The Best Air Fryers

The dual-basket layout solves the actual problem with air fryers. Single-basket models make you cook in rounds — protein first, then the side, then reheat the protein. The DZ401's Smart Finish mode stagger-starts both zones so they end together. Tom's Guide found the dual-zone design cuts about 15 minutes off a full meal compared with single-basket models. If you cook dinner more than twice a week, you'll feel that.

You also get Match Cook, which copies one basket's settings to the other. That's the mode you want for a big batch of wings or fries when you don't care about cooking two things — 10 quarts total, split across two drawers. Splitting the food across two smaller baskets actually helps here, since each layer stays shallower and the air moves around it better than it would in one deep pile.

Ninja rates this at 450°F on the top end, which matters more than it sounds. Consumer Reports found that higher-wattage fryers cook chicken roughly 40% faster than weaker ones with better browning. Dense food — thighs, thick-cut potatoes, frozen breaded anything — is where cheap air fryers give up and go pale. This one browns.

Cleanup is straightforward. Both baskets and both crisper plates are nonstick and dishwasher safe, and there's no wire mesh to scrub. Wirecutter, after looking at more than 50 models, found cleaning to be the top driver of whether people still like their air fryer a year later. Two baskets means two things to wash, but they're small and they go in the machine.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It's big. Ten quarts of capacity in two drawers takes real counter space, and it's tall enough that it may not slide under upper cabinets. Measure first. It's also the loudest kind of appliance in this guide — two fans instead of one.

The listing here is a Renewed unit, and owner feedback on renewed stock is noticeably rougher than on new: cosmetic damage on arrival, and a handful of units that quit within the first few uses. Renewed returns can also carry restocking fees. If you want this model, we'd weigh a new unit against the savings, and check the return terms before you buy.

The two baskets are 5 quarts each, not 10. A whole chicken or a large roast won't fit in either one — for that you want a single big basket or an oven-style unit.

Square baskets are the underrated spec in this category. America's Test Kitchen found square baskets give roughly 25% more usable cooking area than round ones at the same rated quarts, because you actually get to use the corners. In practice that's the difference between fries in one layer and fries in an awkward pile. COSORI says a 5-pound chicken fits, and that it feeds three to five people.

COSORI has been the top-selling air fryer brand on Amazon for years running, and it shows up near the top at Wirecutter, Good Housekeeping, Tom's Guide, and Consumer Reports at the same time. That kind of agreement across independent evaluators is rare. Owner feedback backs it up in an unusual way, too — a striking number of people writing about this line are on their second or third COSORI, replacing one that lasted years.

The 13 presets are genuinely useful if you're new to this. Air frying is mostly a game of guessing time and temperature, and one-touch buttons for wings, fries, and frozen food take the guessing out. A built-in NTC sensor adjusts to keep temperature swings within about 3°F, so you're not fighting a machine that overshoots and burns the outside.

The basket detaches from the outer pan, which is a small design choice that makes a big difference. You can dump food without wrestling the whole drawer, and both pieces go in the dishwasher. There's no mesh to pick at.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The basket latch is the weak point. Owners who use these daily for years report the latch as the part that eventually wears out, while the rest of the machine keeps working. The basket can also feel stiff to release when the unit is new.

At 5.8 quarts it's a family-of-four machine, not a meal-prep machine. If you're cooking for six or batching a week of food, you'll be doing rounds.

Seven quarts is more capacity than either of our top two picks offers in a single basket, and it's the reason to pick this one. If you're feeding a family and don't want to cook in rounds, raw volume beats refinement. Owners describe fitting a whole hen in it. For wings, fries, and sheet-pan-style vegetables, it does the job the expensive ones do.

You give up top-end heat, and that's the honest trade. It tops out at 400°F, where our Ninja picks hit 450°F. Consumer Reports found the higher-wattage machines brown more evenly and cook dense proteins meaningfully faster. For frozen food and vegetables you won't notice. For thick chicken thighs and anything you want deeply crisp, you will.

The interface covers the basics well: an LED display with touch controls, a preheat indicator, and a turn reminder that nudges you to shake the basket halfway through. Twelve presets span fries, wings, bacon, seafood, vegetables, bake, roast, broil, dehydrate, reheat, and keep warm. That's the same feature list the mid-range machines advertise.

Cleanup holds up too. The nonstick basket and crisper tray are top-rack dishwasher safe, which is the threshold that matters most for whether you keep using an air fryer. Owners consistently describe it as easy to wipe out.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Build quality is where the savings come from. Owner feedback points at the bottom tray in particular as the flimsiest part, and the whole unit has a lighter, thinner feel than the COSORI or Ninja.

It's tall and narrow rather than wide, so the 7 quarts is partly vertical space you can't really use — food still needs to sit in a single layer to crisp properly.

Buy this if you want to delete appliances, not add one. It's a toaster oven, an air fryer, a dehydrator, and a slow cooker in one box, with 13 functions total. If your counter is currently holding a toaster oven and you're about to add an air fryer, this takes up less total space than both — and it does things no basket model can, like toasting nine slices of bread or roasting a whole chicken on a rack.

The Element iQ system is the real engineering here. Five independent quartz elements, steered by the oven's controller, put heat where the selected function needs it, with digital temperature control aimed at killing cold spots. Two convection fan speeds let you choose between gentle circulation for baking and full blast for air frying. Breville says super convection cuts cooking time by up to 30%.

Durability is the recurring theme in owner feedback, and it's the reason people forgive the price. Many describe replacing a Breville only after a decade of near-daily use, or buying a second one after years of hard service. That's a different conversation than the two-to-three-year replacement cycle typical of basket fryers.

Air frying in an oven-style unit is different from a basket, and mostly in a good way. You get flat racks instead of a deep drawer, so a full tray of fries sits in one layer and you don't have to shake anything. It also dehydrates on up to four trays at once, which basket models can't touch.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It's enormous — roughly 21 inches wide and 17 deep, weighing about 30 pounds. It needs a dedicated stretch of counter and clearance above, and you're not tucking it in a cabinet between uses.

It's also by far the most expensive thing in this guide, and it's not the fastest way to make a snack. Preheating a large cavity takes longer than a small basket, so for a quick handful of nuggets a cheap fryer wins.

Owner feedback includes scattered reports of control and element problems — a preheat that finishes without starting the timer, or a failed quartz sleeve. It's a minority of a very large number of owners, but this is a complex machine with more to go wrong than a basket and a fan.

Max Crisp is the reason to want this one. It pushes 450°F superheated air, and Ninja says that cooks up to 30% faster than its older AF100. Higher heat is what separates genuinely crisp frozen food from sad, warm frozen food. Owners who've used other air fryers notice this one running hotter than they expect — worth knowing, since your old times and temperatures won't transfer directly.

It's the pick if counter space is tight but 2 quarts isn't enough. At about 11 inches wide it's narrower than most 5-quart machines, and the vertical layout means it takes a modest square of counter. You still get 5.5 quarts and room for three pounds of fries or wings, which covers a family of four for most weeknight food.

The ceramic-coated basket is a real advantage over standard nonstick. Ceramic tends to hold up better to repeated dishwasher cycles and metal-adjacent abuse, and owners describe cleanup as a quick wipe with soap. Seven functions cover Max Crisp, air fry, roast, broil, bake, reheat, and dehydrate — everything most people actually use.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The hotter default temperatures cut both ways. If you cook by an old recipe's timing, you'll overshoot, and delicate foods can go from browned to burnt quickly. Plan on checking early the first few times.

Like most Ninja baskets it's deep rather than wide, so a single layer of food means less than 5.5 quarts of practical space. And this one runs loud, which is worth thinking about in an open-plan apartment.