The best Ninja air fryers and countertop cookers

If making the most of your counter space is important to you, the Double Stack (DoubleStack in the US) is the air fryer to go for. Not only does it have two cooking drawers with an overall 9.5L/10QT capacity, but the cooking racks allow you to stack food in two layers in each drawer, giving you much more flexibility. If you often tend to cook a protein and three types of vegetables for dinner, you’ll be able to do it all in the Double Stack without resorting to your oven, microwave or hob.

Like Ninja’s other dual-drawer air fryers, it has an easy-to-use control panel, with match and sync functions. Although it has has fewer modes than many other models – there’s air fry, max crisp (for frozen food), bake, roast, reheat and dehydrate – you can adjust them by time and temperature to cook almost anything you want.

However, thanks to its design, the heat sources are at the backs of the drawers and, when we tested it, we found that it did cook some types of foods slightly unevenly. As there’s no shake alert, you’ll need to remember to step in midway and mix up potatoes or fries. Altogether though, it provided fast, crispy results and is an efficient cooker.

There are now more Double Stack models to choose from. There’s a compact model, the 7.6L/8QT SL300 (UK)/SL201 (US). It comes in black, instead of the original’s dark grey, and is available from Ninja in the UK for £229.99 and from Ninja in the US for $199.99.

There’s also the Double Stack XL with Smart Cook system. It has the same dimensions as the original but features a cooking probe for meat and fish, making it a better choice if you use your air fryer to cook from fresh often. It’s priced at £289.99 from Ninja UK and $249.99 from Ninja US.

Finally, if you’re in the UK, you can buy the original Double Stack XL in a special edition white colourway. You can only buy it from Currys in the UK and it’s also priced at £269.99.

Buy the Ninja Double Stack if: you want to cook meals with lots of separate sides dishes – and if you value your counter space.

If you want to use your oven less, the FlexDrawer is an excellent alternative. Its unique offering is the ability to combine its two 5.2-litre cooking spaces into a 10.4-litre ‘megazone’ for roasts and baking full-size cakes.

In the US, the equivalent air fryer, the FlexBasket, only has a 7QT capacity. It also lacks the UK model’s ‘prove’ cooking mode. It’s otherwise a similar model, and we’d still recommend it.

But you can also use the two cooking areas separately, in the same way that you’d use any dual-zone air fryer. The FlexDrawer has all the functionality you’d expect, with match and sync functions to make dual-drawer cooking simple.

There are seven cooking modes: max crisp (for frozen food), air fry, roast, bake, reheat (for leftovers), dehydrate (for jerky and dried fruit) and prove (for dough). The FlexDrawer comes with a manual containing recipes and a cooking chart, with suggested times and temperatures for popular food, so it’s a good option for air fryer novices.

Still, its controls and digital display are so intuitive and easy to use that you likely won’t need to resort to the manual.

It’s extremely powerful, so you’ll probably need to adjust your air fryer recipes down but once you do so, it’ll produce evenly cooked, crispy food.

Buy the Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer if: you want to switch more of your cooking – including baking full-sized cakes – your your air fryer from your oven.

If you haven’t tried a dual-zone air fryer, they’re well worth the investment – as long as you have the counter space to stand one, as they are big appliances.

This Ninja model – called the called the Foodi 6-in-1 Smart 10-qt. 2-Basket Air Fryer (DZ550) in the US and the Foodi MAX Dual Zone Air Fryer (AF451UK) in the UK – has every feature you could possibly want, including a cooking probe, for perfect meat and fish.

Each basket has a 5QT/4.75L capacity and you can programme them independently, match them, or even set them in sync mode – to finish cooking at the same time, for hassle free meals.

It has six cooking modes: air fry, max crisp air fry, bake, roast, dehydrate, and reheat. There’s no grill function, however.

This Ninja works beautifully and looks pretty good as well. We were slightly disappointed by the fact that it’s almost entirely plastic, as the Ninja Speedi and the Ninja health grill have steel in their construction.

Buy the Ninja Foodi two-basket air fryer if: you have a larger household and want a quick way to make meals for the entire family.

If you don’t need quite as much cooking space as the dual-basket Ninja Foodi provides, the Speedi could be the one for you. What sets it apart from competitors is its Speedi meals function. You can cook a protein and a starch at the same time – in just 15 minutes. So you can make pasta, rice, quinoa (and so on) at the same time that you air fry chicken breasts or salmon. What’s more, the air fried food will still come out perfectly crispy.

The Speedi can also steam air fry, steam bake, steam, grill, air fry, bake/roast, dehydrate, sear/sauté and slow cook, with the steam functions giving extra crispy results. It’s easy to use, with a digital display and button operation.

It’s robustly made and will last – but it’s also a hulking countertop presence with an oddly industrial look. Those with young children might also want to know that you can’t lock the heavy lid in the open position, so you’ll want to keep little hands away from it.

Buy the Ninja Speedi if: you want to cook complete meals with pasta or rice.

This air fryer is larger than you’d expect at 10.6 x 15 x 16in (27 x 39 x 41cm) and needs more space behind it when in use, to open the lid. But it’s a good looking appliance, which somewhat mitigates its countertop presence. It has a digital display and touchscreen controls and boasts six cooking methods: grill, air fry, roast, bake, dehydrate and reheat.

Still, it has a lower capacity than either of the two models above, with a 4QT/3.8L main cooking pot. It comes with an air fryer basket and 9x13in (23x33cm) heavy grill plate with plenty of space to cook steak, chicken wings, sausages and the like. We found that it could cook three 6-8oz steaks or six burgers at a time, at temperatures of up to 450°F/260°C, making it an excellent indoor grill.

Thanks to Ninja’s ‘Smart Cook’ system – essentially an integrated meat thermometer and meat cooking presets, you can be confident that your steaks will come out perfectly every time.

Buy the Ninja health grill if: you regularly grill steaks, burgers or other meats. That’s where this air fryer’s strengths lie.

If you’re in the US, Ninja has added the word Pro to the end of this appliance’s name to distinguish between it and an earlier model. In the UK, it’s just the PossibleCooker. It’s a multi-cooker and it doesn’t air fry – but it does slow cook, steam and sear/sauté. It comes with a glass lid and matching serving spoon, which can sit atop the lid in a tool rest.

Searing/sautéing isn’t offered by all slow cookers and it means you can brown onions or meat in place before making a soup, sauce or stew. You’ll also know exactly when it’s time to add food as the PossibleCooker will beep when it’s heated to searing temperature. It makes multi-stage cooking in one pot straightforward.

The PossibleCooker is an attractive grey-blue, which give is some countertop appeal – good news, as it’s a large appliance. Inside is a matching, non-stick, large-capacity (8.5QT/8L) aluminium pot, which is considerably lighter than the ceramic cooking pots offered by many rivals. Altogether, it only weighs 12lbs/6kg – although bear in mind that it’ll be far more than that if it’s full of stew.

The cooker’s controls are straightforward. You simply select a cooking mode and then toggle the time and temperature – within the parameters of that function. This means that there’s no manual mode, which is presumably a safety function to stop people from cooking for 12 hours on a high heat.

If you’re in the UK, you can now buy a white model of the Foodi PossibleCooker from Currys for £149.99.

Buy the Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker if: you want to cook larger volumes of soups and stews cheaply, make healthier food or try out batch cooking.

This portable electric oven makes all types of outdoor cooking easy. Functioning as a pizza oven, high-heat roaster, and barbecue smoker, it’s a simple plug-and-play appliance, turning out succulent meats, artisan-style pizza and even brownies. But what makes a difference to the flavour of the food is the smoker box, which can be filled with wood pellets for a smoky taste to your cooking.

Overall, it has eight functions, including pizza (calzone, thin crust and deep pan), two roasting functions for smaller cuts and larger joints, baking, smoking, dehydrating and keeping food warm. Each has a preset, with the option to change time and temperature. The oven comes with a guide to help you to choose the best setting for what you’re cooking.

As it’s an outdoor oven, it can reach much higher temperatures than indoor appliances – up to 370°C/700°F – letting you cook proper pizza, for a start. There’s enough space inside to cook a whole chicken as well, up to 3kg/6.6lbs.

Buy the Ninja Woodfire Electric Outdoor Oven if: you want an easy, versatile way to cook outside, including pizza making.

If you want an outdoor grill and barbecue that’ll give food a smoky flavour but don’t want to mess around with gas canisters, charcoal or wood, this could be what you’ve been waiting for. Ninja’s Woodfire Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker will give you the option of precision cooking outside. It comes with a recipe booklet and the grill will beep when it’s at the correct temperature, so you’ll get consistent results. Delicious ones too: like the Electric Outdoor Oven, smoky flavour comes via the smoker box, which you fill with wood pellets.

The grill size isn’t as large as a traditional barbecue at 38 x 28cm (15 x 11in), so you’ll only be cooking one or two dishes at a time. This makes it a better option for couple or small families – a larger family won’t get as much use from it, nor is it ideal for big groups of guests. On the other hand, it’s a versatile option and even comes with a crisper basket for air frying and a recipe book for inspiration and cooking settings.

It has a 1.5m power cable, which means you’re limited as to where you can use it, although the plug can attach to a weatherproof outdoor socket. Bear in mind that it should be stored in a shed or garage, unless you also buy the optional cover.

Buy the Ninja Woodfire Electric BBQ Grill and Smoker if: you’re looking for a BBQ alternative that’ll give you easier, more consistent results.