REASONS TO BUY
Inexpensive
Easy to clean
Good cooking performance
REASONS TO AVOID
Fry basket can stick
Medicore temperature accuracy
Ultrean Air Fryer Review
An effective and inexpensive model that offers decent cooking performance and good temperature accuracy
Credit: Ultrean
RELATED: Best Air Fryers of 2023
Our Verdict
The Ultrean Air Fryer generally offers a great cost to performance ratio. In our tests, it offered similar cooking results to many devices that generally sell for significantly more. It also displayed relatively good temperature accuracy and is reasonably easy to use and clean. If you're shopping on a budget, we think this air fryer is a good choice.
Compare to Similar Products
 This Product
Ultrean Air Fryer | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Awards |  |  | |||
| Price | $70 List $69.99 at Amazon | $120 List $89.95 at Amazon | $100 List $63.26 at Amazon | $82 List $71.99 at Amazon | $70 List $49.95 at Amazon |
Overall Score  |
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| Star Rating | |||||
| Pros | Inexpensive, easy to clean, good cooking performance | Great cooking performance, user friendly, excellent temperature accuracy | Accurate temperature, great for potato products, easy to clean | Simple design, great price, always-on mode for longer cooking, easy to clean, non-stick, cooks juicy chicken, solid temperature accuracy | Good cooking performance, inexpensive |
| Cons | Fry basket can stick, medicore temperature accuracy | Not the easiest to clean, cost | Leaves meat dry, difficult to open, buttons are not always responsive | Small basket, large footprint for such a small basket, lacks functions | Very small capacity |
| Bottom Line | An effective and inexpensive model that offers decent cooking performance and good temperature accuracy | This high performing, four quart model offers some of the most consistent quality | This accurate, budget friendly air fryer is the perfect option for casual side dishes like tater tots | This simplistic model is easy to clean, but it trades price for performance, as it is not very intuitive and the small basket is limiting | A fairly good appliance that is held back by a relatively small capacity |
| Rating Categories | Ultrean Air Fryer | Ninja Air Fryer | GoWISE USA Digital | Amazon Basics Compact | Dash Compact |
| Cooking Performance (35%) | |||||
| User Friendliness (25%) | |||||
| Ease of Cleaning (20%) | |||||
| Temperature Accuracy (20%) | |||||
| Specs | Ultrean Air Fryer | Ninja Air Fryer | GoWISE USA Digital | Amazon Basics Compact | Dash Compact |
| Measured Dimensions (L x H x D) | 13.2" x 11.3" x 12.4" | 13.6" x 11" x 13.3" | 13.5" x 12.5" x 11.5" | 15.5" x 11" x 12.5" | 10.2" x 8.1" x 11.4" |
| Capacity | 4.2 qt | 4 qt | 5.8 qt | 3.2 qt | 2 qt |
| Accessories | None | Multi-layer rack for dehydrating | None | None | None |
| Power Consumption | 1500 watt | 1550 watt | 1700 watt | 1400 watt | 1000 watt |
Show full specification detailsHide full specification details
Our Analysis and Test Results
Performance Comparison
The Ultrean performs at or above average in all of our tests, yet generally sells at a below-average price.
Credit: Laura Casner
Cooking Performance
While not the absolute best performer in our cooking tests, the Ultrean 4.2qt seated itself firmly in the lead group. The best dish this fryer prepared was onion rings, which came out with a near-perfect crisp and very even cooking. Doughnuts, chicken breast, and tater tots all came out well cooked and tasty, but with some minor inconsistencies in both texture and evenness.
The Ultrean generally served up good air fried foods in our testing, with some minor inconsistencies.
Credit: Laura Casner
Like most air fryers, the Ultrean struggled a bit in getting a good crisp on the outside of sweet potato fries. Most models have similar issues, which is why we use sweet potato fries in our testing. However, there are a select few models we've tested that made delectable sweet potato fries, and this was not one of them.
User Friendliness
The interface is simple and sleek. However, cycling through time and temperature settings takes a lot of scrolling, and the digital display is rather small. The most significant ease of use aspect of any air fryer is how easy it is to remove and replace the fry basket. Since many recipes require that you shake the basket a few times during the cooking process, being able to do so easily and without fuss is essential. The 4.2qt's fry basket has a handle that doesn't get hot during cooking, which means no need for potholders. However, we found that the basket stuck a bit when sliding it in and out of the device. Additionally, we found that the bottom of the fry basket tends to fall out when trying to dump food out of it. However, these are relatively minor annoyances and, in our opinion, far from deal-breakers.
After particularly messy recipes the Ultrean took some, but not too much, effort to get clean.
Credit: Laura Casner
Ease of Cleaning
The basket and rack of the 4.2qt are dishwasher safe, but we felt that more significant messes required some hand scrubbing. In general, We found this hand scrubbing to be easy, though the fry basket did seem to hang on to grease just a bit more stubbornly than the baskets of some other models.
Temperature Accuracy
The 4.2qt proved to be relatively temperature accurate in our tests, generally staying within 10˚of the set temperature. When set to lower temperatures it would occasionally run up to 20˚ hot, with that discrepancy quickly shrinking at higher temperatures. While potentially not accurate for particularly temperature-sensitive recipes, we think the vast majority of people will be more than pleased with this level of accuracy.
Value
The 4.2qt's list price approaches those of some of the top-performing models on the market, so at that point, you may want to consider investing a bit more in an upgrade.
Conclusion
The Ultrean performed well in nearly all of our tests, often performing as well as some of the higher-end models. However, the list price compares to that of some of the higher scores models in our review, which offer even better performance.
—
Michelle Powell and Max Mutter
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