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1. Tom's Guide's top-ranked air fryers
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When people ask me what I do for work, I often reply: "I review air fryers". And while there's a bit more to being a Senior Homes Editor than that, it's definitely one of the biggest parts of the job. I've always got a new air fryer on rotation, and countless others in the Tom's Guide test kitchen, so if you're wondering what the best air fryer to buy on Black Friday is, you've come to the right place.
When it comes to air fryers, truth be told, they all do a very similar thing. Air fryers are mini convection ovens that blast hot air at your food, using removable grates to cook everything from fries to chicken skewers from every angle. The result? A faster cook time, an easier cleanup, and a crispier meal.
In this guide I've selected cheap air fryers, high-capacity options for families, and easy-cleaning models with baskets you can put in the dishwasher. My top choice of the best air fryer is the Ninja Pro 4-in-1, which is $50 off at Walmart right now. It's quiet, speedy, easy to use and easy to clean, making it the best choice for most people. If you want something a bit bigger, or you've got a larger budget to work with, you should consider the Ninja 12-in-1 Double Oven, which is $80 at Ninja right now. It's got a toaster oven design, but air fried very well in our tests. And if you're simply looking for the best price, the Cosori 9-in-1 is down to $87 at Amazon, which is the lowest price I've seen for this family-sized fryer. For more of my top picks, just keep reading.
The 7 best air fryers you can buy
I've been testing air fryers for five years, and I've spent just as long covering the top Black Friday deals. Anything I recommend in this guide is a product I'd happily recommend to a friend, and bar a couple of machines which I've sent to trusted colleagues and freelancers, I've tested every major air fryer you can buy, which puts me in a pretty good position to compare brands and features when whittling down our reviews into a best air fryer roundup.
Compare Black Friday deals on more top-ranked air fryers:
The best air fryer deals for Black Friday 2024
- Amazon: Cosori, Ninja, and more
- Best Buy: Save 50% on Bella and Ninja
- Breville: $100 off countertop toaster ovens
- Home Depot: Discounts on Typhur, Chefman and more
- Kohl's: Budget brands like Dash and Gourmia
- NinjaKitchen: Savings on DoubleStack, DualZone and more
- Target: Cheap Cuisinart and Ninja machines
- Walmart: Exclusive options from Beautiful and Cosori
- Wayfair: Big savings in Black Friday preview event
My top Black Friday air fryer deals
Latest deals live
Air fryer vs Toaster oven: which should you buy?
I'd buy an air fryer over a toaster oven every day of the week. Here's why.
1. Air fryers are easier to use
It's a lot easier to pull out a drawer with a handle than open your toaster oven door, break out some inevitably small and fiddly oven gloves, and wrangle a tiny shelf out of your toaster oven. And I'd know, because I've burnt myself when testing toaster ovens a number of times.
2. Air fryers have crispier results
Air fryers have a fan element that blasts your food with hot air from every angle. In my experience, they cook a lot faster and more evenly than a toaster oven. Plus, you can easily shake your basket to give your fries or chicken strips a more even bake, whereas you'd have to turn each fry or strip individually if cooked in a toaster oven.
3. Air fryers are easier to clean
My parents have a toaster oven, and to be fair, they adore it. But their only complaint is how hard it is to clean. Its door and interior shelves get caked in grease after each use, and it's incredibly easy to bake that onto your oven's interior. Getting it off is a real nightmare.
So, having tried more than a dozen of each, I'd definitely recommend an air fryer over a toaster oven for the majority of people. But if you do want a toaster oven, my top pick would be the Ninja 12-in-1 Double Oven with FlexDoor, $80 off at Kohl's. For air fryers, you can't go wrong with my top pick, the Ninja 4-in-1 Pro, down to $69 at Walmart.
Where are all the Ninja deals?
Not at NinjaKitchen, that's for sure. We typically see discounts a week out from Black Friday. In fact, I found a heap of Ninja deals on the official Ninja website only yesterday. But they've stowed those away for now, offering a very modest saving on a selection of (non-air fryer) products.
So, where should you go if you want a Ninja air fryer on sale and before Thanksgiving? Right now, I'd suggest you check out Best Buy.
- Ninja Air Fryer Pro 4-in-1: was $119, now $99 @ Best Buy
- Ninja Foodi 6-in-1 2-Basket Air Fryer: was $199, now $119 @ Best Buy
- Ninja Foodi 6-in-1 10-qt. XL 2-Basket Air Fryer: was $249, now $129 @ Best Buy
- Ninja Combi All-in-One Multicooker: was $229, now $179 @ Best Buy
- Ninja Prestige Smart XL Air Fryer & Countertop Oven: was $349, now $249 @ Best Buy
What's the best small air fryer?
I'd go for the Instant Vortex Mini. This is the air fryer I had in my old apartment, before I moved to a place with a bigger kitchen. As you can see, it's got a tiny internal capacity, but this does mean it cooks extra fast, and that drawer can either go through the dishwasher or be cleaned by hand with ease. Plus, it's super cute.
I recently saw that Wirecutter has chosen this air fryer as one of its top three, and while I wouldn't agree that it makes the top of any list, I can see why they recommend it as a good no-nonsense fryer that's not too expensive, and takes up very little space.
One of the most interesting air fryer releases this year was the Midea Dual Basket Air Fryer Oven. It's an 11-quart air fryer, which is pretty huge, but because it's got one oven stacked on top of the other (similar to the Ninja DoubleStack) it manages to fit an upper 6QT basket and a lower 5QT baking pan into one relatively compact appliance.
When our freelancer Camryn tested it, she wasn't convinced by the bottom cooking element, which she found cooked unevenly. In her Midea Dual Basket Air Fryer Oven review, she gave it 3.5 stars.
So, it's not making it to the top of my must-buy list, but it's nonetheless a very cool air fryer for features, and if you want a huge capacity with limited counter space, it could be a good buy for you.
Single vs double drawer: which is best?
Personally, I'd opt for a double drawer over a single drawer air fryer. That's because I live in a two-person household and I can cook the vast majority of my meals in a double drawer. My oven doesn't get much use! However, there are some downsides to double drawer air fryers, also known as dual-zone air fryers.
For one, they take up a lot more space and don't necessarily offer a larger cooking capacity. The Ninja DZ201, for example, has a total 8-quart cooking space that's split between two drawers, so unless you'd regularly expect to cook less than 4-quarts, you may as well opt for a larger capacity single-drawer air fryer like the Instant Vortex Plus 6-Quart, which (as you can see from the picture) takes up a lot less space than the Ninja, and only has 2-quarts less cooking space.
What's the cheapest air fryer you can buy for Black Friday? I've not tested one, but it'd have to be a Bella air fryer. The absolute cheapest one I can see (from a retailer I trust) is this Bella 2 Qt. 1200-Watt Air Fryer, down from $64.99 to $20 at Macy's.
This is an analog air fryer, meaning you use a dial to choose your time on a 60-minute timer, but the biggest quirk with this option is that it has one pre-set temperature of 400°F. Which, to be fair, is probably the temperature you'll most commonly use on any air fryer.
I'm a big fan of the Instant air fryer line. The one I've got at home is the Instant Vortex VersaZone (also 30% off right now at Amazon) but the Vortex Plus 4QT is the brand's oldest model, and it's down by 54% to just $59 at Amazon right now in an impressive Black Friday deal. I've reviewed this one back when I worked at Real Homes in 2021 and gave it five stars, so it's a little outdated, but absolutely worth the $59.
Breville does air fryers a bit differently. These toaster oven-style machines are super-smart and a lot more expensive than the likes of Instant or Dash air fryers.
I'm a huge fan of Breville though, and if (like me) you enjoy having stainless steel appliances that all match, this brand is a good option. There's up to $100 off across its line of air fryer ovens right now, and while we've not tried all of them, we did try and love the Joule and the Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro.
- Breville the Mini Smart Oven: was $159, now $129 @ Breville
- Breville the Smart Oven Pro: was $279, now $229 @ Breville
- Breville the Smart Oven Air Fryer: was $349, now $279 @ Breville
- Breville the Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro: was $399, now $299 @ Breville
- Breville the Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro: was $499, now $399 @ Breville
Looking for the best air fryer to buy this Black Friday? This is the place to be. Aside from keeping Tom's Guide readers up-to-speed with all the best products to buy for Black Friday, this is also the time of year when I become particularly popular with friends and family, all asking for my advice on which gadgets they should buy in the sales.
It's all well and good looking directly with retailers, but a deal's only a good deal if the product fits the bill. And with five years of product testing under my belt, I'm here to help you find the air fryer that's right for you and your home, and if there's a discount to boot — even better.
I'm currently testing the Philips Dual Basket Air Fryer 3000 Series. I actually made dinner in it last night! So far, I'm loving it. One of my favorite things is that the removable inserts are really wedged in there with a silicone grip on each corner, so if you're tipping fries or veggies out onto a place, your insert won't come crashing out with them. I've ruined a fair few carefully-plated meals with that common pitfall.
This is quite an interesting dual zone air fryer, because the zones aren't evenly divided. I find that quite smart, because I'm rarely cooking two elements of a meal in equal volumes. Last night for instance, I cooked some broccoli in the small drawer (at a lower temperature, as it tends to burn) and air fried my chicken and potatoes in the large one.
Anyway, it's on sale right now with 35% off at Amazon, putting it down to just $129.99. I think that's pretty good value for such a well-made fryer.
