Our Favorite Air Fryers!
There are many different air fryers on the market and we’ve done the work of searching out the top rated air fryers and testing them ourselves. These are our favorites.
Whether you’re just exploring the idea of purchasing an air fryer or you’re looking to upgrade and want to make sure you get the best, we’ve got you covered!
We have tested many air fryers over the last couple of years and have found a couple of favorites along with a couple of duds!
Let’s get into it…
There are two types of air fryers on the market that we’ve tested – the toaster oven style air fryers and the basket style air fryers.
While we love the functionality of the toaster oven air fryers, we absolutely prefer basket style air fryers for the way they cook if you’re looking for food that actually tastes like it was fried in oil.
Toaster oven style air fryers just don’t seem to get the same crisp result – they’re better than a traditional toaster oven, for sure, but if you want your air fryer frozen french fries to taste like they came from a drive thru we really recommend the basket style air fryer.
Our Top Basket Air Fryer Recommendation:
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Our favorite air fryer is the Cosori 5.8qt Max XL. It’s a good, classic air fryer with a simple to use interface and over 10k positive ratings on Amazon. This is one popular air fryer, for good reason!
The Details:
- Size: It’s a nice size that allows you to fit in a good amount of food without taking up a ton of counter space.
- Sound: The Cosori is quieter than many of the air fryers we tested, which is a win. It does still make some sound, but it’s no louder than a microwave.
- Cooking: The Cosori consistently cooks evenly and quickly.
- Preheat: This air fryer does NOT force you to run a preheat cycle, which we love. Most air fryer recipes don’t require you to preheat the appliance, so when the air fryer automatically runs a preheat cycle it can be frustrating.
- Care: Clean up is a breeze – both bits of the basket can be added to your dishwasher with no problem.
- Cook Cycles: The Cosori has 12 preset cycles – we honestly only ever hit the air fry button, but you may like having other presets available.
- Temperature Range: The temperature can be adjusted between 170 degrees and 400 degrees.
- Price: At just over $100 at time of publishing, we think this is priced fairly but it’s certainly not the cheapest air fryer you’ll find. We do feel the quality is worth the cost though.
Honorable Mention:
While the Cosori is our favorite air fryer and the one we grab most, our second favorite is the Instant Pot Vortex. I love the Instant Pot brand and trust the quality.
The Details:
- Size: The size is great on this one, allowing you to fit in a decent amount of food while maximizing counter space.
- Sound: Our Instant Pot model is a bit louder than the Cosori, but not obnoxiously so. It’s still quiet enough to be background noise.
- Cooking: This air fryer cooks consistently and quickly.
- Preheat: This air fryer DOES force a preheat cycle – which means that every time you turn it on and set a time and temp, it’s going to take a few minutes to come to temperature before it starts the cooking countdown. This is annoying to us because you have to have the basket in the air fryer while it preheats and then you’re placing food into an already hot basket. Most recipes for the air fryer are developed without preheating (with a few exceptions).
- Care: This basket is dishwasher safe and easy to clean. Most air fryers have a basket within a basket, but this one just has a bottom tray within the main basket…works fine, but we do prefer the other style.
- Functions: The Instant Pot Vortex has 4 cook functions, including air fry, roast, bake, and reheat.
- Temperature Range: The temperature can be adjusted between 95 degrees and 400 degrees.
- Price: This is a nice budget friendly air fryer coming in at less than $100 during the time of this article! We think this one is priced just right.
Our Oven Air Fryer Recommendation:
The Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro, while not the most budget friendly option, really is a workhorse. Not only can you air fry, you can also proof bread, dehydrate foods, and slow cook. Plus, it just looks nice on the counter.
The Details:
- Size: The best part, in my opinion, of an oven style air fryer is the size. You can fit in quite a lot of food in a single layer because there are multiple racks to cook on.
- Sound: Sounds like a traditional toaster oven. Not too loud, but it does make a bit of sound.
- Cooking: We did find that this oven has a few hot spots and you’ll definitely want to flip the food and swap the trays around – move the top to the bottom and vice versa for even cooking.
- Preheat: Because this is a larger area to heat, you’ll want to preheat this one before using it, just like you would preheat your traditional oven.
- Care: The racks can be popped in the dishwasher, but clean up of the actual inside of the oven is not my favorite. There are crumbs and a glass door that gets dirty pretty easily.
- Functions: This one has 13 cooking functions that you’ll actually use, including air fryer, toast, bake, dehydrate, pizza, and more.
- Temperature Range: This toaster oven ranges from 80 degrees to 480 degrees.
- Price: This is a top of the line air fryer/toaster oven combo and you’re definitely spending a bit more because of it. That said, Breville is a solid brand and we have always had good success with their products and don’t mind paying extra for them. If you’re looking for a cheaper option, try the non-pro version.
