Best Ninja air fryer: Tech Advisor’s top recommendations compared

This Ninja model – called the called the Foodi 6-in-1 Smart 10-qt. 2-Basket Air Fryer (DZ550) in the US and the Foodi MAX Dual Zone Air Fryer (AF451UK) in the UK – has every feature you could possibly want. Plus, it’s a good choice for cooking from fresh as it has a cooking probe for flawlessly cooked meat and fish.

Each basket has a 5QT/4.75L capacity and you can programme them independently, match them, or even set them in sync mode – to finish cooking at the same time, for hassle free meals.

It has six cooking modes: air fry, max crisp air fry, bake, roast, dehydrate, and reheat. There’s no grill function, however.

This Ninja produces reliably excellent results and it looks pretty good as well. We were slightly disappointed by the fact that its exterior is almost entirely plastic, as the Ninja Speedi and the Ninja Health Grill have steel in their build. Otherwise it’s hard to find fault with this versatile dual-drawer model.

Who should buy the Ninja Foodi Max Dual Zone?

Buy the Ninja Foodi Max Dual Zone if you have a larger household and want a quick way to make meals for the entire family. Its cooking probe makes it a solid choice for cooking fresh meat and fish – and getting great results every time.

Ninja Foodi Max Dual Zone: Further considerations

The key thing to consider is whether you have enough counter space for this large appliance.

The Crispi is Ninja’s latest and most innovative model. It’s like nothing else on the market as it’s a modular air fryer and it’s compact enough that you can store it in your cupboard. It’s very simple to use, needing minimal cleanup. Put the food you want to cook into one of the glass dishes that comes with the appliance (there’s a 3.8-litre/4-quart container and a smaller 1.4-litre/6-cup one), attach the cooking head on top and you’re ready to go. When your food is done, you can serve it straight from the cooking dish, which you can also use to store your leftovers in afterwards. It’s portable, so you can use it wherever there’s a plug point.

In our test, we found it easy to use and were impressed with the reliably crispy results it produced.

However, it does have some limitations. First off, its size means that it has a lower capacity than even most single-drawer air fryers. It would be perfect for a household of 1-2 people. We did cook a whole (very small) chicken in it but it took a long time and the Crispi isn’t necessarily the best way to do this. Second, the types of cooking you can do in it are limited: there are only four cooking modes – bake, air fry, recrisp, and max crisp. So it won’t be as versatile as a standard air fryer.

However, the Crispi will be the perfect option for a lot of people. If you have limited space, a shared kitchen, you want to cook on the go, or if you don’t want an air fryer on your counter 24/7, this is the model to get.

If you’re in the US, you can now buy the Ninja Crispi Pro, a larger 6QT and 2.5QT model for $279.99 from Amazon.

Who should buy the Ninja Crispi?

Buy the Ninja Crispi if you want low-hassle cooking and no countertop clutter. It’s also a great option for students or anyone with a shared kitchen who doesn’t want to share their cooking equipment and clean up after messy housemates.

NInja Crispi: Further considerations

Even the larger cooking vessel only has a 3.8-litre/4-quart capacity, which means the Crispi is best for one to two people, and will cook slowly if you fill it to the top.

In the US, this model is called the Ninja Air Fryer Pro XL 6-in-1, but the build and functions remain the same.

For its size (a compact 30.5 x 28 x 36cm), this air fryer has a generous capacity: 6.2L/6.5QT in a single cooking drawer. It has six cooking settings – max crisp, air fry (the button you’ll almost certainly reach for most often), roast, bake, reheat and dehydrate. Between these, you’ll be able to do anything from a roast, to drying fruit, to baking cookies.

All cooking settings except one have a temperature range from 40°C to 210°C. Max crisp, however, is set to a much higher temperature of 240°C by default and can’t be changed. We found this setting, which is optimised to cook food from frozen, trickier to use than others. Otherwise this model is a great option for people air fryer cooking for the first time. If you’re unsure, the manual and recipe guides included in the box give you a good idea of timings and temperatures.

Most cooking settings have a potential cooking time of 1-60 minutes, depending on which mode you opt for. Dehydrate, for making dried fruit, jerky and yoghurt, offers up to 12 hours.

In our testing, we found it easy to get up to speed. Once we were used to cooking in the Max Pro, the results were excellent every time.

Who should buy the Ninja Air Fryer Max Pro?

Buy the Ninja Air Fryer Max Pro if you’re a couple or small family looking for quick, easy cooking with limited kitchen space. 

Ninja Air Fryer Max Pro: Further considerations

Most people regret not buying a larger model if they have the space to house it. If you want to use your air fryer instead of an oven to cook entire meals, consider a dual-drawer model instead.

If you want to use your oven less, the FlexDrawer is an excellent alternative. Its unique offering is the ability to combine its two 5.2-litre cooking spaces into a 10.4-litre ‘megazone’ for roasts and baking full-size cakes.

In the US, the equivalent air fryer, the FlexBasket, only has a 7QT capacity. It also lacks the UK model’s ‘prove’ cooking mode. It’s otherwise a very similar model, and we’d still recommend it.

You can also use the two cooking areas separately, in the same way that you’d use any dual-zone air fryer. The FlexDrawer has all the functionality you’d expect, with match and sync functions to make dual-drawer cooking simple.

There are seven cooking modes: max crisp (for frozen food), air fry, roast, bake, reheat (for leftovers), dehydrate (for jerky and dried fruit) and prove (for dough). The FlexDrawer comes with a manual containing recipes and a cooking chart, with suggested times and temperatures for popular food, so it’s a good option for air fryer novices.

Still, its controls and digital display are so intuitive and easy to use that you likely won’t need to resort to the manual. However, you will need silicone-tipped tongs to extract food, as you can’t just take out a single drawer and empty it onto a plate.

It’s extremely powerful, so you’ll probably need to adjust your air fryer recipes down, but once you do so, it’ll produce evenly cooked, crispy food.

Who should buy the Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer?

Buy the Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer if you want to switch more of your cooking – including baking full-sized cakes and loaves and cooking roasts – to your air fryer from your oven. The large cooking area also makes it a great option for drying fruit.

Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer: Further considerations

Bear in mind that, as you can’t open a single drawer to check on the progress of cooking food, you’ll need to open the whole thing to take a peek, which will let heat out of both cooking zones. US buyers should remember that the FlexBasket model available there is considerably smaller.

If making the most of your counter space is important to you, the Double Stack (DoubleStack in the US) is the air fryer to go for. Not only does it have two cooking drawers with an overall 9.5L/10QT capacity, but the cooking racks allow you to stack food in two layers in each drawer, giving you much more flexibility. If you often tend to cook a protein and several vegetable sides for dinner, you’ll be able to do it all in the Double Stack without resorting to your oven, microwave or hob.

Like Ninja’s other dual-drawer air fryers, it has an easy-to-use control panel, with match and sync functions. Although it has has fewer modes than many other models – there’s air fry, max crisp (for frozen food), bake, roast, reheat and dehydrate – you can adjust them by time and temperature to cook almost anything you want.

However, thanks to its design, the heat sources are at the backs of the drawers and, when we tested it, we found that it did cook some types of foods slightly unevenly. As there’s no shake alert, you’ll need to remember to step in midway and mix up potatoes or fries. Altogether though, it provided fast, crispy results and is an efficient cooker.

There are now more Double Stack models to choose from. There’s a compact model, the 7.6L/8QT SL300 (UK)/SL201 (US). It comes in black, instead of the original’s dark grey, and is available from Ninja in the UK for £229.99 and from Ninja in the US for $219.99.

There’s also the Double Stack XL with Smart Cook system. It has the same dimensions as the original but features a cooking probe for meat and fish, making it a better choice if you often use your air fryer to cook from fresh. It’s priced at £289.99 from Ninja UK and $269.99 from Ninja US.

Finally, if you’re in the UK, you can buy the original Double Stack XL in a special edition white colourway. You can buy it from Currys in the UK and it’s also priced at £269.99.

Who should buy the Ninja Double Stack?

Buy the Ninja Double Stack if you want to cook meals with lots of separate side dishes – or if you want a two-drawer model and have limited counter space.

Ninja Double Stack: Further considerations

As the heat source is at the back of the drawers, instead of overhead as is usual with Ninja models, this model does cook less evenly than others. You’ll need to be extra vigilant about remembering to shake up or shift around the contents of the cooking compartments. Remember: there’s no shake alert.

If you don’t need quite as much cooking space as the dual-basket Ninja Foodi provides, the Speedi could be the one for you. What sets it apart from competitors is its Speedi meals function. You can cook a protein and a starch at the same time – in just 15 minutes. So you can make pasta, rice, quinoa (and so on) at the same time that you air fry chicken breasts or salmon. What’s more, the air fried food will still come out perfectly crispy.

The Speedi can also steam air fry, steam bake, steam, grill, air fry, bake/roast, dehydrate, sear/sauté and slow cook, with the steam functions giving extra crispy results. It’s easy to use, with a digital display and button operation.

It’s robustly made and will last – but it’s also a hulking countertop presence with an oddly industrial look. Those with young children might also want to know that you can’t lock the heavy lid in the open position, so you’ll want to keep little hands away from it.

Who should buy the Ninja Speedi?

Buy the Ninja Speedi if you want to cook complete meals with pasta or rice.

Ninja Speedi: Further considerations

This is a big, bulky appliance and you’ll need plenty of space above it to open the lid.

This air fryer is larger than it looks in images, at 10.6 x 15 x 16in (27 x 39 x 41cm) and needs more space behind it when in use, to open the lid. But it’s a good looking appliance, which somewhat mitigates its countertop presence. It has a digital display and touchscreen controls and boasts six cooking methods: grill, air fry, roast, bake, dehydrate and reheat.

Still, it has a lower capacity than most Ninja models, with a 4QT/3.8L main cooking pot. It comes with an air fryer basket and 9x13in (23x33cm) heavy grill plate with plenty of space to cook steak, chicken wings, sausages and the like. We found that it could cook three 6-8oz steaks or six burgers at a time, at temperatures of up to 450°F/260°C, making it an excellent indoor grill.

Thanks to Ninja’s ‘Smart Cook’ system – essentially an integrated meat thermometer and meat cooking presets – you can be confident that your steaks will come out perfectly every time.

Who should buy the Ninja Health Grill?

Buy the Ninja Health Grill if you regularly grill steaks, burgers or other meats. That’s where this air fryer’s strengths lie.

Ninja Health Grill: Further considerations

This air fryer grill is much bigger than it looks. Check the dimensions and your counter space before you buy.

If you’re in the US, Ninja has added the word Pro to the end of this appliance’s name to distinguish between it and an earlier model. In the UK, it’s just the PossibleCooker. It’s a multi-cooker and it doesn’t air fry – but it does slow cook, steam and sear/sauté. It comes with a glass lid and matching serving spoon, which can sit atop the lid in a tool rest.

Searing/sautéing isn’t offered by all slow cookers and it means you can brown onions or meat in place before making a soup, sauce or stew. You’ll also know exactly when it’s time to add food as the PossibleCooker will beep when it’s heated to searing temperature. It makes multi-stage cooking in one pot straightforward.

The PossibleCooker is an attractive grey-blue, which gives it some countertop appeal – good news, as it’s a large appliance. Inside is a matching, non-stick, large-capacity (8.5QT/8L) aluminium pot, which is considerably lighter than the ceramic cooking pots offered by many rivals. Altogether, it only weighs 12lbs/6kg – although bear in mind that it’ll be far more than that if it’s full of stew.

The cooker’s controls are straightforward. You simply select a cooking mode and then toggle the time and temperature – within the parameters of that function. This means that there’s no manual mode, which is presumably a safety function to stop people from cooking for 12 hours on a high heat.

If you’re in the UK, you can now buy a white model of the Foodi PossibleCooker from Currys for £149.99.

Who should buy the Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker?

Buy the Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker if you want to cook larger volumes of soups and stews cheaply, make healthier food or try out batch cooking.

Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker: Further considerations

This isn’t an air fryer!

Ninja’s electric pizza oven does for pizza cooking what air fryers do for cooking in your kitchen. It’s (relatively) inexpensive to buy and extremely easy to use. As it’s electric, you don’t need to worry about wood chips or any other kind of fuel – as long as you have a plug point you can access outside. And we were genuinely impressed with the authenticity of the pizzas it produces.

You can choose from five pizza presets, including artisan, thin, New York, Pan or custom. Then tap the dial in to start (or stop) the cooking process. Each pizza preset comes with a set preheating time, ranging from 5-7 minutes to 15-25 minutes. The hotter the chosen temperature, the longer the oven will take to heat up. Then it only needs around 3 minutes to cook your pizza.

You can also use it for other types of outdoor cooking, thanks to its air frying setting.

The oven comes with a 12 x 12-inch pizza stone, a 30 x 30cm bake tray and a perforated pizza peel but you’ll need a table to place it on to use, unless you opt for a bundle with extra accessories.

Who should buy the Ninja Artisan Electric Outdoor Pizza Oven and Air Fryer?

If you mainly want to make pizza in your garden, this is the model to buy.

Ninja Artisan Electric Outdoor Pizza Oven and Air Fryer: Further considerations

It won’t grill, so you’ll need a separate barbecue.

This portable electric oven makes all types of outdoor cooking easy. Functioning as a pizza oven, high-heat roaster, and barbecue smoker, it’s a simple plug-and-play appliance, turning out succulent meats, artisan-style pizza and even brownies. But what makes a difference to the flavour of the food is the smoker box, which can be filled with wood pellets for a smoky taste to your cooking.

Overall, it has eight functions, including pizza (calzone, thin crust and deep pan), two roasting functions for smaller cuts and larger joints, baking, smoking, dehydrating and keeping food warm. Each has a preset, with the option to change time and temperature. The oven comes with a guide to help you to choose the best setting for what you’re cooking.

As it’s an outdoor oven, it can reach much higher temperatures than indoor appliances – up to 370°C/700°F – letting you cook proper pizza, for a start. There’s enough space inside to cook a whole chicken as well, up to 3kg/6.6lbs.

Who should buy the Ninja Woodfire Electric Outdoor Oven?

Buy the Ninja Woodfire Electric Outdoor Oven if you want an easy, versatile way to cook outside, including pizza making.

Ninja Woodfire Electric Outdoor Oven: Further considerations

Its capacity is more limited than a barbecue and you should invest in Ninja’s stand or a heatproof table to get the most use from it.

If you want an outdoor grill and barbecue that’ll give food a smoky flavour but don’t want to mess around with gas canisters, charcoal or wood, this could be what you’ve been waiting for. Ninja’s Woodfire Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker will give you the option of precision cooking outside. It comes with a recipe booklet and the grill will beep when it’s at the correct temperature, so you’ll get consistent results. Delicious ones too: like the Electric Outdoor Oven, smoky flavour comes via the smoker box, which you fill with wood pellets.

The grill size isn’t as large as a traditional barbecue at 38 x 28cm (15 x 11in), so you’ll only be cooking one or two dishes at a time. This makes it a better option for couple or small families – a larger family won’t get as much use from it, nor is it ideal for big groups of guests. On the other hand, it’s a versatile option and even comes with a crisper basket for air frying and a recipe book for inspiration and cooking settings.

It has a 1.5m power cable, which means you’re limited as to where you can use it, although the plug can attach to a weatherproof outdoor socket. Bear in mind that it should be stored in a shed or garage, unless you also buy the optional cover.

Who should buy the Ninja Woodfire Electric BBQ Grill and Smoker?

Buy the Ninja Woodfire Electric BBQ Grill and Smoker if you’re looking for a BBQ alternative that’ll give you easier, more consistent results.

Ninja Woodfire Electric BBQ Grill and Smoker: Further considerations

It’s better suited to a family BBQ than a big party.