This is not a comprehensive list of all the air fryers we’ve tested. We have removed any machines that have been discontinued or no longer meet our criteria.
The cylindrical 4-quart Dreo Aircrisp Pro Air Fryer crisped well enough but failed to achieve even cooking and browning throughout its basket, resulting in a handful of soggy fries. We did not like using this air fryer, as its touchscreen was cluttered, its beeps were loud, and its mechanics were hard to decipher.
We have found that most Philips air fryers crisp well, but the larger ones take longer. Such is true for the Philips 5000 Series Airfryer XL HD9280/91, a 6.5-quart air fryer with a roomy (though heavy) basket, a larger footprint, and a more bulbous look than the other two Philips air fryers we recommend in this guide. It took longer to crisp, usually requiring around five extra minutes to get almost-as-good results. This air fryer has Wi-Fi connectivity, so you can set the temperature and cook time and turn off the machine using an app on your phone—but you have to press start on the machine itself. At this size and price, you would likely be better served by an air fryer toaster oven.
The Gourmia 6-quart Digital Window Air Fryer took a long time to preheat and failed to reach its highest temperature, and it ended up producing soggy food. Watching food through the front window is fun, but the window gets very hot.
We liked the look and price of the Philips 2000 Series Airfryer (NA220/00), but it couldn’t maintain a consistent temperature, resulting in soggy food.
Because of its size, the nearly 7-quart Cosori Dual Blaze Smart Air Fryer took longer to cook than other air fryers and produced mushy and oily results.
Cuisinart makes one of our favorite convection toaster ovens, so we had high hopes for the Cuisinart Air-200. But the Air-200 ran about 30 to 50 degrees cooler than its set temperature, and it produced uneven trays of nuggets and fries, with some totally burnt and others mushy and floppy.
We don’t recommend Instant Pot air fryer lids or other pressure-cooker air fryers as a main air-frying vehicle, as these often have even smaller internal capacities than pod-shaped air fryers, take up even more space on the counter, and lack the drawer and basket design that makes pod air fryers so convenient. The Instant Pot Duo Crisp is no different, with a small tray and a substantial footprint. It did a fine job air frying but produced fries, nuggets, and wings that were dryer than the ones from pod air fryers.
The Ultrean 4.2 Quart Air Fryer had noisy, hard-to-press buttons and a basket that was hard to insert, and it took up too much space.
The Hamilton Beach 3.7 Quart/3.5 Liter Digital Air Fryer can barely fit a full-size meal, and it didn’t deliver much crispness.
The 3-quart and 6-quart versions of the Dash Deluxe Air Fryer and the 2.6-quart Dash Tasti-Crisp Air Fryer did a poor job of maintaining a set temperature and cooked the most unevenly of anything we tested in an earlier round.
We liked the spacious square basket of the Instant Vortex 6-quart Air Fryer and the option to mute the beeps, but it has a poor user interface, with difficult-to-press buttons.
The Instant Vortex Plus Dual Basket Air Fryer features two 4-quart baskets that can cook two separate portions of food at the same time. Neither basket gets as hot as it needs to be, so food comes out soggy.
The Ninja AF101 Air Fryer has a flat, removable tray liner in its basket to keep food from sitting in oil, but the tray falls out when you turn food out of the basket, which could potentially cause burns. It also runs too hot and fits less food than our picks.
The Ninja AF161 Max XL Air Fryer also ran too hot. All of the food we tested in this machine was overcooked on the outside and undercooked inside, with varying levels of dehydration.
The Ninja DZ201 Foodi 2-Basket Air Fryer, with two 4-quart baskets, is the other dual-basket model that we tested. It was easier to use than its Instant counterpart, but it also didn’t run hot enough in either basket to crisp or cook food well.
Unlike most air fryers, the 7-quart Gourmia GAF798 Digital Air Fryer required preheating (probably due to its large size), and the preheat cycle restarts if you add more time. We also didn’t like the basket design, with a tray in the bottom of the bucket that falls out and finger holes large enough for french fries to fall through.
The french fries we cooked in the GoWISE USA GW22621 turned out badly burned at the top of the cooker and undercooked at the bottom. Also, when you reinsert the basket, the air fryer slides across the counter because it doesn’t have enough weight or grip to stay in place.
This article was edited by Marilyn Ong and Marguerite Preston.
