The 7 Best Air Fryers

A Guide to Buying the BEST Air Fryers

Air fryers continue to grow in popularity.  And why not? They offer a healthy alternative to more traditional deep frying methods. If you’re considering an air fryer instead of a deep fryer because you want to reduce your consumption of oil, you’re on the right track. 

Air fryers can give you that same deep fried flavor on foods you love, but with little to no oil. Without needing lard or saturated fats, to get those fried foods you crave, these kitchen appliances are great for every home.

But it isn’t just the limited use of cooking oils that make air fryers such a popular alternative. There are other reasons as well:

1. Cooking oils break down over time. Animal-based shortenings have a very limited shelf life. Once exposed to oxygen, they tend to quickly go rancid. Additionally, vegetable oils, often considered a more healthy alternative to animal-based products, tend to separate into water and fat after being used a few times in  deep fryers. Replacing these cooking oils, especially in the quantities required for larger deep fryers, can become expensive and time-consuming.
2. Deep frying creates hazardous by-products. If you have ever deep fried anything, you know that small bits of food or batter always fall into the cooking oil. Some people believe these pieces are hazardous. 
3. Deep fryers are high maintenance. When using a deep fryer, it’s a challenge to perform minor maintenance tasks, like filtering the oil, after use. The fryer remains hot – extremely hot – for hours after use. And when they finally cool down, the oils often congeal. Cleaning can be difficult. 
4. Correct cooking temperatures are hard to maintain. The secret to successful deep frying is maintaining a proper oil temperature. When cooking oil falls below a certain temperature, the food’s internal moisture does not repel the oil as well, resulting in greasy, undercooked food. Simply putting a bag of frozen food into a hot deep fryer will affect the oil temperature, and the heating elements of many deep fryers take a long time to recover from the shock. This is not a concern with superheated cooking methods such as convection or air frying.

We’ve researched and tested multiple air fryers and here is a breakdown of the seven with think can serve you the best.

Cosori Pro II Air Fryer

Cosori’s Next Generation Air Fryer, the Pro II Air Fryer, features customizable functions, an enhanced heating element and an optimized structural design to bring faster and crispier meals. Great for large families.

What’s Good

Cooks popular foods and dishes like a professional with easy presets that let you cook by setting different temperatures and cooking times. Dishwasher safe and free of BPA and PFOA.

What’s Not So Good

Grease tends to build up if not cleaned regularly. Construction not as sturdy as at first expected.

Ninja AF101 Air Fryer

Spacious and powerful air fryer that won’t break your budget.

What’s Good

Heats up and cooks fast. Four-quart model can cook up to 2 pounds of French Fries. Has a ceramic-coated crisper plate to give food a crunchy texture. Can also be used as a dehydrator.

What’s Not So Good

Need to preheat for best results. Some durability issues reported.

DASH Tasti-Crisp™ Electric Air Fryer

Small and compact, at half the weight of a standard fryer, the Dash Tasti-Crisp Air Fryer is a must-have for smaller spaces. kitchen, Great for smaller families.

What’s Good

Budget-friendly without neglecting the features fans love. Simple dial control, fast-heating hot air technology, and a vivid temperature indicator. Compact design is perfect for small spaces. Good for singles, couples, and small households.

What’s Not So Good

Numbers around the dial tend to fade over time. Not large enough for big families.

Phillips HD9741 Premium Digital Air Fryer

State of the art technology, with fat removal technology that reduces and captures excess fat, make this air fryer a fan favorite.

COSORI Pro Smart Air Fryer 5.8QT

Smart controls, Voice controls, and manual control, Dishwasher Safe, Programmable

Ninja DZ201 Foodi 8 Quart 6-in-1

DualZone Technology allows you to cook 2 foods 2 ways that finish at the same time.

GoWISE USA

Simple, efficient and easy to use at a great price.

How does an air fryer work?

Air fryers work by circulating hot air with just a small amount of oil around food to cook it, much like a convection oven. The hot air is generated by an electric heating element suspended above the food and a fan then circulates the heat around the food. This convection action, common in commercial cooking, turns the small amount of oil you use into a fine mist that coats the food, mimicking the way traditional fryers cook foods – but with a lot less oil.

Simply place your food in a basket, tray, or on a rack inside the air fryer, and turn it on. Easy!

PROS AND CONS OF AIR FRYERS

Air fryers can be a great addition to any kitchen. They offer every cook a multitude of options – from oil-less versions of fried foods, to steaming vegetables, even baking cupcakes and brownies. But despite all these advantages, air fryers do have their limitations .

Pros of cooking with an air fryer:

• An air fryer produces crisp, moist food without the need for a deep fryer or large amounts of oil. If avoiding saturated fats and heavily fried foods is on your list of dietary priorities, then using an air fryer that requires far less oil than a deep oil fryer is clearly the way to go.
• Air fryers are versatile and can be used to prepare a large variety of foods. While you may think of french fries, chicken nuggets, and pizza when you think of an air fryer, this small kitchen appliance is also great for cooking food like burgers, fish, air fried chicken wings, baked potatoes, veggies, desserts, and much more. An air fryer can also be used to reheat leftovers.
• Air fryers are much easier to clean and maintain than traditional deep fryers. There is no large container of hot cooking oil to filter and store. The air fryer’s cooking basket can be washed by hand or in a dishwasher between uses.
• In addition to standard air fryers, the rapid hot air technology is available in combo appliances. For example, you can find an air fryer multi-cooker that also works for pressure cooking and an air fryer toaster oven that fries, roasts, and bakes. What’s more, some countertop convection ovens that rotisserie, bake, roast, and dehydrate also have an air fryer function.

Cons of cooking with an air fryer:

• The constant flow of dry, superheated air around many foods can eventually strip them of moisture, especially on the surface. While some people may accept a bit of dryness as the price paid for healthier eating, others could be disappointed by the dryness or lack of flavor in air fried foods.
• Cooking times can be considerably longer in an air fryer than a traditional deep fryer.
• For those who are new to cooking with an air fryer, it can take some trial and error to achieve great results.

FAQ

Why you should use an air fryer?

There are many advantages of an air fryer. Some of the advantages include:

• Cook food quickly and evenly.
• Healthier than traditional fryers. Air fryers use little to no oil,.
• Compact and easy to store.
• Easy to use and clean.

Types of Air Fryers

Looking over the Best Reviews Guide of the best air fryers, we see that they’ll differ in the number of functions that they can perform. But, there are also a number of different designs:

• Single compartment: There are air fryers with a single large compartment, that will accommodate something as big as an entire chicken. An example is the Wetie Air Fryer. It has a 7-quart capacity, which is enough for a 6-pound chicken or 10 chicken wings. That’s enough for a meal for 4 people to enjoy!

Wetie Air Fryer

• Two-compartment air fryers: There are also air fryers that allow you to cook two different foods simultaneously. They have two compartments, so you can prepare chicken in one compartment, and potatoes in the other! An example is the Ulticor 8-Quart 8-in-1 2-Basket Air Fryer. It has two nice additional features:
  • “Sync Finish”, where it works out the cooking times of the two different foods so that they’re ready at the same time!
  • “Match Cook”, where it copies the cooking settings on one side, over to the other.

Ulticor 8-Quart 8-in-1 2-Basket Air Fryer

• Smart air fryers: There are also air fryers that sync up with your cellphone. For example, the Cosori Air Fryer Oven uses the VeSync app that gives you access to recipes and will help you program your air fryer’s temperature and cooking time. You can even give it voice commands via Alexa or Google Assistant!

Cosori Air Fryer Oven

What reviewers say

Here are some of the impressions of customers regarding their choice of air fryer:

• Replaces several other appliances: Air fryers are more compact units than a convection oven. Besides being small in its own right, an air fryer can serve the functions of a deep fryer, toaster oven, or dehydrator.
• Great for small amounts of food: If you like the functions on a particular air fryer, you’ll usually have the option of buying it in a range of sizes. The Cosori Air Fryer Oven comes in 6-quart, 6.8-quart, and 10-quart sizes. People who only want to heat up something small or cook enough for just themselves find their air fryer to be just the thing they needed. Whether you want to make a small number of fried potatoes from scratch or to prepare pizza or cookies from dough, a multi-functional air fryer gets the job done.

Important Features

Here are some tips and essential features to look for when selecting an air fryer:

• Dishwasher-safe interior: Many of the air fryers on the Best Reviews Guide list have accessories that are all dishwasher-safe, such as the Ninja Max XL Air Fryer. If you decide to wash them by hand, make sure not to use anything abrasive on the accessories with a non-stick coating. Once it scratches, it’s just a matter of time before the coating peels off.
• Racks: Instead of just a basket, some air fryers have racks, like a typical oven. That will allow you to cook several foods at once, or simply larger amounts. An example is the Chefman Multifunctional Digital Air Fryer. It comes with three racks, a rotisserie basket, and a drip tray.

Chefman Multifunctional Digital Air Fryer

• Preset options vs. functions: Take note that there are preset options on many air fryers, which are special settings solely for air frying particular foods. The Gevi Air Fryer has 7 preset options for air frying French fries, chicken, fish, shrimp, and bacon, besides being able to make cake or pizza. But the Instant Vortex Plus Air Fryer has 6 different functions: broiling, roasting, dehydrating, baking, air-frying, and reheating.

Final Verdict

We went through some of the options among the best air fryers on the market. Many of them are multifunctional, replacing several appliances at once. And some can prepare several foods at once in a foolproof manner. You can just program the temperature and cooking time, and it does the rest! And this is all in addition to the fact that air frying prepares food with little to no additional oil or calories. A great option all around!