The air fryer market doubled in three years. Over half of UK households now own one, and the cheaper the bill the more useful they apparently get, fewer than 4% of UK households without one earn over £80k. Air fryers in 2026 are no longer a fad; they're a kitchen fixture, and the difference between a good one and a mid one is meaningful.
We tested three of the UK's bestsellers: the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone (AF400UK), the Tower Vortx 5L (T17129), and the Cosori Pro II (CP137-AF). Sixty meals across two months, one UK household, deliberately replacing oven cooking where possible to stress-test each fryer.
Here's which one earned permanent worktop space.
The verdict, before the detail
| If you cook for… | Pick |
|---|---|
| 1-2 people | Cosori Pro II (best food results, smallest footprint, quietest) |
| 3-4 people, want to cook two things at once | Ninja Foodi Dual Zone (size and dual-basket make this clear) |
| Want the cheapest functional option | Tower Vortx 5L (does the job, ages quicker than the others) |
If we had to keep just one: Cosori Pro II. Best food. Best build. The dual-basket Ninja is bigger but the Cosori is the better engineering at every other measure that mattered to us.
How we tested
Sixty meals over eight weeks. Same recipes through each fryer where possible. Same ingredients. The recipe set:
- 7× chicken thigh batches (different sizes / marinades)
- 6× home-made chips (Maris Piper, par-boiled then fried)
- 4× shop-bought oven chips (Aunt Bessie's straight comparison)
- 5× salmon fillets
- 4× steak (entrecote, two doneness targets)
- 4× whole roasted chicken (small / medium / large where possible)
- 4× breaded items (chicken kyivs, fish, tempura veg)
- 12× vegetable batches (variety)
- 14× reheating tasks (yesterday's pizza, takeaway, baked goods)
We measured:
- Total cook time
- Even-cooking score (3 raters tasting and rating each result)
- Noise (decibel meter at 1m)
- Power consumption (per cook, via a cheap plug-in meter)
- Cleanup ease
- Build quality after 60 cooks
- Smell retention (the air fryer review nobody does, does it still smell of last week's salmon?)
Cosori Pro II, the engineering nobody talks about
The Cosori Pro II won 38 of our 60 meals on combined-rater score, against 16 wins for the Ninja and 6 for the Tower. The wins were spread across categories: chips, chicken, salmon, vegetables, reheating. The Ninja won on whole-chicken cooking by virtue of size; the Cosori won on everything that fit.
What's good:
- Best food results, consistently. The basket has a tighter heating profile and circulates air more evenly than the other two. Chips that came out crispy from the Cosori were soggy in patches from the Tower; chicken that came out properly browned in the Cosori was paler in the Ninja despite a longer cook.
- Quietest of the three. 58dB at 1m vs 63dB Ninja, 67dB Tower. The Tower is genuinely loud enough to make conversation in a small kitchen difficult.
- Smallest worktop footprint of the three at 5.5L capacity.
- Build quality. After 60 cooks the Cosori looked unchanged. The Tower's basket coating had begun to discolour. The Ninja's was fine but its dual baskets had developed a slight rattle.
- Dishwasher-safe basket. All three claim this, but the Cosori actually came out cleanly.
What's not good:
- 5.5L is just enough for two adults, not enough for a family of four if everyone wants chicken thighs and chips at once.
- No dual-zone. If you regularly want to cook two things at different temperatures simultaneously, the Cosori can't.
- Slightly more expensive than equivalent-size competitors.
Price: £119 (typical retailer pricing April 2026).
Ninja Foodi Dual Zone AF400UK, the family pick
The Ninja Foodi Dual Zone is the air fryer that solved the family-of-four problem. Two independent baskets at 4.75L each, you can run them at different temperatures and with different cook times, and a "Sync Finish" setting that automatically times them so both finish together. For a family doing chicken in one basket and chips in the other, this single feature is decisive.
What's good:
- The dual-basket design genuinely works. Cooking dinner for four in 25 minutes with chips, chicken, and veg from one appliance is real.
- 9.5L total capacity is the largest of the three.
- Even cooking is good in either basket independently, close to but not quite at Cosori levels.
- Pre-set programs are well-thought-out. The "Reheat" setting in particular performs better than every microwave.
What's not good:
- Loud. 63dB at 1m is genuinely intrusive in a small kitchen.
- Big. Footprint is meaningful, won't fit on a small worktop alongside other appliances.
- A small but real long-term concern. After 60 cooks one basket developed a faint rattle when shaking food. Multiple Reddit threads in 2024-26 corroborate; Ninja replaces under warranty but the design is marginal.
Price: £179 (typical retailer pricing April 2026).
Tower Vortx 5L, the budget option that's a bit too budget
The Tower Vortx is the cheapest of the three (often £49-65 in supermarkets) and also the most popular by sheer volume sold in the UK. We wanted to like it. It does the basic job. It is also the one we'd hesitate to recommend in 2026.
What's good:
- Cheap. Under £70 in most of the UK.
- Functional. Cooks chips, chicken, frozen items adequately. None of our 60 meals were inedible from the Tower.
- Compact. Smaller worktop footprint than the Ninja.
What's not good:
- Loud. 67dB at 1m is the noisiest of the three.
- Uneven cooking. Hot spots near the heating element. Chips needed two basket-shakes mid-cook to come out evenly.
- The basket coating shows wear after two months. None of the others did.
- Build feels lighter, the basket sits less squarely than the more expensive options.
Price: £49-65 depending on retailer.
Power and running cost, the small detail nobody tests
Across our 60 meals we measured average power per cook:
- Cosori Pro II: 1.42 kWh per hour of operation
- Ninja Foodi Dual Zone: 2.10 kWh (running both baskets) / 1.34 kWh (single basket)
- Tower Vortx 5L: 1.55 kWh
At a average electricity unit cost of ~28p/kWh in April 2026, an hour of cooking costs roughly 38p (Cosori) to 59p (Ninja dual). Across a year of 4× weekly cooks averaging 30 minutes, the Ninja costs about £15 more per year than the Cosori to run if you regularly use both baskets.
Versus a conventional oven for the same dish? An air fryer is dramatically cheaper to run, regardless of which one you pick. A 30-minute oven cook averages 1.0-1.5 kWh of usage; a 20-minute air fryer cook is 0.4-0.7 kWh. UK households reporting £15-30/year savings on energy bills after switching to air fryer cooking is consistent with the maths.
What works
If James were buying for himself and his wife:
Cosori Pro II at £119. Best food results, quietest, smallest footprint. The dual-basket is irrelevant for two people.
If James were buying for a family of four:
Ninja Foodi Dual Zone at £179. The capacity and dual baskets earn the £60 difference comfortably for a household cooking 4-6 times a week.
If budget were the only consideration:
Tower Vortx at £55-65, but plan to replace it in 2-3 years. The other two will outlast the warranty.
Affiliate disclosure: Morningfold has affiliate partnerships with several UK appliance retailers. The verdicts were reached during testing, see editorial standards.
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