Use the dials along the front of the machine to adjust the time, temperature, function, and toast level. As far as speed goes, the Cuisinart Air Fryer was the cuisinart choppers fastest, finishing in 15 minutes from start to finish. The fries were crispy and evenly browned on top, but unevenly browned underneath and on the sides.
But when we later ordered another model to photograph, we didn’t have this problem. The Pro LE comes with a two-year warranty, but Cosori does not offer any replacement parts, so you’re out of luck if your outer basket handle breaks or you lose the tray. Cosori has issued a recall of 21 air fryer models following incidents of them catching fire, melting, overheating, or smoking. Our budget pick, the Cosori Pro LE Air Fryer, isn’t part of the recall. The one annoying thing about the cleanup is that the oven needs to be unplugged when you clean it from the inside.
Success here depends on high heat and good fan circulation of that hot air, which, in turn, means faster cooking. The faster an air fryer cooks and the more effective the super convection is, the faster the outside skin cuisinart choppers will crisp, making it less likely the chicken will be dry inside. This is the oven I’ve used most since I owned it even before my wider testing began. And it’s definitely worth nabbing while it’s on sale at the moment.
She has tested more than 15 air fryer toaster ovens herself and also helped developed one of the best-selling air fryer toaster ovens on the market more than six years ago. We were able to get somewhat better browning by extending the cook time. For example, when we cooked chicken nuggets, we set every air fryer to 400 degrees Fahrenheit for seven minutes, per the nuggets’ air fryer cooking instructions. It has seven cooking functions, including baking, broiling, warming, toast, and air fry. Plus, you don’t need to add any extra oil for your food to turn out nice and crispy.
As it was, these two produced the most even and attractive toast that corresponded to the preset, but the Ninja (winner!) did it in half the time. The Breville, KitchenAid and Crux barely toasted the bread at all when set to medium — which simply means you’d have to use a darker setting — while the Cuisinart over-toasted the bread. Breville won the fry test with perfectly golden fries in six minutes.
On top of working from home and taking care of a 14-month-old, sheltering in place means that I, like most people I know, am cooking more than ever. The oven’s slow heating time demands that I plan ahead whenever I want to use it, but my current reality too often requires the ability to prepare something in a flash. The only regret I’ve had since is that we didn’t open the thing up sooner.
The stuck-on oil and caramelized starches that otherwise needed a good scrubbing cleaned really well in the dishwasher. The wire rack is not dishwasher safe, but it is very easy to just wash it by hand. The pull-out crumb tray slides right out for cleaning and also needs to be hand washed. With the exception of the Ninja , there is nothing particularly unusual about caring for or cleaning these ovens. They have standard box interiors of various sizes made from stainless steel that will require regular scrubs and wipes.
When baking, we got great results after reducing the time and oven temperature to prevent over-browning. This space saving multi-functional toaster oven can air fry, broil and oven cook, so long as you don’t want to cook for a crowd. It performed pretty well in our tests but there are a few frustrating features and the air fryer mode was unimpressive. We also found the Philips Premium Airfryer’s basket to be the most seamless to insert into the machine. It glided shut easily and didn’t require any extra force to close. This air fryer also isn’t as much of an eyesore as some machines we’ve tried over the years, so it won’t look like an alien spaceship has landed on your kitchen counter.
If your main priority is simply to get a small, inexpensive appliance to heat food better than a microwave, you might be happy with a small toaster oven without convection. These are even more inexpensive than convection toaster ovens and more suitable for small spaces. It won’t blast food with hot air, but it can still bake relatively quickly and provide crispy results due to its small oven cavity, which is similar in size to a pod-shaped air fryer.
Breville’s user interface is a major benefit over the other air fryers. You can clearly see all 13 functions it offers on its large LCD touchscreen and easily navigate through the menu and select time and temperature with the large stainless steel dials. Breville also makes it easy to cook without a manual by printing suggested oven rack positions right on the glass oven door, making it convenient when you bake a pizza or dehydrate banana chips. The Breville Air Fryer also has a dedicated oven light button so you can observe the progress without opening the oven door. Even when filled to capacity, the Mini Vortex managed to cook food evenly. We were able to fit four large or five small wings in the basket, while larger models—like the Cosori Pro LE, which has a larger footprint and is visibly bulkier—can hold only two more.