Lakeland Dual Basket Air Fryer review: can this £90 gadget compete with the likes of Ninja?

Price on writing: £90 | Buy now from Lakeland

Our verdict

For less than £100, the Lakeland Dual Basket Air Fryer with Easy View Windows is a great budget buy. Cooking performance is brilliant; it rustled up everything from chips to veg, and fish to chicken quickly and reliably. The clear-view windows and internal lights are a standout feature, letting you check on your food without interrupting the cooking process - a clever touch that even some of the premium models in our best air fryers guide don’t include.

The capacity is generous too. It's certainly not the largest on the market, but the dual baskets can cook up to eight litres of food, which should be plenty enough for most small to medium families. And while there’s no ‘match’ function, the ‘sync’ button does a great job of making sure different foods finish cooking at the same time, so mains and sides are ready to serve together.

However, it’s not perfect - the plasticky finish, lack of dishwasher-safe parts, and slightly confusing icons are drawbacks - but when you balance that against the price and the peace of mind of a three-year guarantee, this dual-basket air fryer offers fantastic value for money.

Cooking in the Lakeland Dual Basket Air Fryer: how easy is it to use?

Once you've got the hang of it, the Lakeland Dual Basket Air Fryer is fairly straightforward to use - there's just a little learning curve at first. Once you press the power button, the glossy black control panel lights up with '1' and '2' icons, representing each basket. When one is tapped, several icons illuminate on the control panel. Some are clearer than others - the ‘sync’ button, for instance, is just an arrow symbol - so the first time round I had to reach for the instructions to figure out what all the icons meant.

The eight preset cooking modes are easier to figure out, as they’re displayed with little food pictures. There’s steak (though not suitable for high-fat meats like sausages), chicken wings or legs, seafood (slightly vague, as there’s also a fish mode, though the icon shows shellfish), fish, pizza, fries, baking and vegetables. They look touch-sensitive, like the other icons, but you actually scroll through them with the mode button instead. Each basket defaults to steak, though you can adjust settings manually; the thermometer icon along with +/– buttons handle temp, while the clock icon does the same for time.

If you’re cooking in both baskets, you can set each one up separately and then press sync so they finish at the same time. This is a really handy feature, which I used a lot - for example, when cooking fish fillets for 20 minutes at 180°C in one basket while chips crisped away for 25 minutes at 200°C in the other, and everything was ready together.

Cooking usually pauses automatically when you pull a basket out, although on one occasion when I removed the left, the right kept going, which threw the sync off slightly by a few seconds. It only happened once, though, so I suspect it was down to the presets I was using at the time rather than a built-in flaw.

One of my favourite features is the clear-view windows. Each basket has its own internal light, so you can check on your food without sliding drawers out mid-cook. It’s a small detail, but one that really sets this Lakeland model apart, especially since a lot of popular designs (including some premium Ninja air fryers) don’t include this.

Noise-wise, it’s middle of the road: there’s a noticeable fan sound while it runs (which is the case with all air fryers), but it's not too loud, and I actually found it slightly quieter than the Ninja Double Stack XL. The baskets themselves slide in and out smoothly, and there's a handy beep when cooking finishes.

There are a couple of drawbacks, though. You can’t run the Lakeland with just one basket in place even if you're only using one side - slightly annoying if, say, you’ve left one soaking in the sink after lunch and only want to use the other for dinner. The baskets also aren’t interchangeable, so each one has to slot back into its correct side.

Another thing to note is that the non-stick tray always needs to be in place inside the drawers. And while it’s not a dealbreaker, there’s also no dedicated ‘match’ function to instantly copy settings across both baskets, which can be a minor grumble if you’re trying to split a larger batch between them.

Lakeland Dual Basket Air Fryer with Easy View Windows: how were the results?

Great! Overall, I was really impressed with the results, especially when you factor in how much cheaper this is than premium models that cost much, much more. I put it through its paces with all sorts of dishes - fish, veg, late-night cheese on toast, and of course the air fryer classic: chips.

For my chip test, I tried the ‘fries’ preset a few times. On the first go (thicker chips, pictured on the left), they came out perfectly - crispy and golden on the outside, fluffy on the inside. My second attempt, with thinner fries (pictured in the middle), wasn’t quite as successful as the preset ran a little long, but they were still decent. That’s fairly typical of presets, which can’t account for portion size or cut, so I’d say the timings are a good starting point but it's worth adjusting to taste. The clear-view windows are a real bonus here - you can literally keep an eye on your chips without pulling the drawer out.

Across the board, I found food mostly cooked evenly and thoroughly - though it's always worth checking on progress and giving the basket a shake halfway through.

The Lakeland also really excelled with frozen food, which came out crisp and tasty on the nights I couldn’t face cooking from scratch. Frozen wedges, for instance, looked and tasted noticeably better from the air fryer compared to my fan oven. It’s speedy too - cheese on toast took just a couple of minutes to reach that perfect golden, bubbling top.

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Lakeland Dual Basket Air Fryer with Easy View Windows: design and style

Like most dual-basket models, the Lakeland is on the bulky side, but with its 8-litre capacity it’s still a good size for family meals - even if it doesn’t quite match the roominess of Ninja’s 9.5-litre models.

In terms of looks, it has a clean, modern style. The build quality does feel a bit plasticky and cheap in comparison to more expensive models, but the three-year guarantee gives reassurance that it’s built to last.

Is the Lakeland Dual Basket Air Fryer easy to clean?

This is one area where the Lakeland falls short. Unlike many competitor models, the baskets can’t go in the dishwasher, so you’re stuck with hand washing. This isn't too taxing, and the non-stick trays help, but it does mean putting in a bit of extra effort after a meal. Water also has a habit of collecting in the little dents around the drawers and in the windows, which is tricky to remove with a tea towel when drying by hand.

If any debris slips into the viewing window it can be awkward to fish out, too - I had a particularly pesky crumb that refused to budge for a while!

On the outside, the glossy control panel looks sleek, but it shows up fingerprints easily, and the unit as a whole is a bit of a dust magnet. This is quickly sorted with a wipe, of course, but it's extra maintenance to factor in.

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Price: is the Lakeland Dual Basket Air Fryer with Easy View Windows worth it?

Where the Lakeland really stands out is on price. At under £100, it offers fantastic value for money - especially when you consider that most dual-basket air fryers cost significantly more.

It doesn’t have quite the premium feel or capacity of our top air fryer pick, the Ninja AF400UK, and you do miss out on a few handy functions, but for the price (£140 less than the Ninja!) - it’s hard to argue.

If the Ninja is out of your price range, this is our best budget air fryer with dual baskets. It delivers reliable results, has those brilliant easy-view windows, and comes with a three-year guarantee for peace of mind - all at a fraction of the cost of higher-end models.

How we tested the Lakeland Dual Basket Air Fryer with Easy View Windows

I put the Lakeland Dual Basket Air Fryer through its paces in my Hertfordshire kitchen, whipping up a variety of treats with it including fish, chicken, veg, chips, plus much more. I tested it thoroughly over a period of four weeks, using it most days - and sometimes multiple times a day!

The Lakeland was then scored against MNHQ’s core home review criteria (each marked out of 15):

• Performance

• Quality and durability

• Ease of use

• Value for money

I also rated it out of 10 for these product-specific measures:

• Cooking results

• Cooking functions/features

• Capacity and size

• Ease of cleaning

These results were then combined to give an overall score out of 100.

About the author

Natasha Gregson is a Senior Content Editor at Mumsnet, specialising in home and kitchen product reviews and buyers' guides. With over a decade of editorial experience, her work has appeared in national titles including The i Paper and Stylist Magazine. At Mumsnet, she leads the home team, drawing on both professional expertise and hands-on testing to help consumers choose the right appliances and gadgets for their homes.

A keen home cook and foodie, Natasha has tested and reviewed numerous gadgets for Mumsnet - including everything from air fryers and slow cookers to kettles and toasters.

When she’s not busy seeking out the best buys and advice for Mumsnetters, you can find her searching for the next best restaurant, watching live music, curling up with a good book, cross-stitching, or enjoying a good hike or run.

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