There's lots of misinformation about air fryers, and because they became so popular so quickly, there's some pretty dubious reporting on their strengths and weaknesses. That's why we insist on first-hand experience of every air fryer we feature.
We test air fryers in our test kitchen, testing a huge range of meals to see if they're up to the task. We really try everything - we're as interested in trying these with pizza rolls as we are with trialling gourmet salmon or a whole roast chicken.
Our tests are standardised across each product to keep them fair an unbiased. At the end of the process, we know exactly which are the best air fryers and which haven't made the cut.
How we test air fryers
We test air fryers in our specialist test kitchen, using them to cook a wide range of air fryer staples. They're tested by our panel of expert consumer journalists with years of experience of testing small kitchen appliances.
When we can't get our hands on a sample in the test kitchen, we send it to our specialist contributing editors to test in their own homes. We've also taken these air fryers in our own homes, to get a sense of how they perform in the average home as well as under ideal test conditions.
How we choose air fryers to test
The first step in the process is identifying the air fryers we want to test. We focus on the latest and greatest air fryers, keeping an eye out for new products and checking specifications for updates to old favorites. We tend to stick to name brands but we're open-minded; if there's an air fryer from a small company that looks like it can go to-to-toe with the big brands then we love to give it a shot.
We want to cover a range of price points and different features. We test basic, compact air fryers for those on a budget or working with limited kitchen space, as well as big, expensive air fryers for large families or those wanting a countertop cooker that can do it all.
Most importantly, we're editorially independent. We never take money to test or promote a particular air fryer, and we never fudge the results. The review you see is the truth of the test - only genuinely good air fryers make the buying guide.
How we test French fries
French fries are an air fryer classic. Air fryers were pretty much made for these - they take far less oil than a deep fryer, so the calorie content is much lower. Cooking fries in a faster than a traditional oven and costs less on your energy bills. The mark of a good air fryer is a
We've tested French fries in a couple of ways. We often use frozen fries. They're a proven I-need-food-now dinner, and a great midnight snack, but more importantly, it shows us how well the air fryer can cook food from frozen. We also test homemade French fries to see how how well the air fryer can crisp the skin of the potatoes while cooking soft, fluffy flesh inside.
Aside from the all-important taste test, we also assess evenness. We want all the French fries to be evenly golden, with no overcooked or undercooked patches. We're looking for French fries cooked to perfection as fast as possible.
How we test roast vegetables
I think air frying vegetables is the single best way to roast them. It takes half the time of roasting them in the oven and needs - at most - a teaspoon of cooking oil. We test air fryers with all sorts of vegetables, from zucchini to bell peppers and aubergines. My personal favorite is to test with asparagus when it's in season. We're looking for vegetables with a delicious char on the outside but moist, juicy interiors.
This is a good test for speed, but it also shows if the air fryer is overpowered. If the fan in air fryer is too powerful, it will blow the sliced vegetables all over the basket and won't cook them evenly. If the air fryer can't maintain a slightly lower temperature, it will incinerate the vegetables and dry them out, so it's a good check for power.
How we test frozen food
Air fryers excel at cooking frozen food quickly. They're the perfect appliance for those evenings where you've had a long day at work and don't have the energy to cook. We've tested all sorts of classic snacks, from chicken nuggets to pizza rolls and whole frozen fish, assessing preheat time, speed, and how the food tasted.
This is an important way of testing that the air fryers can handle frozen food - it would be dangerous if the air fryer couldn't thaw and cook chicken tenders, for example.
Our frozen food tests are particularly useful because we often use battered frozen food. When we investigated air fryers vs deep fryers, we noted that air fryers won't let you batter your food, because they don't really use oil. However, if you're cooking breadcrumb chicken from frozen or chicken nuggets, they're already battered for you, so we see that the air fryer won't dry them out or burn them.
How we test meat and fish
We also test thicker cuts of meat and fish. Air fryers are versatile appliances that aren't just for pizza rolls or tater tots - you can move beyond the late-night Scooby snack and cook delicious gourmet food much faster than a traditional oven.
This test is not only an important in its own right, but it informs us how well an air fryer can handle larger cuts of meat and fish. Small, cheap air fryers can be great at cooking small amounts of vegetables or frozen meals but stumble when cooking thicker joints of meat or fish like salmon.
How we test crispy bacon
Crispy bacon is certainly a popular challenge in the test kitchen - you should see how many people appear when it's time for the taste test. But the bacon test shows a couple of things. As with the roast vegetable test, thin strips of bacon can be blown around by overpowered fans and cook poorly, so we can test power.
This test is also good at seeing how well the air fryer can render fat. We try to get perfectly-rendered fat, so that the bacon is crisp and crunchy but never dry. It's a good test for seeing how the air fryer handles
How we test reheat functions
On a test day, we try to test as many foods as possible in the morning. These cool as we go from test to test, and we then reheat what we've cooked for lunch. This lets us test reheating function, assessing and if the air fryer dries out the food. It's also sustainable, because it means we don't waste any food left over from earlier taste tests.
How we test special features
Some air fryers have bonus features to set them aside from the rest of the market. Where there's a special feature, we put it through the wringer to make sure that it isn't just a marketing gimmick.
For example, the Paris Rhone 5.3 Quart Air Fryer claims that you can use it roast an entire chicken, so we put that to to the test on top of all the other functions. Lots of air fryers are pretty basic, so there's nothing to test, but if there's WifFi connectivity or a dual drawer system, we make sure to test it.
How we test cleaning
We also clean every air fryer by hand to see how easy they are to clean. This is a great opportunity to see if they're truly non-stick or if any food sticks to the crisping plate. We can see if there are any fiddly pieces to clean and dry, as this can often be the most frustrating part of using an air fryer. If an air fryer is diswasher-safe, we test this too.
How we test value for money
All of this is judged against the cost and warranty of the air fryer. We want the best performance for the lowest price. In some cases we mark down air fryers that cost too much, or that have short guarantees that don't help you if there's a malfunction. Cheap air fryers with poor or middling performance are also marked down here, because if there's a better air fryer for a slightly higher price, it's better value in the long run.
