Transparency: AO provided MoneyMagpie with Ninja air fryer samples for the purposes of this review. This has not influenced our verdict and AO had no editorial control over what we have written.
There was a point when owning an air fryer made you the slightly evangelical person at work who kept telling everyone they could cook chips without turning the oven on.
Those days are well and truly over.
We were already air-fryer converts before the Ninja models arrived. We’d previously been using air fryers from Tower and Cortosi, so this wasn’t a case of comparing a Ninja with a conventional oven and being amazed that an air fryer cooks things quickly.
We already knew that.
What genuinely surprised us was how much faster the Ninja felt compared with the air fryers we’d already been using.
And when you’ve become accustomed to an air fryer being quick, that’s quite an achievement.
Our quick verdict
Are Ninja air fryers worth it? For frequent air-fryer users, we think they can be.
You absolutely don’t need a Ninja to get the benefits of air frying, and cheaper machines can still cook food perfectly well. But coming from Tower and Cortosi machines, we noticed a genuine difference in speed, flexibility and everyday convenience.
For smaller kitchens, the Ninja Double Stack particularly impressed us because it manages to offer two cooking drawers without taking over the entire worktop.
The speed genuinely surprised us
This was probably the biggest revelation of the test.
We expected the Ninja to feel better built. We expected clever functions and, given the price, we’d have been rather disappointed if it hadn’t performed well.
What we weren’t prepared for was the speed.
Coming directly from Tower and Cortosi machines, the difference was immediately noticeable. Foods we’d become used to timing almost automatically suddenly needed checking earlier because the Ninja was simply getting there faster.
That’s important because speed is one of the main reasons people buy an air fryer in the first place.
Saving a few minutes might not sound particularly dramatic on paper, but when you’re making dinner after work or trying to feed a hungry household, it makes a surprising difference.
Our biggest surprise: We’d already been using air fryers, so we weren’t expecting Ninja’s speed to impress us particularly. It did. We quickly learned to start checking food earlier than we had with our previous machines.
The Ninja Double Stack is brilliant for small kitchens
Here’s where Ninja has addressed one of our biggest complaints about dual-drawer air fryers.
They can be enormous.
Traditional side-by-side dual-zone models occupy a substantial chunk of kitchen worktop, which isn’t particularly helpful if you’re living in a flat, have a galley kitchen or simply don’t have acres of counter space.
The Ninja Double Stack is a genuinely clever answer to that problem.
Instead of putting two large drawers next to each other, Ninja stacks them vertically.
It sounds ridiculously obvious once somebody has done it, but it completely changes the footprint of the machine.
You still get the convenience of two cooking zones without sacrificing nearly as much width on your worktop.
Small kitchen winner: Ninja Double Stack
If you’re short on worktop space, this may actually be the Ninja we’d look at first.
By building upwards rather than outwards, you get the convenience of two drawers in a noticeably narrower footprint.
For flats, smaller homes and kitchens where every centimetre of worktop matters, that’s a genuinely useful design decision rather than a gimmick.
And then you discover you can stack food inside the drawers
This was another feature we initially wondered whether we’d actually use.
We did.
The Double Stack isn’t simply about putting one cooking drawer above another. The included racks allow you to cook food at different levels within the drawers themselves.
That means you can create additional cooking layers rather than everything having to sit together at the bottom of the basket.
And this is where the design starts to become genuinely useful rather than merely clever marketing.
You can have different foods cooking across the machine without needing an enormous appliance spread across the worktop.
Having actually used the stacking system, it’s one of the features that makes the Ninja feel noticeably different from the more conventional air fryers we’d been accustomed to.
Does Ninja actually cook better than cheaper air fryers?
This is where our experience with Tower and Cortosi is useful.
Neither suddenly became a bad air fryer because we’d tried a Ninja.
They did what we’d bought them to do and, depending on the price you find them for, a cheaper machine can still represent excellent value.
But moving from those machines to Ninja made us understand rather better why people pay the premium.
What are you actually paying extra for?
Not dramatically better chips.
The most noticeable difference for us wasn’t that food suddenly tasted twice as good. It was how quickly and conveniently we could get dinner cooked.
You’re paying for the combination of speed, controls, build quality, flexibility and thoughtful design rather than simply the ability to air fry food.
Are cheaper air fryers still worth considering?
Absolutely.
In fact, we’d be suspicious of any review that told you everybody needs to rush out and buy an expensive Ninja.
If you’ve already got a Tower, Cortosi or another air fryer that does everything you need, there’s no compelling financial reason to throw it away and upgrade.
And if you only use an air fryer occasionally, a cheaper machine could be the far more sensible purchase.
But there’s a difference between needing something and finding that something is noticeably better to use.
Having lived with cheaper air fryers before testing Ninja, we found the Ninja noticeably faster and more flexible.
That makes the additional cost much easier to understand.
Can an air fryer actually save you money?
Potentially, but we’d be wary of blanket claims.
An air fryer heats a much smaller space than a conventional oven, so for relatively small quantities of food it can make little sense to heat an entire oven when an air fryer can do the job.
But that doesn’t mean buying an air fryer automatically slashes every household’s electricity bill.
How much you save depends on what you’re cooking, how long you’re cooking it for, the power of the appliance and what you would otherwise have used.
If you’re filling an air fryer several times to produce enough food for a large family when everything could have gone into an oven together, the calculation becomes rather different.
Which Ninja air fryer would we choose?
This depends more on your kitchen and the way you cook than we expected.
For a larger family with plenty of worktop space, a traditional Ninja Foodi Dual Zone is a very practical proposition. Two separately controlled drawers make everyday meals straightforward.
If you regularly cook larger foods and want the flexibility to create one big cooking space, the Ninja FlexDrawer becomes particularly interesting.
But if your kitchen is small?
We’d seriously consider the Ninja Double Stack.
It might actually be our favourite design of the bunch.
Putting the drawers vertically rather than side-by-side gives you dual-zone cooking without an appliance sprawling across the worktop, while the ability to use racks inside the drawers makes far more use of the available cooking space than we initially expected.
Should you buy a Ninja?
Consider one if: you use an air fryer constantly, regularly cook several foods at once, value speed or want something capable of replacing your main oven for lots of smaller meals.
The Double Stack is particularly worth considering if: you want dual-zone cooking but don’t have much worktop space.
Save your money if: you already own an air fryer you’re happy with, only use one occasionally or simply want an inexpensive machine for straightforward foods.
Our verdict: are Ninja air fryers worth the money?
Having come to Ninja after using Tower and Cortosi air fryers, we think the answer is clearer than it would have been if Ninja had been our first air fryer.
Yes, Ninja is expensive. And no, you don’t need one to make good air-fried food.
But we could feel where some of that additional money was going.
The speed genuinely surprised us. The dual-zone controls make cooking a complete meal easier, and the Double Stack manages to solve one of our biggest complaints about large air fryers by building upwards rather than outwards.
Most importantly, the features didn’t feel like things added simply to make the specification list longer.
We actually used them.
Would we tell someone with a perfectly good cheaper air fryer to immediately throw it away and spend considerably more on a Ninja?
Absolutely not.
Would we choose a Ninja if our existing air fryer needed replacing and we could afford the additional cost?
After using them, yes.
MoneyMagpie verdict
Cooking speed: ★★★★★
Cooking performance: ★★★★★
Ease of use: ★★★★★
Use of space – Double Stack: ★★★★★
Value for money: ★★★★☆
Overall MoneyMagpie rating: 4.5/5
Best feature: The speed genuinely caught us by surprise.
Unexpected winner: The Double Stack, particularly for smaller kitchens.
The downside: Ninja still commands a considerable premium over perfectly capable budget air fryers.
Bottom line: You don’t need a Ninja to own a good air fryer. But having used cheaper machines first, we can see why people who use their air fryer constantly are prepared to pay more for one.
Ready to compare Ninja air fryers?
One thing our testing made clear is that you shouldn’t automatically buy the biggest Ninja.
Think about how you cook and, crucially, how much worktop space you’ve got.
AO stocks a range of Ninja air fryers, making it easy to compare the Double Stack, Dual Zone and larger-capacity options before deciding which one suits your kitchen and budget.
Compare Ninja Air Fryers at AO →
AO provided samples for this review. Our opinions, testing and verdict remain editorially independent. Prices and availability can change, so check the current price before purchasing.
Frequently asked questions
Are Ninja air fryers worth the extra money?
For frequent users, we think they can be. Having previously used Tower and Cortosi air fryers, we particularly noticed the Ninja’s speed and flexibility. Occasional users may be perfectly well served by a cheaper air fryer.
Which Ninja air fryer is best for a small kitchen?
We particularly liked the Ninja Double Stack for smaller kitchens because its drawers are positioned vertically rather than side-by-side. This gives you two cooking zones while reducing the amount of worktop width the appliance occupies.
Can you cook several foods at once in the Ninja Double Stack?
Yes. As well as having two cooking drawers, the Double Stack can use racks within the drawers to create different cooking levels. We found this one of its most useful features.
Is Ninja better than cheaper air fryers?
Not everybody needs to spend extra on a Ninja. Cheaper air fryers can cook food very well. In our experience, the biggest differences after using Tower and Cortosi machines were Ninja’s speed, flexibility and convenience rather than simply the taste of the finished food.
Should I replace my existing air fryer with a Ninja?
If your current air fryer works well and does everything you need, we wouldn’t replace it purely for the Ninja name. If it needs replacing, however, and you use an air fryer frequently, we think Ninja is worth considering.
