NINJA AIR FRYER MAX AF160

Air fryers have been in existence since 2010, and their popularity continues to rise as more and more people discover that these countertop appliances can cook, crisp, and brown food so rapidly that your traditional oven feels incredibly slow in comparison. While Ninja is renowned for creating some of the best blenders and Instant Pot alternatives, it's also a brand to turn to for top-notch air fryers. Ninja offers two types of air fryers: their dual-zone models come with two separate cooking compartments and larger capacity, whereas the Ninja Air Fryer Max AF160, also known as the Ninja Air Fryer Max XL in the US, features a single cooking basket and is Ninja's premium single-zone air fryer.

Price and Availability:

The Ninja Air Fryer Max AF160, or Ninja Air Fryer Max XL in the US, is available for purchase on Ninja's official website and can also be found on Amazon. It is priced at £149.99 / $159.99 / AU$349.99.

Design and Performance:

While the Ninja Air Fryer Max isn't exactly petite, as far as air fryers go, it doesn't demand too much countertop real estate, although it does have a considerable height. Its dimensions are 36 x 25 x 32cm (14 x 14 inches in height, width, and depth). If you'd prefer to stow it away in a cupboard, its weight of 5.2 kg makes it easily portable for most individuals. The cooking basket is coated with ceramic and includes a removable ceramic-coated crisper plate, which elevates food off the bottom of the basket, allowing for better air circulation and the removal of excess fat. Both components are non-stick and can be cleaned in the dishwasher. The basket is equipped with a large, sturdy handle for easy retrieval and for shaking your food during the cooking process.

The user-friendly control panel boasts a digital display for counting down the cooking time. Each cooking function is selectable by pressing the corresponding button. Additional buttons are available to adjust default time and temperature settings, as well as a start/stop button and a power button.

In the UK and Australia models, there are six cooking functions to choose from: Max Crisp, Air Fry, Roast, Bake, Reheat, and Dehydrate. The US version includes a seventh function, Air Broil. The air fry function can be set for a maximum of 60 minutes at a temperature of up to 210°C (410°F), while the more potent Max Crisp function maintains a fixed temperature of 240°C (450°F) for a maximum of 30 minutes. While there are no preset settings for specific dishes, a Quick Start Guide is included in the package, providing time and temperature recommendations, as well as suggested amounts of oil for various foods, along with 20 recipes to experiment with. However, it would be beneficial to have more cooking guidance for the Roast and Bake functions, as this information is somewhat lacking in the manual.

No setup is required and with a simple, intuitive control panel and plenty of cooking times, it’s easy to get started with the Ninja Air Fryer Max AF160, even if you’re new to Air fryer. The manual suggests preheating the air fryer for three minutes for best results. So before you add food, set the timer for three minutes and let it preheat. This process isn’t onerous, but it would be great if Ninja could include a preheat setting to make it easier.

Using the quick start guide, we estimated an outdoor cook time of 20 minutes for our hand-cut fries. The guide recommends between 5 to 3 tablespoons of oil, so we went with 1.5 tablespoons, which is more than other air fryer brands require, but by the end of cooking, over 0.5 tablespoons had drained to the bottom of the basket, so less Left over 1 tablespoon in the fries. We’ll whip up the fries three times during cooking, but you’ll need to keep this in mind as the fryer doesn’t ask for it. The finished fries were golden brown on the inside, crispy and fluffy, but we could have shaved them off for a minute. Cooking time or two, as some were a little over the top, said going from raw potatoes to cooked fries in just 20 minutes was a pleasantly quick result.

Frozen steak cut fries cooked to perfection on the Max Crisp setting, and while the pouch offers a 26-28 minute cook time, they only took 12.5 minutes, which is less than half the time is that would be required in an oven. Preheat the fryer for three minutes first and had to shake it a few times, but the result was impressively crispy fries with soft, fluffy centers. When cooking chicken wings, we reduced the recommended cooking time as our portion was much smaller than the guide’s recommended amount of

. It ended up taking 12 minutes and we chose not to add Ninja’s suggested 1 tablespoon of oil to keep the fat could drain into the wings for a healthier option.

We flipped the wings twice during cooking and they developed a crispy skin while remaining moist and juicy on the inside. The hottest temperature we measured on the outside of the fryer was 122 F/50 C, but the handle and control panel stayed cool.

Easy to Clean Air Fryer:-

The air fry was quiet, registering just 50dB on our noise meter, making it one of the quietest fryers we’ve tested to date, and the noise level, which matches general household chatter, is perfectly acceptable. Nothing stuck to the basket or crisper plate during our testing, and both washed well in the dishwasher, although they’re not too difficult to hand wash either.

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