Meet the 10 Air Fryers That Passed the Crisp Test

Editor and tester Katie Tuttle has owned her Wonder Oven for about a year, and it’s become a permanent fixture in her kitchen. The 1,700-watt oven features a generous 32-quart capacity that can accommodate three cooking trays at once, a thoughtful design that may appeal to families or larger households. The Wonder Oven has six cooking modes — air-frying, baking, roasting, broiling, toasting, and reheating — and a clever cap at the top lets you add water to create hot steam, revitalizing the crispy exterior on leftovers.

The simple and straightforward design makes the Wonder Oven user-friendly (and nice to look at). The three dials on the facade manually control the temperature, cooking modes, and cooking times with a zero to 60-minute timer. Constructed of stainless steel with a large glass viewing window, the interior is free of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and the oven includes a chromed steel air fryer basket, a wire rack, an aluminum nonstick ceramic-coated baking pan, and a stainless steel crumb tray.

Tuttle is a fan of this large oven’s versatility, which can accommodate a whole chicken, a single sheet of cookies, or three racks of a variety of foods at once. While the generous capacity is great for cooking many items, Tuttle points out that you cannot cook more than one type of food at once if those foods require different temperatures.

“This operates like an air fryer toaster oven, so it justifies the amount of space it takes up on my countertop!” she says, adding that she likes the “aesthetic, the amount of different settings, and how evenly it cooks.” Tuttle finds that it’s a great alternative to using her oven, especially in the warmer months. She uses this air fryer all the time, from reheating french fries — “it’s the only thing that gets them crispy again”— to broiling sandwiches to roasting Brussels sprouts and broccoli. She typically only needs to shake or flip the food when using a sheet pan; otherwise, she finds that the wire racks allow air to flow evenly. In terms of noise, Tuttle doesn’t find it particularly noisy, and the exterior does not get hot, though there is some heat from the side vents that you have to be aware of, she notes.

Overall, she finds the Wonder Oven to be low maintenance when it comes to cleaning, especially the nonstick sheet pan, and she appreciates the plate at the bottom of the oven that protects the heating elements, “so you’re not as likely to get burnt bits of food stuck underneath.” And the metal racks are dishwasher-safe.

The Wonder Oven comes in attractive colors like Char, Steam, Blue Salt, and Spice, and it is available in a 12.6-quart model if you prefer a smaller footprint. Regardless of size, for straightforward functionality, intuitive design, and aesthetics, we think the Our Place Wonder Oven fits the bill and will look great on any countertop. 

With an intuitive, high-resolution touchscreen featuring more than 200 food presets across 12 categories, this Kalorik air fryer is ideal for precise air-frying at the touch of your fingertips. This 1,200-watt, five-quart air fryer customizes cooking by taking into account food type, weight, quantity, cut, and fresh or frozen items, and it begins cooking within seconds.

With a large touch screen at the top of the facade, it’s easy to toggle through the various cooking presets and drill down to precisely what you need, whether it’s arepas, a halibut fillet, or two chicken drumsticks. Customers can choose between a light or dark display option and multiple operating languages, including English, Spanish, French, and Mandarin, as well as Celsius or Fahrenheit temperature settings.

Tester Amy Sowder van Erk made chicken fingers, green beans, shrimp, cauliflower, fries, and Brussels sprouts. She found that, overall, the food was “crispy and relatively evenly cooked,” but she adds, “make sure to shake [the basket] in the middle of the cooking time.” Fortunately, the Kalorik has an automatic shake reminder and a ready-alert feature, so you can stay on top of your cooking.

The Kalorik air fryer is available in five- and seven-quart options. Sowder van Erk, who tested the five-quart one, liked that she could cook enough of one part of dinner for four people at once, cutting down on dinner prep, but she notes that she wasn’t able to cook an entire dinner at once. So, for larger households, you may want to opt for the seven-quart model.

Sowder van Erk also appreciated how quietly the air fryer operated and that the exterior barely heated up. In terms of care, she found the interior simple to clean, as was the basket and tray, which are nonstick and PFAS-free. While the manufacturer says that it’s dishwasher-safe, Sowder van Erk preferred hand-washing the basket to preserve valuable space in her dishwasher, noting that “nothing sticks that much, so it’s easy [to clean] by hand.”

Overall, Sowder van Erk was pleased with its speed and usability. “I like how fast it cooks and how easy it is to use,” she says, adding that the quick cleanup made it ideal. She continues to use the Kalorik several times a week for quick, healthy dinners for the entire family.

While the Cosori TurboBlaze is our best budget pick, there’s nothing budget about it. In fact, the Cosori was one of my favorite air fryers overall, due to its efficiency, usability, and excellent cooking results, along with a good price point.

This 1,725-watt air fryer is powered by a direct-current motor with five fan speeds, can heat to 450 degrees F, and can cook for up to 24 hours (ideal for dehydrating foods). This model features nine cook modes: air-fry, roast, bake, broil, dehydrate, frozen, proof, reheat, and keep warm. I found that the six-quart capacity basket was perfect for my household of four.

The Cosori TurboBlaze was intuitive and straightforward to use. I appreciated the large, functional buttons that light up when pressed, and having the control panel on the upper facade made it easy to operate without having to lean over the top, as with some other models I tested. Simply select the cooking method, set the time and temperature, then press start. Cosori recommends using the preheat mode before cooking at higher temperatures. I typically would preheat before air-frying, and I loved that the basket was hot and ready to go. There is also a safety button on the basket handle that must be depressed to remove the basket, and I liked that the air fryer would automatically shut off when the basket is removed.

During testing, I cooked shrimp, chicken nuggets, french fries, carrots, salmon, and tofu; reheated pancakes; and proofed sourdough — and had fabulous results with all. The frozen french fries may have cooked best; they turned out noticeably crispier than those from the other air fryers, while still having a fluffy interior. I was also impressed with how tender and al dente the carrots turned out, despite being thick and unevenly cut.

Just use caution with small pieces of food, because some items — like thin fries — did get stuck or fall through the crisper tray. I also recommend using scratch-safe tongs to remove your cooked food, as the crisper tray (and your food) can fall out despite the rubber corner protectors that keep it in place.

I found the nonstick ceramic coating to be a cinch to clean, and both the basket and crisper tray can be washed in the dishwasher. The interior crisping tray has a thoughtful ergonomic raised loop in the middle, which makes it easier to grab and remove, and the rubber corners protect the tray from scratching the basket.

The Cosori TurboBlast comes in a black matte finish that I liked too. And if you’re unsure what to air fry, the Cosori comes with a recipe book, and the outer package includes a QR code that leads to an app with recipes, so you can start cooking immediately.

Yes, an air fryer that costs nearly $1,300 and weighs 52 pounds is a big investment, but we think the Anova Precision Oven 2.0 is worth exploring, especially for the foodie fanatic (we’re looking at you, sous vide enthusiasts). The Anova is a smart oven that’s powered by steam and features a whopping 12 cooking modes: bake, convection bake, steam, steam bake, steam roast, air-fry, sous vide, dry sous vide, broil, proof, dehydrate, and a manual setting. It can also heat to an impressive 482 degrees F, putting it at the top of our list for upper temperature range.

If you’re tech savvy or appreciate a lot of bonus features, this oven offers plenty of bells and whistles, like precision cooking, a Wi-Fi connection, integrated cooking guides, an internal camera that identifies food and meals and recommends cooking times, and an app that can scan thousands of recipes and grocery barcodes for quick and intuitive cooking.

The oven has a digital display, a 10-cup water reservoir for the steam component, and a wide glass window so you can watch your food cook in real time, plus you can cook remotely using the app. Editor Lili Ladaga liked having the various cooking modes at her fingertips, so that you can “cook a wider variety of meals than you can with a traditional oven” but all in one appliance.

The Anova may be an ideal smart oven for a smaller household. It comes with two racks and one sheet pan so that you can cook multiple types of food. Ladaga notes that while the oven cannot accommodate a full-size sheet pan, it could easily cook a small chicken. She felt that this oven was appropriate for cooking for one to two people at a time.

During testing, Ladaga made plenty of vegetables, including broccoli, baby potatoes, red peppers and onions, french fries, and chicken tenders. It took a bit of trial and error, so count on having a bit of a learning curve in terms of getting the temperature just right, she remarks. But she was particularly pleased with the way the broccoli came out: “perfectly crisped and a little charred in some spots (but in a good way).”

Ladaga notes that the oven does get a bit noisy, but she says that it wasn’t too distracting. The exterior also gets hot, she warns, so make sure you follow the manufacturer’s recommendations and place it at least four inches away from cabinets, walls, and other appliances.

In terms of care, Ladaga found the Anova simple to clean, especially the interior. “It’s basically a small oven with an air fryer function, so it’s as easy as opening the door and wiping the inside down,” she says. She notes that the heating element at the top and bottom flip up and down, so you can reach any splatters on the top and bottom, and the accompanying tray was a cinch to clean.

If you have the budget (and the counter space) and enjoy experimenting with recipes, then this oven is worth the splurge. And if you’re not satisfied, Anova offers a 100-day money-back guarantee. 

The Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro has been living on my kitchen counter for six months, and I may never part with it. Hands down, this all-in-one countertop oven gets more use than my traditional oven. From toasting bagels to air-frying chicken tenders to proofing bread to cooking a frozen pizza (this might be the most popular setting), we use our Breville almost daily.

This 1,800-watt smart oven features 13 cooking modes, including air-frying, toasting, roasting, baking, reheating, and dehydrating, with a temperature range of 80 to 480 degrees F. The oven uses “Element IQ” technology for precise temperature control and a convection fan to circulate hot air, heating foods evenly.

I find this oven very intuitive to operate; simply use the dials to set the cooking mode, temperature, and time, and you’re good to go. The oven automatically preheats and beeps when it’s ready and turns off when the timer is done, so you don’t have to worry about burning your toast. The outer markings on the glass door show you where to insert the baking trays or fryer basket for the best heating and cooking results, and the automatic tray ejector is helpful too, so that you don’t have to reach into the oven and risk burning your hands.

When it comes to air-frying, this oven does a great job. The air fryer mesh basket is wide and shallow, so it can accommodate plenty of food without overlapping. The set also includes a roasting pan, so you can collect any drippings, sauce, or bits. We routinely air-fry frozen french fries, chicken tenders, homemade sweet potato fries, and other veggies, and we’re always impressed by the moist interior and crispy exterior.

The smart oven also comes with two baking racks, an air fryer basket, a roasting pan, and a pizza steel. Other thoughtful features include a removable crumb tray, an automatic air fryer rotation reminder, and a frozen pizza button for that extra-crispy crust. It’s not noticeably loud, and it doesn’t emit too much heat, so I feel safe having it on when the kids are in the kitchen. If you’re looking for an appliance that could replace and elevate your basic toaster oven while also offering air-frying capabilities, this is it.

When it comes to healthy air-frying, the GreenPan Cyclone is our top pick. Constructed with a PFAS-free, nonstick ceramic coating, the Cyclone uses a clean heat halogen to power and circulate air in seconds, cutting down on cooking time. (The company boasts that it can heat up to 400 degrees F in just four seconds.) The 1,700-watt Cyclone features a deep, seven-quart capacity basket and has 12 one-touch settings, including air-fry, broil, grill, chicken, fries, and fish.

Besides the nontoxic elements, one of my favorite aspects of this air fryer is the large viewing window at the top of the appliance, which makes it fun to watch in real time as your food cooks. The automatic preset “shake” setting is also helpful. I liked that the oven temporarily turns off when the basket is pulled out, as a safety mechanism, then it revs back up once the basket is replaced. Plus, it was a breeze to adjust the cooking time while the GreenPan was on; it was as simple as pressing the “up” or “down” button.

Overall, I observed very good results with this air fryer. We tested the GreenPan with a variety of foods, such as french fries, defrosted cod, bacon, French toast sticks, and chicken tenders.

We had excellent results with the cod, which we defrosted and brushed with avocado oil and Old Bay seasoning. While the cod pieces varied in shape and thickness, the fish cooked well, didn’t emit any fishy odor, and was tender and flavorful. We also tested defrosted shrimp with the preset “shrimp” cooking mode and were pleased with the results. The shrimp came out tender and moist with tons of flavor. Other items, like the bacon, needed a bit more time to crisp up, but otherwise we had favorable results.

The GreenPan sounds a bit like an air purifier that revs up as it cooks. It’s noticeable but not obnoxious. The air fryer also makes several loud beeps when the cooking timer is done, which is helpful, especially if you step away from the kitchen.

The nonstick ceramic coating make the drawer and crisping tray simple to clean. Two built-in finger holes make the crisping tray easy to grab, and rubber corner stoppers keep it steady (and scratch-free) as you pull it in and out. And if there is a lot of buildup, the drawer and tray are dishwasher-safe. However, over time, the interior of the viewing window does get greasy, so you may have to stick your hand in to clean it out, which can be a bit awkward (just make sure the appliance is off and cool). Otherwise, this high-powered air fryer is a fabulous nontoxic option that the whole family can feel safe using. 

For me, one of the shortcomings of air fryers is trying to cook multiple items at once with various cook times or temperatures. But that’s not the case with this Ninja Foodi eight-quart air fryer, thanks to the ingenious two-basket design, which is ideal for families or larger households. Each basket has a four-quart capacity, and it features six cooking modes (air-fry, air-broil, roast, bake, reheat, and dehydrate) and 15 recipe presets.

Editor and tester Ashley Ziegler uses her Ninja Foodi several times a week and loves the ease of use and dual baskets for simultaneous cooking. “It’s great for chicken nuggets and fries for my kids,” she says, “[or a] quick meal for me or my husband when we’re too tired to cook a big meal.”

She regularly cooks all kinds of food in it, including chicken, fries, veggies, breakfast sausage, crescent rolls, and soft pretzels. “Basically if it can be air-fried, we’ve probably done it,” Zielger says. And the results are excellent. “I don’t know that I’ve ever run into it undercooking anything, and it rarely overcooks,” says Ziegler.

And with the dual baskets, it’s a breeze to cook larger quantities of food, even up to four pounds of french fries. Ziegler likes the ability to cook at the same or different temperatures and settings for each basket. “There’s also a ‘match cook’ option so both baskets are done at the same time, even if they’re set to different temperatures or times (I have no idea how it does this).”

A word of caution, if you have sensitive ears, the Ninja Foodi can get loud (Ziegler says she sometimes wears noise-canceling earbuds when it’s on) and the exterior does get warm, but not burn-your-hand hot.

On the plus side, Ziegler finds that the baskets are pretty simple to clean. Each air fryer basket has a removable crisper tray that’s dishwasher-friendly, and the baskets clean up thoroughly with some dish soap and water. “Even when we cook messier foods, they clean up well,” she says.

For midsize families looking to streamline dinner with multiple components for supreme multitask cooking, the Ninja Foodi eight-quart is our pick for you. 

If you’re just dipping your toe into the world of air fryers and independent cooking, we think the West Bend is an excellent option for novice cooks, college students, and young adults, thanks to its ease of use, convenient cooking features, and generous capacity.

The West Bend is a 1,600-watt, 10-quart air fryer with two five-quart baskets and two PFAS-free grills. The air fryer features 15 presets — including air-fry, bake, broil, dehydrate, frozen, preheat, reheat, and roast — as well as settings for chicken, vegetables, and fish.

For writer Ysolt Usigan, this air fryer proved versatile and convenient for her household of four. She liked being able to cook two things at once, like frozen sweet potato fries in one basket and marinated barbecue pork in the other basket. It also has dual-temperature control, so you can set temperatures for each side, and a “sync finish” feature that lets you cook two different items at different cook times and have them finish at the same time. The sizable 10-quart capacity was also ideal for her. “I love that it’s not tiny, so I can use it to cook a meal for my family of four,” she says.

During testing, Usigan found that her food cooked evenly, and she recommends shaking and flipping the basket mid-cook to get the food browned and crispy on all sides. The West Bend also features a glass viewing window and light that may give newer air fryer users added confidence when cooking. “I love that you can turn the light on and see the inside through the glass window for each side,” she says. Usigan found that the West Bend wasn’t very noisy either, noting that “it sounded like the hum of a fan,” and she says that the outside got warm while cooking, but never too hot.

When it comes to care, Usigan found it straightforward to clean. “The baskets are removable, and I was able to rinse each side easily in the kitchen sink separately. It was also nonstick, so food remnants slid right off.”

For cooking novices or those wanting a basic air fryer model, we think the West Bend is a solid choice for beginners who also want to practice feeding a crowd. 

Apartment dwellers and smaller households will appreciate this compact and lightweight Thyme & Table six-quart air fryer, which won’t take up valuable countertop real estate (or cabinet space). And with a svelte weight of less than 15 pounds, you can use this air fryer as needed and easily store it away when it’s not in use.

The 1,800-watt Thyme & Table air fryer features five cook modes — air-fry, dehydrate, roast, reheat, bake — as well as five presets, for poultry, fries, fish, vegetables, and meat. The unique “ThymeCrisp” technology mode heats food to 450 degrees F for the last five minutes of cooking to create an extra-crispy exterior. The viewing window and light make it fun to watch food cook, and the shake reminder is helpful too.

Usigan tried browning steak, and while cooking a protein took a bit of trial and error, she’d recommend this air fryer for “frying frozen things like french fries.” Even though the “ThymeCrisp” setting goes up to 450 degrees F, Usigan says she wasn’t able to increase the baseline cooking temperature beyond 400 degrees F, and she wished it would go higher to achieve a nice broil. However, she liked that this air fryer wasn’t noisy and that the outside didn’t get hot at all.

It was also low maintenance. “It was very easy to clean — inside and out,” Usigan says. She found the air fryer basket to be very light and compact, and she could easily clean it with just a rinse and a light brush.

For Usigan, the petite size was also a win, especially when she wanted to heat up sides. “I like that it’s also not enormous, so that it can fit in a busy kitchen, no problem,” she says.

She also raved about the design, saying, “I love how sleek and chic it looks.” And we agree. We liked the variety of exterior color options — including Sand White, Slate Gray, and Atlantic Blue — all with an attractive brass handle. So, if the no-broil factor isn’t a deal-breaker, we think this compact model is still worth considering (and it’s nice to look at as well). 

Easily feed a crowd or a larger family with the Ninja DoubleStack XL 10-quart air fryer, the big kahuna of air fryers. Like the Ninja Foodi, this 1,690-watt air fryer features two five-quart baskets — but with this model, the baskets are stacked (not side by side), so the footprint is slimmer. And each basket has a removable grill tray so you can cook up to four different kinds of food at once, yet it’s still large enough to accommodate two five-pound chickens. This model also features six cooking modes: air-fry, broil, bake, roast, dehydrate, and reheat.

Tuttle, who has owned this air fryer for a year, loves that it can “handle a huge amount of food.” With a hefty 10-quart capacity and two cooking baskets, she can “fit a whole chicken in one basket and enough potatoes for four people in the other.” And, the two baskets allow you to cook two different foods at different temperatures at the same time. There is also an integrated internal thermometer, meaning you don’t have to guess on doneness. While she didn’t need to shake or flip the food, she warns against overfilling the basket because, if you’re looking for crisp food, you “will have less optimal results.”

Tuttle loves that while this air fryer can cook a significant amount of food, it has slim, space-saving profile that takes up less room on the countertop. The “smart finish” setting even lets you program it so both foods are fully cooked at the same time, making your dinner plans that much easier to manage, she explains. “There’s also a “match cook” feature that lets you cook the same food in two baskets without having to set the time and temperature separately,” she says. And while you can hear the Ninja running, she notes it’s no louder than a microwave, so it’s not very distracting.

Overall, this air fryer is pretty low maintenance to clean. Tuttle says that the baskets and interior trays are nonstick, but the internal wire racks are not. It can be a bit of a hassle to pop the inner trays out of the baskets, due to the silicone “feet” that keep the trays from scratching the baskets’ interiors, but it’s still manageable.

For households that love air-frying and want to customize cooking with hefty portions, the Ninja DoubleStack is a good bet.