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The best air fryers for easy and healthy refuelling
Did someone order teriyaki salmon?
Fuelling (and refuelling) well is key when it comes to hitting your PBs. In fact, you could say owning the right cooking gear to whip up that perfect post-run meal is just as important as buying the right running shoes.
Enter air fryers, the trending appliance you never knew you needed.
Which air fryer is best for home use?
To find the best air fryers, the Runner’s World Lab put some leading models to the test. Here they are at a glance, but you'll find their pros and cons below:
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Are air fryers worth it?
That’s a big fat yes from us. The best air fryers help you prepare tasty meals quickly and healthily – they use little to no oil to cook, putting the likes of chicken and chips firmly back on the menu.
Much like an oven, they circulate hot air to cook your food thoroughly. But because they're smaller, they get the job done faster.
Though called fryers, because they cook with hot air they actually do a lot more than 'fry’ – you can roast potatoes and bake fairy cakes in these bad boys.
They vary a lot in both size and price, but there’s an air fryer for every household and kitchen on our list, starting at £64 for a mini machine that caters for up to two people.
Is an air fryer cheaper to run than an oven?
Because they heat a smaller space and cook quickly, air fryers will use less energy than a traditional oven to prepare the same dish. This means you can enjoy delicious homemade fare without adding much to your electricity bill – that gym membership costs enough, right?
How we test air fryers
The Runner’s World Lab home experts ate well when looking for the best air fryer. To test each machine, they cook chips, chicken (either chicken kievs or a whole bird, according to the capacity) and fairy cakes.
Our testers have to try each dish to make sure everything is cooked just so. They look for perfectly cooked results every time – think crispy and fluffy chips, golden chicken skin with moist meat and evenly risen cakes that brown well.
Finally, every air fryer is judged on its performance, design, ease of use and instructions.
Dig in!
Ninja Foodi Max 9.5L Dual Zone Air Fryer AF400UK
Pros
- Prepares mouth-watering food, including perfect chicken kievs that were crispy yet juicy after just 25 minutes. Chips get our thumbs up too
- Dual drawer design lets you cook two different foods at the same time
- Sync mode coordinates cooking programmes, meaning that even if you’re cooking a different dish in each drawer, they’ll be ready to eat at the same time
Cons
- It’s a big bit of kit, so you’ll need plenty of storage or workspace in your kitchen
- It has two drawers, but neither is big enough for roasting a whole chicken
Verdict: This top scorer smashed it on test, reliably serving up delicious dinners in no time. Maybe you could squeeze in a 5K while your food is cooking, but you’d have to be quick...
Ninja Speedi ON400UK 10-in-1 Rapid Cooker & Air Fryer
Pros
- Testers were impressed with the unique one-pot Speedi meals programme, which can air fry a protein and prepare a carb simultaneously, making you a nutritious dinner in one go
- Comes with a detailed recipe book
- Air fried well – producing delicious chicken, chips and cupcakes
Cons
- The lid is awkward, with no locking feature or child lock, and the lack of viewing window means you need to interrupt cooking and open the cooker to check how your dinner is progressing
- Roasting a chicken used 27p of electricity (based on the £0.34/kwh cap) so we’d keep for quicker meals
Verdict: This quick cooker makes carb-loading easy, allowing you to your cook carbs at the same time as your protein of choice. We tried dishes including salmon and pasta, and chicken and rice in our test kitchen to tasty effect – and the extensive recipe book means inspiration won’t be in short supply. It’s perfect for squeezing in a nutritious dinner after a hard training session.
Salter 4.5L Digital Air Fryer EK4221
Pros
- Lightweight for carrying around the kitchen and easy to store
- Reliable non-stick coating makes it a breeze to clean
- 'Group-fry' function lets you cook multiple foods together in one basket without some drying out
Cons
- Slightly undercooked our chicken kievs, leaving the meat a bit mushy
- Takes trial and error to get the 'group-fry' function right – broccoli must be cut into small pieces so as not to be crunchy when steak is ready, and larger ones when cooking alongside chicken
Verdict: If your budget doesn’t stretch to a dual basket design, this offers an excellent substitute at a bargain price, particularly if you usually only cook for one or two people.
Ninja 3.8L Air Fryer & Dehydrator AF100UK
Pros
- Compact and easy to store for small kitchens
- Consistently produces fresh, crispy food – our chicken kievs scored a perfect 10 and only took 12 minutes
- Easy to clean with dishwasher-safe parts
Cons
- Can only cook small portions compared to bigger models – it fits three chicken kievs or six cupcakes
- Tricky to remove the basket after cooking as it doesn't have handles like other machines
Verdict: If you like your protein hit in the form of a golden, garlicky chicken kiev, this is the air fryer for you. It’s also light enough to move to and from the cupboard, if needs be.
Tower 9L Vortx Vizion Dual Basket Air Fryer T17100
Pros
- Cooked the juiciest, tastiest roast chicken for our tester
- Dual baskets let you cook different foods simultaneously, and syncing feature means they finish at the same time
- Responsive touch controls helpfully labelled with food icons
Cons
- Not all chips came out crisp enough for our liking – one drawer gave better results due to more powerful hot air circulation – and they took too long for our tester's liking
- Bulky design so you’ll need plenty of counter space
Verdict: This affordable, beginner-friendly model is great for cooking a full meal in one go. Post-run Sunday roast, here we come.
Instant Pot® 8L Duo Crisp™ & Air Fryer
Pros
- When you’re not air frying, you can use the Instant Pot to pressure cook, slow cook, sauté, steam, cook sous vide, roast, boil, bake and even dehydrate
- Our chips were delicious, and it scored full marks for its fluffy fairy cakes
- Great if you’re tight on space due to its versatility
Cons
- Its capacity isn’t the biggest; we were able to bake five cupcakes, two chicken kievs and three portions of chips (note: not in one go!)
- Though not the most straightforward air fryer to use, it has good instructions online
Verdict: There’s little this versatile machine doesn’t do. So if your kitchen’s on the bijou side or you simply want as many culinary options as possible for your buck, it’s a real winner.
Tower 9L Dual Basket Air Fryer T17088
Pros
- Decent-sized cooking drawers and a nine-litre capacity should accommodate ample food
- Each drawer can be set differently to cook multiple dishes at once, and you can sync them so that the food is ready at the same time
- Our fairy cakes cooked well in both drawers
Cons
- The left drawer was hotter than the right, so our chicken kievs and chips cooked unevenly
- The button controls were slightly slow to respond
Verdict: Similar in style to our top-rated Ninja, this will bring flexibility and convenience to your kitchen. It also costs £80 less, making it a more affordable buy that’s ideal if you regularly host post-run get-togethers!
Pros
- Should suit small households and kitchens, as its compact design still comfortably accommodated two chicken kievs
- Our food was reliably good too, with crispy kievs, golden chips and evenly cooked fairy cakes
- Impressive all-rounder given its lower price and diminutive size
Cons
- The digital display wasn’t always that responsive
- There’s no indicator to show when the air fryer is hot and ready to start cooking
Verdict: Mini but mighty, this air fryer is ideal for smaller groups. It costs a lot less than many of our other top scorers, so your wallet will thank you too.
Ninja Foodi Max Pro Health Grill, Flat Plate & Air Fryer AG651UK
Pros
- You can cook a whole chicken (with a little spatchcocking to make it fit) in just 65 minutes – our tester enjoyed crispy skin and moist meat
- Easy to use and comes with cooking charts that detail which function to use for what (it doubles as a health grill)
- Heats up quickly – on test it reached 200C in just three minutes
Cons
- Takes up a lot of space
- The built-in temperature probe is helpful, but only as a guide, as it was a few degrees out on test
Verdict: This is an investment, but it brings a lot to the kitchen – a good compromise if you like the sound of the winning Ninja but fancy a few extra functionalities.
Sage 22L The Smart Oven™ Air Fryer
Pros
- Has nine different cooking options – including toasting and a pizza setting – and comes with access to an e-book filled with recipes
- Our chicken was moist and tasty, and our expert was impressed with the evenly-baked fairy cakes
- Intuitively designed with a clearly labelled digital display and an audio indicator to tell you when the oven has heated up
Cons
- Similar in stature to a microwave, so you’ll need lots of room for it
- Our cooking results were mixed – the chicken’s skin didn’t crisp up and our chips were unevenly browned
Verdict: If you’ve got the counter space, this is a great model to turn to for day-to-day dinners, saving your main oven (that’ll likely cost more to run) for special occasions and bigger meals.
Tefal ActiFry Genius XL 2-in-1 Healthy Air Fryer YV970840
Pros
- The top tray rotates and the bottom tray's built-in paddle moves the food for more evenly cooked results (although the latter bunched food together occasionally)
- Nine programs (including roast, steam and bake) along with two separate trays give you 54 (yes, 54!) different cooking combinations
- Our chicken and chips were as good as the winning Ninja Foodi Max Dual Zone, making it a trustworthy buy
Cons
- It’s bulky if you’ve got a small kitchen
- Exterior gets hot – the viewing window carries a temperature warning, and our testing reinforced the need for this, but the handle stayed cool
Verdict: This nifty buy can pretty much prepare your whole dinner. It’ll feed a crowd too — just make sure you’ve got the room for it.
Breville Halo Rotisserie Air Fryer Oven VDF127
Pros
- Easy to use with clear instructions, well-labelled and responsive controls and thoughtful design details, such as a digital countdown and internal light for straightforward monitoring
- Consistently reliable, it roasted our chicken evenly and prepared delicious chips
- Cleans up easily thanks to a removable door and dishwasher-safe accessories
Cons
- Awkward putting the chicken into the oven and onto the rotisserie spit; we had to tie ours up tightly
- A large cooker, it may be too big for some cupboards, so you’ll need tall shelves or ample worktop space
Verdict: If the thought of packing in your protein with rotisserie chicken makes your stomach grumble, this machine is your perfect match. You can enjoy that and more on a regular basis with this machine.
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