Salter EK5729 Dual Sector Air Fryer – Family Size 9L Total Capacity, 5.5L Drawer & 3.5L Drawer, Digital Display, No Pre-Heating Needed, Healthy Cooking, 8 Pre-Set Functions, Sync/Match Cook, 2500W

Product Information

I’m also the type of person that likes to press buttons without instructions, but the Salter Dual Air Fryer has several auto cooking functions – like different meats, muffins, fish, chips, and vegetables – that will help you select the right temperature and time for your chosen dish. If you’re unsure of the buttons (and the little images they represent) and it’s too much choice, I recommend selecting manual cook and winging it with your own time and temperature. Always go lower and shorter than you need. Any negatives? Some other foods were less impressive. I couldn’t get frozen hash browns to crisp up quite as much as I wanted, for example. Doubtless the limited top temperature is partly to blame here, but I did get perfect results from the Proscenic T22, which only goes 5℃ hotter. And while corn on the cob was fine, it wasn’t browned evenly and as deliciously caramelised as you might get from a grill. Still, it did a good job when cooking Quorn sausages from frozen. Dual zone air fryers do everything your usual air fryer can do, times two.So you can cook with the same time and temperatures across both drawers (effectively doubling the capacity of a single drawer use) or you can control either drawer independently. Like the Ninja, this air fryer has five other functions, and all of them are perfect for everyday cooking. The bake function is ideal for bread, the reheat function works for leftovers and you can even dehydrate oranges inside with the ability to set the temperature low for a long period of time (up to 12 hours).

The sync and match cook functions allow both compartments to be ready at the same time with a temperature pause and resume function

How we tested

An air fryer is essentially a small convection oven, circulating hot air around the food to get that crispy outer layer and fluffy or moist inside. It is also more energy-efficient due to its size and power, compared to heating your kitchen oven. Every air fryer in this buying guide has either been tested at home, or at our test facility by one of Ideal Home's reviewers for a number of weeks so that we can adhere to our testing protocol, and reliably tell you what's good and not so good about these products. And while I’m grumbling, this air fryer’s two baskets feature a dual-skinned front that stays reasonably cool in use, but neither the baskets nor their food trays are dishwasher safe. If you’re as lazy as me when it comes to washing up, that could be a pain. Finally, there’s no shake reminder, which would be helpful to ensure even browning on foods. Upping the game ahead of Christmas dinner, I tested out Brussels sprouts cooked with bacon. This time, too long meant they'd reduced to barely the size of a pea and were very crispy. By Christmas Day, I’d figured out the perfect cooking time of 10 minutes and they were plenty flavourful. Bacon is also a great meat to cook in the air fryer if you like it crispy, but a beefburger dried out and didn’t retain its moisture, so it was almost inedible. Just make sure to go into owning your Ninja with an open mind, and join online communities if you're looking for recipe inspiration and tips.

Natalie Corner is the Deputy Commercial Content Editor for Bauer Media, working across brands such as A Modern Kitchen, Modern Gardens, Take A Break Pets, Grazia and more, specialising in lifestyle, home and fitness content. The main reason to buy this air fryer from Russell Hobbs is the flexibility that comes with being able to split the basket into two zones, much like the Ninja FlexDrawer, which we've rated above. Lastly, it’s worth thinking about clean-up – most of the fryers on our list have dishwasher-proof baskets and accessories, while the two oven air fryers we’ve featured have removable doors to help you keep your machine as clean as possible. How we test air fryers Basket-style air fryers have one or two drawers where you place your food for cooking. Those with two drawers are particularly handy if you want to cook different foods at the same time, but they can take up a lot more room in the kitchen than their more compact counterparts. The flexibility to use it in either single or dual zone mode immediately solves the dilemma of whether to buy a single or double drawer air fryer and gives you the best of both worlds.

How to use an air fryer

If you know you want a dual-zone air fryer but don't necessarily need two sections all of the time, then the Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer Air Fryer is the one for you. Instead of choosing, you get both, giving this model ultimate versatility. You can insert a divider when you want to use the two drawers separately or keep the mammoth single drawer for cuts of meat and larger portions. The Salter Dual Air essentially combines two air fryers side-by-side. You can use either side independently of the other, allowing you to cook one dish only, or to cook two foods – each can have its own different settings if needed. It’s much the same setup as we’ve seen from the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone, currently our favourite all-round air fryer, and that’s a strong starting place.