17 best air fryers for cooking low-fat, fast and delicious dinners

The best air fryer is the kitchen appliance to have. For those who already have one, we don’t need to convert you to this cooking machine, and for anyone still sitting on the fence, let us fill you in on why they’re so popular.

In short, air fryers fry food with much less oil than your regular deep-fat frying or even pan frying methods. Using little to no oil, they cook food by rapidly circulating hot air, like a convection oven but even more powerful, creating a crispy finish, as if by magic. Plus, when it comes to cutting costs, they are energy efficient and average around 17p per day.

“The largest benefits one can get from air frying food is reducing overall fat content – in particular, saturated fats and trans fats, which can be harmful to health when eaten in excess,” shared registered dietician Megan Hilbert MS, RDN.

“Because air frying reduces the amount of fat content by up to 70 to 80 per cent in foods, this can also drastically reduce the number of calories eaten without sacrificing the crunch and texture that frying provides,” Hilbert added. If that sounds rather tempting, keep reading below to see the tried and tested favourites.

How we tested

Turning off our ovens, we lined up all of the best air fryers we could get our hands on, to see which ones truly stood out from the crowd. Whipping up steak, chips, vegetables and more, no recipe was off limits, as we worked our way through our usual array of dinners – and even a roast – all done in these machines.

Size, shape and noise level were all key considerations, as well as how fast they cooked, how easy they were to use and, most importantly, how the resulting food actually tasted. Keep reading below to see which air fryers stood the test.

The best air fryers for 2024 are:

• Best air fryer overall – Salter EK4548 dual air fryer: £124.99, Amazon.co.uk
• Best budget air fryer – Tower T17021 family size air fryer: £55, Amazon.co.uk
• Best dual air fryer – Ninja Foodi AF400UK 9.5L dual-zone air fryer: £179, Amazon.co.uk
• Best air fryer for cooking meat – Tower xpress pro combo 10-in-1 digital air fryer: £82,63, Amazon.co.uk
• Best for families – Lakeland dual basket air fryer: £79.99, Lakeland.co.uk