This data is scraped automatically and may be incorrect.
Title
A Bigger Basket Air Fryer Is Worth It, Even If You Aren't Cooking For A Crowd: 20 Air Fryers Tested: Why Fan Speed, Heater Wattage, Temperature Control, and Surface Area Matter
I'm a fan of RTings, they really do the work. I was also a fan of the work they did with microwaves, even if I felt they misinterpreted their experiment results in presenting their conclusion. I...
Conclusion
After evaluating the key inputs that contribute to the best air fryers, it's clear that larger capacity models offer significant advantages in speed, consistency, and cooking quality. While smaller models may be appealing for their compact size, they often fall short when delivering optimal performance. The increased surface area in larger air fryers allows for better airflow and more even cooking, resulting in crispier, more uniform outcomes.
Additionally, larger models' higher wattage and improved heat distribution lead to faster preheating and recovery times, ensuring that temperature remains stable throughout the cooking process. This results in more consistent cooking speeds and even doneness, regardless of portion size. Whether you're making a small meal or cooking for several people, larger-capacity air fryers tend to provide better overall results in a variety of cooking scenarios.
I'm a fan of RTings, they really do the work. I was also a fan of the work they did with microwaves, even if I felt they misinterpreted their experiment results in presenting their conclusion. I check every screen I am considering buying against their site, I find they're more reliable about providing specifications than the manufacturer and they make it easy to compare.
I was gifted the PowerXL Grill Air Fryer Combo and it is great! I don't even preheat. It just works given the right temperature and time. It's a bit too tall as the lid does not open all the way...
I was gifted the PowerXL Grill Air Fryer Combo and it is great! I don't even preheat. It just works given the right temperature and time. It's a bit too tall as the lid does not open all the way with my cabinets. But that's a minor inconvenience given it's usefulness
Why didn't I think to check their site when I bought our new air fryer?! It looks like the one I bought is still pretty well recommended: Ninja Foodi DZ071 I went through their site when buying a...
Why didn't I think to check their site when I bought our new air fryer?!
It looks like the one I bought is still pretty well recommended: Ninja Foodi DZ071
I went through their site when buying a new TV (and went with one towards the bottom of the list because I was comfortable with the issues it has), and a new monitor (that I splurged on). I also recommended it for family members who needed help deciding on a robot vacuum.
I like Ninja's stuff, but their branding under the Foodi line always confuses me. They sell like 5 different versions of "Foodi" but they're all very, very different form factors - toaster oven,...
I like Ninja's stuff, but their branding under the Foodi line always confuses me. They sell like 5 different versions of "Foodi" but they're all very, very different form factors - toaster oven, air fryer, pressure cooker, indoor grill and a crock pot, and then sub-models under those categories. How is anyone supposed to just know that "DZ071" means "air fryer with two baskets" while "ST101" means "toaster oven that flips up"?
Yeah their naming is weird. To make things more confusing, mine technically has a single basket, but with the option to split it into two "zones" or use it as one.
Yeah their naming is weird.
To make things more confusing, mine technically has a single basket, but with the option to split it into two "zones" or use it as one.
Ah yes, it should've been obvious to customers that DZ401 means "two baskets" :) Most of their naming is pretty clever. But they really mailed it in on this group of appliances for some reason.
Ah yes, it should've been obvious to customers that DZ401 means "two baskets" :)
Most of their naming is pretty clever. But they really mailed it in on this group of appliances for some reason.
As best I can tell "Air Fryer" is just new marketing speech for "Convection Oven" (which is just marketing speech for 'we put a high temp fan in the environment so the temperature throughout the...
As best I can tell "Air Fryer" is just new marketing speech for "Convection Oven" (which is just marketing speech for 'we put a high temp fan in the environment so the temperature throughout the oven is more even'. There are tons of well made convection toaster ovens from reputable brands around that have a much larger capacity than most "Air Fryers" for similar pricing, double as toasters/broilers/oven ovens, and are quite a bit easier to clean up.
That's very much underselling it. It's about heating with convection, hence the name. That dramatically changes the cooking properties of the device, for better or for worse, compared to a...
we put a high temp fan in the environment so the temperature throughout the oven is more even
That's very much underselling it. It's about heating with convection, hence the name. That dramatically changes the cooking properties of the device, for better or for worse, compared to a traditional oven.
Air Fryers are just convection ovens, yes. But in terms of which labels these products sell under, they are not the same by any means, which you would have found out by reading the article.
The result was lackluster, given its very high cooking surface area. The large internal capacity should warrant a proportional increase in fan size, speed, and, most importantly, heating element wattage. However, as a countertop appliance, its available power is constrained by the amperage limit on standard North American outlets. The airflow is also spread out into a much larger cooking chamber, compared to an air fryer, which concentrates the airflow directly into a much smaller volume.
These results can likely be extrapolated into full-size, residential convection ovens, many of which also feature "Air Fry" modes. Despite massive increases in cooking chamber volume (and cooking surface area), the heating power and airflow are not scaled proportionally in this application. Simply put, air fryers pack a lot of power into a small package, making them faster, more efficient, and offering crispier results.
Basically, products that sell as "Air Fryers" are smaller and less functional, but are therefore proportionately better at doing the job of "rapidly heating food" - which isn't necessarily better or worse than a traditional oven, just different.
Thanks for your response, it did get me read the article, which describes a cool study of a small sample of air fryers on the market. tl;dr for others: "Air Fryers" are convection ovens. All...
Thanks for your response, it did get me read the article, which describes a cool study of a small sample of air fryers on the market.
tl;dr for others:
"Air Fryers" are convection ovens. All convection ovens (at least attempt to) improve outcomes for certain food types (mostly things you want to come out crispy/flaky/browned w/o broiling) by circulating the air in the environment ideally leading to a more even temperature distribution throughout the cooking chamber and potentially dryer food surfaces (not covered in the article but food surface moisture is the enemy of browning). Some 'air fryer' convection ovens are optimized for crispier fries, which the article deems superior to those that aren't. If you want crisper fries faster from a convection oven, get one that's optimized for cooking fries. The study described in the article found that among the air fryers tested, those that maximized a single cooking chamber's size and heating element output (given sufficient amperage of the electrical circuit) in conjunction with optimized fan output for the heating element/cooking chamber and tighter temperature control (hysteresis) did a significantly better job of producing crisper fries in less time than those that were not. You may wish to extrapolate the study's outcomes for other food types you might cook in the sampled appliances, the article certainly does.
edit to add: The article talks about 1 toaster oven w/a convection function that was tested. It was not optimized for crisper fries.
OK. But would I want an air fryer? I just googled "air fryer recipes" and saw this where although the bacon looks good nothing stands out, except the recipe for hard boiled eggs which says it...
OK. But would I want an air fryer? I just googled "air fryer recipes" and saw this where although the bacon looks good nothing stands out, except the recipe for hard boiled eggs which says it takes 20 minutes plus cool down time, and that seems a disincentive.
Most people I know who really evangelize air fryers don't have convection ovens. This is pretty common in North America, where my impression from my youth is that they're kind of seen as a fancy...
Most people I know who really evangelize air fryers don't have convection ovens. This is pretty common in North America, where my impression from my youth is that they're kind of seen as a fancy luxury type of oven and getting one costs more than your bog-standard oven would. Here in continental Europe, my experience is that almost every oven, even old cheap ones, is a convection oven (though ofc you can run them with or without convection).
Convection heating has some advantages over a conventional oven -- it circulates heat evenly throughout the oven, leading to more even and consistent heat across the whole space. This often leads to faster cooking, and you usually can cook at slightly lower temperatures using convection heating to achieve the same results as a conventional oven (pre-packaged meals to put in the oven here in Germany will often have different temperature and/or time recommendations depending on whether you use the convection setting or not). Convection ovens also include exhaust that reduces moisture in the oven, which is an improvement for anything where you want the food to be crispy.
Air fryers are just small convection ovens reimagined as a countertop appliance. If you don't already own a convection oven, it's much cheaper than replacing your whole oven, and you can get the advantages of convection for certain types of foods that really benefit from it -- fries are the prototypical example for a reason, but other dishes where crispiness is desired and you can fit everything in the air fryer's basket are also good candidates. If you already own a convection oven, the advantages are less clear -- essentially the only big benefit I can think of is that the smaller size means there's less air to get up to a certain temperature and thus they'll work faster than a full-sized oven.
I'd say an air fryer vs convection oven is comparable to a toaster oven vs a full sized (non-convection) oven. The size can be quite useful for saving electricity (or using electricity instead of...
I'd say an air fryer vs convection oven is comparable to a toaster oven vs a full sized (non-convection) oven. The size can be quite useful for saving electricity (or using electricity instead of gas). And your kitchen doesn't heat up as much in the summer.
yeah I definitely think there can be some utility for space or energy reasons even if a convection oven is still an option. I just think the difference is a lot more marginal than it is if you...
yeah I definitely think there can be some utility for space or energy reasons even if a convection oven is still an option. I just think the difference is a lot more marginal than it is if you don't already have a convection oven (though, tbf, that's also my impression of a toaster oven).
Re: North America and convention ovens. My experience from Northern California is slightly different but functionally the same. Basically every oven I saw had a convection setting. My cheapo oven...
Re: North America and convention ovens.
My experience from Northern California is slightly different but functionally the same. Basically every oven I saw had a convection setting. My cheapo oven that my landlord installed in my last apartment even had it. I’m not sure you could buy one without convection.
However nobody realizes they exist or knows how to use them. It’s just another setting that nobody uses on their oven. Multiple times I asked people if they tried convection bake, and they would say they don’t have it. Then I would go to their oven and show them the button for convection.
Whenever I have gotten new (or new to me) appliances, I scour through every bit of the user manual to find all the cool and interesting features. I am pretty sure that just isn’t something most people do, at least not where I grew up.
It's been cool to see rtings move outside their traditional comfort zone of headphone reviews over the years -- I could've used this one a few months ago XD I'm still really happy with my...
It's been cool to see rtings move outside their traditional comfort zone of headphone reviews over the years -- I could've used this one a few months ago XD
I'm still really happy with my purchase, though. I bought a flip-up air fryer from Ninja on sale (SP101c, review 1, 2). It's completely replaced my existing, apartment-size convection oven: it preheats in literally less than 60s (perhaps because it uses quartz tube heaters instead of the chunky coil heaters most air fryers and ovens prefer), and cools down fast enough that it doesn't burn food I'm too distracted to fetch at time. Plus it makes excellent, consistent toast (even with roughly cut sourdough)! Finally, although I haven't tried this yet, my entire skillet fits directly inside it (the volume is 13"x13"), so I figure it'd be great to use for finishing anything that fits in a 28cm skillet.
It's all around one of my favourite kitchen appliances, and it flips up to take up very little useful countertop space to boot!
I'm a fan of RTings, they really do the work. I was also a fan of the work they did with microwaves, even if I felt they misinterpreted their experiment results in presenting their conclusion. I check every screen I am considering buying against their site, I find they're more reliable about providing specifications than the manufacturer and they make it easy to compare.
I was gifted the PowerXL Grill Air Fryer Combo and it is great! I don't even preheat. It just works given the right temperature and time. It's a bit too tall as the lid does not open all the way with my cabinets. But that's a minor inconvenience given it's usefulness
That thing's a monster. I might pick one up!
Damn. I just bought my air fryer a few months ago and I absolutely loved it until I saw yours. That one looks so much better!
Why didn't I think to check their site when I bought our new air fryer?!
It looks like the one I bought is still pretty well recommended: Ninja Foodi DZ071
I went through their site when buying a new TV (and went with one towards the bottom of the list because I was comfortable with the issues it has), and a new monitor (that I splurged on). I also recommended it for family members who needed help deciding on a robot vacuum.
I like Ninja's stuff, but their branding under the Foodi line always confuses me. They sell like 5 different versions of "Foodi" but they're all very, very different form factors - toaster oven, air fryer, pressure cooker, indoor grill and a crock pot, and then sub-models under those categories. How is anyone supposed to just know that "DZ071" means "air fryer with two baskets" while "ST101" means "toaster oven that flips up"?
Yeah their naming is weird.
To make things more confusing, mine technically has a single basket, but with the option to split it into two "zones" or use it as one.
Ah yes, it should've been obvious to customers that DZ401 means "two baskets" :)
Most of their naming is pretty clever. But they really mailed it in on this group of appliances for some reason.
I just realized that DZ is probably for Dual Zone. Still not the most intuitive.
As best I can tell "Air Fryer" is just new marketing speech for "Convection Oven" (which is just marketing speech for 'we put a high temp fan in the environment so the temperature throughout the oven is more even'. There are tons of well made convection toaster ovens from reputable brands around that have a much larger capacity than most "Air Fryers" for similar pricing, double as toasters/broilers/oven ovens, and are quite a bit easier to clean up.
That's very much underselling it. It's about heating with convection, hence the name. That dramatically changes the cooking properties of the device, for better or for worse, compared to a traditional oven.
Air Fryers are just convection ovens, yes. But in terms of which labels these products sell under, they are not the same by any means, which you would have found out by reading the article.
Basically, products that sell as "Air Fryers" are smaller and less functional, but are therefore proportionately better at doing the job of "rapidly heating food" - which isn't necessarily better or worse than a traditional oven, just different.
Thanks for your response, it did get me read the article, which describes a cool study of a small sample of air fryers on the market.
tl;dr for others:
"Air Fryers" are convection ovens. All convection ovens (at least attempt to) improve outcomes for certain food types (mostly things you want to come out crispy/flaky/browned w/o broiling) by circulating the air in the environment ideally leading to a more even temperature distribution throughout the cooking chamber and potentially dryer food surfaces (not covered in the article but food surface moisture is the enemy of browning). Some 'air fryer' convection ovens are optimized for crispier fries, which the article deems superior to those that aren't. If you want crisper fries faster from a convection oven, get one that's optimized for cooking fries. The study described in the article found that among the air fryers tested, those that maximized a single cooking chamber's size and heating element output (given sufficient amperage of the electrical circuit) in conjunction with optimized fan output for the heating element/cooking chamber and tighter temperature control (hysteresis) did a significantly better job of producing crisper fries in less time than those that were not. You may wish to extrapolate the study's outcomes for other food types you might cook in the sampled appliances, the article certainly does.
edit to add: The article talks about 1 toaster oven w/a convection function that was tested. It was not optimized for crisper fries.
OK. But would I want an air fryer? I just googled "air fryer recipes" and saw this where although the bacon looks good nothing stands out, except the recipe for hard boiled eggs which says it takes 20 minutes plus cool down time, and that seems a disincentive.
Most people I know who really evangelize air fryers don't have convection ovens. This is pretty common in North America, where my impression from my youth is that they're kind of seen as a fancy luxury type of oven and getting one costs more than your bog-standard oven would. Here in continental Europe, my experience is that almost every oven, even old cheap ones, is a convection oven (though ofc you can run them with or without convection).
Convection heating has some advantages over a conventional oven -- it circulates heat evenly throughout the oven, leading to more even and consistent heat across the whole space. This often leads to faster cooking, and you usually can cook at slightly lower temperatures using convection heating to achieve the same results as a conventional oven (pre-packaged meals to put in the oven here in Germany will often have different temperature and/or time recommendations depending on whether you use the convection setting or not). Convection ovens also include exhaust that reduces moisture in the oven, which is an improvement for anything where you want the food to be crispy.
Air fryers are just small convection ovens reimagined as a countertop appliance. If you don't already own a convection oven, it's much cheaper than replacing your whole oven, and you can get the advantages of convection for certain types of foods that really benefit from it -- fries are the prototypical example for a reason, but other dishes where crispiness is desired and you can fit everything in the air fryer's basket are also good candidates. If you already own a convection oven, the advantages are less clear -- essentially the only big benefit I can think of is that the smaller size means there's less air to get up to a certain temperature and thus they'll work faster than a full-sized oven.
I'd say an air fryer vs convection oven is comparable to a toaster oven vs a full sized (non-convection) oven. The size can be quite useful for saving electricity (or using electricity instead of gas). And your kitchen doesn't heat up as much in the summer.
Especially when cooking for 1-2 people!
yeah I definitely think there can be some utility for space or energy reasons even if a convection oven is still an option. I just think the difference is a lot more marginal than it is if you don't already have a convection oven (though, tbf, that's also my impression of a toaster oven).
Re: North America and convention ovens.
My experience from Northern California is slightly different but functionally the same. Basically every oven I saw had a convection setting. My cheapo oven that my landlord installed in my last apartment even had it. I’m not sure you could buy one without convection.
However nobody realizes they exist or knows how to use them. It’s just another setting that nobody uses on their oven. Multiple times I asked people if they tried convection bake, and they would say they don’t have it. Then I would go to their oven and show them the button for convection.
Whenever I have gotten new (or new to me) appliances, I scour through every bit of the user manual to find all the cool and interesting features. I am pretty sure that just isn’t something most people do, at least not where I grew up.
It's been cool to see rtings move outside their traditional comfort zone of headphone reviews over the years -- I could've used this one a few months ago XD
I'm still really happy with my purchase, though. I bought a flip-up air fryer from Ninja on sale (SP101c, review 1, 2). It's completely replaced my existing, apartment-size convection oven: it preheats in literally less than 60s (perhaps because it uses quartz tube heaters instead of the chunky coil heaters most air fryers and ovens prefer), and cools down fast enough that it doesn't burn food I'm too distracted to fetch at time. Plus it makes excellent, consistent toast (even with roughly cut sourdough)! Finally, although I haven't tried this yet, my entire skillet fits directly inside it (the volume is 13"x13"), so I figure it'd be great to use for finishing anything that fits in a 28cm skillet.
It's all around one of my favourite kitchen appliances, and it flips up to take up very little useful countertop space to boot!