Which Type Of Air Fryer Should You Buy?

Ninja has recently unveiled a new style of air fryer: the Double Stack models are double-decker air fryers with the capacity for twice as much food – but thanks to their height, they’ll take up half the counter space of rivals.

Double Stack models aren’t yet available but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of air fryer types to choose from right now. Air fryers aren’t one-size-fits-all. Below, we take a look at the most common types.

Single drawer air fryer

Single drawer air fryers are the original and most popular type. The benefit of their design is that they’ll be fast, cheap to run and simple to use.

Get one if: you have a small household and are looking for the most efficient way to cook for one to two people, or if you tend only to use an air fryer to cook a single side. If your air fryer is essentially just for making fries, you can opt for the simplest model.

The best we’ve tested: We loved the Instant Vortex Plus.

Dual drawer air fryer

The problem with a single drawer air fryer is that you can only cook one dish at a time for any given meal. That’s not necessarily a problem – but if you want to cook fish and chips for a family meal, you’ll need to use the oven. That’s where dual drawer air fryers come in.

Each drawer will have around the same capacity as a smaller single basket/ drawer in a regular air fryer, so around 5QT/ 5 litres each. The big advantage is that you can set the time and temperature separately for each drawer, or just cook in one.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Look out for features that’ll simplify and streamline your cooking process. Many air fryers will have a “match” function, so you can repeat the cooking instructions across both drawers. The other key feature is a “sync” button, which will ensure that, even with two different cooking times, both dishes will be ready at the same time, so you can just come in when the alarm goes off and dish up right away.

Get one if: you want to air fry more than one dish at a time. If you regularly cook one dish in the air fryer and use another cooking method to prepare a side, using a dual drawer air fryer will save you time and money.

The best we’ve tested: Ninja’s Foodi MAX Dual Zone is one of the overall best air fryers we’ve ever reviewed, but the Chefree Dual-Drawer air fryer is an excellent, more budget-friendly alternative.

Steam air fryer

Adding steam to the air frying process can help to crisp up food, meaning you need even less oil while cooking. Steam air fryers typically contain a water reservoir, which you fill and insert into the appliance before cooking.  

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Get one if: you’re trying to cut down on oil in your cooking, especially for roasts.

The best we’ve tested: The Ninja Speedi doesn’t have a water reservoir. But you can steam and air fry two different meal components at the same time, in the same space. An option with a water reservoir – which we haven’t yet had the chance to test – is the Breville Halo steam air fryer, which is available from Currys for £129 at the time of writing.

Air fryer oven

Air fryers are just mini convection ovens, but the emphasis is usually on the ‘mini’. But what if you need a larger cooking capacity? That’s where air fryer ovens come in. They have a much bigger cooking space than your average air fryer and the same build design as a conventional oven, with a pull-down door featuring a viewing window, and space for multiple cooking racks.

Rachel Ogden / Foundry

They often feature a rotisserie as well.

The downside is that they take up a huge amount of counter space and won’t be as economical as a compact air fryer for cooking small volumes of food.

Get one if: you’ve ever thought that a second oven would be handy.

The best we’ve tested: Tefal’s Easy Fry air fryer oven is an excellent option, but the largest capacity air fryer oven we’ve tested is the stainless steel HySapientia 26QT/ 24-litre air fryer oven.

Combination air fryer

You can use most air fryers for air frying, baking, roasting, dehydrating and usually grilling, but as they’re big appliances that’ll take up a fair amount of counter space, you may want to get more from them.

How about an appliance that you can also use for pressure cooking, slow cooking, steaming, sautéing, warming, grilling, dehydrating, yoghurt making, sous vide and bread proofing?

Jim Martin / Foundry

The downside of multifunctional air fryers is that they can be more complicated to use or may have parts you need to switch out to change the functionality.

Get one if: you want to clear your counter of single function appliances and use one device for everything.

The best we’ve tested: We rate the Instant Pot Duo Crisp with Ultimate Lid – it’s easy to use, and you won’t have to swap the lid out to use different cooking methods.

To see all the air fryers we recommend, have a look at our round-up of the best air fryers we’ve tested.