Ninja Crispi DualZone 6-in-1 review: “I rarely turn the oven on now”

RRP at time of testing: £300 | Check price at Amazon, Argos or Ninja

My verdict

After my last air fryer got a bit too heat-happy and started charring my food, I knew it was time to replace it.

The trouble is, there are so many on the market, and it can be very hard to work out what the best air fryer for your needs is.

I knew I needed something family-friendly. As a mum of two young boys, we use an air fryer a lot (fish fingers in 10 minutes really does reduce the “I’m hungry” whining). So, it needed to be a dual air fryer, capable of cooking things at the same time, or different times.

My parents have had a Ninja air fryer for three years now and they love it. So, I was keen to see what all the fuss was about and give one a try for myself. Only, this time with added glass and added functions.

I tested the Ninja Crispi DualZone 6-in-1, one of the newer Ninja models, which is, according to Ninja: ‘The UK’s first DualZone CleanCrisp Glassware air fryer that helps you cook two foods, in two ways, so they’re both ready at the same time.’

Having not tried a glass air fryer before, I was intrigued to see how it fared against traditional Teflon dual-zone models.

One thing I really liked about my old air fryer was that although it had dual zones, it was actually one large drawer with a separator. So, you could take the middle bit out and have one big drawer instead.

At first, I did struggle to adjust to having the two separate cooking pots rather than the option to just bung everything into one tray. But the Ninja Crispi’s separate glass pots each have a capacity of 3.8L, so it wasn’t too tricky to do a meal for four people. It just needed a bit more planning.

I liked the look of the Ninja. Mine was the ‘mocha’ colour, which I thought looked stylish in my kitchen and made a nice change from a black air fryer.

It was very easy to use. The buttons all made sense and it felt intuitive. It has a +1 min button which I used a lot to easily add extra cooking time without the need to switch the air fryer off or reset it.

The main drawback for me was the glass. Not because of how it functioned, but because of how hot it got. You remove each pot by pulling it forwards 45 degrees and then lifting it out using the handles. But the glass was scorching and it was very easy to brush against it. I was also concerned about my kids accidentally touching it while it was on.

The instructions suggest using oven mitts, but I only have oven gloves (the fabric type with a pocket each end) and these were faffy to use with it, so I plan to buy some mitts and see if that makes a difference.

Those issues aside, I was really impressed with how well the air fryer worked. All of the meals I tried in it were cooked well and evenly, and I even managed to do a medium-rare steak one night.

I thought all of the Crispi’s functions were useful for an air fryer in a family home. We used the normal ‘air fryer’ mode the most, then ‘max crisp’ when we were cooking things from frozen, but I did have fun playing with the dehydrate function too.

As air fryers go, I think this both looks and acts the part. A larger capacity might be better for some families, but it’s been fine for our family of four.

How I tested

I tested the Ninja Crispi DualZone 6-in-1 air fryer for three weeks in my family home, which I share with my husband and two boys aged five and one-and-a-half.

I used it most days (sometimes several times a day) to cook lunches and dinners, and I also tested the dehydrate function. I used each of the zones separately as well as at the same time, testing the ‘match cook’ and ‘smart finish’ functions.

The air fryer has six functions: air fry, bake, max crisp, dehydrate, recrisp and roast. Over the testing period I tried as many of these as possible, but have yet to use the ‘recrisp’ function (clearly I rarely have leftovers!)

The air fryer also came with a ‘quick start guide’ with a number of recipes, so I tried a couple of these too.

What’s in the box? 

Inside the box you get:

• 2860W Ninja Crispi DualZone glass air fryer

• Two 3.8L CleanCrisp glassware containers

• Two lids

• Two crisper plates

• Instruction manual

• Quick start guide

Once it was unboxed, the air fryer was easy to set up.

How easy is it to set up and use?

Once you’ve assembled the parts (slotted the glass pots into the bases and slid them into the air fryer), you’re ready to go.

The included instructions were pretty straightforward to follow, explaining the different functions and how to set timers and temperatures.

I’d say the best way to get a feel for how this works and all the different settings is just to have a play about.

We found that sometimes, if you were trying to cook two things at the same time but weren’t using the match cook or smart finish functions, you could end up accidentally stopping the thing that was cooking and had to reset both sides. This was probably user error on our part, but it was annoying when it happened. Otherwise, it was very easy to use and we rarely had any issues.

Is the Ninja Crispi DualZone 6-in-1 good for a family?

Ninja says that with its two 3.8L glass pots, this air fryer can serve six to eight people. They use the example of chicken wings and fries and I think, yes, you probably could make that work.

However, even feeding a family of four was a bit of a squeeze with this air fryer, so I don’t think you could reliably say it’s suitable for bigger families. You wouldn’t be able to fit a medium chicken in one of the pots, for example, if you wanted to do a roast dinner. 

In my household I usually cook for the kids separately on weeknights, so for me an air fryer this size wouldn’t be a problem most of the time. But if you were looking for something to consistently cook with to feed a bigger family, I think you’d need a bigger air fryer.

I tested some of the recipes from the air fryer's 'quick start guide'.

How easy is the Ninja Crispi DualZone 6-in-1 to clean?

One of the best things about this air fryer was how easy it was to keep clean. Both of the glass pots are dishwasher safe, as are the metal crisper plates that go inside. 

The first time I tried washing it, I spent ages trying to prise the glass pot from the bases. I managed to get one off but suffered a nail breakage in the process.

However, I looked online and found pictures of the whole thing, base and all, in the dishwasher, so after that discovery cleaning was a much simpler operation!

If you’re using the crisper plate but no air fryer liner, then you do need to wash the pots after pretty much every use. With a silicone liner you can go longer but the air in the air fryer doesn’t circulate as well, so your food might take longer or be less crispy.

(I did see one ‘hack’ online suggesting using a silicone liner under the crisper plate, but I haven’t tried that yet.)

Is the dehydrate function worth having?

One of the air fryer’s six settings is ‘dehydrate’, which is one of those fancy things you see contestants on Masterchef doing when they want to remove moisture from their food.

It honestly wasn’t a function I thought I’d use much, but seeing as the air fryer had it, I did test it a few times.

The first time I tried it, I attempted sun-dried tomatoes (minus the sun, obviously). Recipes online suggested you could do these using the dehydrate function in ‘three to six hours’, which wasn’t especially helpful. So, I opted to set my Ninja to 85°C for one hour initially to gauge how long they’d actually take.

After an hour, they were looking a bit dehydrated (think a couple of hours’ sunbathing) but they still had some juice to them, so they needed a bit more work.

In the end I took them out after three hours and they were more ‘two weeks in Lanzarote’ than ‘two hours on Brighton beach’.

The Ninja manual reckons dehydrating tomatoes takes six hours, and actually, all of the foods it recommended dehydrating had a long timeframe. A banana had a time of eight to 10 hours.

This really surprised me, as I had envisioned dehydration being a quick process, a bit like using one of those vacuum clothes storage bags. I wasn’t prepared to spend an entire working day shrinking down my fruit into crispy snacks.

Anyway, I have to say that once I had played around with dehydrating, I became a bit obsessed. It went from being a function I’d never thought of touching to something I was keen to try everything on. And yes, the banana did take a full 10 hours, not a quick, toddler-friendly snack by any means!

Is the Ninja Crispi DualZone 6-in-1 good for meal prep?

One of the clever things about this air fryer is that it comes with two lids which fit on top of the glass pots, so you could batch cook and then easily store the food in your fridge until you need it.

To be totally honest, in the time I tested this air fryer I didn’t use the glass pots as containers. I don’t batch cook often, and if I do it tends to be something like chilli con carne or bolognese in the slow cooker. 

But if you’re a meal prepper or have leftovers to save, then I can see that this would be a useful option to have.

Is the Ninja Crispi DualZone 6-in-1 good value for money?

There’s no denying that at just shy of £300, this kitchen gadget is an investment. It costs £100 more than the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer AF300UK which we crowned ‘best air fryer for two people’ and it has the same overall capacity and functions.

What makes this stand out is the glass pots. You can see what you’re cooking, they’re super easy to clean and if meal prepping is your thing then the fact you can cook the food and save it for later by popping on a lid is a real plus.

Personally, I don’t know if the glass is enough of a plus for me to warrant the extra spend. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved how easy the glass pots were to clean, but because I’m not a meal prepper, I don’t know if the extra £100 would be worth it for me if I was buying this myself.

I do think Ninja products are great, though. I’d happily spend more for a premium air fryer rather than a budget air fryer; I just don’t know that I’d plump for this one.

How does it compare with other dual zone air fryers? Ninja Crispi vs Ninja Foodi vs Cosori

Final verdict: is this the glass air fryer for you?

The Ninja Crispi DualZone 6-in-1 air fryer has fast become my most used kitchen appliance, to the point I rarely turn the oven on now.

It’s brilliant at doing all the things it’s supposed to do, and it looks stylish while it’s doing it.

Overall, I think it’s great. I just wish the capacity was a bit bigger for when I’m cooking for the whole family.

It’s got a premium price tag and, while I think it’s totally justified for what is a very good air fryer, whether it’s worth £100 more than others with similar capacity really comes down to how much you like to see your food while it’s cooking.