They’re also not moved or banged around as much as slot toasters, making their electrical components less susceptible to failure. For the past two years, two Wirecutter employees have used the Hamilton Beach for basic tasks like making toast, reheating pizza, and baking frozen snacks. One of our testers initially tried toasting bread in the baking pan, which only browned the top of the bread. As with all models, you want to remove the pan and toast bread directly on the oven rack. Otherwise, they encountered no issues—the Hamilton Beach is great for any simple toasting and baking jobs.
Note this air fryer is currently out of stock online, so you’ll want to head in-store to snag it. The GE Quartz and the GE Clarod ovens performed similarly in our tests (even though the quartz model costs $25 more). It’s common for most toasters to release steam while toasting, so don’t be alarmed.
I prefer the nonstick variety as wire baskets can be particularly tricky to clean. To date, we’ve tested well over a dozen air fryers to curate this list. Each air fryer is evaluated for its power, consistency, ease of use, design, features and overall performance. I found the air fryer function worked as well or better than most of the solo air fryers I tested. It has all the same settings and cooking modes as the single basket model as well but allows you to toggle between both baskets to set the time and temp accordingly. There is also a handy match cook setting if you’re doing one huge heap of wings in both baskets.
You can bake delicious cakes, roast potatoes, and crisp juicy roasts with this kitchen workhorse. With 0.6 cubic foot capacity, the Toaster Oven fits a whole chicken, a 12-inch pizza, or 6 slices of bread, and is conveniently controlled by an electronic dial and LED buttons. The Exact Heat™ sensor maintains precise temperatures, and the Always Even™ shade control ensures toast will meet your family’s tastes. cuisinart air fryer oven While it was the best toaster at actually air frying, its cooking chamber is very slim, making it impossible to fit certain foods. But if you’re only cooking for one, or even two, it very well may be enough capacity and will save you precious space on the counter. The Gourmia has good power to make eight or nine crispy chicken wings in about 25 minutes and a few servings of fries in about half that time.
That said, the controls are clearly labeled and straightforward to use, so we’re willing to overlook this drawback. We’d also prefer dial controls over the FlashXpress’s blister-push buttons, but they’re perfectly usable and not as glitchy or mushy as others we tested. The Panasonic was the only toaster we tested in this price range that could create an evenly golden brown chicken thigh with a crispy skin.
All that said, the smaller the air fryer you can get away with the better. But smaller air fryers mean less overall capacity, so you may have to cook in batches. Not only are there 11 specialized settings in our splurge pick, but there’s also a “frozen foods” button that auto-adjusts the time and temperature to account for the drop in temperature. Plus, this oven has tons of extra accessories like a pizza pan, pizza stone, and a specialty broiling pan. The Ninja Foodi Air Fry Oven has one of the largest air frying racks we tested, measuring in at 13 by 13 inches. It offers a large amount of cooking space, but it’s short and folds upwards for storage so it won’t eat up your counter space.
All air fryers have base-level control over the temperature and cook time, although some are controlled digitally while others require the crank of simple manual dials. From there, you’ll find preset programs for various foods such as wings, fries, fish, veggies and even baked goods. Designed to match other Cafe brand appliances like the Cafe fridge, coffee maker and more, this Couture Oven with Air Fry will make a statement on your countertop.
This model will take up the most space of any on the list, so keep that in mind before you decide. There is a smaller 6-quart model (two 3-quart baskets) and a larger 10-quart version (two 5-quart baskets) if you think you’ll need it. One thing to note is the Ninja lacks a special cooking mode for vegetables. So, much as in earlier rounds of testing, the fresh Brussels sprouts emerged a tad overdone — even burnt in spots.
If you are just looking to make toast and air fry the occasional batch of wings or fries, then the manual controls should be fine. Bread toasted on the medium setting came out beautifully golden brown, without any scorching or charring. Other models we tested toasted bread unevenly, with extreme light and dark patches. With every batch of toast made, most toaster ovens get hotter, which can leave you with charred pieces of toast if you’re not watching closely. The FlashXpress compensates for the increased temperature by automatically reducing the cook time, so the results are the same every time. In our tests, the first batch of toast took about 2 minutes 30 seconds, the second batch took 2 minutes 4 seconds, and the third batch took 1 minute 20 seconds .
The lettering is on the panel now and not on the buttons them self. I’ve seen this before, what appear to be Costco-specific models that can’t be found anywhere else or even on the manufacturer’s site, but which closely resemble more standard versions. I’m sure that their buying power allows them to order slightly customized models. Ask our community of deal experts a question about this deal, product, or store. Would never buy another Cuisinsart coffee maker – and it wasn’t cheap.