Read a little about them in the past, but never bought one. Looking at the theory, I imagine them drying out various foods like veg, but maybe they’re better at cooking McCain’s oven fries, chicken kievs, breaded prawns/squid? I don’t cook deep-fried stuff, so health advantages won’t be use to me.
What actually are they better at cooking than a conventional oven?
What are the downsides?
P.S. I don’t need efficiency or easier to clean stuff.
Since I bought one Ninja AF160 over a year ago I have never used my oven since and never had to clean it other than the cooking compartment.
Airfryer is so misleading a name. Essential it is a heating element with a fan so it is a mini hot air oven - not quite so catchy.
You need to work out if is a single or two compartment size you need for your household.
An essential kitchen. It will cook anything only downside is the size - hence one or two compartments.
Cynical old me can’t help thinking that they are just small ovens that take up space in the kitchen…
I’m sure somebody will be along soon to suggest the purchase of a Miele air fryer based on the fact it’s the size of a small wheelie bin, requiring a fork lift truck to move it into position. 
Or, a small basic model with a couple of dials to set temp and time. £40 from Asda.
I use mine mainly for cheese on toast, sausages and oven chips.
I think they are excellent. Use it more than our main oven now and there are 4 of us.
Does chicken, chops, chips and loads of other stuff not beginning with Ch.
Cheaper to run than heating up a big oven. Gets to temp in minutes.
Highly recommended.
Get a twin compartment job and you can sync cooking times.
I got one a few years back. It’s a single (but deep) tray model.
I’m usually cooking for 3 or 4 so I don’t use it for a main meal, more the sides, chips etc. but sometimes chicken and such if only two of us.
It works very well, once you’ve learned how it likes to work and what it’s good at, like most ovens.
I would use it more if I had a dual compartment version I’m sure, but then it probably wouldn’t fit back in the cupboard after use like my current one does!
I am a big fan of my Vortex air fryer. It replaced much of our oven use for our 2 person household, reducing our energy usage. More importantly, it improves flavour and moisture retention of chicken, pork chops and baked fish. Roasted veg are also very good with mixtures of sweet potato, cauliflower, brussel sprouts and onion coming out well. Regular potatoes also bake nicely. The Air Fryer is actually a small convection oven.
We do not have many counter top appliances, only my wife’s Cuisinart mixer for baked goods, my expresso maker and our air fryer. I am a big fan and we use ours at least 2 times a week.
I have a single tray Ninja but with hindsight wished it had two compartments.
It cooks or reheats (Lidl steak pie tonight) admirably before the smaller of the two Bosch built in ovens reaches cooking temperature.
I have a two-compartment Ninja. It’s fantastic.
Cooks great, and really much faster than standard ovens. Low energy use too.
Ninja single deep tray here. We love it, so versatile…and who doesn’t love a fish finger sandwich!
G
Ninja twin compartment here - like some others here, I have hardly used my conventional oven (if at all) since I got the Ninja.
We have a Halogen Oven, we use it for most cooking. The beauty is that you can see what’s going on inside. Not sure it is functionally different. It is just a small fan oven that is cheap to run.
My wife (who was a chef) and I were both both very dubious, viewing it as a gimmick, a fashion that would blow over. Then when visiting someone with one, someone into cooking and eating well, then seeing it in action and tasting the result. We bought one - a Ninja 2-drawer - and discovered so much more that can be done than just bake at high temperature (sorry, “fry”!). A whole meal for 4 quite possible, including perfectly cooked rice, among other things, though some tgings added at different times, and using the two drawers.
So good we bought one as a birthday present for our son who was about to move into his own house. But a different one, a ‘combi’ from Ninja with front hinged door on a single larger chamber. Checking it out in the weeks before he moved out, we were very impressed. Everything from Peking duck to the best, fluffiest crispy chips ever, even usable to bake a cake, and whole and very tasty meals with multiple components. So good we didn’t give it to him, but kept it, and bought him a new one! We still have and use the 2-drawer one: if we were to keep just one it would be the combi, but find it useful to have both. We have even modified our campervan to create a storage space for the combi one, and installed a sufficiently powerful inverter, and took it with us on our last trip: very useful, from whole meals to freshening bread.
Essentially they are highly efficient ovens, heating up a lot quicker than conventional ovens, with powerful airflow giving evenness of heat, and of steam where that is part of the cooking, and capable of higher temperatures than most standard domestic ovens.
We are full converts (but not proseytisers)!
We used to have one of those and found it great for roasting, but a slight slip when washing up proved that granite is tougher than glass…
We were given a Philips are fryer quite a while ago, never got on with it. Eldest daughter got married, asked to use it……liked it?
We eventually bought a Baridi air fryer/steamer. We use this much more than our oven, stainless steel inside, simple to clean.
We started off with one of these and it worked well, but be downside was that it kept burning out the Halogen light element.
Good for short term cooking, but not for long term cooking.
So returned it and looked for an alternate.
Ended up getting a Sage Smart Oven Air Fryer, which has ten functions.
Since getting it, we have got rid of the toaster, the slow cooker, so it takes up less space. Also haven’t used the main oven since November 2022 when we got the first air fryer.
Use it for basically everything now and it is very good
DG…
Second this recommendation for the Sage oven and for exactly the same reasons. Bought one following recommendations on here and the only down side is that toasting bread tends to dry out the slices before it browns them despite a wide range of heat settings.
Agree that it will often have cooked items before the main oven would be up to temperature.
I don’t find. Ours makes better toast than our previous toaster, which was a very expensive Dualit toaster.
I also find that it does crumpets very well also, soft and fluffy inside, couldn’t get that with the toaster.
DG…
Maturely resisting the inevitable jokes …
I have to agree about crumpets - and muffins with Eggs Benedict!
Thanks for the replies, but are they better at cooking McCain’s oven fries, chicken kievs, breaded prawns/squid?
Thinking about it, I would like a glass front, so the Sage looks good. They do it in XL version too.
Ninja do the DT200 which looks good, but people say the interior is not stainless and hard to clean.
I really wanted feedback on the good/bad points. There’s always bad points, like uneven cooking, hard to clean, that sort of stuff.
