Its streamlined interface has only four preprogrammed settings—air fry, roast, bake, and reheat—all operated by a single dial, which makes the Vortex Mini easy to use right out of the box. Plus, the air fryer is lightweight, with a diminutive footprint and the lightest basket of any air fryer we tested. These machines are slim, look inoffensive, and have small footprints for air fryers of this moosoo air fryer capacity. The Vortex comes with both a stainless-steel rotisserie basket for small items like fries and nuggets and a spit for a chicken or roast; both attachments can be set to rotate as they air fry or roast. It takes a bit of a learning curve to get the hang of installing them. Also included are two slotted nonstick cooking trays and a nonstick drip pan for the bottom of the fryer.
The tray can fall out when you’re dumping its contents onto a plate, but this problem is easily remedied with a spatula or potholder. The Plus 6-in-1 Air Fryer offers a cooking temperature range from 35ºC / 95ºF to 205ºC / 400ºF for up to 72 hours at a time – although the latter is at lower temperatures. At its maximum temperature, the air fryer can cook for up to one hour. It’s also possible to adjust the cooking temperature in one-degree increments, compared to the three-degree increments offered by the Instant Vortex Plus. Millie Fender is Head of Reviews on the Homes and Gardens Ecommerce team.
Even people who already have a convection oven may appreciate the speed, convenience, and extra cooking space that these appliances offer. Throughout years of testing air fryers, we’ve concluded that even the best models can’t achieve the perfect golden crispiness that deep frying offers, but some come impressively close. With a little finessing, some of our favorite oven and deep-fry recipes can work quite well in an air fryer. Since 2017, we’ve spent around 300 hours testing air fryers, cooking up fresh chicken wings, frozen french fries, pizza, brownies, and more in dozens of air fryers and convection toaster ovens. We’ve tested pod-shaped air fryers against air fryer toaster ovens, as well as researched and tested full-size convection ovens and deep fryers. It’s versatile, too, offering functions to bake, roast, grill, reheat and dehydrate as well as air fry.
Our winners strike the right balance between the size of the basket and the actual cubic feet of space needed for the machine. These days, basket-style air fryers can range from $50 to $350, and toaster ovens with air-frying capabilities generally run from $100 to $400. Cheaper basket-style models lack decent performance or capacity, but more expensive machines generally don’t offer much more than their $200 counterparts. Air fryers don’t generally need to be flashy to be efficient, and the prices of our top picks reflect that. For something that looks nice and fits neatly on the countertop, this 5-quart Cosori air fryer is the best budget air fryer pick. It gave excellent results for performance at a lower price than any 4- to 6-quart models we tested.
The size accommodates a 12-inch homemade pizza, a rotisserie chicken, or even a 9 x 13 snacking cake for baking. We struggle to find a downside with the performance and features of this air fryer toaster oven (of course, the toast we made was also perfect). If we had to choose a con, the size might be cumbersome for some cooks, and it’s certainly not portable or easily stored. But the many presets, generous size, and accompanying app make this one of the best multifunctional air fryers available. We’ve tested dozens more air fryers, including more Cosori models, the Philips Premium XXL, the tiny Dash Compact, and the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone.
She spends a lot of time testing everything from toasters to air fryers in her own apartment and recommending the very best ones to readers. As with most Instant air fryers I’ve tried, the removable inserts can go in the dishwasher, as can the basket. With that being said, you’d need a large dishwasher to fit the basket inside, and it’s probably a lot easier to wash by hand. The basket is lined with nonstick, meaning it wipes clean easily. The control panel does smudge a bit when you touch it with oily fingertips, so spray it down with a little cleaning spray and clean with a microfiber cloth to keep it smudge-free. Remove any packaging or plastic debris from the product before turning it on.
They didn’t get quite as crisp as those we cooked on the vented rack, and this is probably because the rotary function only works in the roast mode — not air fry. Many people in the Vortex Plus’ official Facebook group suggested using it for chicken wings, sausages, and hotdogs. I’ve got almonds and petite carrots on my “to-rotisserie basket” list next. If you’ve previously owned an inexpensive air fryer in the 3-quart range with a small round basket (raises hand), the air frying capacity of the Vortex Plus is enough to get excited about. The two nonstick roasting trays easily hold two pounds of fries or tater tots OR two baked potatoes, eight ounces of asparagus, and two steaks all at one time. The Vortex Plus takes two to three minutes to preheat — way less than a conventional oven OR my other air fryer — at which point it chimes and asks you to add the food.
Although inert solids, PTFE, PFA and FEP are classified as PFAS substances and must be disclosed. The SyncCook feature is also an easy shortcut to use when using both baskets to make the same recipe. The Oster DuraCeramic Air Fryer took more than twice as long to cook fries than our top pick, and the fries were still not crispy enough. The Ninja AF101 Air Fryer has a flat, removable tray liner in its basket to keep food from sitting in oil, but the tray falls out when you turn food out of the basket, which could potentially cause burns. Our test kitchen teams rely on the same rigorous development process and share the same commitment to creating reliable recipes and trustworthy reviews.
My favorite feature of the moosoo air fryer Plus is the window in the basket. Unlike most pod-style air fryers, you don’t have to open the basket and let heat escape to check if your food is done. On the Instant Vortex Plus, you can just press the light button and look through the window.