We don’t know about you, but we were unsure what to think about air fryers. They seem to have recently gone viral, but we didn’t know whether that was only a trend, or if they were truly “revolutionary”. So we recently asked our followers on Instagram, and their feedback was surprisingly super positive! All of those who had bought an air fryer gladly recommended them. Some use them to reheat their food, while others use them for baking. And some even used them to cook easy and healthy meals. So, before buying one, we decided to look for the best air fryers on Amazon. We thought this might also be useful for you, so we will share what we found. And at the end of this article, we will tell you which one we decided to buy. Hopefully, this will serve as a guide to make your own purchase decision a little easier.
Let’s start with the basics: what’s an Air Fryer, and why should you have one?
In short, an “air fryer” is a more powerful and concentrated convection oven. It cooks food through heated air that is directed at the food. It is a countertop appliance, which means that you will place it on top of your counter, just like you would for a microwave or a toaster.
Most commonly, people get air fryers because they look for a healthier alternative to fry their food, and in most cases, fries or wings. They are a healthier alternative because, contrary to traditional frying, you don’t need to use oil when you air fry your food. Or if you use some, it’s going to be just a little bit. People also get them instead of traditional ovens, for lack of space in their kitchen or to get something more transportable.
Air fryers are also great for roasting and reheating food. For example, it’s much better than using a microwave to reheat your leftover pizza or lasagna.
How to choose an Air Fryer: the criteria we are using.
First things first, we only looked at air fryers that already had a decent amount of positive reviews. Products that have thousands of sales and more than 4 out of 5-star reviews are already “validated” by the market. It means that no matter the product that you choose from our selection today, you should normally be satisfied with it. But as always, product selection comes down to personal preferences. So we decided to evaluate them through 5 criteria:
- Their price: is it a good value-for-money product?
- Their capacity: how much can it hold?
- Their versatility: how many features does it have and what can it do?
- Their design: is it pretty?
- Their ease of use: is it easy to use it?
For each of the Air Fryers below, we will use these criteria to evaluate them.
Ninja AF101: the best Air Fryer on Amazon?
This Air Fryer is for you if you are looking for a good value-for-money product with enough capacity and features to satisfy your simple needs. It has a capacity of 4qt which will hold 2lbs (about 1kg) of fries or a batch of chicken wings. Plus, it can roast, reheat, and dehydrate food!
We love its design which will look good on your countertop, and that its basket and crisper plate are both dishwasher safe. This is practical and makes it easy to clean!
If you like this model but wouldn’t mind one with more capacity, you might want to check this one!
Instant Vortex Plus: a bit more capacity and versatility
If you are looking for additional capacity and features, this great Air Fryer might be the one for you. Compared with the previous one, this model has an additional 2qt capacity. To help put things in perspective, it is meant to fry 4-6 servings.
Not only can this appliance air fry, but it can also broil, roast, dehydrate, reheat, and even bake! If you counted, that’s 6 modes. We particularly love that you can also set up these with their customizable one-touch programs. It means that if you have regular foods that you reheat or air fry, then you can customize a one-touch program for them.
One thing that you will love about this model compared with other ones, is that this one requires almost no preheating time.
Air Fryer Cuisinart: a versatile toaster and air fryer!
One feature that you won’t find in all air fryers is the toasting program. So if you happen to love toasting your bread and your bagels, and you’re also looking for an air fryer to fry, reheat, grill, and bake your food, then this model might be the one for you.
It definitely looks more like a traditional oven, and we like that it offers a larger flat surface to lay your food. It has a 60-minute timer, which should be enough for most of the food you’ll want to prepare.
You should note that this model doesn’t have a dehydrating option, so if this is something you’re also looking for in your future Air Fryer, then you might want to look for another model.
DASH Tasti-Crisp: cheap and easy!
If you are just looking for an easy air fryer to fry your favorite snacks in a healthier way, then this is the one you want. Indeed, this model comes with no fuss or fancy features. It has a set temperature of 400 degrees Fahrenheit (about 204 degrees Celsius). You just slide your favorite frozen nuggets, fries, sticks… in the basket, turn on the timer to your desired time, and voilà!
In conclusion, it is a quick and easy air fryer that will be ideal for simple snacks in small batches (capacity of 2.6qt). Naturally, this is also the cheapest model in our selection today.
Instant Vortex Mini: small and smart!
If you’re looking for a versatile air fryer, but your counter space is limited, and live in a small flat, then this has to be the one for you!
This Air Fryer is small (2 qt capacity), but this will be enough for 1 or 2 servings. It’s much more versatile than the previous model as it comes with 4 different features. Indeed, you can use it to air fry, bake, roast, and reheat.
We think this is a great Air Fryer that you will love using on a daily basis. Plus, both the basket and tray are dishwasher-safe. So cleaning it will be easy!
Of course, you will also love its extremely reasonable price. It comes with much more versatility and features for a tiny little more than the Dash Air Fryer.
Best Air Fryers on Amazon: which one will we buy and why?
To be honest, if it was just to use it for us, we would have probably gone with the Instant Mini Air Fryer. Although we love fries, we don’t eat fried food every day. Plus we already have an oven, and our countertop space is already quite crowded. So it would have normally been the best choice for us.
But as food content creators, we really want to get the most out of our future Air Fryer. We want to be able to test different recipes so we can share them with you! Therefore, a little more capacity doesn’t hurt, and for this reason, we will most certainly buy the Ninja AF101.
What about you? Which one do you think you will buy?
Also, if you think the best Air Fryer is not on this list yet, and we should consider it, let us know in the comments below!
Love,
Katja & Youssef
Some of the links are affiliated; however, these are products that we would recommend to our family and friends regardless if we make a small cut of the commission at no cost to you as a consumer. Let us know if there are any other kitchen appliances you want us to try!
