Ninja Air Fryer Review

If you're looking for a dedicated air fryer, the Ninja Air Fryer provides exceptional results and a great overall experience. It has a 4-quart capacity and scored the highest of all the air fryers we've tested for temperature accuracy.

Performance Comparison

Cooking Performance

The Ninja is one of the top-scoring models in this metric. While no particular dish was the absolute best of the bunch, it proved to be far more versatile than most other machines and created very tasty donuts.

In our testing, the Ninja cooked great food across the board. The tater tots came out with a very even golden brown exterior, with a nice crispy shell and soft, pillowy interior. Likewise, the donuts had great texture, with just a slight crunch on the outside and nice, fluffy insides. In fact, the Ninja created some of the best donuts we've ever made. Most air fryers can get a crispy outside, but the interior remains doughy.

It also excelled at making chicken. Like all of the fryers we tested, it certainly couldn't replicate actual fried chicken, but it did cook a super tender chicken breast that had just a bit of a crispy skin. We'd call this a win.

The one area where none of the fryers we tested excelled, including the Ninja, was in making sweet potato fries. No model was able to get these fries truly crispy, but there were a few models that did noticeably better than the Ninja — at least in this arena. While we wouldn't call this a weakness, as no model made exceptional sweet potato fries, the Ninja may not be the best choice if all you're looking for is a healthier way to make sweet potato fries.

With a 4-quart capacity, this is a great mid-sized option. It's perfect for cooking for one or two people, and we like that the smaller footprint means it doesn't take up as much room in your kitchen. But, if cooking for the entire family is a big concern, there are other models that can handle larger meals better.

User Friendliness

Thanks to a clear interface, a well-designed frying basket, and a thoughtful range of cooking settings, the Ninja earned one of the highest scores in our user-friendliness testing. The control panel consists of simple push buttons on the front of the unit, and we had no issue immediately with figuring out how to run this air fryer.

This machine offers four different cooking settings: air fry, roast, reheat, and dehydrate. Within the air fry setting, it provides a temperature range from 300˚ to 400˚. In our experience, these settings can accommodate pretty much any air frying recipe you'll find.

Despite having several settings, the Ninja still manages to make its operation relatively straightforward. Just push the dedicated button for one of the four cooking settings, set the temperature and cooking time with the dedicated arrow buttons, press start, and you're off to the races.

Possibly the nicest thing about this device's user experience is the fry basket design. It has a nice, sturdy handle, slides in and out easily, and fits snugly. This makes it really easy to use just one hand to remove the basket, shake your food to encourage even cooking, and then slide the basket back in. This may seem trivial, but other models have baskets that stick when you try to take them in and out, or even ones that require pot holders, and a healthy dose of caution when you need to redistribute food mid-cooking. We were happy to find that the Ninja worked smoothly and without fuss every time.

Ease of Cleaning

While the Ninja certainly isn't difficult to clean, this is the one metric where it didn't earn a top score.

Overall, cleaning this device is fairly painless. The frying basket doesn't tend to gunk up or hang on to grease too stubbornly, so there generally isn't any overly zealous scrubbing required. However, the crisping plate on the bottom of the basket has some smaller grooves and holes, as well as a small handle in the middle that provides some places for food and gunk to hide. Thus, you do have to do a bit of extra precision scrubbing to ensure it gets totally clean. The basket and crisping plate are technically dishwasher safe, but it is recommended to hand wash them to extend the life and non-stick coating of these components. We also liked that the outside is easy to clean with a quick wipe down and doesn't show fingerprints easily.

Temperature Accuracy

In our temperature accuracy testing, the Ninja was essentially perfect. It locked our testing thermometers into nearly the exact temperature we set it to every time. If you're one that likes to experiment with recipes or just one that values an accurate machine that is likely to replicate the same results over and over, this is the fryer for you.

The exterior of the unit reached 160 degrees Fahrenheit which is slightly above our ideal of 140 degrees. However, it was among the lowest outside temperatures we recorded.

Should You Buy the Ninja Air Fryer?

The Ninja is an all around solid air fryer at a great price. It consistently cooked food to perfection and was incredibly temperature-accurate. We appreciated that cleaning was simple and the price is excellent for the quality. It doesn't have the largest capacity, but this also means it has a smaller footprint and is well-suited to small kitchens.

What Other Air Fryers Should You Consider?