Ninja’s Dual Zone air fryer was released way back in 2020 but there’s a good argument that it’s still the UK’s most favoured air fryer, as well as one of the best Ninja air fryers in the brand’s line up.
It’s a fixture in hundreds of thousands of kitchens across the country but there is one thing I think you should know as Ideal Home’s Kitchen Appliances Editor before you buy it: it’s mighty powerful. So much so, it takes a bit of a learning curve to get used to!
I commented on its strength when I first reviewed it back in 2022, and since then, I’ve recommended it to many friends as the air fryer to beat. To see if my advice is still good and if this appliance stands up against all of the other air fryers out there, I was sent a sample (kindly provided by AO, where it’s £179) to see how it holds up. This is what I found.
Ninja
Foodi Max Dual Zone AF400UK Air Fryer
This two-drawer air fryer is a classic for a reason with a perfect capacity for family cooking and easy-to-use controls.
After re-testing the Ninja Dual Zone air fryer, it’s still the one I’d recommend it to all of my friends and family when they’re on the hunt for a two-drawer model. Of course there’s been whole new generations of air fryers since then, including the unbelievably helpful multi-zone versions, but a lot of people still like to stick to two zones – which is where this air fryer excels.
The ability to match, sync or use each side individually is the ideal design for those catering to fussy eaters. And one of the great benefits of buying a Ninja air fryer over any other is that the interface is hard to beat. It’s very simple so even those less inclined to get involved with any sort of cooking have no excuse.
But the one thing I always have to warn people about when I do recommend this air fryer to them is that you have to proceed with caution on your first few cooking attempts with it because if you’re not used to its power levels, things will come out a lot crispier than you bargained for.
This air fryer is so powerful that even the usual calculations you have to do with air frying something over putting it in the oven (which usually means cutting down cooking times by 1/3) need to be calibrated. You’ll find that this air fryer is a lot quicker than you might have expected, especially on the very popular MAX CRISP setting.
This is something I’d forgotten about in my gap between re-testing this air fryer and I got a surprise on my first experiment with chicken and some vegetables. Though I’ve still been testing air fryers across the last few years, none of them (not even rival Ninjas like the Crispi or the DoubleStack) come close in terms of sheer cooking ability.
It’s not surprising that this air fryer puts on such an impressive performance when it comes to cooking given its wattage. With a 2,400-watt number in terms of power, it’s a market leader for packing a punch when it comes to energy. But that doesn’t mean its a huge energy guzzler necessarily. Remember, it cooks things in very quick times so you won’t need it on for as long compared to a less powerful alternative.
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So if you’re thinking of investing in a dual zone air fryer and you want to maximise power, I’ve found in my tests that the Ninja Dual Zone is as impressive as ever – even if it’s 6 years since its first release. Just remember you probably need less time than you think for cooking to begin with!
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