One great feature that I should mention here, however, is how easy the AF451UK is to clean. The grill plates pop out of the bottom and can be thrown in the dishwasher. In fact, the entire drawer pulls and can be cleaned in the dishwasher, too, which makes meal times much less of a hassle.

I started by cooking some chips in the air fryer, using the 200ºC setting. Although I had to shake the contents of the drawer two or three times during cooking, it’s all the interaction the AF400UK required.Food cooks best in air fryers if you give it a shake mid-cooking, resulting in an even finish. With many models, you’ll need to dig out a pair of oven gloves to do this. The AF400UK makes this simple by including handles on the outside of its drawers. Pull one out and the air fryer stops (both drawers stop in Sync or Match modes), so you can shake away and reinsert. Cleaning all of the dual-zone air fryers I was testing on this day was pretty similar, with both baskets needing a good scrub in the sink to get rid of grease and residue, especially as the last test in the series was cooking bacon.

Reheat – Restore leftovers to that delicious fresh-out-of-the-oven finish, perfect for reviving leftover pizza, quiche, spring rolls and more. As with the older model, the AF400UK excels for cooking options. Each drawer can be controlled individually, with a choice of Max Crisp (240ºC heat for crisping up chips, for example), Air Fry, Roast, Bake, Dehydrate (perfect for saving herbs) and Reheat. You can control the temperature for each mode and select a cooking time. On the day of testing itself, it was plainly obvious that the Ninja Foodi MAX Dual Zone was by far the superior appliance. It was the nicest to program, while some of the Tower models had oppressive beeps and stiff drawers and it had by far the best cooking ability. It was the fastest and achieved an incredible crisp on nuggets and fish fingers, with the quality of the machine itself also being standout. When it comes to cooking, timing is everything. Withtwo independent zones,you can mix and match cooking programmes, times, and temperatures across both drawers to create delicious meals in moments.Another Ideal Home favourite is the Instant Vortex Plus dual basket air fryer. It’s smaller than the above Ninja, offering up just 7.6 litres of cooking space. Like the Ninja there are several cooking modes and you can cook with different modes at the same time. But the big feature that sets this air fryer apart from the rest is the viewing window in the front of each cooking drawer. So you can watch your food as it cooks and monitor browning without opening it up every five minutes - a game-changing upgrade. Cleaning The large capacity of the Ninja Foodi Max Dual Zone Air Fryer AF400UK makes it a bulky appliance. Measuring 32.5 x 41.5 x 27cm / 13.9 x 12.8 x 17.1inches (h x w x d) and weighing 8.8kg / 19.8lb, this isn’t an appliance you’ll be storing in a cupboard and lifting out every time you need it.

If you’re looking for an air fryer that can do it all, I truly think you’re not going to get any better than the Ninja Foodi MAX Dual Zone Air Fryer AF451UK. This appliance is easily one of the best in its class. Not only do you have a choice of six different cooking methods – from air fry and roast to bake and even dehydrate – but there’s a super smart dual cook feature that can ensure two different foods are correctly cooked, simultaneously, and are ready to eat at the same time. The addition of the Digital Cooking Probe is also a game changer for those who regularly cook meat dishes, especially big roast joints of beef or lamb, as it cooks the meat to your desired level without needing your constant attention. Of course, the benefit of its size is capacity. In total, this air fryer offers 9.5 litres of space, split evenly between its two 4.75-litre drawers. That’s almost a litre of extra space per drawer than the smaller AF300UK model. If you want to use the two drawers together, you have a choice of two modes: Match and Sync. Match applies the same settings to both drawers, letting you double-up portions. Sync allows individual settings, but the AF400UK ensures that both drawers complete cooking at the same time. Build quality aside, the AF451UK is aesthetically pleasing, especially perched in pride of place on my kitchen countertop. The control panel has a nice solid feel to it while being satisfyingly easy to operate. Its flat top is also a welcome design feature for those with limited space, as it means you can store things on there that you might otherwise have had to relegate to a cupboard to make room, like a toaster (yes, I am speaking from experience). Effectively, this model delivers all the great features of last year’s model, only with a 9.5-litre total capacity. For larger families, or simply for cooking bigger items, this is a great fryer – provided you have the room to store it. Design and FeaturesThe problem with most air fryers is that once you come to love what they do and become used to them, you then have to work out how to cook different items at the same time. Last year’s Ninja Dual Zone Air Fryer AF300UK solved that issue by including two individually controlled drawers. This year, we have the larger model the Ninja Foodi MAX Dual Zone Air Fryer AF400UK, presenting even more cooking room. At the end of cooking time, my chips were perfectly cooked – evenly crisp throughout, without any sign of being burnt or overcooked. With six cooking options, two cooking drawers and a large capacity, this air fryer from Ninja will make mealtimes a breeze. Handy Cooking In my opinion it’s way too big for single person households unless you host a lot. And if you have a teeny kitchen, you’ll need to be prepared to find space for it, since it’s quite wide and tall. Furthermore, it’s one of the most expensive Ninja air fryers - a fact that can’t be ignored in your decision about whether to buy.