If you have a Ninja appliance, please help me work out the difference!

[Charlieandlola]

I am in the market for an airfyer ( one of the double basket ones I think given our family's size so we can cook say chicken in one and chips in the other basket ), but am now confused by the 9 in 1 and 7 in 1s which can do this, plus other functions eg pressure cooking.

Now I have a vivid memory of my mother's pressure cooker exploding all over the kitchen and her never usingone again, but I am sure things have moved on since the 1980s and they are no longer death traps - so keen to see if this would be useful, or if I should stick to the air fryer alone. Thanks

I love my ninja foodie, the air fryer is amazing things that would take ages in the oven can be done in half the time. I heated up a crispy duck last night that would have taken 45 mins in the oven was 15 mins in the air fryer. Crispy bacon takes 6 mins with no oil. Homemade potato wedges take about 20 mins.

The pressure cooker is brilliant, you can pan fry in it so brown your meat and onions etc then add the liquid to the same pan and pressure cook for a fraction of the what the oven or hob time would be. I use it for casseroles, bolognaise sauce, curries etc. Baked sweet potatoes are great in it too, a few minutes pressure cook then a crisp up in air fryer. Its very easy and totally safe, much more advanced than they used to be. Youtube was handy for learning how to use it.

Although I must say I prefer roasts in the oven, they taste better and if I cook all the veg at the same time I feel it justifies the cost of using it.

The only problem is that I have only one! I do wonder what the instantpot was like though, ninja has an aluminium cooking container whereas the instantpot is steel which I think might have more longevity.

Not sure if I’m much good to you but I’m on my very first airfryer and it doesn’t have a pressure cooker so can’t give you much of a comparison.

I have the Ninja Foodie Dual Zone- the one with the two baskets.

I find it really good.

The settings are- airfry, airfry max crisp (for chips), bake, roast, reheat, bake, and dehydrate.

I mainly use the airfry setting. Haven’t tried roast or dehydrate at all.

I like that you can have each basket on complete different settings and can then set it so they finish at the same time.

I use the bake setting to do those self-bake bread rolls. I put bacon into the other basket and have fresh bacon rolls.

I don’t cook chips a lot at home and find them only ok out of the airfry, you have to shake the basket a lot or you’ll end up with the middle chips undercooked, no matter how few you out in the basket.

Sausages come out great out of it, breaded chicken, reheated pizza- lots of stuff really and it’s handier than heating up the oven. Food cooks faster too.

My favourite thing about it is that the baskets can be cleaned in the dishwasher so clean-up is really easy.

@whadda thank you - this is the one I think I want, for all of the reasons you say. Having been on the Ninja website and JL I am now wondering though about the 7 in 1 and 9 in 1 instead. Did you consider these ?

@Ohsugarhoneyicetea thank you - so it is essentially a quicker Slow cooker !

I've got the 9 in 1 and I dehydrate left over fruit and veg loads.
I also cook rice a lot as I can stick it on then get on with the rest of the meal.
It's better for sushi rice than a rice cooker is.

I have the one lid 9-1 (upgraded from the two lid 7-1) and the max Grill (which also air fry’s!). I haven’t tried to dual air fryer though.

I love both of them and use both all the time. What sort of meals do you tend to cook? This will help with what you need.

I wouldn’t worry about the difference between 7-1 and 9-1 unless you will really use the two extras, I think it’s yoghurt and dehydrate?! Although sometimes it’s on offer for the same price.

The biggest one lid and the XL grill have the probe that cooks meat to perfection with is a bit bonus.

I cook bolognaise, chilli, stews, curry’s etc all the time in the one lid but use the grill for all sorts too including Yorkshire puddings, bacon, burgers, meat joints (alternate between the two depending on what’s in the other).

The only thing I turn my oven on for now is pizza as they don’t fit!

[quote Charlieandlola]@whadda thank you - this is the one I think I want, for all of the reasons you say. Having been on the Ninja website and JL I am now wondering though about the 7 in 1 and 9 in 1 instead. Did you consider these ?

@Ohsugarhoneyicetea thank you - so it is essentially a quicker Slow cooker ![/quote]
I didn’t consider them. They look great but just wasn’t what I’d need.

I go to two extremes with cooking- either something low and slow that I have in the oven all day long, or quick mid-week dish that the airfryer is great for. I don’t think I’d ever have use for pressure cooker.

That said, it’s just me and my husband at home, and we both WFH so I often put a bolognese/curry/casserole on to simmer at lunchtime to have that evening, and since it’s just the two of us, there’s plenty for the next day/freezer etc. I can completely see the benefit for a bigger family that needs to get dinner done in limited time in the evening.

The pressure cooker is all about energy saving for me. I can pressure cook a casserole, stew, bolognaise and even make stock in 1/5 of the time it would take on the stove or in the oven. So a fraction of the electricity is used, which is increasingly more important.

My Ninja Foodi is my best friend. It has the two lids and I never use my oven anymore. I don't need two baskets, I just pop in whatever and add if some things take a few minutes left to cook.

It does absolutely everything in hardly any time, cheese on toast to roast chicken, hot pots to muffins. I do agree a large pizza doesn't fit in though, I just squish it up!

By way of an update, I have bought the smaller of the two Ninja Duals and its brilliant. The size is perfectly adequate for me and 2 adult children.

I discounted the 7 in 1 and 9 in 1 as have a slow cooker for all the mushy type cooking, and the gadgets are very large/heavy and I don't have the space.

I nearly bought a Ninja Grill, but then read that unless I bought the largest XL one, none of the baskets fitted inside the grill for storage, which again put me off. And I found I can grill effectively in the baskets of the dual.

I bought it from Ninja website, down to £189 and then 10% off for new customers so I paid £170.

Its great to be able to sync both baskets, chips with no fat are brilliantly crispy on Max Fry, and meats/veg on roast in the other side are really juicy and not dried out at all.

Hope this process of elimination helps someone else !