Journalist Glenn Kelly puts three air fryers to the test to see which ones deliver the best dinner for a busy family, without taking up the entire kitchen counter.
Walk into a busy family kitchen at five o'clock on most weeknights, and you will notice how the technology used to prepare our meals has changed over the past decade.
Whereas the senses were once aware of bubbling saucepans, hot ovens and smoky grills, for many, these have all been replaced by one simple but miraculous device: the humble air fryer.
Now, if you have decided to take the leap into this modern form of cooking, and let’s face it, most have, the next question is, what is the best unit to buy?
Choosing the right air fryer for a busy household has evolved from a simple "single or double" decision into a strategic choice between capacity, speed, and counter space.
In this review, we dive into three heavyweight contenders that represent the current peak of kitchen convenience:
- Tefal Easy Fry Dual XXL
- Ninja MAX Dual Zone
- Philips 4000 Series Stacked
The Tefal XXL is the giant of the group, boasting a massive 11L total capacity split into two asymmetrical drawers (6.5L and 4.5L), perfect for roasting a whole chicken alongside a side of fries.
The Ninja MAX remains the gold standard for performance, utilising its 9.5L capacity and "Max Crisp" technology to deliver results that often surpass traditional ovens.
Meanwhile, the Philips 4000 Series challenges the status quo with a "stacked" vertical design, reclaiming 45% of your worktop space without sacrificing its 10L capacity or the luxury of viewing windows.
Whether you prioritise feeding a crowd, achieving the perfect golden crunch, or finally reclaiming your kitchen counters, one of these machines is designed to fit your life. Let’s see how they stack up.
Best Overall Machine
Ninja Max Dual Zone 9.5L
Ninjakitchen.ie €259.99
Rating: 5/5
The Ninja MAX Dual Zone 9.5L remains the gold standard for large households seeking to ditch their conventional ovens.
While many competitors have entered the dual-basket arena, the Ninja’s combination of raw power, intuitive logic, and generous capacity keeps it at the top of the leaderboard.
The 9.5L capacity is the headline feature, but it’s the flexibility that won me over. I’ve found that the two 4.75L drawers are perfectly sized; I can roast a small chicken in one side while the other handles a mountain of crispy potatoes, more than ample for my family of four, and a greedy Labradoodle.
In terms of ease of use, like so many things Ninja-related, the Max couldn’t be easier to set up.
The digital instrument panel is intuitive, and within seconds, dinner is being cooked and prepped to your personal standards and preferences.
Like most dual drawer air fryers, there is the option to cook both drawers at different temperatures and adjust timers independently. However, I really was drawn to the sync feature.
There is a specific kind of domestic peace that comes from programming two totally different foods with different cooking times and knowing the Ninja will hold back the faster drawer so they both finish exactly when the timer hits zero. No more soggy fries waiting for the steak to sear.
I’ve pushed the Max Crisp setting to its limits, and at 240°C, it’s a game-changer for frozen foods. It delivers a crunch that my traditional fan oven simply cannot replicate and manages to cook in an impressively even manner.
It’s not perfect, of course. This thing is a beast. It takes up a massive chunk of my counter space, and because the drawers are opaque, I do find myself constantly pulling them out to check on the progress.
However, if you are after a family-sized air fryer that cooks food incredibly well, is flexible, fast and easy to clean, the Ninja is worth every penny in my opinion.
Best Air Fryer for a Large Family
Tefal Easy Fry Dual XXL
Tefal.co.uk/ie €232.95
Rating: 4.5/5
After putting the Tefal Easy Fry Dual XXL through its paces, I’ve found it to be a refreshing departure from the standard "equal-split" dual air fryers.
With a massive 11L total capacity – the largest dual-drawer air fryer available - it’s designed for those of us who actually want to roast a full family meal without playing Tetris with the ingredients.
The standout feature for me is the uneven drawer split: a 6.5L "XXL" drawer and a 4.5L "regular" drawer. This is a stroke of genius.
In the large side, I can easily fit a 2kg whole chicken or a massive leg of lamb—something that usually requires a single-basket fryer—while the smaller side handles a family portion of roasties. It effectively solves the "dual-zone dilemma" where you often sacrifice the size of your main dish just to have a second zone.
I found the Tefal to have a powerful, efficient cooking programme. It took a little more work to fully get to grips with the user interface, but nothing that would put you off using it.
Some of the programmes seem to suggest longer cooking times than were actually required, so you have to be sure to manually check in, or your food now and again. The "crispy" results were probably not up to the Ninja’s exceptional standards, but we had no complaints from the kids with their chicken and fries.
The machine is also a behemoth and even larger than the Ninja, making storage quite troublesome. However, if you are hosting or have a large family, there is no other air fryer on the market that does such a good job of replacing the family oven, and at under €150, it is a steal in my opinion.
Best Stacking Air Fryer
Philips Stacked 4000 Series
Currys.ie €329.99
Rating: 4/5
It was important to try a "stacked" version of the modern air fryer as these are soaring in popularity, and there was no better than the Philips series 4000.
If your kitchen suffers from countertop clutter, this vertical design is a revelation—it claims to save about 45% of bench space, and it actually feels like it.
Instead of two drawers side-by-side, they’re on top of one another. It’s significantly narrower than the Ninja or Tefal, fitting into a gap in our pantry that no other dual-zone could touch. You get two 5L baskets (10L total), which is plenty of room.
I managed to fit a 1.2kg chicken in one drawer and a massive heap of Mediterranean veg in the other without any crowding.
For me, the real bonus of the Philips was the windows that allowed views into each of the drawers, even providing a light to see the state of your food without losing heat by opening the drawers.
This may seem simple, but it is rarely offered in dual-zone units when it should be compulsory. This was a real bonus and something actually useful in real life.
The RapidAir technology is reliable, but I noticed a slight learning curve. The heating elements are positioned for vertical airflow, and while the results are crispy, I found I needed to use the Shake Reminder more diligently than with horizontal models to ensure the bottom layer of chips got that same golden crunch as the top.
For that reason, it doesn’t win this test, but for storage purposes alone, and those windows, this remains the best stacked option on the market today.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
