Best buy airfryer: Air Fryers: 4, 5, 6, 8 Quarts & More

Air Fryers: 4, 5, 6, 8 Quarts & More

Air fryers are compact, countertop small kitchen appliances that can be used to make a wide variety of fried foods with little to no oil. Rather than submerging food in oil to get that crispy exterior, place it inside an air fryer with a bit of, or, in some cases, no oil, and the food will cook.

Air fryers work similarly to convection ovens with a heating mechanism and fan at the top. Once turned on, hot air circulates down and around the food. This rapid and even heating process results in foods with the same crispy texture you’d get when frying them the traditional way.

Available in silver stainless steel, black, or white, a stand-alone air fryer or basket air fryer is available in sizes ranging from 0.8kg up to 1.5kg so they can accommodate whole chickens, there are options for small and large families and entertaining. There are also other types of air fryers including different types of air fryers including an air fryer grill, an air fryer microwave, and an air fry oven.

What kind of food can you make in an air fryer?

Air fryers are great for making any food you would typically fry, like French fries, fried chicken, vegetables, meat, fish, chicken nuggets, and chicken wings. You can also use one that has a basket that can flip for desserts like doughnuts.

They are also great for frozen foods, like chicken nuggets, French fries, and mozzarella sticks that all benefit from a nice, crispy exterior. You cannot, however, make foods that have a liquid batter base unless you freeze them first.

Generally, food, like homemade fried chicken or fried fish, made in an air fryer is healthier than if you were to fry it the traditional way, submerged in oil in a deep fryer. Frozen foods you might otherwise baked in a convection oven, however, won’t be any healthier. But they might cook faster, and clean-up is a breeze.

What features should you look for in an air fryer?

Air fryers come in all shapes and sizes, but you want one that will suit your family’s needs. Each type has different features and capacities. A larger one is great for making big batches of food, like an entire bag of frozen French fries.

Basket air fryers are easy to use, easy to clean up, and perfect for single meals or meals for two. They work for larger meals too, but you may have to cook in small batches.

An air fryer grill will air fry and sear your food so it’s grilled just like a BBQ. If you choose a type of Ninja Air Fryer, the Ninja Foodi Grill, you’ll be able to sear your food with perfect grill marks and switch to air frying your French fries, all in one versatile appliance.

An air fry microwave oven can be used for microwaving and air frying, and some types can also roast and bake as well. If you live in a small apartment or dorm, you might appreciate having this capability, especially if you share a stove or don’t have one at all. You could also choose an air fryer oven that can air fry your favourite food as well as bake or cook a chicken on the rotisserie.

Other features worth looking for in the best air fryers include cool touch handles, overheating protection, the ability to adjust the temperature to suit different cooks, and an anti-odour filter to help get rid of unpleasant smells. The basket is important: you want one that is non-stick and can be easily removed for washing; dishwasher-safe parts are a plus.

Shop for your air fryer, air fryer grill, air fryer microwave, or air fryer oven right now at Best Buy.

Best air fryers to buy in 2023 UK – Expert tested by the GHI

1

Best air fryer

Ninja Foodi Max Dual Zone 9.5L AF400UK

1

Best air fryer

Ninja Foodi Max Dual Zone 9.5L AF400UK

£229 at Amazon£200 at John Lewis£200 at ninjakitchen.co.uk

Score: 95/100

Barely dropping a point on test, this air fryer will feed a crowd quickly, and feed them well. Our fairy cakes were evenly baked and ready to enjoy in a speedy 15 minutes, while it scored perfect marks for chicken kievs – they were crispy on the outside yet juicy on the inside after 25 minutes. Our chips were fluffy, too.

It’s a fairly hefty appliance, so if your kitchen is compact it’s may not be the wisest buy, but you can fill its two drawers with different foods and sync the programmes so everything is ready to eat at the same time – a process we found intuitive on test. A great family fryer.

Key specifications

Style Dual basket
Capacity 9.5L
Cooking modes 6
Size h42.5 x W41.5 x D27cm
Dishwasher-safe parts Yes

2

Runner-up

Instant Vortex Plus Dual Drawer 8-in-1 Air Fryer

2

Runner-up

Instant Vortex Plus Dual Drawer 8-in-1 Air Fryer

£199 at Amazon

Score: 94/100

Like our winner, this large air fryer has two drawers that you can sync to prepare multiple dishes at once. The results were delicious, with a particularly succulent roast chicken. Our chips were fluffy too, but crisped up best when distributed across two drawers, rather than cramming lots into one. Turning them a few times also helped.

There are no cooking charts, so some guesswork is required to begin with, but windows mean you can easily check on how your food is doing. The effective non-stick design makes washing up easy too.

3

Best value air fryer

Russell Hobbs Satisfry Air & Grill Multi Cooker 26520

3

Best value air fryer

Russell Hobbs Satisfry Air & Grill Multi Cooker 26520

Now 21% Off

£130 at Amazon£134 at AO£142 at Wayfair

Score: 91/100

Not only an air fryer, this multi-cooker also grills, sears, roasts, bakes and slow cooks, making it a smart choice if you’re after a space-saving do-it-all appliance. It claims to air fry up to 70% quicker than earlier Russell Hobbs models; this wasn’t tested, but it did cook our chicken to succulent, golden perfection in a faster-than-most 30 minutes (simply press the chicken icon on the casing and it presets the optimal temperature and cooking time. )

Simple and modern in design, it couldn’t be easier to set up and start using. The buttons are responsive, it’s compact for storage in smaller kitchens and it’s lightweight enough to move around the counter. It scored a perfect ten in our chips and chicken tests, only dropping a few marks for its patchy cupcakes (not all rose well and some came out paler than others) and fiddly iron basket, which proved tricky to remove while wearing oven gloves.

Key specifications

Capacity 5.5L
Cooking modes 7
Size h38.2 x W37.8 x D32cm
Dishwasher-safe parts Yes
Style Multi-cooker

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4

Best value Ninja air fryer

Ninja 3.8L Air Fryer and Dehydrator AF100UK

4

Best value Ninja air fryer

Ninja 3.8L Air Fryer and Dehydrator AF100UK

Now 34% Off

£99 at Amazon£100 at John Lewis£100 at ninjakitchen. co.uk

Score: 91/100

At £100 less than our winning Ninja, this is a more affordable offering from the premium kitchen appliance brand. It also proved its worth on test, with perfectly chicken kievs inside and out. Chips were scrumptious too, but cook them in smaller batches for best results.

The compact design is ideal for cooking for one or two people. It also has a clear display, is stable in use and lightweight if you’re storing it in a cupboard. But, unlike most fryers, the basket doesn’t have a handle, which means oven gloves are needed when removing it.

There are plenty of recipes and food charts included, so you can cook up a storm as soon as you set it up.

Key specifications

Style Basket
Capacity 3.8L
Cooking modes 4
Size h44.5 x W27.9 x D33.8cm
Dishwasher-safe parts Yes

5

Best for one-pot meals

Ninja Speedi 10-in-1 Rapid Cooker & Air Fryer ON400UK

5

Best for one-pot meals

Ninja Speedi 10-in-1 Rapid Cooker & Air Fryer ON400UK

£249 at Amazon£200 at Lakeland£250 at John Lewis

Score: 88/100

Ninja’s new 10-mode multi-cooker stands out for its innovative “Speedi Meals” function, which allows you to cook your grain of choice at the same time as meat and vegetables, thus quickly preparing a full meal for up to four at once. Impressively, every part of our trial meals cooked correctly and retained its flavour, with both chicken and salmon turning out moist and tender. It also cooked chips in a respectable 22 minutes (two minutes faster than the promised 24) and delivered fluffy fairy cakes.

The lid is hinged, not removable, which our tester found slightly awkward to use, and may make under-cupboard storage tricky. However, the control interface is intuitive, the troubleshooting advice is clear and it comes with a recipe booklet packed with tasty inspiration for each setting.

Key specifications

Style Multi-cooker
Capacity 5.7L
Cooking modes 10
Size h41 x W33 x D35cm
Dishwasher-safe parts Yes

6

Best for ease of use

Princess Steam AeroFryer 182080

6

Best for ease of use

Princess Steam AeroFryer 182080

Now 29% Off

£120 at Amazon£139 at hughes. co.uk

Score: 88/100

Though only tested as an air fryer, note that this affordable gadget also features a steam function for preserving the nutrients of fish, vegetables and more. It scored highly for ease of use, thanks to its generous presets, clear display and helpful recipe instructions, and it couldn’t be quicker to clean. It also made minimal noise while cooking, impressing us the most with its moist, fluffy cupcakes, all of which had an appealing rise and even colour.

Its touchscreen buttons let it down a tad; these are positioned too closely together, making it easy to press the wrong one, and they sometimes took longer to respond than other models. Food at the back of the machine often came out slightly underdone, too, but this wasn’t enough of an issue to put our tester off buying it – especially at its current sale price.

Key specifications

Style Basket, plus steam rack
Capacity 6. 5L
Cooking modes 8
Size h50 x W33 x D41cm
Dishwasher-safe parts Yes

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7

Best smart air fryer

COSORI Smart Wifi Air Fryer

7

Best smart air fryer

COSORI Smart Wifi Air Fryer

Now 17% Off

£100 at Amazon

Score: 88/100

This smart fryer has ample room to prepare a family dinner and boasts a whopping 13 cooking modes, including steak, seafood and frozen food.

It took a while to roast a chicken but, 45 minutes later, it came out golden and moist, while our fairy cakes were just right. When cooking chips, it dropped just half a mark; they were exceptionally evenly cooked.

We like how it comes with an extensive recipe book and detailed instructions too, while its accompanying app lets you control the machine remotely for helpful flexibility.

Key specifications

Style Basket
Capacity 5. 5L
Cooking modes 13
Size h40 x W30 x D32cm
Dishwasher-safe parts Yes

8

Best multi-cooker

Instant Pot Duo Crisp + Air Fryer

8

Best multi-cooker

Instant Pot Duo Crisp + Air Fryer

£180 at Amazon£185 at John Lewis£180 at Argos

Score: 88/100

As well as air frying, this machine also works as a pressure cooker, slow cooker, sauté pan, steamer, sous vide and food warmer with extra settings for roasting, broiling, baking and dehydrating!

On test, it delivered delicious chips and scored perfect marks for its fairy cakes, although we were unable to bulk bake as we were only able to fit five in at a time.

As a result of its multi-purpose design, it wasn’t the most intuitive model we tested for air frying, but its online instructions should help you get set up quickly.

The capacity of its air frying basket was also fairly small – we managed to cook two chicken kievs and three portions of chips. One side of our chicken kiev stuck to it, too. That said, this is worth investing in if you’re only looking to cook for one or two and need a multi-tasking machine to save on storage space.

Key specifications

Style Multi-cooker
Capacity 5.7 or 7.6L
Cooking modes 11
Size h44.5 x W35.5 x D34.5cm
Dishwasher-safe parts Yes

9

Best compact air fryer

Lakeland Digital Compact Air Fryer

9

Best compact air fryer

Lakeland Digital Compact Air Fryer

Now 22% Off

£70 at Amazon£90 at Lakeland

Score: 87/100

Tight on cupboard space? This slim air fryer should slot in nicely. We were able to cook two chicken kievs in it at once and the end results were crispy, while our chips were well-browned. Our fairy cakes cooked evenly, too.

The digital display didn’t always respond well to our touch and we’d have liked an indicator light to show the fryer was heated and ready to cook. As a basic air fryer, though, it did a reliable job at producing tasty food.

Key specifications

Style Basket
Capacity 1.6L
Cooking modes 5
Size h40 x W18 x D25cm
Dishwasher-safe parts No

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10

Best air fryer for beginners

Salter EK4750BLK Dual Air Fryer

10

Best air fryer for beginners

Salter EK4750BLK Dual Air Fryer

£140 at Amazon£110 at Argos£100 at Robert Dyas

Score: 87/100

Does the world of air fryers seem daunting? Well, this dual-basket machine comes with clear instructions and food charts, which make getting started simple. The display is easy to follow and setting up each drawer is straightforward. It’s also one of the more compact dual air fryers we tested, making it suitable for smaller kitchens.

Heat distribution was mixed though; food positioned in the front half of each drawer cooked better than that at the back. Luckily, this didn’t impact the finished dishes too much – our chicken was juicy and our chips were the perfect texture inside, if a little unevenly browned.

Some cupcakes were undercooked though, but this shouldn’t be a dealbreaker for an otherwise beginner-friendly machine.

Key specifications

Style Dual basket
Capacity 7.4L
Cooking modes 6
Size h45 x W39 x D28cm
Dishwasher-safe parts No

11

Best air fryer for small families

Morphy Richards Health Fryer 480003

11

Best air fryer for small families

Morphy Richards Health Fryer 480003

Now 28% Off

£79 at Amazon£100 at hughes.co.uk£124 at littlewoods.com

Score: 87/100

Boasting a three-litre basket, this air fryer has ample room if you’re cooking for the family. It barely dropped any points in our chips and cake tests, with both emerging evenly cooked thanks to outstanding air circulation. And while the chicken kievs lost some moisture from the middle, they were crisp.

The outside of the appliance stayed cool during use and, overall, it was easy to use thanks to clear instructions and recipes. Coming with a two-year guarantee, this is a great value buy.

Key specifications

Style Basket
Capacity 3L
Cooking modes Manual
Size h42 x W35 x D28cm
Dishwasher-safe parts No

12

Best budget air fryer

Salter 4.5 Litre Digital Air Fryer EK4221

12

Best budget air fryer

Salter 4.5 Litre Digital Air Fryer EK4221

£59 at Amazon£50 at Curry’s£75 at Boots

Score: 86/100

This nifty little air fryer is a great affordable choice. Its controls are clear and responsive, the machine is stable in use, and it’s effortless to clean thanks to a trusty non-stick coating. The cooking performance also impressed, with our chicken, chips and cupcakes hard to fault.

Despite its one-basket design, you can cook multiple meal components at once thanks to the Group-Fry” function. It took some trial and error to get this right on test, but eventually we figured out the perfect size to chop our vegetables so they stayed moist while the steak finished cooking.

This air fryer is a good alternative if you’re cooking for one or two, or don’t have room for a dual-drawer fryer.

Key specifications

Style Basket
Capacity 4.5L
Cooking modes 7
Size h42 x W27.4 x D32.7cm
Dishwasher-safe parts No

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13

Best multi-cooker for design

Instant Pot Duo Crisp with Ultimate Lid

13

Best multi-cooker for design

Instant Pot Duo Crisp with Ultimate Lid

Now 26% Off

£162 at Amazon£220 at John Lewis£220 at Argos

Score: 85/100

This multi-cooker’s top feature is that it only has one lid, unlike many that need one for pressure cooking and one for everything else (including the Instant Pot above).

In theory, this means it’s easier to store, but given its large capacity – it should feed between six and eight people – we’d recommend checking your cupboard space before buying.

Overall, it’s intuitively designed; our tester barely looked at the instructions. And it cooked a medium-sized chicken in 45 minutes to delicious effect – think juicy, tender meat.

Note, the manual doesn’t make clear that to start cooking you need to press the buttons twice, but this qualm aside, we’d happily declare this a multi-tasking master chef.

Key specifications

Style Multi-cooker
Capacity 6.2L
Cooking modes 12
Size h44 x W39.2 x D39.4cm
Dishwasher-safe parts Yes

14

Best affordable dual-basket air fryer

Salter Dual Air EK4548

14

Best affordable dual-basket air fryer

Salter Dual Air EK4548

Now 17% Off

£125 at Amazon£149 at Curry’s

Score: 85/100

If the winning Ninja ticks your boxes but isn’t in your price range, then this Salter model may. be of interest. Like our top-scorer, it has two drawers and a sync function, so you can cook two different foods at once, safe in the knowledge they’ll both be ready to eat at the same time.

Its match function also lets you use the same settings for both drawers – although we noticed our fairy cakes were cooked to slightly different levels on test.

Our chips were evenly cooked and browned in both drawers though, but note that the pre-set function took 30 minutes as opposed to the 15 advertised. The chicken kievs also stuck to the drawers a tad, but they were deliciously crispy.

It proved intuitive to use on test, thanks to a clear display panel, responsive controls and easy-to-use pre-sets. Plus, it comes with a three-year guarantee.

Key specifications

Style Dual basket
Capacity 9L
Cooking modes 12
Size h42 x W36.1 x D44cm
Dishwasher-safe parts No

15

Best health grill and air fryer

Ninja Foodi Max Pro Health Grill, Flat Plate & Air Fryer

15

Best health grill and air fryer

Ninja Foodi Max Pro Health Grill, Flat Plate & Air Fryer

£299 at Amazon£300 at Lakeland£250 at John Lewis

Score: 83/100

Arriving in plastic-free packaging, this machine reached 200C in a rapid three minutes and put in its best performance cooking chicken, dropping just one mark. We had to spatchcock the 1.3kg bird to fit it in, and it took 65 minutes to cook, but the skin was mouthwateringly crispy and the meat was moist.

It’s a bulky bit of kit too, but we found it easy to use and appreciated the included cooking charts that detail how to use the machine to prepare different foods. It also boasts a nifty built-in temperature probe but we’d only use it as a guide, as it was a few degrees out when we took a reading of the chicken using an external probe.

Key specifications

Style Health grill and air fryer
Capacity 3.8L
Cooking modes 7
Size h39.5 x W44.1 x D39.8cm
Dishwasher-safe parts Yes

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16

Best air fryer for roasting chicken

Tower T17100 Vortx Vizion Dual Basket Air Fryer

16

Best air fryer for roasting chicken

Tower T17100 Vortx Vizion Dual Basket Air Fryer

Now 19% Off

£129 at Amazon£145 at Dunelm£140 at hartsofstur. com

Score: 83/100

Here’s one of the more affordable dual-basket air fryers we tried. This model also has clear windows so you can keep an eye on your roast while it cooks – and you’ll want to use it for roasts, as our chicken was near-perfect on test.

Our chips were mixed, however, with some emerging greasy and underdone. We found this was because one drawer performed better than the other, which is something to keep in mind when cooking.

We found the drawer syncing feature worked well though, and its controls are intuitive. It’s a reliable pick for cooking a whole meal in one go.

Key specifications

Style Dual basket
Capacity 9L
Cooking modes 4
Size h42.10 x W38.5 x D35.5cm
Dishwasher-safe parts No

17

Best rotisserie-style air fryer

Breville Halo Rotisserie Air Fryer

17

Best rotisserie-style air fryer

Breville Halo Rotisserie Air Fryer

Now 12% Off

£149 at Amazon£150 at Lakeland£149 at Argos

Score: 82/100

Rotisserie fans will love this simple-to-use model. It comes with a spit and cooked our chicken in 64 minutes – well inside the time it claimed. We found placing the chicken in the oven was a bit fiddly and we had to tie its legs and wings to the body in order for it to fit, but it was roasted evenly throughout.

The appliance was ready to fry from cold in just four minutes too, and you can remove the door so cleaning is a doddle. It is large, making it one for bigger kitchens, but its 10-litre capacity is ideal if you frequently feed a crowd.

Key specifications

Style Oven
Capacity 10L
Cooking modes 4
Size h39.2 x W31.8 x D37.5cm
Dishwasher-safe parts Yes

18

Best air fryer range of programmes

Tefal Actifry Genius + XL 2 in 1

18

Best air fryer range of programmes

Tefal Actifry Genius + XL 2 in 1

Now 26% Off

£210 at Amazon£285 at John Lewis£163 at Argos

Score: 81/100

This air fryer’s nine cooking modes and two trays combine to offer 54 different programme combinations, while the bottom tray has a paddle that moves the food while cooking and the top tray rotates to ensure even cooking.

On test, the paddle did sometimes bunch food together, but overall the fryer was ultra-effective – our chicken and chips were outstanding with the score for the latter equalling that of our winner.

The appliance takes up considerable space and you’ll need to take care when using it too – the viewing window carries a temperature warning and we found it was notably hot. The handle remained cool throughout, though.

Key specifications

Style Basket
Capacity 1.7L
Cooking modes 9
Size h39.5 x W38 x D48.9cm
Dishwasher-safe parts Yes

Hannah Mendelsohn

Hannah is our senior homes writer, specialising in reviewing the latest kitchen appliances, cleaning products, mattresses and bedding, and crafting equipment. Hannah has written about hundreds of products, from air fryers to smoothie makers to pillows, and is committed to finding the most reliable and best value for money buys.  

Hannah is also interested in sustainability in the home and has completed a course with the University of the Arts London in sustainable textiles, so she can help cut through the noise on what’s green and what’s not. Hannah helps to uncover the best cleaning hacks too, with a focus on easy, natural solutions.  

Hannah has an MA in Magazine Journalism and has previously worked as a freelance lifestyle and women’s sports journalist, working for Stylist, Sky Sports and more.  

Hannah has also previously worked in a florist and can normally be found caring for her house plants or sewing something new for her home or wardrobe. 

You can find Hannah on Instagram on @sewnbyhan 

Tested byBlossom Boothroyd

Senior Homes Tester

Blossom is our Senior Homes Tester. Passionate about finding the best home products and appliances for our readers, she has tested everything from blenders to pizza ovens.   

Blossom enjoys delving into the intricacies of products and refining testing protocols for hundreds of items. Innovative items like robot vacuum cleaners and wine coolers are among her favourite tests to date, and her most notable accomplishment is toasting 360 slices of bread in a determined bid to find the best toaster.   

In her free time, Blossom openly admits to being a music geek and indulges her creative side through crocheting, baking, singing and writing.  

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