used the Ninja Crispi daily, sometimes multiple times in one day, for two weeks. We made loads of fresh veggies, plus veggie burgers, veggie chicken nuggets, french fries, frozen waffles, breaded tofu, falafel, veggie tots, chicken breasts, pancake bites, and a protein breakfast cookie. I cleaned it after each use, which was quite easy. I did use paper air fryer liners sometimes, which made cleanup even easier.

Read more about how we test.

If you're only using your air fryer to cook chicken and fries, you're missing out – it's also an excellent tool for small batch baking, and absolutely perfect for whipping up a quick batch of breakfast muffins. These particular ones are a favorite in my household, and you can jazz them up by swapping the sultanas and seeds for other dried fruit, or even chocolate chunks. For double chocolate muffins, switch the fruit for chocolate and replace a tablespoon of the flour with cocoa powder.

The recipe is similar to banana bread and is a great way to use up fruit that's gone overripe. If you notice that some of your bananas are starting to turn brown, toss them into your freezer. The night before you want to make your muffins, take some out and leave them to defrost overnight. The skins will have changed color, but that's fine. When you're ready to begin baking, cut the top off each defrosted banana and squeeze it into a bowl. During freezing, the water in each banana will have expanded and broken the cell walls, making it soft - it's still perfectly good, and super easy to mash with a fork.

I baked the muffins using a Cosori TurboBlaze 6L air fryer. If you're using a different model, you may need to experiment with tweaking the temperature and time slightly, but the recipe is quite forgiving and you don't need the best air fryer in the world to get good results.

When I asked Margaret Rewers, R&D Culinary Supervisor at Cosori, for some tips on making cakes in an air fryer, she recommended using individual cupcake cases rather than a pan. I used BPA-free silicone cases (you can find similar ones on Amazon for $6.99) which have the advantage of not needing greasing before use.

Ingredients

• 4.4oz / 125g wholemeal flour
• 4.4oz / 125g plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3.5oz / 100g dark brown sugar
• 1 handful sultanas
• 1 handful sunflower seeds
• 3.5fl oz / 100ml vegetable oil
• 4 mashed bananas
• 2 beaten eggs
• 2 tablespoons milk

Method

1. Prepare your air fryer and cases

Start by putting the crisper tray in your air fryer and pre-heating it to 280F / 140C. If you're using silicone muffin cases, preheat these as well to make sure the bottom of each muffin gets properly cooked. Don't squish too many cases into the air fryer drawer, otherwise hot air won't be able to circulate properly. It's much better to bake in small batches.

2. Combine ingredients

While the air fryer is heating, prepare your muffin batter. Put all your dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, sugar, sultanas, and seeds) into a bowl and mix well, saving a few seeds to decorate the tops of the muffins if you like. Then put the oil, mashed bananas, and beaten egg into a second bowl, and mix thoroughly.

3. Mix wet and dry

Pour your wet ingredients into the dry ones and mix with a wooden spoon until they're just combined. You shouldn't be able to see any lumps of flour but don't over-mix the batter, or gluten will start to develop and the muffins will be tough.

4. Fill your cases

When the air fryer has finished pre-heating, carefully remove your muffin cases (hold each one using an oven glove or towel) and spoon in your mixture. Allow a little space at the top of the case for each one to rise. If you reserved a few seeds, sprinkle them on top before putting the filled cases back in the air fryer drawer. Don't be tempted to fill the cases while they're still in the air fryer; any mixture that gets spilled will bake onto the inside of the drawer and be a hassle to clean.

5. Bake your muffins

Bake your muffins at 240F / 140C for 15 minutes. If your air fryer doesn't have a window, don't be tempted to open the drawer and take a peek partway through – the muffins will collapse. When the time is up, check to see if the muffins are cooked by poking one in the center with a clean metal skewer. It should come out clean, with no more than a few crumbs on it. If it comes out with batter stuck to it, put the muffins back in for another five minutes, then check again. When they're done, remove the cases using oven gloves or a kitchen towel over your hand, and put them on a wire rack to cool.

You might also like

• I made deliciously fluffy cake in an air fryer, and these 7 tricks will help you do the same in 15 minutes
• I made air fryer shrimp and my friends thought I'd bought them
• I made crispy air fryer chickpeas and it's made snacking healthy

Air fryers are fantastic for preparing treats like chicken wings, bacon, and crispy shrimp, but did you know you can also use one to make deliciously moist cakes? You can, and it's much quicker and easier than you might expect.

You don't need to use a recipe specifically designed for air fryers either, provided you make a few tweaks along the way. I made a three-tier air fryer cake using Mary Berry's Victoria sponge recipe, a classic all-in-one with two eggs, two teaspoons of baking powder, and 9oz / 250g each of butter, caster sugar, and self-raising flour. I baked it in a Cosori TurboBlaze 6L, which is a compact single-drawer air fryer, but any model with a bake mode will work.

If you've been considering investing in an air fryer and the thought of quick, tasty cake has sealed the deal, take a look at our roundup of the best air fryers for our top recommendations. All modals are tested for cooking performance, ease of use, and speed of clean-up.

1. Pick the right cake pan (or muffin case)

There are a few common mistakes bakers tend to make when making a cake in an air fryer, but Margaret Rewers, R&D Culinary Supervisor at Cosori offers some recommendations that should help you get better results every time. For example, it's a good idea to use multiple cake pans when making a cake in an air fryer.

"When making multilayer cakes or standard boxed cake mixes, we’ve found that it’s best to cook them in batches," says Margaret. "Simply dividing the cake batter into two cake pans and baking them separately yields more evenly baked cakes."

If you're making cupcakes or muffins, Margaret recommends using individual cupcake cases rather than a muffin pan. "You can also bake using mini loaf pans in the air fryer, which is great when making banana bread or pumpkin bread," she adds.

2. Choose the best temperature and mode

"Never bake according to the oven instructions when baking cakes in the air fryer," warns Margaret. "The temperature difference can range from 25-50F. Time can also differ by about 10-15 minutes. If the box instructions say 350ºF [180ºC], try 300ºF [150ºC].

"The time it takes to bake a cake in an air fryer depends on the recipe, so it will really vary depending on what type of cake recipe you are using and how much cake batter the recipe yields."

Mary Berry's recipe suggested baking the Victoria sponge at 320ºF / 160ºC for a fan oven, so I dropped it to 285ºF / 140ºC, which worked well. Each layer baked in my 6-inch tin was ready in 15 minutes.

Make sure you use your air fryer's dedicated Bake mode. On the Cosori TurboBlaze 6L, this has a lower fan speed than other settings, ensuring the thin cake batter doesn't get blown around.

3. Pre-heat the pan

One of the most important things to do when baking a cake in an air fryer is to pre-heat your pan. Otherwise, the top of your cake will heat much faster than the bottom, and you could end up with something overdone on top, but raw underneath. As they say on The Great British Bake Off, nobody wants a soggy bottom. Use your air fryer's pre-heat setting and put your pan on the crisper plate if you can.

"Baking on top of the crisper plate will ensure that heat gets circulated over and under the cake," says Margaret. "If you're using a cake pan with taller sides, then you will need to bake without the crisper plate to ensure the top of the cake doesn’t burn."

4. Grease well and line

Don't grease your cake pan before heating it – it might burn. Instead, while it's pre-heating, either melt some butter in the microwave or grab a vegetable oil spray so you're ready when it's up to temperature. I also like to cut out a circle of baking parchment to fit the bottom of the pan.

Once the cake pan is nice and hot, remove it from the drawer using oven gloves, place it on a heatproof mat, and apply your butter or oil, ensuring you get it all the way up the sides. Now drop the circle of baking parchment into the bottom of the pan, if you're using one. The oil or butter should hold it in place.

5. Add your batter carefully

Once the pan is greased, carefully pour in your cake batter. The heat of the pan might make it start to melt around the edges but don't worry about it, just continue to pour. You don't want to take too long over this, because the heated pan will begin to cool.

6. Do the skewer test

When your air fryer's timer goes off, open the drawer and insert a clean metal skewer into the center of the cake. If the cake is cooked, it should come out clean with no more than a couple of crumbs sticking to it. If in doubt, close the drawer and bake the cake for another three to five minutes before checking again.

If your air fryer doesn't have a window, resist the temptation to open the drawer early to peek at your cake. If it's not cooked through, the structure will collapse and it'll sink in the middle.

7. If at first you don't succeed...

...fry, fry again. Another advantage of cooking your cake layers one at a time is that it doesn't matter so much if the first one goes a bit wrong. If your first attempt is a bit too dry, reduce the cooking time a little. If it's not entirely cooked through, leave it in a little longer, or make each layer thinner by using less batter.

• Ninja has launched a white version of the five-star Double Stack air fryer
• Off-white is slated to be one of this year's most popular colors for kitchens
• KitchenAid and Breville are also trying out lighter and more natural shades

Ninja has given its best air fryer, the Ninja Double Stack, a new look for 2025 with a fresh white color scheme - a bright alternative to the usual matt black and brushed stainless steel. We gave the Double Stack top marks thanks to its smart two-tier design and consistently great cooking results, and thanks to this fresh new look it'll look at home in even more kitchens - including yours.

The Ninja White Collection, which launched this week, also includes the Ninja Foodi Max Dual Zone Air Fryer, Rapid Boil Perfect Temperature Kettle, and the Foodi 3-in-1 Toaster, Grill and Panini Press.

According to Ninja, the new-look air fryers, kettle, and grill are "designed to complement any kitchen, beautifully crafted to blend modern aesthetics with effortless functionality" – and it's not the only company hoping to brighten up your kitchen this year.

Lighten up

According to our colleagues over at interior design site Homes & Gardens, off-white is set to be one of the hottest trends of 2025, and opting for appliances in fresher colors could be a quick and easy way to bring your kitchen right up to date,

Just a few days ago KitchenAid announced that its full range of espresso machines is now available in Porcelain White – a creamy shade with a matt finish. The company first launched the color in 2023, in response to demand for appliances in softer hues.

KitchenAid also tried something different a few weeks ago with its Artisan Design Series Evergreen stand mixer, which has a soft green chassis and a bowl made from real walnut wood rather than stainless steel. Home cooks were divided on its practicality, with some arguing that wood is an impractical choice that needs too much maintenance, but it's hard to deny that it's striking.

Meanwhile, Breville has put a new twist on its best espresso machine with brass accents and colors inspired by nature. The Breville Barista Touch Impress is now available in warm shades of blue, olive, and off-white with warm-toned metal rather than stainless steel.

You might also like

• This AI air fryer turns your grandma's old recipes into smart cooking programs
• 5 things I learned from using an air fryer for the first time
• Goodbye to grease: Philips launches self-cleaning air fryer to save you scrubbing

Russell Hobbs Satisfry Dual Basket Air Fryer: one-minute review

British manufacturer Russell Hobbs is a trusted name in the European home and kitchen gadgets market, providing high-quality appliances that don't break the bank. As such, our expectations for the brand's new Satisfry Dual Basket Air Fryer 9 Litre were high - and it didn't disappoint. The Satisfry Dual Basket Air Fryer is perfect for small to medium-sized households who want a solid, no-nonsense air fryer and aren't fussed about extra bells and whistles.

This air fryer offers two separate baskets that can be programmed to different temperatures and times. There are also handy match and sync functionalities to allow you to program each to the same settings (if you need to cook more of one food across two baskets, for example) or, if you're cooking separate foods for the same meal, finish cooking simultaneously. I'd have loved to see smart functionality included to make this process even easier, though. In addition, nine presets are available so you can quickly cook pizza, chips, and even steak. I found these presets to provide mostly accurate results, though, like most air fryers, some experimentation is required for optimal results. Overall, I only had a few minor hiccups with testing - with the usual air fryer suspects (baking and dehydrating).

Aesthetically, the Satisfry Dual Basket Air Fryer 9 Litre looks beautiful, with its modern matte black and champagne design allowing it to blend into a contemporary kitchen's decor without sticking out like a sore thumb. This design is important because this air fryer takes up a lot of counter space, so the least it can do is be pretty doing it.

Russell Hobbs Satisfry Dual Basket Air Fryer 9 Litre is a great air fryer with consistent results, but don't expect as much hand-holding as you get from some competitors. There's no recipe book included, only a user manual that tells you how to use its functions (which you definitely need to read), a breakdown of its preset functions, and a rough guide to the temperatures and time for other common air fryer items. While this guide is useful and includes some notes on preparing roast potatoes, for example, it doesn't give weights, so you may need to experiment with how much food product you should put in the baskets for optimal results.

In addition, while nine liters seems like a lot, I found it was enough capacity for our household of two, but larger families may struggle to cook more than one meal component at a time. I'd have loved to see the dual basket become one large basket with a removable divider, as seen in the Cosori Dual Blaze Twinfry 10L Air Fryer.

Overall, the Russell Hobbs Satisfry Dual Basket is a brilliant kitchen gadget that ranks up there with the best air fryers, especially for those with experience using these handy appliances. While this is a more premium air fryer with a price tag to match, it performs better than some competitors we've tested at higher price points. It's worth the investment if you're after a reliable air fryer with quality-of-life functions, but may be less suitable for large families or those after extras, like smart functionality.

Russell Hobbs Satisfry Dual Basket Air Fryer: price and availability

• Price: £199.99 (roughly $250 / AU$400)
• Available in UK only from Russell Hobbs directly and select third-party retailers
• Regular discounts and sales

While some of the best air fryers on the market, like the Ninja Double Oven and Dreo ChefMaker, can cost you over $250 /£250, the Russell Hobbs Satisfry Dual Basket Air Fryer 9 Litre comes in at the lower end of premium pricing. At £199.99 (roughly $250 / AU$400), it's still a pretty pricey investment but is well worth the money if you want a reliable air fryer you plan to use regularly. Plus, there are regular sales, with the Russell Hobbs store dropping the price to just £99.99 in its January 2025 sale - an absolute steal for this level of quality.

Unfortunately, at the time of writing, the Satisfry Dual Basket isn't available in the US or Australia.

• Value score: 4.5/5

Russell Hobbs Satisfry Dual Basket Air Fryer: specifications

Russell Hobbs Satisfry Dual Basket Air Fryer: design

• Modern black and champagne colorways
• Takes up a lot of space
• Easy to clean
• Clear touchscreen display, but can be hard to navigate

The Russell Hobbs Satisfry Dual Basket has one of the sleekest air fryer designs around. It's matte black with stylish champagne accents, so it should complement a contemporary kitchen well. This is a hefty air fryer, though. It may not be as large as some on the market, but it easily takes up a whole counter space and weighs in at 7.8kg. So, if you have a smaller kitchen or less countertop room, you may struggle to find it a home.

This size isn't surprising given this is a nine-liter air fryer with two deep separate baskets. While this seems like a lot, the baskets have more depth than width and length, so while they can hold bigger items, you can't fit a huge amount in each basket. For example, I got about 321g of frozen steak fries into one basket (with some overlap) while still allowing for the required space the air fryer needs to function, and a small pizza just about fitted in the other. This was fine for our two-person household, but for bigger households, you would likely need both baskets - preventing you from cooking another item for your meal simultaneously. I wish Russell Hobbs had designed this so that you could connect the two baskets to create one large basket, as we've seen from some competitors.

The baskets are easily washed, requiring a simple wipe-down before hand washing both it and the crisping plates. Whether you can actually put parts in the dishwasher is a tad confusing, though. The user manual says you can wash the baskets and crisping plates in the dishwasher, but Russell Hobbs advises against it. This is likely due to the black, non-stick coating of these elements, and it's also recommended you use plastic tongs to remove your food.

While the sound levels of some kitchen gadgets can be imposing, the Satisfry Dual Basket Air Fryer 9 Liter isn't one of those. Sure, it's loud enough that you can certainly hear it, clocking around an average of 63 to 64 decibels during my testing, but not loud enough that you have to shout over it. Likewise, when in use, the front is room temperature to the touch, with the heat coming out of a vent at the back and hitting a max temperature (while cooking steak and fries together) of 75C / 167F. This means it should be safe to function in your kitchen if you've got little ones about - just don't let them touch the inside!

Here's where I struggled a bit with the Satisfry Dual Basket: the touchscreen interface. The appliance has a touchscreen digital display that lets you program each basket, assigning your preferred presets, functions, temperature, and time. On the surface, it looks pretty straightforward to use - but you need to read the instructions because it can be a bit complicated to get to grips with, especially when you're programming baskets separately.

That's fine, and with time, I got used to it, but issues arose when I tried to cancel a basket while the other was on. While you can adjust the temperature, time, and settings of one basket while the other is on, there doesn't appear to be a cancel button if you decide to pull out one basket early. I still haven't worked out how to do it without stopping the other basket cooking - and the manual doesn't cover it.

This is an air fryer that's not going to hold your hand. It has plenty of handy quality-of-life features to make cooking efficient, but if you've not had an air fryer before, you may struggle to work out some aspects. While some air fryers come with a hefty user manual and recipe book, this one includes a fairly short manual.

It does a great job explaining how to use the gadget's main functions but doesn't cover cancelling. Likewise, it lists the preset functions' settings and gives a rough guideline for cooking common foods but doesn't give a recommended weight or size. This was particularly confusing when it came to pizza. There's a pizza preset with a slice of pizza icon, which left me confused about whether it's meant to cook just one slice of pizza or what size pizza this preset was designed for. The air fryer just about fits a small pizza in one basket. If you're expecting to put anything bigger in it. as I was. you're out of luck.

• Design score: 4/5

Russell Hobbs Satisfry Dual Basket Air Fryer: performance

• Presets are pretty accurate
• Useful Sync and Match functions
• Quality-of-life features, like Shake
• No smart functionality

While the Russell Hobbs Satisfry Dual Basket Air Fryer 9 Litre's interface can be a bit confusing to get to grips with, its performance and features are impressive.

This air fryer comes with nine presets: Steak, Fries, Chicken, Fish, Pizza, Dehydrate, Bake, Vegetables, and Reheat. I admit I was skeptical about air-frying steak so it was the first thing I tested. I popped two sirloins into a basket with a bit of oil and seasoning, selected the Steak preset, and in 12 minutes, I had two medium steaks. Now, they were a bit overdone for my liking, didn't have the sort of sear you get from a pan, and the fat hadn't really rendered, but they tasted great. If I were to repeat this in the future, I'd have preheated the air fryer manually (there's no preheat function) and taken the steaks out a few minutes earlier.

Alongside my steaks, I added about four potatoes worth of fresh fries to the other basket and set the second basket to the Fries preset and to Sync mode. This meant the fries were ready at the same time as my steaks and cooked to perfection, crispy on the outside and fluffy inside. If you want to cook the two baskets at the same temperature and time or preset, you simply press Match instead of Sync.

Other presets performed well, too, but some food items worked better than others. The Chicken preset resulted in crispy chicken wings that were juicy inside, the Vegetables setting gave me delicious carrots - but charred broccoli - and the Pizza setting gave me a slightly overdone (but not burnt) lunch.

The Dehydration setting, as with many air fryers, didn't dry out my oranges quite how I'd like, so it took another 120 minutes for the best results. The Bake setting, however, I was fairly impressed with - though an oven definitely gives better results.

Air fryers are renowned for being bad at baking, particularly cakes. When I cooked some cupcake-sized muffins on the Bake preset, they came out a bit browner on top but cooked, whereas another batch (which I set to the recipe instructions rather than the preset) was raw on the bottom. The silicon cupcake tray only just fit in a basket, though, so what you can bake may be somewhat restricted.

After the muffin success, I gave an air fryer Lemon Drizzle cake/loaf a try. A metal loaf tin didn't fit, but my silicon one did - again just. This time, I combined the Bake preset with the recipe, cooking the cake low and slow for an hour and 30 minutes, adding aluminum foil to the top of it after the first 30 minutes to prevent it from burning. The cake worked, but again, it was quite dry, so I wouldn't advise prioritizing baking with this air fryer (or any, in fact).

What I particularly liked about this air fryer was its extra, quality-of-life functions and features. The Delay function allows you to delay the start of cooking by a set amount of time, so I could easily put some food in the air fryer for lunch an hour later, set the delay time for 60 minutes and the preset I needed, and return to my cooked food after the delay and cooking time had passed.

There's also a shake reminder for some presets, which means the air fryer beeps to remind you to turn or shake your food - allowing for more even cooking. While this and the end time beep aren't as loud as I'd like, it's very useful when you're busy with other things, as is the auto shut off feature. It feels like Russell Hobbs is missing a trick by not adding smart functionality so you could program the air fryer from your phone, but this may not be a dealbreaker for you.

• Performance: 4.5/5

Should you buy the Russell Hobbs Satisfry Dual Basket Air Fryer?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

Russell Hobbs Satisfry Dual Basket Air Fryer: also consider

Not sure if the Russell Hobbs Satisfry Dual Basket Air Fryer is right for you? Here are two more options to consider.

How I tested the Russell Hobbs Satisfry Dual Basket Air Fryer

I used the Russell Hobbs Satisfry Dual Basket Air Fryeror a week, cooking a wide variety of foods including fries, chicken wings, fresh vegetables, steak, cake, and muffins. I tested all the air fryer's various modes and cleaned the air fryer in line with the instructions provided in the manual. For more details, see how we test.

First reviewed January 2025.

Ninja is one of the biggest names in air fryers, and if you're looking for a two-drawer model, the Ninja Foodi Max Dual Zone and Ninja Double Stack should both be on your shortlist. If you're struggling to choose between the two, we're here to summarize all the key differences so you can make the right choice.

The most obvious difference between these two top-rated air fryers is the arrangement of their baskets (horizontal for the Foodi Max and vertical for the Double Stack), but it doesn't end there. After putting both air fryers through extensive testing in our kitchen, we found a significant difference in how the two perform when cooking one particularly common food.

First, a word on naming and sizes. The original Ninja Double Stack air fryer was released in April 2024 and has a capacity of 8.3qt / 9.5l. We tested this version in our Ninja Double Stack review. In the US and UK, this specific model is known as the Ninja Double Stack XL, while it's the Ninja Double Stack XXL in Australia.

Ninja later released a smaller version of the air fryer, with a capacity of 6.7qt / 7.6l. In the US and UK, this is called the Ninja Double Stack, and in Australia, it is called the Ninja Double Stack XL.

The Ninja Foodi Max Dual Zone air fryer has a capacity of 8.3qt / 9.5l, so we'll be comparing it to the larger of the two Double Stack models. Now, on with the details...

Ninja Foodi Max Dual Zone vs Ninja Double Stack: price

• The two air fryers were similar prices at launch
• Both are still about the same price in the US and UK
• The Double Stack is now significantly more expensive in Australia

The exact price you'll pay for each of these air fryers depends on where you live. When they launched, the Ninja Foodi Max Dual Zone had a list price of £229.99 / $219.99 / AU$449.99, and the Ninja Double Stack XL had a list price of $229.99 / £269.99 / AU$449.99.

Both air fryers have now been available for a while, and discounts are often available on both models. At the time of writing, you can pick up the Foodi Max for about $170 / £190 / AU$240 and the Ninja Double Stack XL for roughly $200 / £210 / AU$390. In other words, there's little difference in price in the US and the UK, but in Australia, the Ninja Double Stack XL is significantly more expensive.

If you've already decided, you'll find today's best deals on the Ninja Foodi Max Dual Zone and Ninja Double Stack XL below. Otherwise, keep reading for more details.

Ninja Foodi Max Dual Zone vs Ninja Double Stack: features

• Ninja Double Stack is narrower and taller, but also deeper
• Double Stack includes racks for cooking food in up to four layers
• Both air fryers have the same selection of cooking modes

The key difference between these two air fryers is their footprint. The Ninja Foodi Max Dual Zone measures 13.9 x 12.8 x 17.1 inches / 32.5 x 41.5 x 27cm (h x w x d), while the Ninja Double Stack XL is 15.1 x 11 x 18.5 inches / 38.5 x 28 x 47cm. That might not sound like much, but the Double Stack's narrower build makes a real difference to how it sits on your kitchen counter. It's worth noting, however, that it's considerably deeper than the Foodi Max from front to back, so it's worth measuring your workspace to see how each one will fit.

As we mentioned earlier, both the Ninja Foodi Max Dual Zone and the Ninja Double Stack XL have a capacity of 8.3qt / 9.5l, and both have separate drawers, so you can't cook a single large item like a whole chicken or a pizza. Some large-capacity air fryers have a large drawer with a removable divider so you can cook something bigger or two smaller sides, but that's not the case here. The drawers and crisper plates for both fryers are dishwasher-safe as well.

The Ninja Double Stack XL lets you cook food in more layers thanks to a pair of stainless steel racks - one for each drawer. This means you can cook four different types of food or simply arrange your fries or nuggets so air can circulate around them more evenly.

In other respects, the two models are very similar. Both air fryers have six cooking modes (air fry, max crisp, roast, bake, and dehydrate) and operate at 2,470W. Both have a timer, and you can sync the two drawers to finish cooking different foods simultaneously. Both of the air fryers have a maximum temperature of 464ºF / 240C.

Ninja Foodi Max Dual Zone vs Ninja Double Stack: performance

• Both air fryers produced succulent chicken wings
• Fries were more evenly browned in the Double Stack
• Neither showed noticeable heat leakage between baskets

After putting both air fryers through their paces, we were generally more impressed with the performance of the Ninja Double Stack. Both are excellent air fryers, but our results with the Double Stack were more even and consistent than those produced by the Ninja Foodi Max Dual Zone.

Both air fryers excelled when it came to cooking chicken wings, which turned out crisp and golden on the outside and succulent and juicy inside. However, they weren't so evenly matched when it came to browning fries. Ones cooked using the Foodi Max Dual Zone were noticeably less consistent in color, with some looking pale and others almost burnt, despite our best efforts to shake them up regularly during cooking as recommended in the instructions.

Fries cooked using the Ninja Double Stack were much more consistent in color. Those towards the back were fractionally darker, but we don't think you'd really notice the difference in everyday use.

Other foods cooked well, and unlike some other air fryers, neither of these Ninja models showed signs of heat leakage between the two baskets.

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• The Dreo ChefMaker 2 air fryer was unveiled at CES 2025
• It can turn scanned recipes into step-by-step cooking programs
• It will go on sale in August, but its price has yet to be revealed

Kitchen appliance company Dreo has launched a new air fryer that uses AI to convert recipes into smart cooking programs - whether they're taken from websites or scanned from cookbooks.

Recipes written for full-size ovens usually need significant changes to work well in an air fryer, but the Dreo ChefMaker 2, which debuted at CES 2025, should make that problem a thing of the past. No more burnt roasts or sad, deflated cakes – the fryer will handle the hard work of calculating new times and temperatures for your favorite dishes.

The original Dreo ChefMaker is easily one of the best air fryers we've ever tested, and our reviewer Michelle Rae Uy found that each of its many cooking modes delivered consistently excellent results, so I'm cautiously optimistic about the second-generation's AI-enhanced abilities.

What's cooking?

If you want to try cooking up something new, the Dreo ChefMaker 2 also comes with a bank of 100 pre-programmed recipes in its mobile app, which you can follow along in your kitchen with step-by-step instructions. You can also check on the cooking process in real time for peace of mind.

The Dreo ChefMaker 2 is due to be released in August. We don't yet know how much it will cost, but the original ChefMaker had a list price of $359 / £279 (about AU$540) at launch, so I'd expect it to be similar, if not slightly more expensive.

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• 5 things I learned from using an air fryer for the first time
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TechRadar will be extensively covering this year's CES, and will bring you all of the big announcements as they happen. Head over to our CES 2025 news page for the latest stories and our hands-on verdicts on everything from 8K TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops, smart home gadgets, and the latest in AI.

You've got an air fryer for Christmas: welcome to the club! But what should you cook first? The possibilities are (almost) endless, but you need to get to grips with your new kitchen bestie with some easier dishes first. So, I've picked 10 things every air fryer newbie needs to try first - staples you can, and likely will, use most regularly.

There's no point in walking before you can run. Every air fryer is different, and each has its own quirks and features, but our list below is made up of things pretty much any air fryer can handle. Whether you want to feed the clan at breakfast, whip up a quick lunch, or impress your loved ones with a mouth-watering roast, this list has got you covered.

If you don't yet own an air fryer but are thinking of picking one up in the January sales, take a look at our guide to the best air fryers, which includes something for every household and every budget.

1. Bacon

Let's start with the basics, air fryer bacon is a must-try for every newbie - and it'll likely become something you do pretty regularly if you're a meat eater. Air frying bacon is quick, much less messy than oil frying, and results in crispy, delicious bacon almost every time. The best part of air frying bacon? You don't need any oil at all, the natural fat of the bacon is enough.

All you need to do is line your air fryer basket with a single layer of rashers, being sure not to overlap them as much as possible, and then use the bacon setting on your air fryer (if there is one). If there's no bacon setting, cook the bacon for five minutes at 200C/392F. If your air fryer is smaller, or you're cooking a lot of rashers, you may need to do this in batches.

2. Fries

Again, we're sticking with something more simple, to get you used to cooking with your air fryer. Fries are another staple of any air fryer owner - whether frozen or fresh. Making fresh chips doesn't take much longer than their frozen counterparts - especially with an air fryer - and can even be a cheaper alternative.

I find Maris Piper potatoes are best for making fries. Wash and peel one potato per person, then cut the potatoes into 1cm (0.3in) thick fries - in my experience, the easiest way to do this is to slice the full potato into about 1cm slices, then cut these chunkier slices into 1cm wide sticks lengthways. At this point, you can submerge the uncooked fries in a bowl of water for a few minutes to remove some of the starch, then pat them dry - but this isn't a necessity and you can just give them a quick rinse and dry. In a clean, dry bowl, add a tablespoon of your chosen oil (I prefer olive oil) and toss the chips in them. At this point you can add some seasoning if you like, but not too much. Put your chips into the air fryer basket, ensuring it's not too overcrowded, and set to the recommended chips program or for about 25 minutes at 200C/392F. Give them an occasional shake to make sure they're cooking evenly.

Fries can be a bit temperamental so you may need to experiment with your air fryer to find the optimal temperature and time.

3. Grilled sandwich/toastie

Want a quick lunch? An air fryer grilled sandwich (or toastie for those of you in the UK) is just what you need. It takes just a few minutes and you can put damn near anything in a toastie - so what's not to love? There's not just one recipe for making a toastie in an air fryer, but I recommend Good Food's air fryer cheese and ham toastie, which elevates a classic. If you want to use different ingredients, simply ensure you butter the outside of your bread slices and put the filling on the non-buttered sides. Then, cook your toastie for 10 minutes at 190C/374F.

4. Chicken wings

While reviewing the Cosori TurboBlaze and Cosori Dual Blaze Twinfry air fryers, I tried out Cosori's own Louisiana dry rubbed chicken wing recipe - and it's now my ultimate air fryer go-to. Chicken wings are delicious in an air fryer anyway, but this one is my absolute favorite as it's easy to do and uses herbs and spices you likely already have in your cupboard if you're a keen cook. The result is succulent wings that are crispy on the outside and packed with flavor, making them perfect for when you're hosting or in need of a quick dinner.

5. Baked potatoes

A baked potato is an easy but delicious meal, and your air fryer is going to make it easier to cook them. Simply cover your baked potato in oil, salt, and pepper, prick the skin a few times with a fork, and put it in the air fryer basket for about 40 or 50 minutes at 200C/392F - it may take a bit longer if you want the skin super crispy. Once it's ready, you can slice it open and add your favorite topping - maybe even some of the bacon you made.

6. Roast potatoes

Who doesn't love a roast potato? They're a staple of roast dinners and perfect for cooking in an air fryer. Air fryer roasties are crispy on the outside, but soft on the inside, and so easy to do it's criminal.

My go-to air fryer roast potato recipe comes from John Kirkwood, whose handy YouTube video gives you step-by-step instructions for making tasty roasties - without having to parboil them. Depending on your air fryer size, and the number of people, you may need to do these in batches, but once they're done you can easily can your own tasty seasoning. Rosemary and a pinch of salt is an undeniable classic, though.

7. Roast chicken

Once you've become more accustomed to your air fryer, making a roast chicken should be easy peasy - just make sure that the chicken you buy is the right size for your air fryer basket. There are lots of ways you can make a roast chicken in an air fryer, but I find Cook It Real Good's recipe to be the most flavorful I've tried. The result is moist meat, with crispy, tasty skin. How long it will take to cook will largely depend on your air fryer model and the chicken's size, though, so it's worth checking if it's at the right temperature with a meat thermometer before you serve.

8. Roast beef

We've mastered the chicken, now it's time for the roast beef. Beef can be hard to get right, especially if you have picky guests who want it cooked a certain way. I find Cosori's air fryer roast beef recipe is a hit in our house. The finished product has a more American than British feel to it. Like with the chicken, I found recipes that include a lot of dry seasoning are the best for getting a flavorful roast meat with a crispy top - but if you want something more traditional, you can try other options.

9. Veggies

With your meat mastered, you can now start working on air frying some vegetables as a side dish. If you're lucky enough to have a big air fryer, you may even be able to do both at the same time! The cooking time of vegetables varies with an air fryer, with the likes of carrots, for example, using a different temperature than broccoli. So, I advise (from experience) not to throw all your veggies in together and hope they cook well.

I suggest the best vegetables to try first are carrots. Make sure you don't cut them up too small or they could fall under your basket, add a tablespoon of oil to them to coat (and any seasoning you need), and then put them in the air fryer in a single layer - not overlapping - for 10 to 15 minutes at 190C/375F. Like the fries, though, they may take some trial and error to get right.

10. Steak

You might be thinking: you can't make a steak in an air fryer. But, everyone's favorite swearing chef, Gordon Ramsay, has proved you absolutely can - and definitely should. Ramsay's coffee and chilli rubbed ribeye steak recipe is the ultimate test for your air fryer, but properly delicious. Combine it with your air fryer chips and veggies, and you've got a spectacular dinner that will blow away your loved ones - and have them buying their own air fryer.

The air fryer hype train isn't slowing down soon, but I've been reluctant to hop aboard. Much like bread and ice cream makers, I've always seen air fryers as a fad kitchen gadget - one you'll use a couple of times before shoving in the back of the cupboard to collect dust. But, after testing an air fryer (or two) for the first time, I'm on my way to being a convert.

Testing air fryers, like any kitchen tech, isn't always smooth sailing. I had to make a few mistakes and experiment a bit until I got the knack of what works and - most importantly - what doesn't, and I'm here to share what I've learned with you. So, whether you're air fryer skeptical (like me) or you've finally jumped on board the hype train, these general tips and tricks should help you avoid disaster and get the most out of your air fryer.

Not sure which air fryer to choose? Take a look at our roundup of the best air fryers, which is full of recommendations to suit every household, diet, and budget, all tested and rated by our team of kitchen appliance experts.

1. Read the instructions, and try the suggested recipes

Yes, this seems very obvious, but some people are happy to simply plug in a new kitchen gadget and hope for the best. Whether you're new to air fryers or you've just upgraded yours, always read the user manual - and follow the instructions - as every air fryer works differently.

The user manual will tell you how to prepare your air fryer for the first cook (some need to run without food first), how to clean it (don't put bits in the dishwasher unless you're sure you can), and most importantly, how its various features work.

Not every air fryer has a bunch of bells and whistles, but to get the most out of those with different presets and modes, you need to read up on what the manufacturer suggests using those modes for. If your air fryer comes with a table of suggested cooking times, temperatures, and weights for ingredients - even better. Try to stick close to this if possible as you get used to your air fryer's individual quirks. If your air fryer also comes with a recipe book or has a recipe app available, try these out, too, as they're created to optimize your kitchen gadget.

2. The preheating debate

There are various takes on whether you should or shouldn't preheat your air fryer. Sometimes preheating can leave you with food that's overdone on the outside but not quite done inside, but, on the flip side, it can help elevate your food.

I'm a firm believer that preheating is helpful to ensure your food is evenly cooked and flavorful. It's especially helpful when you're cooking something that needs a seared or crisped outside, like steak or roast potatoes. However, preheating isn't essential. I suggest cooking with preheating and without to see what works for you and your air fryer, then stick with what you prefer.

To preheat your air fryer, you can either select its preheat setting, or simply put it on at the required cooking temperature for three to five minutes. Don't preheat for too long or you'll unnecessarily increase your energy bill.

3. Baking can be temperamental

Ok, here's where your air fryer may be a bit of a pain - or at least the ones I've tried have been. Baking is possible in an air fryer but can be tricky to get to grips with, particularly if you're baking something thick like a cake or loaf. You can easily end up with an overcooked cake on the outside that's raw on the inside. How successful baking in an air fryer will be for you will largely depend on your model, the recipe, and whether there's a dedicated baking feature.

I had some (kind of) success, and some absolute disasters when I tried baking. Prepare for your bake to take a bit longer than expected, and experiment with baking before you decide to make someone's birthday cake (like I did). My main suggestions are to bake smaller items first, like cookies and brownies, and if you are making a cake, split your mix into two and cook each half separately - this should allow for more even baking. To stop the top from burning, you could add a sheet of baking paper, but make sure to weigh it down a bit so it doesn't blow away and that it's almost the exact size of your cake top, so it doesn't cause any functioning issues.

4. Use a spray oil for ease

This isn't a necessity but can make your cooking cleaner and easier - while ensuring you don't use too much oil.

Now, spray oils are available in most supermarkets and are a staple for many air fryer users, but they may not be the safest thing for your air fryer. Some spray oils can gradually wreck the non-stick coating of your air fryer, so definitely don't spray it directly into your basket if you are using it, and try to use it directly onto your food instead.

Rather than buying spray oil, I suggest getting a spray oil bottle or two and simply filling them with the oil you want to use. This way you control your oil usage (which also helps save money) and keep your air fryer basket healthy.

5. Dry seasoning works wonderfully

In an oven or pan, you can cover your foods in oils, sprigs of fresh herbs, and a myriad of sauces to add flavor, with your baking or roasting tray picking up the excess and helping to keep your food succulent. In an air fryer, this is a bit more difficult, as you can't add liquids (outside of your small amount of oil), and fiddly bits like sprigs of thyme or rosemary can easily fall through the basket and get burnt.

So, how do you add flavor to your food? Dry seasoning and rubs - well, I say dry, but whether you add a bit of oil to it will depend on the food. If you've got an air fryer, it's time to top up your spice rack because it will help you make super tasty foods with minimal effort. Seasonings and rubs are particularly good for meats and vegetables - just ensure you add them before your food goes in the air fryer basket. Add a small amount of oil (if it's needed!) and your seasonings to a bowl, and then toss the food in it or rub it over the top.

Many supermarkets now do specific air fryer seasonings, but herbs and spices like onion granules, rosemary, thyme, garlic granules, salt, and pepper should be your staples.

• Many home devices harvest and share more data than is necessary
• US and UK watchdogs are setting out rules to protect device owners
• Researching appliances and using them offline can help keep data secure

Last month, consumer body Which? revealed that many popular smart home devices, including air fryers, may be capturing unnecessary data and sharing it with third parties - facts that you could easily miss when choosing and setting up a new appliance. Now, consumer rights watchdogs in the US and the UK have outlined plans to force companies to be more transparent about what information they keep, and how it's used.

As Gizmodo explains, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in the UK is planning to issue new guidance to companies early next year specifically related to smart home tech and user privacy. According to the ICO, this "will outline clear expectations for what they need to do to comply with data protection laws and, in turn, protect people using smart products."

Meanwhile, in the US, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has proposed a new rule that would limit brokers' ability to sell personal information that might been acquired in data breaches. Under the proposed rule, these brokers would be treated like credit bureaus and background check companies, and held to the same standards.

How to keep yourself (and your data) safe

This is promising news, but how can you determine whether a smart home device is safe to use right now? Reading the privacy policy thoroughly is the obvious first step, but some can be prohibitively lengthy.

Home tech companion apps come with their own privacy policies too, but remember that just because a device has a companion app, or can be connected to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, it's often not necessary to use its key functions. For example, my electric toothbrush has an app that awards you badges for brushing your teeth for two minutes twice a day, but it works perfectly fine without that. Similarly some of the best air fryers have an app that lets you adjust the temperature remotely and provides recipe ideas, but isn't mandatory for cooking your fries.

If your device does need to be online, The Mozilla Foundation's Privacy Not Included report is a good starting point. The foundation's researchers have pored over the privacy policies for dozens of products, including home security cameras, smart thermostats, and robot vacuum cleaners, to find out exactly how much data they gather, what their default privacy settings are, who your data may be shared with, and what could happen if the company suffers a data leak.

For example, the Garmin Index S2 smart scale collects a lot of personal information (gathering biometrics is its job, after all), but the company's privacy policy is transparent, neither shares nor sells your data, and has acted on previous advice from Mozilla to make it clearer that all users have the right to delete their data, regardless of where they live.

Ecobee (maker of one of the Ecobee SmartThermostat) also earned praise for its SmartCamera home security device, which sends encrypted video footage directly to your phone without being recorded. If you do choose to save any photos or clips, the company says they will be deleted from its servers automatically when you uninstall the app.

Make sure that any connected devices are set to receive automatic security updates so any vulnerabilities discovered are patched as soon as possible.

What's the worst that could happen?

If your data isn't properly protected, the results can be devastating. Just last week, personal data from matchmaking site Senior Dating was discovered on data leak site Have I Been Pwned, exposing sensitive data relating to over 700,000 people, including photos, email addresses, and physical locations.

In October, a Brazilian driving school was found to have exposed the sensitive data of 400,000 people by leaving a database unsecured. Photos, full names, addresses, and government ID numbers were all left unsecured, putting people at serious risk of identity theft and harassment.

When we review a product here at TechRadar, we'll always let you know whether a mobile app is available, and what it actually does so you can make an informed choice about what data you're sharing.

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• The Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Steam Air Fryer is available now
• The fryer has a steam-cleaning mode to remove stubborn grease
• It can steam and air fry two dishes simultaneously, with synced finish times

Philips has launched a new two-in-one air fryer and steamer, which has a self-cleaning cycle to prevent built-up of fat from your fries and chicken wings. The Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Steam Air Fryer lets you use two different cooking methods at once, making it easier to prepare a balanced meal.

During our years of testing here on TechRadar, we've found that even the best air fryers can be a hassle to keep clean. You may be able to put some baskets or racks in the dishwasher (always check the instruction manual to make sure it's safe first) but the rest of the machine is often prone to getting greasy. Using abrasive cleaners risks damaging the appliance.

That's not a problem with the 5000 Series, which uses its built-in steam generator to remove fat from the large basket and around the heating tube, which would normally be tricky to get thoroughly clean.

Two in one

Two-in-one appliances that combine a microwave or a toaster oven with an air fryer are quite common, and can be a good way to save space on your kitchen counter but air fryer/steamer hybrids are much rarer.

As our colleagues at T3 explain, the new dual Philips fryer has one three-liter basket and one six-liter basket, which can be set to use different cooking methods and synced to finish at the same time. That means you can steam your green beans and carrots while air frying your chicken wings without risking either being over-cooked.

The Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Steam Air Fryer is available now from John Lewis for £249.99, or for AU$499 from JB Hi-Fi (about $300).

If you've been thinking of picking up an air fryer, this is the perfect time. Our roundup of the best Black Friday air fryer deals feature hand-picked lists of all the biggest savings in the US and the UK, and features only air fryers from reputable brands that you can trust.

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Black Friday is the perfect time to pick up an air fryer, with all the big retailers offering deep discounts on models from brands like Ninja and Instant Pot. But there are so many Black Friday air fryer deals, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed.

Before you start browsing this year's Black Friday deals, it's worth taking a minute to sit down and think about exactly what you want from an air fryer, so you don't get tempted by a great-looking deal and end up with an appliance that's not quite right for your kitchen.

The best offers are unlikely to sell out in a matter of minutes – planning ahead means you've got time to investigate the specs and weigh up your options before adding it to your shopping cart. Here are three things to keep in mind when choosing which air fryer to buy this Black Friday.

1. What's your budget?

It's possible to pick up an air fryer for under $100 / £100, but opting for one of these models typically means making some sacrifices. Budget air fryers usually only offer a handful of cooking modes, you'll only have a single drawer, and there probably won't be a window so you can check your food while it's cooking. Examples of cheap and cheerful air fryers we've tested include the Cosori Lite 4.0-Quart Smart Air Fryer, Magic Bullet Air Fryer, and Instant Vortex Mini.

However, the joy of Black Friday is that appliances that would usually be outside your budget are suddenly within reach. This opens up a new world of options, including dual-drawer air fryers that have a capacity large enough for family meals, anti-odor technology to reduce cooking smells, and extra cooking options.

There's even more on offer when you enter the realm of premium air fryers. These include the ingenious Ninja Double Stack (and its big sibling, the Double Stack XL), which won this year's TechRadar Choice Award for best air fryer. Its two-tier design gives you the cooking space of a dual-drawer air fryer, with half the footprint. The Double Stack would usually cost $229.99 / £269.99, but we've already seen it deeply discounted for Black Friday 2024.

If you can spend over $250 / £250 on Black Friday then you'll be able to enter the realm of premium air fryers. These include fryers that can replace multiple appliances in your kitchen, such as the Samsung Combi Smart Microwave Oven and the Ninja Double Oven Air Fryer.

2. What do you like to cook?

Do you just want to prepare the occasional serving of fries, or do you plan to make whole meals? Budget air fryers generally have capacities between 1.5Qt and 5Qt. These will be fine for couples (though the smallest ones will only have enough space to cook a side), but if you need to prepare dinner for a larger family, then you'll need to think bigger.

Family-size air fryers typically have a capacity between 7Qt and 12Qt. This space may be split between two drawers, which is convenient if you want to cook two different dishes, but if you'd like to prepare a whole chicken (for example) then look for one with a removable divider between the sections.

It's also worth looking out for an air fryer that can sync cooking so both drawers finish at the same time, and beware air fryers that suffer from heat transfer between their drawers. All the dual-drawer models listed in our roundup of the best air fryers are designed to keep each section at its intended temperature.

If you need some inspiration for air fryer recipes, the Ninja Test Kitchen is full of recipes written by Ninja's own food technicians and submitted by freelance food writers. I've found that Ninja's own recipes are generally reliable, and even if you don't want to follow them exactly, spending a little while browsing should give you a good understanding of what an air fryer is capable of.

As Good Food (formerly BBC Good Food) explains, there are a few foods that should never be cooked in an air fryer, including pasta and anything with a sauce. If you prefer your dishes saucy, you may be better off choosing one of the best Instant Pots instead.

3. How much space do you have?

Before choosing an air fryer this Black Friday, take a minute to measure the space available on your kitchen counter – and in the cupboard, if you'll need to stash it away when you're done cooking.

Even the smallest air fryer we've tested isn't especially tiny, measuring 11.3 x 9 x 11.7in / 29 x 23 x 30cm. You'll need a reasonable amount of room unless you're planning to replace your microwave – which you can do with a device like the Samsung Combi Smart Microwave Oven.

If you have plenty of headroom under your kitchen cabinets but not much space on the counter, a Ninja Double Stack air fryer (with the baskets one on top of the other rather than side by side) could be the solution. The Double Stack XL has an impressive 8.3-quart / 9.5-liter capacity, and measures 15.1 x 11 x 18.5in / 38.5cm x 28cm x 47cm.

Smeg Combi Steam Oven: one-minute review

There’s no denying that the SmegCombi Steam Oven is a sleek and beautiful piece of kitchen technology that cooks food well in a variety of ways. I tried out the bake, convection bake, air fry, and steamer functions as well as a number of the preset recipe functions. Every single item I made came out perfectly delicious, though I did need to keep an eye on my food and I took a couple of items out early to prevent overcooking.

However, there is one major issue I had with the Smeg Combi Steam Oven. I cannot figure out exactly who this countertop oven is for or what it might replace in one’s kitchen. I already own an oven and a toaster oven and the Combi can’t replace either of those. It’s too small to replace an oven, unless you live in space that doesn’t have room for a full-sized oven. I suppose it could replace a toaster oven, but it has a much larger footprint than the (similarly-sized on the inside) toaster oven I already own. And while I’m sure you can make toast in it, like in any kind of oven, there is no designated toast feature on the Combi.

Smeg Combi Steam Oven: price and availability

• List price: $999.95 (about £770 / AU$1,500)

That’s right, the Smeg Combi Steam Oven is over $1,000 once you pay sales tax. It’s available at upscale kitchen stores like Williams-Sonoma and Crate and Barrel.

The Smeg Combi Steam Oven is only available in the US at the time of writing, but it may become available internationally at a later date.

• Value score: 3/5

Smeg Combi Steam Oven: specifications

SMEG Combi Steam Oven: design and features

• Beautiful mid-century aesthetic
• Two knobs to access a variety of functions
• Bake, air fry, steam, and more

The Smeg Combi Steam oven is advertised as a 10 in 1 oven. Just don’t call it a toaster oven! It’s a countertop oven that cooks in a whole bunch of different ways. According to Smeg, the oven uses "Galileo Multicooking technology: innovative airflow patterns and professional algorithms for outstanding results in a compact design.” It offers traditional cooking functions like bake and convection bake along with steam and air fry functions to perform a variety of cooking tasks.

The Combi has 33 automatic chef recipes that take the guesswork out of cooking meat, fish, vegetables, bread, pizza, and desserts. Just choose your preset, pop in your food, and get ready for some deliciousness.

The enamel mid-century design is sleek and gorgeous. You can choose from five different colors: black, white, red, cream, and light blue. It comes with the following cooking accessories: two grill racks, an enameled cooking tray, and a perforated cooking tray. The guides along the sides of the oven have two different positions so you can cook on the upper level, lower level, or both at once. The guides can also be removed so you can easily access the sides of the oven for easier cleaning. The window is large and the light inside is always on while cooking so you can keep a close eye on your food’s progress.

The top of the Combi opens up to reveal a water compartment, where you pour in water for the steam function. The interior of the lid has a cheat sheet with all of the chef presets listed as well as a QR code so you can access the owner’s manual, how-to videos, and other information. This water tank is why the Combi is so large - much larger than any toaster oven I’ve ever seen. However, the interior is virtually the same size as my large toaster oven, just two inches wider.

There are two dials for controlling the SMEG Combi Steam Oven and a screen between them. There are three menus you can access via the left dial: Traditional Cooking Menu, Steam Cooking Menu, and Chef Menu. The Traditional Cooking Menu lets you choose broil, air fry, bake, convection bake, convection bottom bake, warm, and defrost.

Within the Steam Cooking Menu, you can choose convection (for pure steam cooking), convection bake (for bake plus steam), and convection broil (for broil plus steam).

When you enter the Chef Menu, you can choose from among 33 presets for a variety of meats, fish, vegetables, desserts, and breads. The use of the dials definitely takes some studying of the user manual and some practice. It’s not necessarily intuitive.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Smeg Combi Steam Oven: performance

So how did the Combi perform? Overall, excellent. I cooked a bunch of meals in the Combi and there wasn’t a dud in the bunch.

There was definitely a weird smell the first couple of times I used it, even though I performed the one hour burn off (empty oven on highest setting) to get rid of any residues left from the manufacturing process. And it’s quite noisy, getting up to 65 dB(A) at times.

However, unlike every toaster oven I’ve used, it doesn’t get hot on the outside. Even when going full tilt, it only reached a very touchable 76 degrees on the outside. The fan stays on while the oven cools down after cooking is complete, presumably to help it cool down faster. It does take some time to cool down, and a progress bar on the screen lets you know how the cool down is progressing.

I made two different kinds of (sweet potato) french fries: from scratch and pre-made frozen. For the scratch variety, I cut up a sweet potato and coated the wedges in oil and seasonings.

The frozen ones I just dumped out on the tray. I used the French Fry Chef Menu preset for both, which was actually a traditional baking mode rather than an air fry mode as you might expect. In both cases, the fries came out crisp on the outside, soft on the inside, and totally delicious. I also baked a sweet potato whole using convection bake as I typically would and that also came out great.

I baked blueberry muffins using the Muffin preset from the Chef Menu, which includes steam. The muffins came out moist and delicious. I’d say the browning was a bit uneven; I took them out one minute early because I was afraid some of them might overcook. I probably didn’t need to do that, though.

I used the Roasted Vegetables preset many times, since I eat them just about every day. The most challenging vegetables I made in the Combi this way were brussels sprouts. I make them all the time; when I make them on the stovetop they tend to be slightly soggy but when I make them in the oven they tend to dry out (unless I use a ton of oil.) In the Combi, I used a minimal amount of oil, just a quick spritz all over. They came out crisp, tender, and amazing.

I also tried making vegetables in Air Fry mode, using a recipe I found online. I put broccoli, red peppers, and a frozen veggie burger patty in for 10 minutes at 390 degrees. Again, the veggies were delicious: crisp and tender. The burger was fully cooked, just right.

I had to make pizza in the Smeg Combi Steam Oven. There is a dedicated Pizza preset in the Chef Menu, but since Smeg is an Italian company, I know it was talking about homemade pizza. I wanted to make frozen pizza. In fact, I made two different ones over the course of my testing period.

In both cases, I followed the directions on the box. I did one in convection bake mode and ended up taking it out a couple of minutes early so it didn’t burn. I did the second one in regular bake mode, and actually had to add a couple of minutes to the bake time. In the end though, both pizzas came out perfect: lightly browned, fully cooked in the middle, not burnt anywhere.

I steamed frozen pierogies (potato dumplings) using the steam mode. The pierogies came out fully heated through, moist, and delicious.

I didn't make toast. Why? Because there is no dedicated toast function. Obviously you can Google how to make toast in any oven, but I cannot for the life of me figure out why Smeg didn’t include a toast setting in the Chef Menu.

Cleanup isn't exactly a breeze, because everything is hand wash only. The trays definitely take some elbow grease, but I was able to get them completely clean every time. The oven itself is another story. The instructions say to let the oven cool and then use a regular cleaner, nothing abrasive, to clean the Combi. I did exactly that, using Dawn Powerwash and a Scrub Daddy (gentle sponge).

When that wasn’t enough, I went out and bought some Dawn Professional Heavy Duty Degreaser. That didn’t do it either, despite plenty of elbow grease. I don’t want to damage it with an abrasive cleaner or steel wool, so it just isn’t as clean as I’d like.

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Should you buy the Smeg Combi Steam Oven?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

Smeg Combi Steam Oven: also consider

If you're not sure about the Smeg Combi Steam Oven, here are some other options to consider...

How I tested the SMEG Combi Steam Oven

• I used multiple Chef Menu functions
• I tested air fry, bake, convection bake, and steam modes
• I cleaned it after each use

I’ve tested quite a few kitchen appliances over the years, both for review purposes and in my private life as the primary cook in my family for several decades. I love a cool cooking gadget and anything that lets me get a nutritious meal on the table fast.

I tested the Smeg Combi Steam Oven for about two weeks. I cooked a variety of foods using a variety of cooking modes, as detailed in the Performance section above. I used a few different presets in the Chef Menu section, as well as the bake, convection bake, steam, and air fry modes. I cooked a variety of fresh vegetables, french fries (both fresh and frozen), muffins, pierogies, veggie burgers, and frozen pizzas. After each cooking session, I cleaned all the accessories and the oven itself to assess how easy it was to clean.

Read more about how we test.

• Some air fryers are harvesting your personal data, according to new report
• Smart TVs and smartwatches are also particularly thirsty for our data
• Manufacturers say there are legitimate reasons for the requests

The best air fryers might be genuinely life-changing pieces of kit, but some hide a snooping dark side that could see them invade your privacy in several alarming ways, according to a new report.

The UK-based consumer body Which? has released a report based on its privacy findings across a range of products, including air fryers, smartwatches, smart TVs and smart speakers. And it makes for worrying reading if you're concerned about the creeping tentacles of tech companies.

While privacy and security concerns around smart TVs are nothing new, the appetite of some air fryers for our personal data is more of a surprise. Which? found that the three fryers it tested all wanted to "record audio on the user's phone, for no specified reason".

The Aigostar and Xiaomi fryers it tested "both sent people’s personal data to servers in China", it said. That action was highlighted in a privacy notice, but that's likely something that many will miss.

More specifically, Which? said the companion Xiaomi app for its air fryer hooked it up to "trackers from Facebook, Pangle (the ad network of TikTok for Business), and Chinese tech giant Tencent (depending on the location of the user)." That was alongside knowing its owner's precise location.

For some reason, the Aigostar air fryer wanted to know its owner's "gender and date of birth", although this was at least optional. Still, the list of privacy infractions was long and concerning, even with the likes of the UK's ICO (Information Commissioner's Office) due in 2025 to request greater transparency from companies about their use of data

Smart TVs are watching

We've been reporting on the potential privacy violations of smart TVs for almost ten years, and the issue isn't getting any better according to this Which? report.

One of the worst offenders in its testing was Samsung, which requested eight "risky" phone permissions, with risky being defined as having invasive access to your phone for actions like recording audio or seeing your exact location.

This put Samsung second only to the Huawei Ultimate smartwatch for privacy black marks, with the watch requesting nine of those "risky" permissions. In its defense, Huawei said that no data was used for marketing purposes and that there was a legitimate reason for all of the requests.

Samsung certainly wasn't alone on the smart TVs front, with other sets from Hisense and LG also asking for a postcode during setup – although in the latter case, it wasn't mandatory.

The issue also isn't just restricted to products asking for our personal data up-front – Which? found that smart speakers like the Bose Home Portable speaker are "stuffed with trackers, including Facebook, Google, and digital marketing firm Urbanairship".

How to boost your privacy

The problem with many of the privacy invasions highlighted by Which? is that a lot are either a mandatory part of the setup process or, like the advertising trackers, largely hidden from view. But there are a couple of ways to protect your privacy.

For starters, you can restrict the data or functions given to companion apps on your iOS or Android phone. On iOS, go to Settings > Privacy & Security, then scroll down to the permission you want to check (for example, microphone or camera). On Android, you can do the same thing in Settings > Security and privacy > Permission manager.

Otherwise, the best thing to do is check the data requests during app setup and opt out of any optional ones you aren't comfortable with. As the Which? report notes, we also need finer controls over the data we share with smart tech companies, but until that happens it's worth being aware that even your air fryer could be prying into your personal data more than you might think.

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Cosori Dual Blaze TwinFry 10L Air Fryer: one-minute review

The Cosori Dual Blaze Twinfry 10L Air Fryer is a solid choice of air fryer for those with larger households or who entertain on a regular basis. With its basket able to be used as one large (albeit slightly narrow) space, or split into two separate zones, this is a versatile appliance that will make mealtimes much easier. What's more, thanks to its handy app, you can control the device from your phone and set the two baskets to separate cooking times and temperatures. Thanks to Sync Cooking, you can even set two foods to finish at the same time, or with Match Cooking, set two baskets of separate foods to cook at the same settings.

We largely had great results across this air fryer's six cooking functions, but found a few disappointing outcomes with basics like vegetables. Considering this device's hefty price tag, we'd expect close to perfection every time.

Despite this, the Cosori Dual Blaze Twinfry 10L Air Fryer is a convenient, solid family air fryer - as long as you have the room for it.

Cosori Dual Blaze Twinfry 10L Air Fryer: price and availability

• Price: £289.99 (about $380 / AU$560)
• Available in UK from Amazon
• Unavailable in US and Australia at the time of writing

The Cosori Dual Blaze Twinfry 10L Air Fryer has an eye-watering price tag of £289.99 (about $380 / AU$560), putting it at the higher end of air fryer prices. Amazon UK does appear to drop the price occasionally by around £40, however.

This air fryer seems to have limited availability right now. I've only been able to find it at Amazon UK, with even the Cosori website directing me to the third-party retailer. Whether that's because of limited availability or air fryer enthusiasts snapping up stock, I'm not sure, but I found no mention of it on Cosori's Australian and US sites.

• Value score: 4/5

Cosori Dual Blaze Twinfry 10L Air Fryer: specifications

Cosori Dual Blaze TwinFry 10L Air Fryer: design

• Easy-to-use interface
• Sleek, matt black design
• No windows
• Large capacity, but bulky

The Cosori Dual Blaze Twinfry 10L Air Fryer is a mammoth of an air fryer, at 33.8 x 51.8 x 31.3cm. If you've got limited counter space, you may find its size (accounting for the 13cm space requirement at the back) quite imposing in your kitchen. If you choose to store it away when you're done, you're going to need a big cupboard.

The air fryer has a sleek, matte black design and an easy-to-use digital interface, where you can choose from one of six cooking functions and easily set the required temperature and time for its zones. The appliance's basket is very versatile: you can use it as one large, 10-liter basket (the Grandzone), or two separate 5-liter baskets (Dual Zones) - with a divider breaking up the sections - or just use one of the 5-liter baskets. These sections are able to be controlled separately using the air fryer's interface or via an app (which I explain more in the next section).

While the Dual Blaze TwinFry is easy to set up and use, I did have some gripes with its bulky design. For one, it makes it very frustrating to clean as, while the basket, crisper plates, divider, and included tongs are dishwasher safe, you need a pretty big dishwasher to fit that basket in.

If you opt to hand wash it instead, you need to contend with its size - which I found very tricky. In addition, this bulk can make it challenging to get certain foods out of the basket/s, especially if you have two separate foods being cooked. While the tongs allowed me to easily pick up wings from one side, I had more difficulty finding the angle and device that would remove the chips from the other - without accidentally scraping the non-stick basket coating.

Likewise, when I wanted to shake my roasties on one side, I accidentally shook my roasting beef joint on the other. This air fryer definitely would have benefited from two separate baskets that can connect as one instead - and a window.

• Design score: 3.5/5

Cosori Dual Blaze TwinFry 10L Air Fryer: performance

• Convent app compatibility
• Great results for most foods…
• …but some basics were a bit disappointing

The Cosori Dual Blaze TwinFry 10-Litre Air Fryer is miles better than the manufacturer's disappointing TurboBlaze - which I reviewed around the same time. While it doesn't have the same number of functions, the results are (mostly) much better and it's much more convenient.

The Dual Blaze TwinFry can be paired with the VeSync app on your phone, which is easy to set up and allows you to control the time and temperature of the Grandzone and Dual Zones from your phone. While the app's list of recipes is limited, and I wish it would give a bit more guidance on cooking times, its Sync Cooking and Match Cooking features are brilliant. With Sync Cooking, you can put one type of food in one basket and a different one in the other basket, then using the app, set each basket's individual cooking times and temperatures.

The air fryer then ensures the two baskets finish cooking at the same time, starting the one that takes longer first then automatically turning on the second when the first has its amount of cooking time left. It makes cooking a meal with different components much easier: just throw everything in, set the app, and track it from there. Match Cooking, on the other hand, lets you put different foods, with the same amount of cooking time and temperature, in each basket.

Sync Cooking cut down the time of testing considerably, letting me add chicken wings to one zone and fresh fries to the other, with both finishing at the same time. The wings were crispy and succulent and my chips were crispy on the outside, but fluffy inside - perfection, with little hassle.

Frozen fries, on the other hand, weren't as successful, with smaller chips dropping through the crisper plate and the ends burning a bit on those that survived. Similarly, with the Roast setting, I found my broccoli florets had burnt ends, but my carrots worked well, and the Dehydrate setting left my oranges still pretty juicy after four hours. I largely followed the instructions of the included Quick Start Guide booklet, but it's somewhat limited and I advise not always taking it at face value.

While my broccoli was a bit disappointing, the Dual Blaze TwinFry really proved its worth when making a roast. I was able to pop potatoes for roasting in one zone and my beef joint in the other, using Sync Cooking to ensure they finished around the same time. The beef came out to perfection, medium-rare inside but with a flavorsome crust on the outside, while my roasties were crispy on the outside but fluffy inside. Toast, too, was a breeze to make.

And while the design is quite imposing, the air fryer isn't that loud when on, clocking in around 62 decibels on average. It did mean we had to raise our voices a bit to talk, but no more than most kitchen appliances. Those with small children, or are clumsy like me, will be pleased to hear the outside of the air fryer doesn't get too warm either, only around 25C - cool enough to touch without getting burned.

• Performance score: 4/5

Should you buy the Cosori Dual Blaze Twinfry 10L Air Fryer?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

How I tested the Cosori Dual Blaze Twinfry 10L Air Fryer

I used the Cosori Dual Blaze Twinfry 10L for several days, cooking a wide variety of foods including fresh and frozen fries, chicken wings, fresh vegetables, and cake. I tested all the air fryer's various modes (including dehydrate, which I used to dry orange slices) and used all of the mobile app's features. I cleaned the air fryer in line with the instructions provided in the manual. For more details, see how we test.

First reviewed October 2024

Cosori TurboBlaze 6L Air Fryer: one-minute review

The Cosori TurboBlaze 6L Air Fryer is the perfect size for smaller families looking to cut down their cooking time a bit by air frying a larger part of their meal, like a chicken, or side dishes, with the basket easily big enough to feed three people - but it has some less-than-ideal quirks that prevent it ranking up there with the best air fryers.

The interface is easy to use, and there are an abundance of cooking functions available (including four Turbo Modes), but the performance isn't what we'd have liked (or expected) from an air fryer costing over $100. While some foods, like chicken wings and toast, turned out perfectly and allowed for easy clean up afterward, I also ended up with a half-baked cake and a mixture of burnt and undercooked chips and vegetables.

These niggles may be able to be worked out, but given the TurboBlaze's promise of 360-degree air flow, and faster cooking on its Air Fry, Roast, Grill, and Frozen modes, I was left disappointed and uncertain of what to expect next from this rollercoaster gadget.

These performance quirks may be able to be worked out with a lot of time, experimentation - and patience - but after my week with this air fryer, I was left far from impressed.

Cosori TurboBlaze 6L Air Fryer: price and availability

• Price: $119.99 / £159.99 (about AU$180)
• Available in UK and US (as 6 Quart) from Cosori's website or third-party retailers like Amazon
• Regular discounts and sales

The TurboBlaze may not be the most expensive air fryer on the market, but it's certainly not the most affordable we've seen - nor the best for this price range. The US price tag is a bit less than the UK one, coming in just under $120. If you are buying in the US, note that the name and model is a bit different (6 Quart rather than 6L) If you've got a $100 budget, don't worry, this air fryer seems to be regularly discounted on Amazon, so we advise picking one up there rather than from Cosori directly. While the price in the UK is a bit higher, making this a less budget-friendly air fryer, again, Amazon regularly does discounts that knock it closer to the £100 mark. Unfortunately, if you're in Australia, the TurboBlaze range isn't available.

While this air fryer offers a bunch of bells and whistles, its lack of consistent results hold it back from being good value for money at that price tag. The things it does well, it does brilliantly, but there's a lot of functions that just didn't work how I'd expect. For an air fryer over 100 quid, I would expect the most basic functions (at the very least) to work well every time. That's not the case here.

• Value score: 2.5/5

Cosori TurboBlaze 6L Air Fryer: specifications

Cosori TurboBlaze 6L Air Fryer: design

• Easy to set up, use, and clean
• Touch controls work well
• Fairly compact given its capacity

The Cosori TurboBlaze 6.0-Litre Air Fryer was a breeze to set up, coming with a handy booklet of recipes and tips to try out and recommendations on cooking weights and times for some of the most common air fryer ingredients.

The overall black, matte design is pretty sleek, and its digital interface is easy to use, with a good-sized touch-screen interface showing its nine cooking functions (including four Turbo modes) and keep warm function. Simply select the mode suited to what you're cooking (the booklet helps here), then use the touch screen to increase or decrease the time and temperature. Press start, and you're off.

The air fryer itself is pretty compact given its generous capacity, but still measures 40 x 30 x 30.1cm, so it takes up a chunk of counter space when you consider the 13 cm behind it you need to leave. How imposing you find it will really depend on your kitchen counter space - and how often you plan to use it.

The six-liter basket provides plenty of room to cook for a small family (I was easily able to fit an eight-inch cake tin pan inside) and is ideal for those looking to cook one larger item, like a whole chicken or a portion of vegetables or fries for a few people. It comes with a crisper plate, which slots in simply from an angle (just don't catch the rubber stoppers) and is used for most cooking functions.

The basket and crisper plate are dishwasher-safe, but I found that hand washing them was almost quicker and easier than waiting for the dishwasher cycle to end.

It would have been good for a window to be included in the basket to prevent me from having to pull it out to check on my food (letting some heat out), and it was frustrating at times to have to reset all the controls when my food needed an extra 10 minutes, but overall this TurboBlaze has a solid, to-the-point design.

• Design score: 4/5

Cosori TurboBlaze 6L Air Fryer: performance

• Inconsistent results
• Handy preheating function
• Plenty of functions to try out, including proving

I found Cosori TurboBlaze 6.0-Litre Air Fryer the perfect size for me and my partner, and I was excited to put it through its many cooking functions through their paces- but the results were mixed to say the least.

Testing started off strong when I tried a chicken wing recipe from the booklet. After preheating the air fryer as per Cosori's instructions, I added 700g of seasoned wing to the crisper plate and set it to air fry at 200C for 16 minutes.

This air fryer isn't too loud, hitting around 60 decibels when cooking - about the volume of a conversation between people sitting a meter away. So, while you don't need to shout over it, you will notice it a bit. As a massive clutz, I liked that the outside of the air fryer never got above around 23/24C, with the back airflow around 25C, so if you've got little ones, you don't need to worry about them accidentally burning themselves by touching the outside- though obviously, the inside is another story.

I was really impressed with the first test. The wings came out crispy on the outside and succulent inside - perfectly cooked and the best I've ever made. There was minimal mess in the bottom of the basket, too. But my other tests were another story.

I tried 500g of fresh and frozen fries on the air fryer setting (part of the Turbo modes), at different times, but both came out with half the fries underdone and half overdone - mostly with the edges of the chips burnt. Even giving the basket a shake during cooking didn't help. Those that were cooked were fluffy inside but either burnt outside or soggy. Considering fries are a staple of air fryer cooking, and the Turbo Mode cooking functions are meant to quickly cook food with 360-degree air flow, this was a big disappointment.

The disappointment only continued with my cake baking. I used this as a perfect opportunity to bake my fiancé a birthday cake, using an online air fryer standard cake recipe. After consulting the book again (which I had to do a lot), I set the air fryer on the Bake function, using the recommended time and temperature from the booklet. It's worth noting, you can't (and shouldn't) just use the default cooking mode setting for everything and anything you're cooking in this air fryer (or any, really).

After preheating the air fryer and cooking my cake for 20 minutes at 165C (as the book instructed), my skewer came out wet. I ended up baking the cake for another 20 minutes (in intervals) until the top was burning and busting open.

Though the skewer was still a bit wet at the bottom, the cake wasn't going to survive much longer. After cooling, I tipped the cake upside down on a rack to find the entire bottom half was completely raw, while the top half was on the verge of burning. Absolute disaster.

Using this air fryer was a bit of a rollercoaster. After the cake, I made a roast chicken using the roast function and the booklet's recipe that was crispy on top and juicy inside. Though, the bottom was a bit too juicy, verging on almost soggy after the air fryer managed to blow over my whole chicken. Much like the chips, the vegetables for the roast were inconsistently booked, with the edges of my broccoli burning until the point of being inedible but my carrots not cooking enough - and requiring more time than the instructions stated.

As for the other functions, I ended up still somewhat juicy lemons and limes after four hours dehydrating, but did find toast easy to grill and the proving feature rose my bread dough in just an hour, resulting in perfectly crispy on the outside and soft on the inside bread.

By the end of my testing, I wasn't quite sure what I was going to get from this air fryer. I spent days testing its modes, but still found it inconsistent across some of its most basic modes. My advice? Trust the book's recipes, but maybe not its cooking times.

• Performance score: 2/5

Should you buy the Cosori TurboBlaze 6L Air Fryer?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

How I tested the Cosori TurboBlaze 6L Air Fryer:

I used the Cosori TurboBlaze 6L for a week, cooking a wide variety of foods including fresh and frozen fries, chicken wings, fresh vegetables, a roast dinner, cake, and bread. I tested all the air fryer's various modes (including dehydrate, which I used to dry fruit slices). I cleaned the air fryer in line with the instructions provided in the manual. For more details, see how we test.

First reviewed October 2024

Ninja, maker of some of the best air fryers, has unveiled a new machine that lets you cook and reheat food anywhere with a power outlet. The Ninja Crispi (following the same naming convention as the Foodi, Slushi, and Creami) is a portable air-fryer that will allow you to cook golden nuggets and fries in your kitchen, at your desk, or anywhere else you can plug it in.

The Crispi cooking system comprises a set of specially designed glass containers, with a Power Pod that snaps onto the top. Once attached, the Power Pod detects the size of the container (4qt or 6qt) and begins circulating super-heated air to cook the food within.

Each glass container also has a reusable lid, so you can take your prepared food or leftovers ready to crisp up at lunchtime. No more soggy microwaved meals or plastic boxes. Once you're done, the whole system stacks together to take up minimal space in your kitchen cupboard.

The world's your kitchen

The Crispi has four cooking modes (max crisp, bake, air fry and re-crisp), and according to Ninja, it can handle anything from light snacks through to a 4lb chicken. Bear in mind that it doesn't have an odor-absorbing filter, so preparing a roast at your desk might make you quite unpopular unless you're willing to share.

The Crispi is available to order now for $159.99 (about £120 / AU$230) direct from Ninja, and will be stocked at large US stores later this fall. Looking for something more conventional? Our roundup of the best air fryers is full of options if you'd rather confine cooking to your kitchen.

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• I was shocked at just how easy and delicious air fryer sesame chicken is
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If you're heading to college, then an air fryer might prove an excellent investment. A convenient, economical way to prepare your meals, a good-quality model might even cost you less than you'd expect. If you'll mostly be cooking for one, the best air fryer for your needs might cost well under $100 / £100 / AU$100, and it will take up very little of your valuable countertop real estate.

At this price point, don't expect features such as multiple baskets, interior lights, or windows to enable you to peek inside to check how your fries are coming along; but the air fryers we've listed below have the basics covered, delivering evenly cooked food with minimal oil and easy cleanup afterwards.

If you're staying on campus, bear in mind that many dorms don't allow students to use appliances with a heating element in their rooms. You may be allowed to have your own air fryer in a shared kitchen, but make sure you check the rules first. We don't want to get you in trouble.

Need to upgrade your tech or student supplies ready for the new school year as well? Take a look at our guide to the best back-to-school sales 2024.

The best air fryers for students

How to choose a student air fryer

When you're shopping for an air fryer for your college cooking adventures, at first the choice might seem overwhelming. However, there are certain key factors that should take priority. You probably won't be feeding a whole family or preparing multi-course meals, but make sure you know your priorities before you part with your cash.

Price

Unless you're planning to share the cooking with several housemates and all chip in towards the cost, there's no need to spend over $100 / £100 / AU$100 on a student-friendly air fryer – unless you're a particularly keen home chef. There are plenty of excellent entry-level fryers available in this price bracket, with a single basket that's just the right size for preparing meals for one.

Our list of Ninja promo codes includes lots of special offers, including deep discounts and free delivery on air fryers, so take a minute to check out what's available right now.

Size

Before choosing an air fryer for your student accommodation, take a minute to measure the space available on your kitchen counter – and in the cupboard, if you'll need to stash it away when you're done cooking. All the machines we've listed above are small; but even the smallest measures 11.3 x 9 x 11.7in / 29 x 23 x 30cm, so you'll need a reasonable amount of room.

Consider cooking capacity, too. Air fryers in this price bracket range from 1.5 to 4 quarts, with the smallest only really being suitable for particularly petite appetites. If you want to make whole meals, or occasionally cook for two, consider a model such as the Cosori Lite 4.0, which has the bonus of being one of the cheapest air fryers you can buy.

Food

Pretty much all air fryers in this price bracket are basket-style, which is a design that works well for food that you want to crisp (such as fries and breaded chicken). Fat and cooking juices drain away, keeping food items dry. If you want to cook something moist, you'll need to spend a little more on a bowl-style fryer.

Alternatively, if you want to cook dishes such as soup, curry or stew regularly, an air fryer might not be the right choice at all. If you like your meals with plenty of sauce, an Instant Pot might be a better option. Our guide to the best Instant Pots includes several budget-friendly models, and you'll find the best deals on some of our favorites below:

Need some recipe inspiration? All the following dishes are quick and easy to prepare, and can be cooked in a basket-style fryer:

• Air fryer shrimp: ready in 10 minutes
• Air fryer sesame chicken: easy and delicious
• Air fryer Nutella pies: the ultimate comfort snack
• Air fryer sausage rolls: better than store-bought

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• I've got ADHD, and my air fryer has completely changed my life
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• US: View DoubleStack Air Fryer at Ninja

Ninja Double Stack air fryer: two-minute review

The Ninja Double Stack air fryer demonstrates once again that the brand is king of convection cooking, offering blazing cooking speeds in a clever form factor that serves to address the needs of smaller households and keen cooks the world over. Without a doubt, it’s one of the best air fryers I’ve ever used – and I’ve used a fair few at this point.

Shopping for the perfect air fryer can leave you feeling a bit like Goldilocks, and especially if counter space is at a premium in your kitchen. A two-drawer model like the Instant Vortex 9-quart Air Fryer with VersaZone technology might be perfect for the number of mouths you typically have to feed, but these are typically behemoths. Alternatively, you could opt for one of the best small air fryers, but then these often have a meager, sometimes single-portion only capacity.

It’s been my perennial issue as a single-person household that regularly has guests. My kitchen is fairly compact, so I've been incredibly limited for space when I’ve tested larger models like the Ninja Foodi FlexBasket Dual Air Fryer. That’s why since I learned about the Ninja Double Stack air fryer – styled as the DoubleStack in the US – I’ve been itching to get my hands on it.

As the name suggests, the Ninja Double Stack air fryer stacks its two cooking drawers stop one another instead of side by side, as we tend to see in dual-basket air fryers. Instead of a top- or front-mounted dashboard, a small panel juts out to the right side of the device, hosting all the functions and controls you’ll need to operate the Double Stack. Plus, Ninja has even thrown in two extra racks, which can be slotted in above the main crisper plate, giving you bonus surface area to cook with – though the grill spacing makes these far better for larger food items.

Just like other products in the Ninja line, I saw great results from the Double Stack air fryer, from delicious fluffy fries to perfectly crispy chicken and succulent salmon. It should be no surprise, but I was concerned before trying the device that the cooking quality may have been compromised by the new design. Thankfully, there were no cooking compromises that I could detect. The only real down-side is the price, which is on the high side for a dual-basket air fryer – but for those who need to protect their precious counter space, it's well worth the extra cost. Here's my full review.

Ninja Double Stack air fryer review: price & availability

• List price: XL (8.3qt / 9.5L): $229.99 / £269.99 / AU$479
• Availability: UK, US, Australia and other markets

At time of writing, the Ninja Double Stack was available in the UK and US, but was released in Australia in October 2024. In its XL 8.3qt / 9.5L capacity, it has a list price of $229.99 / £269.99 / AU$479. There should also be a standard, 6.7qt / 7.6L model to go alongside the XL model reviewed here, but since the devices were first announced earlier this year, we haven't heard anything about it.

The Double Stack XL is a fair bit more expensive than comparable double-drawer air fryers like the Instant Vortex 9-quart air fryer, which costs $199.95 / £199.99 / AU$399, but for the price difference, you get an as of writing one-of-a-kind device offering superior performance and maximum air frying potential.

It comes with two non-stick, dishwasher-safe drawers and crisper plates, two stainless steel racks and a recipe guide.

• Value for money score: 4.5 out of 5

Ninja Double Stack air fryer specs

Ninja Double Stack air fryer review: design

• Space-efficient design, with two drawers stacked vertically
• Side-mounted dashboard
• Two extra stainless steel racks doubles the cooking space

For anyone with a smaller kitchen or who prefers a more compact setup, the Ninja Double Stack is a revelation. It’s the first air fryer to stack two drawers vertically to optimize counter space, and the inclusion of its two stainless steel racks doubles the surface area available for cooking. The air fryer is available in one colorway; a sophisticated slate gray shell, with ridged silver handles. It’s simple and subtle, and I personally prefer that to the glossy black cladding many air fryers opt for.

To account for those who might have lower-hanging cabinets, the controls for the Double Stack are mounted to the right of the air fryer, which does add 2in / 5cm to the overall width. However, it’s fairly unobtrusive, and unless you plan on having the right side of the air fryer flush to the wall shouldn’t pose a problem (reminder that you should be leaving at least 5 inches of space around an air fryer if you don’t want to make one of the biggest mistakes of air fryer cooking).

The side panel offers all the usual Ninja air fryer features. There’s a screen at the top which shows the timer for each drawer as well as the temperature setting. Beneath are numbered buttons to individually control each drawer, as well as a list of the six presets for air frying, roasting, max crisp, reheating, baking and dehydrating. Each setting has a light indicator next to it to show which mode is currently selected, and you can tweak the settings using the temperature and time buttons in tandem with the roller dial. Lastly, you’ll find the Double Stack Pro, Sync and Match buttons above the power and stop / start buttons.

Its two dishwasher-friendly 5qt / 4.75L baskets have individual handles, so you can fully manage each drawer independently. However, if you’re using the two stainless steel trays on top of the base crisper plates, it might be a little more annoying to flip and adjust your food mid-cooking cycle. Ninja has made efforts to ease this slight drawback by adding handles to the trays, making them nice and easy to quickly remove.

It’s worth noting that the back of the baskets each have a grate with fairly large holes, so it’s not suitable for cooking high volumes of liquid – we recommend against cooking these kinds of dishes in an air fryer instead of one of the best instant pots, regardless, but some users do like to break convention. These holes also mean that if you shake particularly oily, batter-laden or otherwise messy foods, some liquid may splash behind the baskets onto the back of the air fryer. It’s a very small issue judging by my testing so far, so long as you keep on top of cleaning the Double Stack.

• Design score: 5 out of 5

Ninja Double Stack air fryer review: performance

• Same fantastic performance as other Ninja air fryers
• Perfectly crisp chicken wings and fluffy fries
• Time and effort-saving Sync and Match settings

Before I tested the Ninja Double Stack air fryer, I was a little dubious about how its performance would hold up against other Ninja models I’ve tested. Surely, there would be a compromise to vertically stacking the drawers, otherwise, it would have been done far sooner, right?

Thankfully that doesn’t seem to be the case with the Double Stack. Everything I cooked came out just as good as I’d expected, with perfectly crispy chicken wings without the need for a drop of oil, and gorgeous fluffy fries with the perfect amount of bite. There was a small degree of unevenness; fries towards the back of the basket cooked ever so slightly faster than the front, but it was to such a small degree I don’t think most users would notice.

The Double Stack offers six cooking modes – Air Fry, Max Crisp, Roast, Bake, Dehydrate, and Reheat – all of which work just as well as in other Ninja air fryers. The different modes all have different temperature and time limits, but the Double Stack can reach temperatures of 450F / 240C and cook for up to an hour. It doesn’t require pre-heating, meaning you can get straight to cooking.

Food cooked on the stainless steel trays seems to fare just as well, though you do lose the benefit of the crisp trays’ surface area. For some foods, that’s a benefit; you don’t always want foods to cook via contact as well as convection, which was definitely the case for the chicken wings I cooked across both types of trays.

You’ll also have to think about the overall temperature setting of each basket and put foods with like-for-like cooking times and temperatures in each basket, or open up the trays to add in food later. This can be slightly annoying at times; I had to strategically plan how I cooked four tapas dishes to make sure I’d optimized both the strengths and weaknesses of both types of tray, as well as the cooking times and temperatures of each dish. It’d still opt for this rather than heating up a whole oven, though.

In case you’re new to the world of Ninja air fryers, it’s worth highlighting the Sync and Match cooking modes, which work to ensure your food all comes out at the same time. Simply select your cooking mode, set your time and, if you’re synchronizing the two baskets, select the cooking times for each, and you’re all set.

Unlike other dual-drawer models I’ve tested, including Ninja’s Instant Vortex 9-quart air fryer, there’s virtually no heat leakage between the two trays, which is excellent news if you’re working with very precise foods or just don’t want to waste energy by passively heating two areas when you only need one.

On the down-side, you can’t cook larger foods like pizzas or whole chickens in the Double Stack like you can in wider air fryers with larger cooking cavities. It’s the natural trade-off with its smaller footprint, and there are plenty of options that do cater to that need, if that's your priority. While Ninja claims the XL model I tested can feed eight people, I’d say that’s a little ambitious unless you’re padding out the meal with non-air fryer foods too.

• Performance score: 5 out of 5

Should I buy the Ninja Double Stack air fryer?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Ninja Double Stack air fryer: alternatives to consider

How I tested the Ninja Double Stack air fryer

• I used the Ninja Double Stack air fryer for two weeks
• I used it to cook all of my meals, including chicken wings, fries and salmon
• I also tested the different cooking functions

I used the Ninja Double Stack air fryer as my main countertop cooker for two weeks, using it to cook everything from fries to chicken wings, salmon and even cauliflower cheese. I evaluated how each food item cooked across all four trays, using different settings to see how well each function performed. I assessed how succulent meat and fish were after cooking against how well the outside crisped, as well as the evenness of the browning, and how well fries managed to retain their internal fluffiness while still achieving crispy skin.

In addition to the cooking, I evaluated how easy maintenance was; is it easy to clean the baskets and trays both with and without a dishwasher, are there any extra considerations for cleaning, and how easy is the device to actually operate.

I’ve been testing air fryers for two years, and in that time I’ve tried everything from premium to affordable, single-serve to full family models. This experience combined with my love of food and cooking help to inform my findings in every review.

Air fryers can be great for saving time and energy, but on a practical level there does appear to be a flaw with the design. Most of today's best air fryers are tall rather than wide, so while the internal volume is generous, the usable space can be rather limited. Unless you're cooking something that comfortably fits those dimensions, food will end up being stacked, rather than sitting in a single layer. The result is  uneven crisping and the need to shake the contents mid-cook in order to achieve consistent browning. 

Typhur aims to offers a solution with its Dome air fryer, which sports a wider, shallower design that lets you cook as much food as possible in one layer. It will fit 32 wings on a single rack, or a full 12-inch pizza, without having to cut it up. Since food isn't stacked, the results should be better, more evenly crisped… which is what everyone wants from their air fryer, right? 

The Dome is quite the hot (no pun intended) product at the moment, doing the rounds on TikTok and being featured by Kelly Clarkson on her show. It even comes with a endorsement by Brooklyn Peltz Beckham – and if that isn't a recommendation you can trust, I don't know what is. 

Of course, the wider blueprint does mean you'll need more counter space. For smaller kitchens, a model such as the new Ninja Double Stack air fryer, which has two drawers, one on top of the other, might offer a better solution. Or head to our roundup of the best small air fryers for more compact options.

It's getting hot in here

The Dome has an adjustable temperature range that goes from 105ºF right up to a hotter-than-usual 450ºF (40ºC – 232ºC). Typhur has invested plenty of effort into apparently perfecting the airflow and circulation to deliver super-quick cooking speeds, and more control to the home-chef operating it. 

Its ability to get super-hot is also key to another of the Dome's special features: its self-cleaning mode. This two-hour cycle heats up the cavity to help clear out lingering grease and prevent it from building up. For day-to-day cleaning, the basket is also dishwasher safe.

The Typhur Dome Air fryer is available in the US, with a list price of $499 – although right now it's discounted to $399 at Typur, or $399 at Amazon. 

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Instant Vortex 9-quart Air Fryer with VersaZone Technology: One-minute review

Instant has long been a leader in the air fryer space and its latest model, the Vortex 9-quart Air Fryer with VersaZone Technology (also called Vortex Plus VersaZone Air Fyer 8.5L in the UK and Vortex Plus Versazone XXL Air Fryer 8.5L in Australia) aims to make air frying even more versatile, thanks to a large capacity basket that can be divided into two separate sections. 

A large 9-quart / 8.5L basket makes it an obvious choice for families, with plenty of capacity to comfortably feed four, but singles and couples will also appreciate the compartments – which are 4.5q / 4.25L each – to cook mains and sides in one go. Moreover, the intuitive cooking programs ensure everything finishes cooking at the same time. 

I found Instant’s latest air fryer a joy to use and it made me fall in love with cooking again. It does most of the grunt work for you with consistently good results… just as long as you know how to use some of the dedicated programs. I had to go through a bit of trial and error with my first few cooking sessions, but once I learnt them, there was no stopping me.  

The expansive cooking basket does mean it’s a physically imposing air fryer of course, so if you lack kitchen counter space or don’t have much in the way of storage, you may struggle to find a proper home for it. I do think it’s attractive though, as much as an air fryer can be, so I had no issue leaving it on my kitchen counter. If you do need to store it away, I found it to be relatively lightweight, so moving it in and out of cupboards shouldn’t prove too much of an issue. 

Instant Vortex 9-quart Air Fryer with VersaZone Technology: Price & availability

• List price: $199.95 / £199.99 / AU$399
• Available directly from Instant Brands and third-party retailers
• Regular sales and bundles

Considering its size and raft of features, the Instant Vortex 9-quart Air Fryer with VersaZone Technology is competitively priced in my opinion, especially when compared to its closest rival in the Ninja Foodi FlexBasket 11qt / 10.4L dual air fryer. It’s available directly from Instant in the UK and Australia along with a host of third-party retailers. While it is listed on the US website, you’re not able to buy it directly. Instead you can find it from retailers such as Walmart. 

It was launched in July 2023 and, since then, has gotten some discounts – directly from Instant and at third-party retailers. The offers tend to change, but if this air fryer is of interest, I'd recommend waiting to pick it up during a big sale like Black Friday, which makes it even better value than it already is.

Instant Vortex 9-quart Air Fryer with VersaZone Technology: Design

• One 9qt / 8.5L basket that can be divided into two zones
• Large enough for a family of four
• Simple touchscreen and manual controls

The Instant Vortex VersaZone is a large machine, make no mistake, although with its dimensions coming in at 15.9 x 12.5 x 15.1in / 40.3 x 31.7 x 38.4cm, it is smaller than its Ninja competitor. However, the Ninja Foodi FlexBasket does have a larger capacity for the individual compartments to justify its size. The VersaZone is lighter too, tipping the scales at 7kg, meaning most people shouldn’t have too much of a problem manoeuvring it around their kitchen. 

You do of course need to factor in extra space for airflow at the rear, as well as in the front so you can actually open the basket to get your food in for cooking. I was able to find a perfect permanent spot for it in my kitchen, but those with smaller counters and who are limited on space may have to carefully consider if this is the best air fryer for you. 

I feel the Instant Vortex VersaZone to be quite an attractive air fryer – as attractive as air fryers can be anyway – employing just a single physical button in the form of a control dial on its front surface. All other controls are handled via a touch-sensitive panel on the front. When not in use, all you see is the shiny black top section, the basket handles and the silver control dial. This, coupled with the angled design of the top section, make it a slick-looking machine, and certainly helps to disguise its size compared to if it was a large black box. 

Do note that the shiny nature of the top section does mean the Instant Vortex VersaZone is a serious fingerprint magnet. When you’ve been handling food before putting it into the cooking basket and using the touch control panel, you’ll soon find it builds up a large fingerprint collection, so you’ll be spending a lot of time keeping it clean. 

The main basket has a removable tray and a divider, the latter fitting into the former to split the compartment into two equally sized cooking sections. There are some rubber grips on the cooking tray and divider that help them to stay in place during cooking, but they do provide a fair amount of friction, so be prepared to use a little more force than you may have initially assumed to get them into place.

The air frying basket, cooking tray and divider are all dishwasher safe, making clean-up relatively easy. However, if you don’t have a dishwasher, then you’ll need to factor in the sink space required to wash the whole basket. 

Instant Vortex 9-quart Air Fryer with VersaZone Technology: Performance

• Large basket makes cooking a meal a breeze
• Good results achievable once you learn the functions
• Pre-heating times can be annoying

The Instant Vortex 9-quart Air Fryer with VersaZone Technology can air fry (obviously), roast, bake, grill, dehydrate and reheat various foods. Each program has its own default settings, including the minimum and maximum temperatures they reach. The grill program reaches the highest maximum temperature of 450°F / 232°C for a maximum of one hour. Air fry, roast and bake can all reach a high of 401°F / 205°C for an hour also. 

Anytime you wish to use the Instant Vortex 9-quart Air Fryer with VersaZone Technology, it needs to spend a few minutes preheating before it notifies you when to add food. While I can appreciate this is needed, it became increasingly annoying that the air fryer needed to preheat when I went to make a second dish immediately after a cooking program had finished. I found this a bit strange, since the cooking basket would surely have still been hot. I also noticed the preheating time for the second cooking session wasn’t that much quicker than the initial preheat from cold. 

The Instant Vortex 9-quart Air Fryer with VersaZone Technology also has SyncCook and SyncFinish modes to help streamline your cooking and to ensure certain dishes don’t go cold while you wait for something else to cook. SyncCook allows you to use both cooking compartments and have them cook with the same time and temperature settings. SyncFinish is used when you have two separate dishes on either side of the divider that require different cooking times, but you want them to finish at the same time. 

I used the SyncFinish mode the most, as I would cook a chicken breast or a piece of salmon, for example, on one side and some green beans or asparagus on the other. Setting up SyncFinish is simple: a quick double press of the control dial puts it into dual cooking mode and from here you can adjust the time and temperature individually for both sides. Once you’ve made your adjustments, just press the SyncFinish button, followed by Start, and you’re away. The side with the shortest time will remain on hold while the other preheats and begins cooking. The Instant Vortex 9-quart Air Fryer with VersaZone Technology will then begin preheating the second cooking section so that it’s ready to begin cooking when the time remaining aligns on both sides. 

The aforementioned chicken breast came out juicy and tender, while the salmon was buttery soft and fell apart when I cut into it with a fork. I did have a few teething problems when cooking some hand-cut sweet potato wedges however. I hoped they would come out crispy but, upon my first try, they did seem a little raw still. I put this down to both shortening the cooking time I would normally use for an oven, and the wedges themselves being relatively thick in size. 

Throwing some chicken tenders into the basket also proved successful. What was especially handy (and as I've been noticing more and more with food packets lately) is that they had specific air frying instructions on the pack. I followed these to a tee and the results were sublime. They were hot, the breadcrumbs had a great crisp to them and they were juicy inside. 

It did take me a bit of time to adjust to cooking with an air fryer compared to a conventional oven or frying pan, predominantly with cooking times as opposed to temperatures. I had expected the Instant Vortex VersaZone to cook food slightly quicker than the old-school method but, in reality, it took the same amount of time or occasionally longer. I found this to be a fair compromise as the cooking results were superb. 

I also tried out the bake function to make some chocolate chip cookies. I loved the fact the basket was big enough to cook what most people would call a batch, but what I would call a single serving. I've made these cookies before, using a fan-forced oven to bake. I followed the same recipe, cooking time and temperature using the bake function on the Instant Vortex VersaZone air fryer but found they came out slightly under baked. If I were to bake them again, I would keep the temperature the same but leave them in for a few minutes longer. 

The only niggle I found with the SyncFinish and SyncCook functions were that they won't allow you to change temperatures and cooking times midway through the program. During an instance when I was cooking a chicken breast on one side and broccoli in the other, I wanted to adjust the temperature of the meat, but with the SyncFinish function activated, this wasn’t possible. You first have to cancel the program, make your adjustments and then start it again – this also causes the air fryer to preheat again. 

My advice here would be to make sure you know the exact temperature and time you want before pressing the all-important start button.

Should I buy the Instant Vortex 9-quart Air Fryer with VersaZone Technology?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

How I tested the Instant Vortex 9-quart Air Fryer with VersaZone Technology

• Used air fry, roast and bake presets
• Cooked salmon, chicken, fries and vegetables
• I used both the dual zone and the large single basket 

I used the Instant Vortex VersaZone air fryer to cook a variety of food. I would most often cook some meat or fish in one side of the basket and some accompanying vegetables or potatoes in the other. I also attempted to bake some cookies. This allowed me to test the various synchronised cooking functions of the air fryer, as well as determining how well it actually cooked food. 

I also used it for more basic cooking tasks, such as air frying hash browns or fries for a quick hot snack. 

Ninja Foodi FlexBasket Dual Air Fryer review: one minute review

You might be wondering how many more ways a company can innovate on the best air fryers, but Ninja is at it again with its enormous Foodi FlexBasket dual air fryer, also known as the FlexDrawer in the UK and Australia. This vast air fryer can serve eight (or more, by a small margin – although I felt six was the sweet spot) and offers up Ninja’s excellent air fry features, including Dual Zone technology.

But is bigger always better? Broadly speaking, yes – and if you regularly need to cook for more than four people, the Ninja Foodi FlexBasket 11qt / 10.4L dual air fryer is easily the best large-capacity air fryer I’ve tried. For a bit of visual context, 11qt / 10.4L can easily fit a whole leg of lamb and accompanying vegetables. 

It isn’t flawless, of course. Compared even to Ninja’s own dual-drawer competition, the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer AF300, the Foodi FlexBasket has one large basket with a divider rather than two distinct drawers that can be independently opened and cleaned. Granted, this difference is intentional; the FlexBasket allows you to cook either across two zones or remove the divider to create one aptly named MegaZone, which is excellent for cooking larger meals such as roasts. 

When using the independent zones, you can choose any of the seven cooking functions, different times and temperatures, and use the Sync mode to ensure cooking in both compartments completes at the same time. 

It’s a delightfully easy machine to use that delivers consistent, fantastic results; but it absolutely dominated my kitchen countertop. Were it a little lighter then I wouldn’t have been so bothered by it, but the combination of size and weight make it difficult appliance to stow away. For a compact kitchen like mine, the Ninja Double Stack air fryer review is a much better choice, but if you have the space and want a more versatile model, the Foodi FlexBasket is well worth a look. Read on for my full review.

Ninja Foodi FlexBasket Dual Air Fryer review: price and availability

•  Price: $199 / £270 / AU$599.99 
•  Available directly from Ninja and most third-party retailers 

With great power comes a pretty hefty price tag for the Ninja Foodi FlexBasket 11qt / 10.4L dual air fryer, coming in at  $199 / £270 / AU$600. It’s available directly from Ninja in the UK and Australia as well as from third-party retailers; but, interestingly, it appears to only be available from the likes of Walmart in the US at the time of writing. 

The slightly smaller 7qt FlexBasket is more widely available in the US both at Ninja and on websites such as Amazon, where it’s also available for other regions wanting a slightly less domineering MegaZone air fryer, and sells for $179.99 / 

There’s little else to consider in terms of maintenance costs and accessories for this air fryer, and it’s pretty well-priced overall. Considering that some rival models, such as the Instant Vortex Plus XL 8QT ClearCook, come in at a far higher price for less capacity – and, in my opinion, inferior build materials – the Ninja Foodi FlexBasket dual air fryer offers impressive value for money. However, I’d have loved to see a cooking window included. 

Value: 4.5/5

Ninja Foodi FlexBasket Dual Air Fryer review: design

•  One 11qt / 10.4L basket that can be configured to have two zones 
•  Absolutely enormous 
•  Easy controls 

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room; literally. The Ninja Foodi FlexBasket dual air fryer is huge at 12.9 x 19.5 x 12.4 inches / 32.7 x 49.6 x 31.6cm and weighs in at 9.3kg – which shouldn’t be surprising, really, given its capacity. However, it's when you factor in things like the clearance needed at the front of the machine to open and close the drawer and the space required on either side to ensure good airflow while cooking that its size could become an issue. 

The basket itself measures 12.9 x 19.5 x 12.4 inches / 13.7 x 37 x 21.5cm, and with its 10.4L capacity, there’s plenty of cooking room available. Simply insert the two crisper trays (and the divider, if you want to cook across two zones) and you’re ready to get started. Note, too, that all of the drawer parts are dishwasher friendly, for convenient cleanup.

However, if you don’t have a dishwasher then you might find cleaning the Ninja Foodi FlexBasket dual air fryer a little annoying. Since it uses one large basket instead of the two independent drawers of some other dual air fryers, you’ll have to wash the entire basket regardless of whether or not you used both sides. 

On the front of the machine are the controls: you can select the time and temperature as well as one of the seven cooking modes that include air fry, max crisp, roast, bake, reheat, dehydrate and prove. 

There’s a silver roller dial that allows you to navigate these modes, as well as buttons to switch between Sync and Match cooking times and powering the machine on and off. It’s overall a very inoffensive control system, although every now and then, it would become non-responsive if I pressed too many buttons in close succession while trying to change cooking zones.

Ninja Foodi FlexBasket Dual Air Fryer review: performance

•  No need to preheat 
•  Gorgeous, crispy results 
•  Very configurable for every meal 

As a smaller household, I was a little intimidated by the sheer size of the Ninja Foodi FlexBasket dual air fryer, but I put it to the test by making several meals using a variety of ingredients – including a whole roast chicken. 

The air fryer can heat up to 450°F / 240°C for up to four hours (although not at its highest temperature, which only offers up to 30 minutes of continuous cooking time) and offers seven cooking modes – air fry, max crisp, roast, bake, reheat, dehydrate and prove. These offer rough guidelines for cooking times and temperature, although it’s likely you’ll need to tweak these set times. 

One of the key benefits of standard air fryers is that they’re able to deliver speedy results, using less energy, due to their reduced capacities over regular ovens. As such, I had expected the FlexBasket’s cooking times to be longer. Pleasingly, I didn’t find a significant difference, with cooking times only a few minutes longer. 

The Ninja Foodi FlexBasket dual air fryer doesn’t require preheating, doing so very quickly during the first few minutes of cooking time, but it does have an automatic cooling mode at the end of the cycle. Of course, there’s no imperative to observe this, but it won’t alert you to remove your food until that time has elapsed. 

You also have Sync and Match cooking modes, which allow you to set individual temperatures and times for both sides of the basket, cook on just one side, or use the MegaZone. All of these settings worked as expected but, every now and then, the air fryer would become a little confused or overwhelmed when I was flitting between the different drawer settings – although this is more likely me being too scattergun than it is the machine being faulty.

A lot of the air fryers I’ve tested feature automatic shake timers that encourage you to move your food around mid-cook to ensure even cooking results; but this air fryer doesn’t, and that isn’t the end of the world. Especially given that this behemoth of a basket couldn’t be easily shaken. It’s much better to just grab a fork or a pair of tongs to shuffle around your food. 

As with most Ninja air fryers, the Ninja Foodi FlexBasket dual air fryer performs exceptionally on test, delivering deliciously crispy results with ease. In addition to our standard tests of fries, potatoes, and chicken wings, I wanted to try using the MegaZone configuration for its intended use. I opted to test with a whole roast chicken and a few roast potatoes thrown in for good measure. 

Ninja air fryers easily cook the best frozen fries I’ve ever tried, and it was no different with the FlexBasket I tried both its max crisp and bake settings for my thick-cut fries, and the results were excellent, with the air fryer producing wonderfully crispy fries with soft, fluffy centres – although the max crisp came out on top. 

Likewise, my chicken wings were perfectly cooked, too. Full of flavor and moist on the inside, and crisp and golden skinned on the outside, even without the use of lashings of oil. 

However, it was the full roast chicken and potatoes that were the pièce de résistance. I was incredibly nervous that the innermost part of the chicken wouldn’t reach an adequate temperature to cook off any harmful bacteria, but I forged onwards, and I’m so glad I did. I cooked the chicken at 350°F / 180°C for 40 minutes, adding in the roast potatoes after 10 minutes, and turning the chicken halfway through. I cranked up the temperature a little for the last five minutes, for good measure; but I don’t think it was required. My chicken came out gorgeously cooked: succulent inside, and with a wonderful brown skin on the exterior. The roast potatoes were some of my best, despite having cut back on the amount of butter I usually use to encourage a crispy outer layer. 

One issue I have found is that the divider doesn’t prevent heat transfer between the two cooking zones. However, this is only a problem if you’re cooking food at vastly different temperatures, or only using one zone since energy is wasted heating the whole fryer. TIt proved most problematic when cooking my greatest nemesis, crispy kale. At the best of times, I struggle to nail perfect results even in the oven; but when you’re contending with the other side of the air fryer leaking much hotter air into the side holding the kale, it produces less than ideal results. I ended up with a lot of too well cooked kale. 

Should I buy?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How I tested

•  I used all of the air fryer presets 
•  I cooked fries, potatoes, chicken wings, and a roast dinner 
•  I used both the dual zone and MegaZone configurations 

Testing the Ninja Foodi FlexBasket dual air fryer involved eating a lot of food. As well as performing all of our standard tests (fries, potatoes, and chicken wings), I used it to cook my usual weekday meals, including salmon, kale, and roast vegetables to see how well the presets represent standard cooking times as well as the overall cooking performance of the machine.

I tried out the various basket configurations, and the Sync and Match cooking modes to see how easy the air fryer was to set up, use, and clean. 

I’ve been testing home appliances for three years now, from cleaning tech to cooking to smart home, and I’ve become familiar with what a variety of different users need from their home devices. I’ve also been cooking with an air fryer almost every week throughout that period, so I’m pretty used to navigating these clever cookers.

Update: I've now had a chance to test this out properly, and it didn't disappoint – read about how I got on in my full Ninja Double Stack Air Fryer review.

Look, I already know what you’re going to say - how can I possibly be this excited by an air fryer?

Well, when it’s time for Ninja to roll out a new game-changer, I don’t think you can blame me. At Shark Ninja’s EMEA Launch event, I got up close and personal with some of the latest and greatest products from the lifestyle giant, but without a doubt, the new Ninja Double Stack air fryer stands above even some of the best air fryers. In fact, if I'd had enough room in my suitcase, I would have absolutely tried to stash it and take it home there and then. (AN: I am not prone to theft)

Quite literally, too, because this dual-zone air fryer stacks its two drawers on top of each other, saving precious space on your countertops while still delivering the same delicious results and high capacity as some of Ninja’s other dual-zone air fryers.

Go Dual Zone or go home

Let's briefly pause to explain the benefit of dual zone air fryers. Typically, with the exception of products like Ninja's 10.4L Dual Zone air fryer and its convertible MegaZone basket, this form factor features two adjacent baskets, allowing you to cook different dishes at the same time. 

By nature, then, these air fryers end up being a lot wider than the standard, smaller air fryers that have risen to popularity in recent years. While double-drawer air fryers are also increasingly popular, they're getting progressively bigger as air fryer technology is stretched to the limits of what capacity mini-cookers can heat up while still promising faster cooking times.

So, for people like me with smaller kitchens, the Ninja Double Stack air fryer an absolute game-changer, taking up far less real estate than its dual-zone competitors; and even some single-basket options. While the smaller, SL300 model’s 7.6L capacity is spread across two baskets and thus may be a little small for cooking larger cuts of meat and bigger portions, the SL400, 9.5L Double Stack air fryer offers plenty of room.

What I was most impressed by was the inclusion of two extra oven racks, giving you even further verticality. I cook a lot of sides and tapas dishes in my air fryer, and having the option to keep these separate and offer even crisping by keeping foods from being piled up will invariably offer better results.

The Ninja Double Stack air fryer offers much the same features and functionality as the rest of Ninja’s air fryers, but it certainly looks different; and not just due to its height. 

The controls for the machine are mounted to the side of the drawers, which does look a little weird, but means you don’t have to worry about the machine having overhead clearance when in use. The machine is short enough to fit most standard cupboard heights, too, and is relatively lightweight if you still want to keep those counters clear.

Otherwise, the Double Stack air fryer offers much the same benefits as Ninja’s other mini cookers; non-stick ceramic coating, six different modes of cooking (Air Fry, Max Crisp, Roast, Bake, Reheat, and Dehydrate), and the ability to sync cooking times across its two drawers.

The Ninja Double Stack air fryer isn’t available just yet, and we don’t have pricing information yet either, but we’ll be sure to hop on the news as soon as it arrives, along with updates on all of the many other products Shark Ninja announced this week. Given how many people I speak to who say the only reason they don’t have an air fryer is due to the space required, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a sellout product, so keep an eye out on TechRadar for the latest Shark Ninja news.

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What you eat will make or break your endurance training. So, whether you’re looking to run a marathon, take on a grueling cycling tour, or simply doing some Sunday exercise, you need to make sure you eat right. 

That’s going to look a little different than the more sedentary among us. Keto and low-carb diets are completely out of the picture, and so are low-fat ones. When you lace up your best running shoes or hop on your bike (even one of the best electric bikes), you need a good amount of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins to fuel your exercise.

There are plenty of foods you shouldn't eat before exercise (just check out our list of 7 foods you should never eat before a run), but with that in mind, we’ve collected four recipes that you can easily make in one of the best air fryers to give you the energy to make that long trek as well as give you the energy to recover. 

Of course, this should be part of an overall balanced approach to food. That means plenty of fresh fruits, nuts, and vegetables such as bananas, avocados, flaxseed, among many others. Using healthier oils such as olive oil will help as well. 

However, we have gathered a variety of recipes here so that you have a pre-run snack for a quick pick-me-up, a more carb-heavy recipe for sustained energy 

1. Air Fryer Banana Chips 

Having a way to get a quick boost of energy right before an event is crucial and dried fruits are one of the best ways to get it. You’ll get some needed glucose and, in the case of these air fryer banana chips, some extra carbs to boot.

While there are plenty of great dehydrated fruit recipes for the air fryer, they usually take hours upon hours for the final results. And, you need an air fryer that can go to a very low temperature and not all of them can.

With these banana chips, you don’t have to worry about that as they’ll cook at 350°F (177°C) for 10 to 12 minutes making them as speedy as you hope to be on the big day.

2. Air Fryer Roasted Sweet Potatoes 

Runners and cyclists need to load up on carbohydrates to maximize performance. And, sweet potatoes are a fantastic way to do just that. And, since they’re packed with complex carbs, they break down slower, providing energy for longer. Like most whole foods, they also come with a good subset of necessary nutrients like vitamin A, vitamin C, and anti-inflammatory anthocyanins (they’re good for brain health as well).

Making these roasted sweet potatoes in the air fryer is a no-brainer then. Instead of baking the sweet potatoes whole, you cube them for something a little more bite-size. And, though the recipe offers some simple seasonings to bring out the flavor, you can play around with how you season them for alternative flavor profiles. 

Whichever way you go though, you’ll have finished and roasted sweet potatoes for your carb needs in about 25 minutes. 

3. Maple Mustard Air Fryer Frozen Salmon 

Salmon is an excellent source of protein for anyone, not just runners. But, it has some extra health benefits as it’s a good source of vitamin B and that all-important Omega-3 fats, which helps with blood flow and inflammation. It even has astaxanthin, which gives salmon that pink color and helps prevent cell damage.

While you can’t really go wrong with any salmon recipe, I like to make this maple mustard air fryer frozen salmon recipe. To get the most benefit from it, I recommend leaving the skin on as well as following the recipe’s suggestion of using wild salmon over farm-raised for its higher omega-3 content.

Though it’s a little more involved than some recipes, you won’t need any extra condiments for flavor as the dijon mustard and maple syrup provide more than enough flavor on their own. And, it’s really not that involved as it will take about 17 minutes from start to finish. Just note the adjustment to the recipe if you plan on using fresh over frozen filets.

4. Air Fryer Frozen Broccoli 

Anyone tackling any kind of endurance training or events needs to not only consume a good deal of protein and carbohydrates, but a good deal of vegetables as well. And, broccoli is one of the best to include in your diet as it’s a great source of calcium as well as iron and beta-keratin, aka vitamin A.

For a quick fix of cooked greens, I like these air fryer frozen broccoli. It’s convenient as I can just chuck a bag of frozen broccoli into the air fryer (once seasoned of course) and come out with crispy, delicious results. There’s no need to thaw – in fact, you shouldn’t as you’ll end up with mushy results.

Plus, this healthy recipe includes a small amount of healthy fats in the form of avocado oil as well as turmeric, known for its anti-inflammatory properties. While the recipe takes about 25 minutes, only five of that is prep and the rest of it is in the air fryer with a quick shake halfway through for even results.

This article is part of TechRadar's Get Fit for '24 week of fitness content.

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Dreo ChefMaker: One-minute review

Outside of soups, casseroles, stews, and fondues, there’s nothing you can’t cook in the Dreo ChefMaker. And I’m not just talking about air-frying a steak here; I’m talking about a properly and perfectly cooked steak that’s worth serving in a steakhouse.

That’s because while the ChefMaker is one of the best air fryers on the market, it’s so much more than that. Much more. It has two other cooking modes, namely the Chef mode and the Probe mode, both of which deliver restaurant-worthy results. And Chef mode is supported by an app that comes with a plethora of clever Chef-curated recipes that are so delicious you'll feel like you’ve got Thomas Keller whipping up dinners in your own kitchen.

This is perhaps my favorite kitchen appliance by far. Since using the ChefMaker I've enjoyed one of the best and cooked-to-perfection medium-rare steaks I’ve ever had, home-cooked or otherwise. That’s saying something because (1) I’ve only cooked steak three times in my life, and (2) I didn’t have to do anything here but prep the steak, insert the included probe and put it in the basket, and press a couple of buttons. The ChefMaker's air fryer function delivers super crispy yet super-moist results – the best results I’ve gotten from any air fryer.

It’s also a near-perfect product. It’s sleek and beautiful; it’s well-built and doesn’t take up too much space; and its touch controls are so responsive that they feel luxe. It’s also effortless to use, thanks in large part to its very useful app.

I say near-perfect because there is the smaller matter of the price, which isn't small. All those features do come at a premium – not so high that the ChefMaker would be a luxury purchase, but definitely more than what a lot of people would expect to pay for an air fryer. However, I would say that it’s worth every penny and then some. If you’re thinking of buying an air fryer, you won’t regret getting this one. 

Dreo Chefmaker: price and availability

• How much does it cost? $359 / £279 (about AU$540)
• When is it available? Available now
• Where can you get it? Available in the US and the UK

The Dreo ChefMaker is much more expensive than regular air fryers of the same size and capacity, and it’s also pricier than most double-basket models. In fact, at $359 / £279 (about AU$540), it’ll cost you as much as some large-capacity air fryer ovens. Now you may think that’s too much for a combination cooker with a 6-quart / 5.7-liter basket capacity, but honestly, given its versatility and what it can do, I’m mildly surprised that it doesn’t cost more. 

Unfortunately for Australian customers, however, it doesn’t look like it’s available there at the time of writing. It is, however, readily available in the US and the UK.

•  Value: 4 / 5 

Dreo ChefMaker: Specifications

Dreo ChefMaker: Design

• Easy to set up and use
• Beautiful and fairly compact design
• Touch controls are a pleasure to use

Setting up the Dreo ChefMaker is just as easy as setting up a regular air fryer. You simply place the cooking tray at the bottom of the basket or the grilling rack at the top, slot in the basket, plug it in, and turn it out. The one thing to consider here is that the cord isn’t very long, so you will have to find a spot in your kitchen that’s close enough to the outlet, or have an extension cord handy.

I’ve always found the design of most air fryers unappealing, even the ones from Ninja, but I adore the design of the ChefMaker. Trapezoidal in shape with a gentle tapering in the front, it’s got elegant rounded edges, a beautiful black-on-dark silver finish, and a long oval handle with a hollow middle.

At the top is a shallow square water tank for water, which the ChefMaker uses for cooking – it utilizes its water spray system for better results, and to ensure that the food doesn’t dry up – with a square lid that’s easy to pop off and replace. And at the front, just above the basket, is where you’ll find the control panel, which has touch buttons and a big 4.3-inch display with a fairly extensive menu, so you can easily navigate through and choose your cooking mode or function, adjust temperature, change cooking time, and more.

The touch buttons are incredibly responsive and work perfectly with just a light tap, and the display is bright enough so that everything is visible, even when it’s in a brightly-lit area. Thank goodness for its backlighting.

The ChefMaker is taller than many air fryers of the same capacity, and slightly heavier as well. But it really doesn’t take up too much space, and is light enough to take with you if you want to use it offsite. 

Just like regular air fryers, it has its hot air vent in the back. One thing I’ve noticed about this vent is that it blows a hot more hot air than other air fryers I’ve tested – so much so that it’s triggered my smoke and carbon monoxide detector that’s above the hallway next to my kitchen a few times. So be sure you’re leaving enough space for it to 'breathe.'

As far as cleaning, the trays and the basket are all dish-washer safe – though they are fairly-easy to hand wash, especially the basket since it is non-stick. The inside of the appliance can be cleaned the usual way.

• Design: 5 / 5

Dreo ChefMaker: Performance

• Air fryer produces crisp and moist results
• Chef mode makes the best dishes
• Vent produces a lot of hot air

If I could only keep one tabletop cooking appliance in my kitchen, I would probably go with the Dreo ChefMaker. It’s not ideal for making stews, soups and other dishes drenched in sauce or gravy – if you make a lot of those, you should probably go with one of the best multicookers – but while I do enjoy a good stew, those are easy to make using my good old stove, whereas the ChefMaker actually allows me to not just quickly whip up meals when I’m pressed for time, but also make dishes that I don’t usually make, like a good steak or a tender brisket.

It’s not just versatility and effortless cooking that the ChefMaker offers. All the dishes I’ve made in it, from the air fryer recipes I found online to the ones on the Dreo app, are cooked to perfection. I’m particularly impressed that its air fryer function delivers better results than other regular air fryers I’ve tested, producing gorgeously and evenly cooked results that are super crispy on the outside and mind-bogglingly moist on the inside.

My favorite chicken wings recipe, Vietnamese chicken wings, came out even better when I made them with the ChefMaker, as did my favorite pork belly recipe. And I didn’t even need to fill up the water tank, or adjust the temperature or cooking time from the recipes, to get those results. 

The water tank does play a massive role when using the cooker’s Chef and Probe modes, however. The ChefMaker uses water atomization via its water spray system, and super convection heating, with the occasional assistance of the included dual-sensing probe, to cook dishes, and the combination works wonderfully. 

I tried several of the Chef mode recipes on the Dreo app, including the Perfect Steak and the Garlic Parmesan Potato Wedge recipes, and they were not only easy to make but also came out incredible, with the steak nicely seared but beautifully pink in the middle and very tender, and the potatoes coming out with a nice crisp. 

The best part about making the steak was it took the guesswork and a chunk of the work out of the whole thing – just what a steak-cooking novice like me needs. I’ve only really made steak three times in my life, so while two out of those three came out great, I’m not exactly a steak master. With the help of the ChefMaker, however, my fourth steak came out steakhouse-worthy. 

Fair warning, though: the Dreo ChefMaker seems to produce a lot more heat than regular air fryers, even when it’s on air fryer mode. Even when there’s a lot of space behind its rear vent, it still manages to set off my smoke and carbon monoxide detector which is a few feet away in the hallway next to my kitchen. This never happened with the similar-capacity air fryers I’ve tested. I did, however, find that turning on my range hood helps minimize that issue.

This also was not a deal-breaker for me, especially since my kitchen isn't the biggest, and the bigger air fryer ovens I've tested have done the same thing.

• Performance:  / 5

Should I buy the Dreo ChefMaker?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Dreo ChefMaker: Also consider

How I tested the Dreo ChefMaker

• I tested the Dreo ChefMaker for a couple of months
• I used it as my main air fryer almost every day, cooking different recipes
• I also tested its other cooking modes, especially Chef mode

I utilized the Dreo ChefMaker as my main air fryer and cooker almost every day for about two months, making sure to use different recipes I found on the Dreo app and from social media as well as my favorite recipes. I also made sure to test all three cooking modes available, documenting my process and the results.

As a regular air fryer user, TechRadar's Interim Homes Editor and someone who loves to cook, I've used and tested more than my share of cooking appliances, from air fryers to multicookers and the occasional baking implement.

We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained - regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it's on our radar.

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First reviewed December 2023