Air Fryer
Buying Guide

There are plenty of air fryers to choose from, and one of them is the perfect match for your kitchen. Whether you want to understand the difference between basket-style and oven-style air fryers, or you just need to find the right air fryer without getting lost in technical details, this air fryer guide is here to help you pick the perfect option for your home, budget, and lifestyle.

Benchtop Air Fryer

Standalone benchtop air fryers work by circulating hot, dry air rapidly inside a pull-out drawer or basket to produce evenly cooked food with the texture and golden brown colour of fried cooking. Needing just a drizzle of oil, or even none at all, they offer a healthier way to enjoy flavourful fried foods such as French fries or chicken nuggets. Their compact design, user-friendly interfaces and easy pre-set cooking modes make air fryers a popular choice for busy households.
With no need to preheat before cooking and easy-to-clean compartments, benchtop air fryers also help streamline meal prep; some models even have Wi-Fi connectivity, so you can control them from your phone. Air fryers come with either a single large drawer – some with capacity to roast a whole chicken – or dual drawers that let you cook smaller portions of several food items, such as fish and veggies, at once. Air fryer cooking capacity can range from a compact 1L for single-serve cooking to 7L (to fit a kilo of fries), and even right up to 9.5L (ideal for family feasts).

Multi-Function Air Fryer

As the name suggests, multi-function air fryers earn their benchtop real estate by giving you more ways to cook, while still offering you the same convenient, compact design and functionality of a standard air fryer. The most versatile models can air-fry, roast, grill, bake, defrost, dehydrate, steam, and cook ingredients sous vide. What’s more, they come with a range of pre-set programs and extra accessories, such as grill plates, temperature probes and water tanks for steam cooking, giving you endless options at mealtimes. With a multi-function air fryer, you can roll several appliances into one, gaining back precious cupboard space and streamlining your kitchen.

Air Fryer Oven

Due to the huge popularity of air fryers, most leading kitchen appliance brands now also offer air fryer functionality in select larger cooking appliances, such as benchtop ovens, toaster ovens, convection microwaves and electric wall ovens. A benchtop oven with air fryer functionality is a smaller version of the traditional electric wall oven and can typically be used to cook, roast, bake or air-fry a range of recipes, making it a great choice for small households. Toaster ovens are usually a bit smaller and have a more limited range of settings but can heat up quickly.
A convection microwave with air fryer capability contains an additional heating element and fan. It offers a convenient all-in-one cooking solution by combining convection cooking, microwave cooking, grilling, roasting and air-frying. Wall ovens with a built-in air-frying feature work by circulating hot air very quickly around the surface of the food on the rack when in Air Fry mode, to replicate the golden, crispy finish of a standalone air fryer. Because ovens are larger than benchtop air fryers, cooking times can be longer. However, because they have more capacity, you can cook more at once.