Air frier advice please. Would you have changed your purchase in hindsight?

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If you have one what advice would you give to someone thinking of getting one?
I am thinking size ( would mainly be for 2/3 people, drawers, make/ model.
The choice is overwhelming and I don’t want to buy one and then think - I wish I had gone one with x,y and z because ….
thank you🙂

Thanks
ok- so biggest one I can fit in my tiny kitchen and one with 2 drawers and one with multiple functions?
that’s really helpful 😍

We're a family of 5, I got the largest one I could at the time (6L, one drawer) and used it so much it literally fell apart. Current new one is 7L but to be honest I could do with a couple of them.

For me, agree ninja, but my other would be my l'or coffee machine haha

I’m another with the two-drawer Ninja and I love it- use it most days.

My advice would be to think about what you expect from an air fryer. Personally, I think “fryer” isn’t an apt description and I never use to for frying things. It’s basically a very efficient mini oven so anything I’d normally roast, bake, or grill goes in there.

We’ve got the 6 in 1 Ninja. Gets used everyday, can’t fault it.

There are only 2 of us at home so I just got the smallest tower one. In hindsight I should have got a much bigger one. We use it loads more than I thought we would and if I’m cooking for 2 of us I often have to do two loads or just use the oven.

I have a 9 in one ninja. I think I would have looked at an instant pot instead. Struggling to find recipe books.

I had a little Aldi one which was just perfect for two of us. Used it almost daily until it broke.
Ordered a big dual drawer one and couldn't believe the size of it, it was a monster so I returned it. Settled for something in between but I don't love it the the old one.
Worth buying silicone liners to save on washing up.

I also agree with the Ninja Dual Max (essentially the biggest you can afford and two drawers is better than one.)

I still use our oven lots but for smaller things or cooking two things at once that need different settings it is so much more efficient. So for example last night I baked a camembert in one drawer and some part baked bread in the other. Took half the time it would have in the oven. If DH wants some fish fingers to put in a sandwich he can use the air fryer rather than heating up the whole oven to cook four fish fingers!

I do jacket potatoes a lot for lunches. Microwave for 5 mins first then 5 mins in the airfyer. They come out just as nice and crispy as having baked them in the oven for 1 hour or more.

I find it invaluable at Christmas when oven space is at a premium.

Oh I also agree with getting silicone liners, we use them a lot for messier things e.g. anything with a sauce or that is oily like sausages or glazed salmon. You can just lift them out and saves cleaning the whole air fryer.

Oh, and whatever one you decide on, have a look one Amazon to see if you can get the metal racks that allow you to “double decker” cook. I’m not sure if they’re available for all males but I got some for my two drawer Ninja and they’re really handy- especially when doing things like breaded chicken fillets or bacons where things need to be placed flat and take up a lot of drawer room when you’re cooking a few together.

We have the Ninja one with two drawers and use it all the time. It’s great as you can cook two different things at once, or small portions. The only things I use the main oven for is roasts or cooking cakes.

I think if I had a single compartment one I wouldn’t use it much.

I wish I'd got a bigger one! I use it every day.

We don’t use recipe books s and just treat as an oven, but just reduce time and/or temperature.

We got a Tower one, no idea of model but it has 3 shelves and a rotisserie chicken bit. We love it, family of 4 so needed one with quite a bit of space, it gets used every single day, sometimes along with the hob but most of the time on its own, we rarely use the oven these days unless cooking a Sunday roast or having family over. Our electricity bill dropped, it doesn't need preheating, I will admit the shelves are a pain to clean but nothing in comparison to the actual oven. Only downside to it is counter space, it's too large to fit in any cupboards so we regularly have to play musical appliances with it when we cook, but that's mostly because our kitchen is tiny and incredibly impractical

We bought a cheap basic one from Asda as we didn't know how good it would be or how much we would use it. It's amazing and we use it daily. We are now looking to get either another one or a double drawer one. So I would definitely get the biggest capacity you can afford/store and consider whether you're likely to need to cook two things simultaneously (we frequently do)

I got the ninja 15 in 1 and I love the pressure cooker function. I can taus or leave the air fryer to be honest, so I'd have been better buying an instant pot

I have one of these for two people. https://probreeze.com/products/12l-air-fryer-oven-with-rotisserie-and-dehydrator. I like it because you can use all 3 racks at the same time. It also has the rotisserie feature (but can only cope with small chickens trussed very tightly). Very easy to clean. Very easy to adjust cooking times and give something a couple of minutes extra if necessary. Or to pop something different inside on another shelf halfway through cooking time if you want to do more that one thing at once. It's big though. Also needs positioning away from the wall when in use as it gets hot at the back, this may be the case for all of them though.

I didn't consider getting a multifunction machine as I already have a serviceable pressure cooker etc and space to store them.

We have a Ninja Foodi 6-in1. It's great. It is taking up the space the slow cooker used to have (we could get rid of it as ours slow cooks too). It gets a lot of use - mostly stuff that in the past I would have grumped about turning the oven on for (1 baking-sheets worth with 10 mins cooking) such as spring rolls or part-baked bread, but I've roasted whole chickens on a bed of potatoes and other veg too. It's the pressure cooker that has surprised me the most though; I've never owned one before and didn't think it would get much use, but it is a very welcome addition! I've cooked all manner of currys, stews, and whole meat joints with the pressure lid.
I had originally wanted a 2 drawer Ninja, but they were out of stock everywhere at the time and we saw the 6-in-1 at a really good price. As it happens, I think the style we ended up with is much better suited to our style of cooking

We've recently bought another small one to take camping so we can have a bit more variety to our meals on longer trips. We chose this one based on cost and amps (so we can still run the water pump and lights whilst we're using it without tripping the EHU). The difference is marked. The build quality is definitely flimsier and the controls much more basic. It will be big enough for a side dish for 4, but nowhere near big enough for a whole meal. It only bakes and, as a drawer-type, feels more limited than our 'big pot' Ninja. It isn't big enough for wire racks, which is our most-used set up at home.

You need to think about what sort of things you'll be using it for. Could buying a multi-function model mean you could sell on other space-taking appliances?

We have a Ninja 15 in 1 (or maybe 14 in 1). Family of 4 including 2 teenage boys with hearty appetites.

I use it because it’s there but wouldn’t be in any great rush to replace it if it broke. I certainly don’t love it and quite understand the love for them that others have.

its not big enough to feed the whole family, but it’s useful if one person wants to cook a meal for themselves in a hurry.

And the noise drives me mad.

I got a Ninja 300 with 2 drawers.
Perhaps I should have got the slightly bigger Ninja 400 with 2 drawers.

I bought a two drawer Lakeland air fryer recently. It's a new model with one large drawer and one smaller. I'm using it a lot when cooking for just the two of us, but if my sons arrived I revert to the oven. I wish I had bought one with a single large drawer.

I think I would use it to cook up bits I don’t want to turn the oven on for. My daughter uses the oven for say chips, potato waffles etc and I cringe. I would use it for cooking chicken breasts and veg etc.
the choice is so mind boggling.
my ex got another daughter one for uni and it is so large it has it’s own chair on the shared kitchen!
i haven’t got much space in my kitchen so it have to be a compromise.
I am happy with my induction hob as it is extremely fast to heat and cook with.

We have a cheap single drawer one.if I had the cash I'd go for a two drawer one.
I seldom use my oven now

@Riverlee it doesn’t cook nearly as well as my oven. I would like to use the pressure cooker function more but haven’t used one much so it’s tricky! I do like being able to pressure cook a chicken then air fry to crisp it up.