What Is the Best Air Fryer for Home Cooking 2021?

Last Updated on 17th December 2021 by Pauline

The air fryer is the healthy alternative to deep frying, using only a small amount of oil to crisp and cook food. Air fryers give food that same great fried texture as regular frying, but they also cook similarly to a convection oven, giving you the best of both worlds.

If you love your fried food but can’t stand the high calorie counts, you should definitely consider investing in an air fryer.

You have lots of choices for air fryers, however, and we want to help you avoid buying one that you’ll regret later on. What is the best air fryer on the market? With an investment like this, you want to be sure you are happy with it for the years of use you will get out of it, so let’s look at the best air fryers available right now.

Instant Vortex Plus 6-in-1 Air Fryer

What we like about this air fryer is that it does practically everything. It dehydrates, bake, broils, reheats, and it of course has an air fry function. We also like how spacious the basket is, and you can fit so much food in there at once.

You can fit as much as a four-pound chicken or two pounds of fries in the fryer at once. This machine also cleans well. It’s easy to just wipe it down and remove residue like fingerprints and grease.

A user friendly interface rounds out the package, boasting a buttery smooth touchscreen display, a variety of preprogrammed settings, and the ability to modify the temperature in increments of five degrees.

The broil function isn’t the best we have seen across multiple air fryer machines, however. It can cook food unevenly. Plus, we know some people have had issues with the smell that the fryer emits. It can create a plasticky smell when used, and it can also give the food that same smell.

This doesn’t seem to happen with every one of these that was manufactured, but it seems to be a product line problem that occurs more often than it should. Likely, the manufacturers have multiple companies making parts, and some of them are not up to par. When asked what is the best air fryer to purchase, this is the biggest issue that keeps this from being our top choice.

Ninja Air Fryer Max XL

What is the best rated air fryer? That award probably goes to the Ninja Air Fryer Max XL. It has great reviews across the board, from customers and from professional reviewers like ourselves.

This fryer is very easy to use thanks to simple buttons and clear instructions. The nonstick tray is easy to take out and use, and it is a nice, tight fit, which is actually kind of rare for air fryers. You can wash the tray in the dishwasher easily, and the machine hand washes nicely as well.

There are a number of different Ninja air fryer models to choose from, and this is one of the most popular and well-known air fryer brands. What is the best Ninja air fryer? It’s definitely the Max XL, as it offers a beautiful package of quality features, ease of use, exceptional functionality, and user friendly design.

It also cooks the food the best out of any air fryer we have seen. The fries and chicken we cooked in it came out so nicely, perfectly browned, and crispy, and we think even better than deep frying.

You get a few different cooking settings, like broil and dehydrate, giving you a range of options for how to prepare your food, all in one device. You can modify the temperature settings easily on any of the cooking methods, and the air fryer setting goes up to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

It’s a very versatile machine, and while it doesn’t have the capacity of the Ninja Foody 6-in-1, it is still spacious enough for most people’s needs. The Max XL boasts a capacity of 5.5 quarts and offers 7 different cooking settings.

TurboFry 3.7qt Digital Air Fryer

What brand is the best air fryer for overall value? If you are looking for something economic that still does a good job of air frying the food and works reliably, then the TurboFry is your best option.

It is not as pricey as some of the other air fryers we have looked at so far, so it is great for someone on a budget. Testing the Chefman TurboFry gave some great results, with the food frying evenly and crispy.

It turned out great every time, and the air fryer basket is light and easy to use. The fryer vents in numerous places, and these vents will need to be cleaned regularly.

The basket drips into a tray that needs to be cleaned as well, but all of these components are pretty easy to keep clean. You just need to remember to clean them often to keep the frying quality good and your food smelling fresh.

The Chefman TurboFry comes in a few different versions, with both an analog and digital model available. Both models work very well, but we found the digital version is easier to control precise temperature settings with.

Overall, this is a great value fryer that we think you will be happy with for the price tag. It doesn’t have some of the functionality and features of its more expensive competitors, but if you don’t need all of that and just want a good quality air fryer without paying a lot of money, then this is the way to go.

COSORI Air Fryer Max XL

Like the Ninja Max XL, this one has a lot of capacity for large portion cooking. It offers a whopping 8.5 quarts of storage capacity, which makes it one of the biggest air fryer machines on the market today.

You will be able to cook up food for your entire family in one go with this, which is really convenient. If you have company over often or have a large family, then definitely consider purchasing this air fryer over some of the other options.

Even though the Cosori fryer has a large capacity, it doesn’t take up a ton of space, as the designers understood that not everyone buying it would have a lot of countertop space to work with.

The large capacity means you can cook up a big batch of chicken, a whole chicken or even an 8-inch cake. You could reduce the amount of kitchen appliances you have by using just this one, saving some precious countertop space.

One thing that stood out to us about this particular air fryer is the variety of presets. That makes for easy, simplified cooking, as you can cook almost anything with the touch of a button, once you get used to the presets and what they all do.

The Cosori is an award winning air fryer, having won multiple awards for its design, and when the question of what is the best air fryer brand comes up, we have to mention this one. The modern, sophisticated, user friendly design is absolutely peerless.

Even if other air fryers are cheaper or offer more functionality, this one is designed most with the customer in mind and what would be most convenient for the majority of users.

Instant Vortex Plus

The Instant Vortex falls into the same price range as most of the others on this list- around $120. This is made by the same people who make the Instant Pot, which is known as a versatile, easy to use machine for quick cooking.

The Instant Vortex Plus comes with some of that same functionality and design ideology. This machine is designed to cook your food with 95% less oil than deep frying, resulting in much healthier food that is less fatty and less damaging to your heart and arteries.

You get six different cooking settings with this air fryer, including air fry, broil, roast, dehydrate, reheat, and bake. We like the temperature setting on this one, as it is easy to control and doesn’t require you to press a button repeatedly. You simply turn a dial, which we think is much more convenient and easier than most air fryers.

It’s a matter of preference, of course, and it gives you less precise control, but you can still be fairly precise with it.

The capacity on this fryer is great as well, offering you 6 quarts of storage space, and it has a square shape, which can give you more cooking space, depending on what you are making. The basket is easy to remove as well, featuring a handy handle and a nice fit for the fryer.

One complaint we had with the Instant Vortex is that the instructions provided with it are very limited. There isn’t much detail provided, so you will have to figure out some of the functionality for yourself.

However, this fryer is very easy to use and safe to use as well, with protective features built in to keep you from burning yourself or accidentally causing damage to the fryer.

Like some of the other fryers we have mentioned, this one has a smell to it sometimes. The burning plastic smell can be attributed to the occasional bad model and is not present with all versions of this air fryer.

Be warned that this could be an issue for you, and you may need to replace some of the plastic components. This only happens in rare cases, though, and most people have had very pleasant experiences with this particular air fryer, reviewing it highly and praising it for its ease of use, large storage capacity and great crisping ability.

Gourmia 6-qt. Digital Air Fryer

This is another 6-quart square air fryer that falls into the same $120 price range, so it’s easy to compare it to the Instant Vortex. In a lot of ways, they are essentially the same machine.

The square shape design gives it extra storage space- not by a lot, but enough that it will make a small difference sometimes. This fryer has a neat feature we didn’t see with any other air fryers we looked at.

The bottom of the fryer is ridged and that allows you to separate food into different parts, cooking different foods at the same time and keeping them spaced out a bit. This digital air fryer allows you to choose between air frying, as well as roasting, grilling, baking, and broiling. It easily and quickly cooks meats, veggies, and other foods without making a big mess.

What Is the Best Air Fryer Oven?

We have looked at the different air fryers available, and many of them offer some of the same functionality as ovens and deep fryers, but in a different way that allows for fast cooking without all the fat. Which of them is the best?

It is important that you look at a few different factors, namely the price, ease of use, and features. So, if you need a fully featured air fryer that offers bake, broil, roast, air fry, and reheat, then you will have to go with one of the more expensive models. The larger capacity you need, the more expensive your air fryer will be.

However, you can get a cheaper one that doesn’t offer as many functions and that has a smaller capacity if you just want something affordable and simple. We have given you a few great choices because we know that not everyone has the same needs.

The air fryer that is perfect for a couple might not be the same as one that is perfect for a big family. If you use the air fryer for professional cooking like catering or for your own business, you will want one with lots more features than the fryer you need to use only for the occasional personal meal.

Consider these factors as you choose the best one for you and make sure that the fryer you purchase is affordable enough and offers all the functionality that you need.

Why Use an Air Fryer?

There are plenty of advantages to using an air fryer as opposed to using an oven or a deep fryer. You get less grease and fat on your food with the air fryer, as opposed to a deep frying method.

Plus, the air fryer cooks just as quickly as deep frying, usually cooking your food in minutes. You will be using less oil, so it is much healthier for you. If you are looking to enjoy a lot of fried foods but keep to a diet, this may be a wise investment.

The advantage of the air fryer over the oven is that the air fryer cooks faster and offers more functionality. It can do so many more things, like broil, bake, and dehydrate your food, and it cooks the food much quicker than if you were to use the oven.

The air fryer is simply convenient as well, and it is so easy to use and easy to clean up after you use it. If you need tasty, healthy food quickly, this is certainly a good purchase, but be sure you look over the selection we have given. You can compare them carefully to get the one that is the best value for you and most suitable for your needs.