Air Fryer Buying Guide: How to Choose the Best Model for Your Needs

Are you con­sid­er­ing buy­ing an air fry­er but unsure where to start? Don’t wor­ry; we’re here to help! In this arti­cle, we’ll look at the essen­tial Air Fry­er para­me­ters that are impor­tant when choos­ing the best gad­get for your needs.

What Is An Air Fryer?

This nifty lit­tle kitchen appli­ance has been around for over 10 or 12 years and is still in trend. So there must be a rea­son for it.

Air fry­ers do not cook sim­i­lar­ly to the stove or deep fry­er device; it does not use oil or lit­tle oil; they cir­cu­late hot air around the food, which ensures not only a quick prepa­ra­tion of the food. More­over, your food will also get the typ­i­cal crispy tex­ture you usu­al­ly get while fry­ing the food the stan­dard way. The hot air makes all for with­out excess oil.

How­ev­er, this machine not only uses a healthy way of cook­ing but also is very ver­sa­tile. It can fry your beloved recipes, but it can also roast, broil, bake, cook desserts, and much more! Plus, this gad­get is super-fast, cook­ing your food two or some­times three times faster than tra­di­tion­al ovens. And if you’re short on kitchen space, an air fry­er can be a great space saver, as it can replace a few dif­fer­ent kitchen appliances.

Read More: Best Air Fry­ers of 2023 to Buy in the USA 

How to Choose the Best Air Fryer for Your Needs 

Now, let’s talk about how to choose the best air fry­er for you. Of course, air fry­ers come in var­i­ous types, sizes, shapes, and so much more; still, you have to choose the one that fits your needs.

So there you have it, some key fac­tors to con­sid­er when select­ing your best air fryer:

• Type
• Size and Capacity
• Tem­per­a­ture Con­trol and Cook­ing Functions
• Timer
• Pow­er Consumption
• Non-Stick Coat­ing
• Safe­ty Features
• Air Flow
• Brands
• Price

Types or Styles Of Air Fryers 

Many air fry­ers are avail­able in the mar­ket today, but the most com­mon are bas­ket type, oven type, pres­sure-cook­er type, air fry­er & grill com­bo type, and pad­dle type. Each type has advan­tages and dis­ad­van­tages; thus, choos­ing the right one can be challenging.

Basket-Type Air Fryers 

Bas­ket-type air fry­ers are the most basic and com­mon type avail­able in the mar­ket today. These air fry­ers have a cylin­dri­cal base with a remov­able bas­ket that holds the food, which is placed in the cook­ing cham­ber where the hot air cir­cu­lates around the food cook­ing. This bas­ket is typ­i­cal­ly made of non-stick mate­r­i­al, mak­ing it easy to clean.

The capac­i­ty of bas­kets ranges from two (2) to sev­en (7) quarts and can hold from 2 to 6 lbs of food. Some brands also man­u­fac­ture bas­ket-type air fry­ers with two bas­kets where you can simul­ta­ne­ous­ly cook two dif­fer­ent types of food. When choos­ing this type of gad­get, it is always worth look­ing at the bas­ket bot­tom’s diam­e­ter size because some­times you may want to heat or cook piz­za, which may not fit into a small basket.

Func­tion­al­i­ty: The func­tion­al­i­ty of Bas­ket-type air fry­ers is not lim­it­ed to air fry­ing, but they typ­i­cal­ly can air broil, roast, reheat, and some even bake and dehydrate

Oven-Type Air Fryers 

Oven-type air fry­ers are larg­er than bas­ket type, have more cook­ing space, and can cook up to six pounds of food at once.

The most crit­i­cal para­me­ters for this style are size, the num­ber of shelves/racks, and sev­er­al fans installed. Their inter­nal space is usu­al­ly mea­sured in a range from around 0.5 cubic feet to 1.5 cubic feet, and they come with at least one or two shelves, while some mod­els may have up to four shelves. And if you buy the one with two or more fans on the top and bot­tom, it will be the real win.

Func­tion­al­i­ty: The oven-style air fry­er is often even more ver­sa­tile than bas­ket one; they can sub­sti­tute a few appli­ances. To be pre­cise, these air fry­ers can replace your con­ven­tion­al oven and han­dle var­i­ous oth­er cook­ing tasks; for exam­ple, they are often equipped with such func­tions as bak­ing, roast­ing, broil­ing, toast­ing, and keep­ing warm. Some mod­els even have a dehy­drat­ing and rotis­serie process, allow­ing you to make home­made apple chips and cook a whole chick­en. In addi­tion, some oven-style air fry­ers come with acces­sories such as bak­ing trays, racks, and skew­ers, mak­ing it eas­i­er to cook var­i­ous foods.

Pressure Cooker Type Air Fryers 

Although this type is labeled as a Pres­sure Cook­er and Air Fry­er, it com­bines mul­ti-cook­er and air fry­ing func­tions. Fur­ther­more, this type of air fry­er has a cook­ing capac­i­ty rang­ing from approx­i­mate­ly 6 quarts (5.7 liters) to about 8 quarts (7.6 liters) and is suit­able for large households.

Func­tion­al­i­ty: Pres­sure Cook­ers and Air Fry­ers can sauté, slow cook, bake, roast, broil, dehy­drate, and some even have sous vide capa­bil­i­ties. Fur­ther­more, these advanced devices fre­quent­ly include a dig­i­tal con­trol pan­el and selec­tion set­tings for var­i­ous dish­es or types of food, such as fish, seafood, chick­en, veg­eta­bles, and so on.

What’s more, the best part? Few brands, such as Instant Pot, pro­vide air fry­ing attach­ments for their mul­ti-cook­er machines, which is both con­ve­nient and cost-effec­tive. More­over, because they can declut­ter kitchen coun­ters and stor­age and replace a few kitchen gad­gets, these air fry­ers could be a game chang­er for house­holds with lim­it­ed kitchen space.

Air Fryer & Grill Combo Type

Air Fry­er & Grill Com­bo mod­els have a sim­i­lar design as indoor grilling devices. So, they are con­struct­ed with a grilling plate and a cov­er that fits on top of the cook­ing bow, the design which allows to grill steaks, ham­burg­ers, and oth­er foods.

A typ­i­cal Grilling Air Fry­er comes with a capac­i­ty rang­ing between 2 and 6 quarts (1.9 and 1.9 liters) (5.7 liters). Thus, you can find mod­els for a 1–2‑person house­hold or a large family.

Func­tion­al­i­ty: A Grill Com­bo Air Fry­er is a high­ly ver­sa­tile machine. It per­forms var­i­ous tasks, such as air fry­ing, grilling, slow cook­ing, steam­ing, sautéing, bak­ing, roast­ing, rice cook­ing, and even sim­mer­ing. Fur­ther­more, some mod­els include sous vide functions.

Paddle-Style Air Fryers

Pad­dle-style Air Fry­ers are not very com­mon, and they are designed sim­i­lar­ly to bas­ket-type ones, oth­er than hav­ing a self-stir­ring pad­dle in the mid­dle of the bas­ket that sits inside a non-stick pan. By con­stant­ly rotat­ing the pan con­tent while cook­ing, this design ensures that your food is cooked even­ly and crispy on all sides. In addi­tion, this bas­ket con­struc­tion is eas­i­ly remov­able, mak­ing it easy to clean.

Func­tion­al­i­ty: Pad­dle-style air fry­ers are as mul­ti­func­tion­al as bas­ket air fry­ers, while some of them are designed to per­form even some mul­ti-cook­er func­tions like fry­ing, bak­ing, roast­ing, steam­ing, saute­ing, and even grilling. In addi­tion, some mod­els come with extra acces­sories like bak­ing pans, grill racks, and skew­ers, which expand their func­tion­al­i­ty even further.

Other Air Fryer Features

In addi­tion to air fry­ing types/styles, here is a list of oth­er impor­tant para­me­ters to con­sid­er when look­ing for your ide­al Air Fry­er, which includes:

Capacity and Size

Air fry­ers are avail­able in a vari­ety of sizes and capac­i­ties. For exam­ple, bas­ket and grill com­bo mod­els can have capac­i­ties rang­ing from 2 to 10 quarts, where­as oven and pres­sure cook­er mod­els typ­i­cal­ly have large capac­i­ties and dimen­sions. As a result, when choos­ing the best air fry­er, it is crit­i­cal to con­sid­er both the capac­i­ty required to feed all of your house­hold mem­bers and the opti­mal air fry­er dimen­sions to fit your kitchen countertop.

For exam­ple, an air fry­er requires about a quart of cook­ing space for one per­son, so a 2–3 quart air fry­er should be large enough to feed one or two peo­ple. You can also use medi­um chick­en thighs to deter­mine what size air fry­er is best for you. A 2.5‑quart air fry­er, for exam­ple, can fit three thighs, where­as a 5‑quart mod­el can fit six thighs, and so on. With the air fry­er-oven com­bo mod­el with 3–4 racks, you can cook up to 10 or 12 chick­en thighs at the same time.

As a result, a bas­ket or grilling-type air fry­er can feed a small fam­i­ly. How­ev­er, if you’re cook­ing for a larg­er fam­i­ly, you bet­ter choose a 5 to 10-quart capac­i­ty air fry­er or a large oven air fry­er with 3–4 racks.

Price

Air fry­ers come in a vari­ety of price ranges. Bas­ket-style Air fry­ers, for exam­ple, range in price from $30 for the basic mod­el to $200 for the brand­ed mod­el with mul­ti­ple func­tions, while oven machines range in price from $80 to over $300. Pad­dlle-style air fry­ers are less com­mon and cost around $100. Grill Com­bos typ­i­cal­ly cost between $90–200, while Pres­sure Cook­er Type Air Fry­ers cost between $130 and $250.

Temperature Control and Cooking Functions

A good air fry­er should have pre­cise dig­i­tal or ana­log types of tem­per­a­ture con­trol, allow­ing you to adjust the tem­per­a­ture to suit the food you are cook­ing. Most air fry­ers have a tem­per­a­ture range of 180 to 400°F (82 to 204°C), and Grill com­bo styles have up to 550°F.

In addi­tion to tem­per­a­ture set­tings, the gad­get can con­trol spe­cif­ic func­tions such as air fry­ing, grilling, bak­ing, roast­ing, etc. While some mod­els go fur­ther and come with pre-set for pop­u­lar dish­es such as chick­en, fish, burg­ers, bacon, French fries, or veg­eta­bles, which can be help­ful for begin­ner users.

Timer

A timer is anoth­er essen­tial air fry­er fea­ture. The same as tem­per­a­ture con­trol, it could be dig­i­tal or ana­log. It allows you to set the cook­ing time, and the fry­er will auto­mat­i­cal­ly turn off when the time is up. The typ­i­cal range for cook­ing time is between 5 and 30 min­utes, depend­ing on the gad­get style and quan­ti­ty of food.

Power Consumption

The typ­i­cal air fry­er comes with pow­er rang­ing between 1000 to 1800 watts and depends on the spe­cif­ic mod­el and brand. It is evi­dent that the wattage direct­ly impacts your food’s cook­ing speed and elec­tric­i­ty usage. So, if you choose the pow­er­ful air fry­er for quick­er cook­ing, you should remem­ber that it will con­sume more ener­gy and result in a high­er elec­tric­i­ty bill. So, it is up to you to choose your priorities.

Basket or Tray Coating

Some air fry­ers have cook­ing bowls with ceram­ic or anoth­er non­tox­ic coat­ing. So if you choose a healthy meal with low-fat air fry­ing, you might also be inter­est­ed in this fea­ture for your best air fryer.

Safety Features

Some air fry­ers have auto­mat­ic shut-off and over­heat­ing pro­tec­tion sys­tems to pre­vent acci­dents and ensure that your food is cooked safe­ly, sav­ing the machine engine longer life.

Air­flow

The air­flow in an air fry­er is cru­cial for even cook­ing. Most air fry­ers come with a rapid air cir­cu­la­tion sys­tem, which ensures the best air dis­tri­b­u­tion dur­ing cooking.

Noise

Air fry­ers are not the nois­i­est kitchen appli­ance; on aver­age, they release 65 D.B.s when in use; how­ev­er, the exact noise lev­el will vary for dif­fer­ent brands and mod­els and the food you cook. 65 dB noise lev­el is com­pa­ra­ble to the sound from nor­mal con­ver­sa­tion or an elec­tric shaver.

Brands

Air Fry­ers are avail­able in mul­ti­ple brands, includ­ing the famous ones with the best rep­u­ta­tion and those recent­ly cre­at­ed that may dis­ap­pear soon. The bas­ket-style machines come in the widest vari­ety of brands, such as Nin­ja, Cosori, Phillips, Instant Pot, Niuwave, Phillps, Gour­mia, Chef­man, Oster, Dash, and oth­er less-known names.

Oven-type air fry­ers are avail­able from Toshi­ba, Nin­ja, Cuisi­nart, Coso­ry, Hamil­ton Beach, Oster, Chef­man, Gour­mia and etc. Pad­dle style pro­duces such famous brands as Oster, DeLonghi, and Tefal. At the same time, Pres­sure Cook­ers are avail­able from Nin­ja, Cosori, Gour­mia, and Cat­tle­man. Grills’ pop­u­lar options include Instant Pot, Nin­ja, NuWave, and Transonic.

Summary

Ulti­mate­ly, when it comes to select­ing the best air fry­er for you, the deci­sion is yours and will depend on your bud­get, house­hold size, cook­ing needs, and oth­er pref­er­ences. How­ev­er, by con­sid­er­ing the para­me­ters we list­ed above, you can make an informed deci­sion and choose an air fry­er that will meet your needs and help you eas­i­ly cre­ate deli­cious and healthy meals.

For exam­ple, peo­ple with small­er kitchens usu­al­ly go for bas­ket-style air-fry­ers avail­able at a wide price range. How­ev­er, if you are look­ing for the most ver­sa­tile air fry­er and do not mind it may occu­py some of your coun­ter­top space, the oven or pres­sure cook­er style is your option. While if you often cook grilled recipes, you should go for the grill com­bo air fry­er option.

So, what are you wait­ing for? Har­ry to get the best air fry­er for your needs.

Read More: Best Stain­less Steel Air Fry­ers 2023