Searching for Black Friday air fryer deals? Ninja's Dual model is the best gadget I own
I finally gave into the air fryer hype and now I never use my oven.
Air fryers almost need no introduction, they have become a much talked about gadget since the cost of living crisis begun. In fact, air fryers are now used by four in 10 adults in the UK. In simple terms, an air fryer allows you to create tasty meals in the fraction of the time a traditional oven usually takes. This not only gives you back valuable time in your day, but also is more energy efficient to run.
Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer
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£200£270Save £70Ninja Foodi MAX Dual Zone Air Fryer 9.5L
£199£230Save £31
There's no better time than now to add one to your kitchen counter, thanks to Ninja's Black Friday sale, as tons of different models are now reduced.
While the initial upfront cost is often not cheap, in the long run, they can save you money on your overall energy consumption, with Ninja stating that you can save up to 75% on your energy bill with one of its dual zone models.
Still deciding whether you should join the air fryer fan club? I've spent the past six months trying out the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer almost everyday to make breakfast, lunch and dinner.
🛍️ Product reviewed: Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer
⏰ Tested for: Six months
⭐ Rating: 5/5
💸 Reasons to buy: Cooks food quickly, energy efficient and easy to clean
✋ Reasons to avoid: The dual drawer design is big, so you need a lot of kitchen countertop space
💰 Best deal we've found: The air fryer is currently reduced by £50.99 in Ninja's Black Friday sale
This is one of Ninja's most popular air fryers and for good reason. It has over 6,000 five-star reviews and I wouldn't be without mine.
On average, an air fryer costs around 17p a day to run, in comparison to electric cookers, which come in at around 87p a day - it's worth keeping in mind that prices will vary depending on your energy tariff.
My conclusion? I now totally understand the hype and it's a kitchen essential I wouldn't be without (I have no plans to use my oven anytime soon). Here's the lowdown on why I think it's worth the splurge.
💸 Reasons to buy
I'm not the biggest fan of cooking. The idea of dedicating hours in the kitchen doesn't interest me much, I prefer to make meals that are either all in the oven or in one pan, taking a maximum of half an hour.
However, the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer has completely changed my outlook. When it first arrived, it looked daunting, with numerous buttons and cooking settings to pick from (although I've currently only used the air fry function).
The Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer has six functions:
✨Air fry
✨Max crisp
✨Dehydrate
✨Roast
✨Reheat
✨Baker
The accompanying quick start guide is extremely thorough, with easy-to-follow instructions and lists of how long different foods take to cook on various settings. It also comes with a recipe guide (created by a chef) that features tons of helpful meat, fish, and veggie dishes to follow. And who doesn't love a bit of dinner inspiration?
All these meals were hugely quicker to cook in the air fryer and with a lot less cleaning up at the end too (which is always a bonus). For example, you can cook perfectly crisp bacon in just eight minutes. Chicken takes as little as 15 minutes, cod fillets even less at 10 minutes, and roasting potatoes just 15 minutes.
On just the air fry setting alone you have endless meal options, if you're after some inspo, these are a few of my favourite things to make.
5 of my favourite things to make in the air fryer:
🍽️ Mango and chilli chicken with Mexican fried rice
🍽️ Potato, pepper and bacon hash with fried egg
🍽️ Bacon, egg and cheese bagels
🍽️ Cod tacos with an avocado puree
🍽️ Spicy chicken skewers
The sync and match settings are also incredibly useful. Sync allows you to cook two different foods using different functions, temperatures and cook times, but regardless of the settings, both drawers will finish cooking at the same time.
Match on the other hand, cooks the same food in each zone on the exact same settings (which is ideal for batch cooking).
Cooking a whole meal, such as chicken and potatoes is so much simpler, as you're not constantly watching the clock or dealing with moving around scalding hot baking trays in the oven. You can still take the drawers out midway through cooking to turn meat or toss veggies and the device automatically pauses cooking and restarts once you put the drawers back in.
£149 £199.99 at Ninja £149 £199.99 at John Lewis
Lastly, cleaning the air fryer was a breeze. Both drawers and the plates are dishwasher safe, however they can take up a lot of room inside the dishwasher, so I often hand wash them and find the non-stick design easy to scrub off grime and grease, even when left overnight.
✋ Reasons to avoid
The only gripe I have is the size of the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer. Given it has two drawers and a join capacity of 7.6L (which is able to feed up to eight people) that's not surprising.
However, for my small kitchen counter, it does take up a lot of space. You can either buy smaller models that cook for two to three people for as little as £79.
While initially I was annoyed at the amount of room it took up, I've now become so reliant on it for most of my meals that I'm happy to compromise on counter space, but it's something to keep in mind.
💰 Best deal we've found
While the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer doesn't come cheap, costing £199.99 when full price, it's now hugely discounted thanks to Ninja's sale.
At Ninja, it's currently reduced to £149 - that's a £50.99 saving and is the best deal we've seen this year. We've only ever seen it at this price over Boxing Day and Black Friday, so we'd snap up this deal before it ends.
Shop now: Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer | £149 (Was £199.99) from Ninja
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More Ninja air fryer deals on sale
Another clever design from Ninja is this wider air fryer that can be used as two independent cooking zones, or transformed in one extra-large 10.4L drawer. Perfect for tray bakes, roasting whole chickens and more, it's ideal for hosting family and friends without the stress.
Boasting four cooking functions, this air fryer can air fry, roast, dehydrate and reheat everything from chips to veggies, steak and chicken. If you hate the time it takes a cook a meal, an air fryer just may be a game changer for you, as it can cook food up to 50% faster than fan ovens.
This versatile appliance is both a grill and an air fryer - aka the ultimate cooking tool. The grill requires no flipping of food either, the integrated digital probe measure food temperature (which goes up to 260 degrees) to ensure it's cooked exactly as you like it.
It has a further five more cooking functions alongside this, spanning roast, reheat, bake, air dry and dehydrate, and comes with skewers, a roasting rack, silicone mitts, a cleaning brush and recipe guide.
This air fryer is ideal for larger families thanks to its 9.5L capacity. There's two independent cooking zones, six cooking functions and dishwasher safe parts for easy cleaning.
