The Instant Vortex Plus 6-quart Air Fryer has impressed us time and time again as the best air fryer available. It’s the right balance of manageable size yet useful capacity, blasting convection power necessary for crispy results, and of course, the user-friendly interface. Keep in mind that Costco has been known to offer sale prices on their air fryers around the holidays. In 2022, the Ninja Foodi went on sale at Costco during November and December, knocking the price down by about $40 (the sale price was $119.99). Costco has also offered sale prices on Gourmia air fryer models in the past, like when they offered a 7-qt Gourmia digital air fryer for just $39.99 last December. If you need a slightly smaller machine, we think you’ll be happier with the Cuisinart—it performed just as well and it’s also more affordable.
For our indoor models, we cooked frozen pizza according to package instructions. Each pizza oven was rated on assembly, heat control, performance, and portability. These days, basket-style air fryers can range from $50 to $350, and toaster ovens with air-frying capabilities generally run from $100 to $400. Air fryers don’t generally need to be flashy to be efficient, and the prices reflect that as well.
There are also air-frying toaster ovens, which are typically heavier, more stationary and more expensive. There are even air-frying Instant Pots and microwave-air fryer combos to consider. We’ve tested dozens more air fryers, including more Cosori models, the Philips Premium XXL, the tiny Dash Compact, and the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone. We were surprised to see a few of these struggle with the most straightforward food, like fries and chicken wings. Others had decent performance but lacked some of the features that our winners included as a default, like presets, large baskets, and easy cleanup processes.
This large oven-style air fryer is a versatile countertop oven with extra functions to boot. It can bake, broil, air fry, and even dehydrate, thanks to the consistent air circulation and powerful heating elements. The size accommodates a 12-inch homemade pizza, a rotisserie chicken, or even a 9 x 13 snacking cake for baking.
The firm has received 205 reports of the air fryers catching fire, burning, melting, overheating and smoking. These include 10 reports of minor, superficial burn injuries and 23 reports of minor property damage. Sometimes the fastest way to a home cook’s heart is a shortcut, and the ever-present air fryer has proven that true. Score this 10-piece stainless steel set from Calphalon for less than $175 right now. You’ll get a wide variety of cookware pieces, including 8- and 10-inch fry pans, 1.5 and 2.5-quart saucepans with lids, 3-quart saute pan with a lid and a 7-quart Dutch oven with a lid.
You’ll need to wait until 2023 to buy or install a new electric oven, when the rebates (which will vary by state) go into effect. In the meantime, you may be pleasantly surprised by how much one of our larger picks (like the Cuisinart TOB-260N1 or the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro) can accomplish as a temporary replacement oven. In every round of testing we conducted for this guide, we started by filling each toaster with as many slices of basic white bread as we could, then set each machine to toast at medium shade. The results gave us a heat map of each oven, showing us how evenly each model toasted and whether there were any hot spots. Keep in mind that a large toaster oven can be pretty heavy and is more cumbersome to move; this means it’s more likely to live on your counter. Small toaster ovens are much lighter and easier to tuck away in a cupboard.
Kristin Montemarano is a commerce food writer for Food & Wine and Allrecipes, focusing on stories that cover new products, tested favorites, and sales. After graduating from The Culinary Institute of America and working in professional kitchens, Kristin went on to acquire a bachelor’s degree in journalism and graduated in 2021. cuisinart toa60 Overall, it seems that most customers who have purchased an air fryer at Costco have been pleased with their purchase. That said, some commenters noted that Philips brand air fryers are superior to anything sold at Costco. Learn how to cook your Costco Cordon Bleu in the air fryer with this recipe from SimplyAirFryer.com.
In theory, it’s supposed to help keep the “inner moisture and flavor from escaping,” but we’re not convinced it makes a difference. In fact, we weighed white sandwich bread and rustic sourdough bread before and after toasting to see how much moisture the bread retained. On average, plain white sandwich bread actually retained less moisture when toasted in the Balmuda than when toasted in our top pick, the Cuisinart. A toaster oven is a multipurpose appliance that lets you toast bread and bake or reheat food.
It comes with two indents on the side to help you flip it over easily, and since both sides are perfectly flat, you can use both to double its lifespan. This Cuisinart Countdown 4-Slice Toaster has a countdown display with bars that disappear as toasting time elapses and sounds an audible alert when the toast is ready. The Cuisinart TOB-135 toasted bread unevenly, and its temperature control was less consistent, so we dismissed it. The Cuisinart has a three-year limited warranty, whereas most similarly priced competitors include just one- or two-year warranties.