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Ninja Foodi 7.5L Multi Pressure Cooker Air Fryer Dehydrator from Argos
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Tefal Turbo Cuisine & Fry Multi Pressure Cooker & Air Fryer - Black from Ao.com
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Tefal EasyFry 2-in-1 Precision EY505827 Air Fryer - Black from Currys
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Philips Essential XL HD9280/91 1.2L Air Fryer - Black from Argos
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Tefal ActiFry Genius XL AH960040 Air Fryer 1.7kg (8 Portions) - White from Very.co.uk
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Air fryers are considered by many nutritionists a healthier alternative to deep-fat frying, as they cook using little to no oil. That means crunchy fried chicken, juicy burgers and crispy chips with less guilt. Some have several functions, so you can slow-cook curries, grill steaks and even make yoghurt. They're speedy at cooking a whole meal, too – so it's no wonder they've been flying off store shelves. We spent over 40 hours analysing more than 20 air fryers and we've recommended the best for different uses.
What is an air fryer?
Stripping it down, an air fryer is just a super-charged mini fan oven. Contrary to its name, it bakes your food using convection heat rather than frying it. There are a few different types to choose from.
Types of air fryer
- Oven. Trays holding the food slot inside the oven; generally these are the biggest of the lot, so are able to cook the most food.
- Basket. Drawers with removable baskets hold the food; typically these fryers have small-to-medium capacity.
- Pot. These are rounder and look like a rice cooker; they typically have several functions and a medium-to-large capacity.
- Paddle. These turn the food with a small paddle to ensure cooking is even; they’re usually small-to-medium in capacity.
- Grill. If you want to chargrill meat and veg often, this is a good choice.
Air fryer jargon explained
Functions. Some air fryers just fry, others can steam, grill, dehydrate and more.
Presets. These are cooking settings for commonly used foods and many fryers have them. Icons by buttons indicate a specific food and, by hitting the button, you can cook fries, chicken or vegetables, for example.
Capacity. An important aspect…but a bit misleading. The overall capacity is in litres and indicates how much you can fit in the air fryer – but you don’t want to overcrowd it, otherwise the food won’t cook as well. Plus, the shape of the basket matters. A wide square basket could fit more food in than a round basket, depending on the food.
Auto shut-off. A fryer with this will turn off automatically after it finishes cooking the food.
Finder’s best air fryers in the UK 2023
- Innoteck Kitchen Pro DS-5895 16 litre: Best for convenience
- Tower Vortx T17039 Air Fryer Oven: Best for a low budget
- Ninja AF160UK Max Air Fryer: Best for small kitchens
- Ninja Foodi 9-in-1 Multi-Cooker 6L OP350UK: Best for foodies
- Ninja Foodi 7-in-1 Multi-Cooker 7.5l OP450UK: Best for complete meals
- Tower Xpress Pro Combo 10 in 1 air fryer : Best for a family of 4
Best for convenience
Finder's pick: Innoteck Kitchen Pro DS-5895 16L
Price (from)
£149
Capacity
16l
Stated functions
6
Dishwasher-safe parts
This large air fryer is perfect for cooking a lot of food without the hassle. A range of presets make it easy to use and you can either space food out on its 3 trays or in a robust rotating basket. Check your chips as they cook with the transparent window and internal light.
- Fantastic capacity
- Cooks a whole roast chicken plus veg
- Transparent front
- Rotating device and basket included
- Fast at cooking frozen food
- Easy-to-use presets
- No preheating required
- Quite loud
- Bulky
- Stubborn door
- Top of the machine gets hot
- Mesh trays are a pain to clean
| Modes | Air fry Roast Bake Toast Dehydrate Rotisserie |
|---|---|
| Cooking zones | 1 |
| Cooking tiers | 3 |
| Timer | Digital |
| Transparency | |
| Rotating basket |
Best for low budget
Finder's pick: Tower Xpress Pro T17039 Vortx 5-in-1 Digital Air Fryer Oven
Price (from)
£95.99
Capacity
11l
Stated functions
5
Dishwasher-safe parts
This Tower is a solid 11litre capacity air fryer laden with 5 functions that won't break the bank. It can impressively hold a chicken on its rotisserie and will cook multiple items on its racks. Flip the light on and watch your food sizzle.
- Good capacity
- Multiple cooking options
- Transparent removable door
- Rotisserie included
- Relatively cheap
- Mesh racks can be tricky to clean
- Have to switch racks for the most even cooking
| Modes | Air fry Grill Roast Bake Dehydrate Rotisserie |
|---|---|
| Cooking zones | 1 |
| Cooking tiers | 3 |
| Timer | Digital |
| Transparency | |
| Rotating basket | |
| Manufacturer’s warranty (years) | 3 |
Best for small kitchens
Finder's pick: Ninja AF160UK Max Air Fryer
Price (from)
£149
Capacity
5.2l
Stated functions
6
Dishwasher-safe parts
The Ninja AF160UK is a pocket Hercules. It may be small in size, but packs a punch with a 5.2 litre capacity and 6 functions. The Max Crisp mode will cook frozen foods in minutes. It's ideal for small kitchens or narrow counters, and it'll be easy to store or take with you.
- Great capacity for a small size
- Easy to use
- Versatile functions work differently from each other
- Will fit in most kitchens and is storable
- Simple to clean
- Quiet
- Shaking food is recommended
- No viewing window
| Modes | Air fry Roast Bake Dehydrate Reheat Max crisp |
|---|---|
| Cooking zones | 1 |
| Cooking tiers | 1 |
| Timer | Digital |
| Transparency | |
| Rotating basket | |
| Manufacturer’s warranty (years) | 1 |
Best for foodies
Finder's pick: Ninja Foodi 9-in-1 Multi-Cooker 6L OP350UK
Price (from)
£172.11
Capacity
6l
Stated functions
9
Dishwasher-safe parts
Ninja's gone and created an air frying multicooker for the creative chefs out there. This 9-in-1 machine can pressure cook, slow cook, air fry, steam, bake/roast, sear/sauté, grill, dehydrate and wait for it...make yoghurt. It'll feed four people and you can plonk a 2kg chicken in the pot.
- Versatile to the max
- Great for experimenting
- Cooks all-in-one meals
- Dishwasher safe
- Tall and wide
- Learning to use cooking functions is necessary
- Short cable
- Not transparent
| Modes | Air fry Grill Roast Bake Steam Sear/Saute Pressure cook Slow cook Dehydrate Reheat Keep warm Max crisp |
|---|---|
| Cooking zones | 1 |
| Cooking tiers | 3 |
| Timer | Digital |
| Transparency | |
| Rotating basket |
Best for complete meals
Finder's pick: Ninja Foodi 7-in-1 Multi-Cooker 7.5l OP450UK
Price (from)
£299
Capacity
7.5l
Stated functions
7
Dishwasher-safe parts
The Ninja OP450UK does take a while to get used to, but once you've mastered its crisping and pressure cook functions, complete meals are at your fingertips. The large 7.5L capacity will fit big joints of meat for roasting or slow cooking. In the pot you can layer rices and pulses at the bottom, veg on the lower end of the rack and protein at the top.
- Versatile for all-in-one meals
- Excellent capacity
- Easy to clean
- Easy to use
- Not noisy
- Bulky
- No viewing window
- You’ll have to master the functions to get the best from it
| Modes | Air fry Grill Roast Bake Steam Sear/Saute Pressure cook Slow cook Keep warm Max crisp |
|---|---|
| Cooking zones | 1 |
| Timer | Digital |
| Transparency | |
| Rotating basket | |
| Manufacturer’s warranty (years) | 1 |
Best for a family of 4
Finder's pick: Tower Xpress Pro Combo 10 in 1 Air Fryer T17076
Price (from)
£129
Capacity
11l
Stated functions
10
Dishwasher-safe parts
This air fryer oven is a wonderful all rounder and will cook decent portions for your family. It'll roast a whole chicken on the spit, take a couple of pizzas, cook up to 10 kebabs, and do all the standard air fryer dishes on its three-tiered mesh racks. The viewing window is a cool bonus to check on your food.
- Many cooking accessories included
- Viewing window
- Extremely versatile
- Multi rack capacity
- Removable door
- Excellent warranty
- Rack system means rotation needed for even cooking
- High energy consumption
- Mesh racks are hard to clean
- Functions blend into presets
| Modes | Air fry Grill Roast Bake Toast Dehydrate Rotisserie |
|---|---|
| Cooking zones | 1 |
| Cooking tiers | 3 |
| Timer | Digital |
| Transparency | |
| Rotating basket | |
| Manufacturer’s warranty (years) | 3 |
How do air fryers work?
After you put your food inside, the fan in the air fryer will quickly swirl heat around. The food is surrounded by heat from top to bottom, and the fryer will carry on circulating heat until your food is ready.
If you’ve drizzled the food with a bit of oil, this flow of heat will coat the food with fine oil droplets, giving it that crunch we all love. So you’ll have a similar deep-fried texture to your chips with minimal oil use – cutting back on that dreaded saturated fat.
Is an air fryer healthier than other modes of cooking?
Generally yes. Since you don’t need to use as much oil as you would in a deep fat fryer or pan frying, you won’t be guzzling down any unnecessary saturated fats, which can raise the bad LDL cholesterol in the blood.
Personally I do think an air fryer is a healthier way to cook and I’ve got one myself. Though, it does depend on how much oil you put in there and what people class as healthy food.
An air fryer is a healthier option of cooking as opposed to roasting potatoes in the oven, deep fat frying and pan frying.
– Suzanne Knowlson, Slimming World Consultant
British takeaways vs air fryer fakeaways
We've researched how cheap cooking with an air fryer can be by calculating the average cost of the most popular British takeaways compared with a cooked air fryer "fakeaway" version.
All the content may be republished with a link to this page
Press enquiries
How to pick an air fryer: Key factors to bear in mind
We analysed the product details of 18 air fryers. We’ve listed some key factors to consider when picking yours.
- Capacity. Smaller fryers like the Tower Compact (with a capacity of around 2 litres or less) take a few fish fingers but you can’t stuff a whole chicken in there. A medium one (over 2 litres, but typically 4 litres or more) will cook an entire chicken and bigger fryers can stretch to 12 litres or more, meaning you can cook multiple dishes at the same time.
- Kitchen and storage space. Will it fit in your cupboards after use? Or if it’s living on your countertop, will there be enough space? Dimensions for each model are in our table, above.
- Features and functions. Some air fryers offer pressure cooking and slow cooking or come with a rotisserie. If you fancy dried apple chips, go for one that dehydrates. You can see your food cooking through transparent windows of some air fryers, like the Tefal ActiFry Genius YV970840. Most fryers have dishwasher-safe parts and non-stick baskets, but a few don’t like the dishwasher, and want warm soapy water and elbow grease.
- Price. You can get a basic, compact air fryer for as little as £30. The air fryers in our comparison table are from popular brands and start at around £80 up to around £200, but there are usually deals to be had if you shop around or use one of our discount codes.
- Energy. An air fryer is unlikely to decimate your electricity bill but it’s worth considering the wattage. A medium-sized fryer is typically around 1500 watts, while the biggest air fryer ovens go beyond 2000 watts. To put this into perspective, a typical fan-assisted oven is 2500 watts, but you’re likely to use an air fryer for a shorter period – say 15-30 minutes.
Frequently asked questions
Finder air fryers scores
★★★★★ — Excellent
★★★★★ — Good
★★★★★ — Average
★★★★★ — Subpar
★★★★★ — Poor
Finder scores are based on an assessment of 11 different aspects of each appliance. Full methodology in our guide to ratings.
The offers compared on this page are chosen from a range of products we can track; we don't cover every product on the market...yet. Unless we've indicated otherwise, products are shown in no particular order or ranking. The terms "best", "top", "cheap" (and variations), aren't product ratings, although we always explain what's great about a product when we highlight it; this is subject to our terms of use. When making a big financial decision, it's wise to consider getting independent financial advice, and always consider your own financial circumstances when comparing products so you get what's right for you.
More guides on Finder
- Methodology for reviewing air fryers
Learn how we rate the air fryers we review – evaluating each appliance against its peers on key factors like capacity, stated functions and whether they’re dishwasher safe.
- Where to buy air fryers online
Keen to jazz up your weekly meals, the healthy way? Our shopping experts can help you source your dream air fryer from a range of the best retailers.
o a p use frozen ready meals and fresh one will they work?
Hi,
We recommend putting frozen ready meals in the microwave. Air frying is more if you want that crispy texture and it may take longer to cook the food.