🛍️ Product reviewed: Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer
⏰ Tested it for: Two months
⭐ Rating: 5/5
💸 Reasons to buy: It cooks food quickly, is energy efficient and incredibly easy to clean
✋ Reasons to avoid: Due to its dual drawer design (that can cook for up to eight people) it’s quite large and you need a good amount of kitchen countertop space
💰 Best deal we’ve found: The cheapest we’ve found it is at Argos where it’s currently £139, it’s currently £149 at Currys and Very and has already sold out on Amazon and Ninja
Air fryers almost need no introduction, they have become a much talked about gadget since the cost of living crisis begun. In fact, air fryers are now used by four in 10 adults in the UK.
In simple terms, an air fryer allows you to create tasty meals in the fraction of the time a traditional oven usually takes. This not only gives you back valuable time in your day, but also is more energy efficient to run.
However, with so many models now up to grabs, it can be tricky to know which one to purchase.
While the initial upfront cost isn’t cheap, Ninja, who are the best-selling air fryer brand in the UK sell options between £100 and £270. In the long run, they can save you money on your overall energy consumption, with Ninja stating that you can save up to 75% on your energy bill with one of its dual-zone models.
On average, an air fryer costs around 17p a day to run, in comparison to electric cookers, which come in at around 87p a day (it’s worth keeping in mind that prices will vary depending on your energy tariff).
Ninja
You can currently save over £80 off the hugely popular air fryer.
£139 at Argos
Still deciding whether you should join the air fryer fan club? I have spent the last two months trying out the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer almost everyday to make breakfast, lunch and dinner.
My conclusion? I now totally understand the hype and it’s a kitchen essential I wouldn’t be without (I have no plans to use my oven anytime soon). Here’s the lowdown on why I think it’s worth the splurge.
💸 Reasons to buy
I’m not the biggest fan of cooking. The idea of slaving away for hours in the kitchen doesn’t interest me much, I prefer to make meals that are all in the oven, or in one pan, and take maximum half an hour.
The Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer has completely changed my outlook.
When it first arrived, it looked daunting, with numerous buttons and cooking settings to pick from – there’s six functions in total; air fry, max crisp, dehydrate, roast, reheat and baker.
However, the accompanying quick start guide is extremely thorough, with easy to follow instructions and lists of how long different foods take to cook on various settings. It also comes with recipe guide (created by a chef) with tons of helpful meat, fish and veggie dishes to follow. And who doesn’t love a bit of dinner inspiration?
On just the air fry setting alone you have endless meal options – a few of my favourite things to make have been:
-
Mango and chilli chicken with Mexican fried rice
-
Potato, pepper and bacon hash with fried egg
-
Bacon, egg and cheese bagels
-
Cod tacos with an avocado puree
-
Spicy chicken skewers
All these meals were hugely quicker to cook in the air fryer and with a lot less cleaning up at the end too (which is always a bonus).
For example, you can cook perfectly crisp bacon in just eight minutes. Chicken takes as little as 15 minutes, cod fillets even less at 10 minutes, and roasting potatoes just 15 minutes.
The sync and match settings are also incredibly useful.
Sync allows you to cook two different foods using different functions, temperatures and cook times, but regardless of the settings, both drawers will finish cooking at the same time.
Match on the other hand, cooks the same food in each zone on the exact same settings (which is ideal for batch cooking).
Cooking a whole meal, such as chicken and potatoes is so much simpler, as you’re not constantly watching the clock or dealing with moving around scalding hot baking trays in the oven.
You can still take the drawers out midway through cooking to turn meat or toss veggies and the device automatically pauses cooking and restarts once you put the drawers back in.
£139 £219.99 at Argos John Lewis – out of stock Amazon – out of stock Ninja – out of stock
Lastly, cleaning the air fryer was a breeze. Both drawers and the plates are dishwasher safe, however they can take up a lot of room inside the dishwasher, so I often hand wash them and find the non-stick design easy to scrub off grime and grease, even when left overnight.
✋ Reasons to avoid
The only gripe I have is the ginormous size of the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer. Given it has two drawers and a join capacity of 7.6L (which is able to feed up to eight people) that’s not surprising.
However, for my small kitchen counter, it does take up a lot of space. You can buy smaller models for under £100, but they cook for only two to three people.
While initially I was annoyed at the amount of room it took up, I’ve now become so reliant on it for most of my meals that I’m happy to compromise on counter space, but it’s something to keep in mind.
💰 Best deal we’ve found
While the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer doesn’t come cheap, costing £219.99 when full price, it’s now discounted in numerous Black Friday sales.
You can bag the popular household gadget for just £139 at Argos, which is the cheapest we’ve found it all year. At other retailers like Currys and Very the air fryer is £10 more at £149.
Shop it now: Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer | £139 (Was £219.99) from John Lewis
£139 £219.99 at Argos Shop at Currys Shop at Very Shop at John Lewis Shop at Amazon
Other Black Friday air fryer deals worth seeing
Dunelm
Boasting four cooking functions, the Ninja Air Fryer can air fry, roast, reheat and dehydrate everything from chips to veggies, steak and chicken.
It has a 3.8 litre capacity, which customers say is perfect for a two or three person household.
You can cook food straight from frozen, too. And thanks to the variable heat settings and two fan speeds, every meal is cooked to perfection.
£75 at Dunelm
Ninja
An upgrade on Ninja’s best-selling Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer, this clever piece of kit promises to transform dinnertimes and is the most versatile model from the cookware brand yet.
It has been designed to allow users to use it as a traditional two drawer air fryer, or converted into one extra-large MegaZone drawer by removing the divider insider. This means you can easily cook an entire roast dinner in one handy pan.
Boasting seven cooking functions, including Max Crisp, Air Fry, Roast, Bake, Reheat, Dehydrate and Prove, it’s perfect for larger families, and can cook meals for up to eight people, all while using 45% less energy than a conventional oven.
£219 and Ninja
QVC
Save £70 off this highly-rated Ninja air fryer today at QVC. It makes cooking for up to eight people a breeze with its smart cooking system.
£200 at QVC
Tower
With over 10,000 purchased through Amazon this last month, this air fryer from Tower features the cookware brand’s exclusive ‘Vortx’ air frying technology, where it rapidly circulates hot air around your food, cooking it up to 30% faster than a conventional oven.
Although compact in design, its 4.3L capacity allows it to make enough food to go around the whole table.
£36 at Amazon
Amazon / Tefal
Using exclusive air frying technology from Tefal, this pick not only achieves the perfect level of crispiness without the need for oil, but it also provides a healthier way of cooking.
Practically a second pair of hands in the kitchen, it features a simple-to-use dial with eight automatic programs which let you control the temperature and time. It even comes with a grill plate too, that is completely dishwasher-proof.
Not just that, it has a 4.2L capacity — meaning you can make meals for up to six people, making it ideal for big families or people who love to host regularly.
£49 at Amazon
