Best air fryers for a family of 4 | 2022 Buyer’s Guide

What is the best air fryer for a family of 4? The first thing to consider is cooking capacity. When it comes to a four-member family, a 4-quart or a 5-quart air fryer would be an ideal choice. Secondly, you will need to choose between a basket-style air fryer and an oven-front air fryer. The latter has a larger capacity and more options, such as food dehydration. The basket-style models have the advantage of being more compact and eco-friendly. Other things to look out for include extra options such as an adjustable temperature range and accessories like a skewer rack and dedicated pans for pizza and muffins.

Ninja Foodi 9-in-1 Pressure, Slow Cooker The Ninja brand offers a line of air fryers with a capacity ranging from 5 to 8 quarts. It cooks 70% faster and with 75% less fat. The 9-in-1unit has crisping and pressure lids, a 6.5-quart pot, a 4-quart basket, and a rack.
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COSORI Air Fryer, Max XL 5.8 Quart Made with an angled display, this compact air fryer has won the Red Dot Award for best design. It features a 5.8-quart basket, 12 presets for steak, poultry, bread, and more, as well as multiple temperature settings.
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Philips Kitchen Appliances Digital Twin TurboStar Airfryer This unique air fryer comes with fat-removal technology and 5 programmable settings. Not only can it air fry, but it can also reheat, grill, bake, roast, toast, and dehydrate. The unit has a 3lb capacity.
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Breville BOV900BSS Convection and Air Fry Smart Oven Air Designed with stainless steel, this convection oven has 2 fan speeds. The unit air fries, dehydrates, and roasts. It has a 5-quart oven, 6 independent quartz heating elements, and 13 cooking functions.
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How Air Fryers Differ Across Brands

Designed to produce healthier foods, air fryers are available with different functionalities and features. Depending on the model, this kind of kitchen appliance will fry your favorite meal with at least 70% less fat.

In these terms, the most efficient one seems to be the Philips TurboStar Airfryer which can make crispy and deep-fried foods with 90% less fat. For a family of 4, the best air fryer should have at least a 4-quart capacity. Such units typically have 1,700 watts of power.

In some models, wattage can go up to 1800W. This appliance allows you to serve up to 8 people at a time but is not energy-efficient.

Besides, air fryers differ in the number of features and functions. Brands like Cosori and GoWise offer multifunctional products with many preset cooking functions for steaks, fish, chickens, seafood, bread, and more. They can not just fry but also bake, grill, and roast. The GoWise GW22638 Air Fryer comes with 8 options and rapid air circulation technology, while the COSORI Max XL is made with 11 preset functions and an innovative LED panel.

Air Fryer Sizes

Air fryers come in different sizes, shapes, and designs to meet the demands of any customer. There is, therefore, no universal rule of choosing the right air fryer, as much depends on how much the appliance can hold. If you cook for yourself most of the time, a large-capacity air fryer will be inappropriate. Such a device will consume more energy than needed and take up extra space.

On the other hand, if you have a large family, you are better off buying an air fryer that can fit enough food for 8 and more servings. Keep in mind that overcrowding the basket is one of the common mistakes. What separates an air fryer from other kitchen appliances is that its efficiency depends on air circulation. So when placing food items in the basket, make sure there are spaces in between them. That is why you should opt for a larger air fryer if you are going to make meals for several people at a time.

Let’s compare the four main air fryer sizes: small, medium, large, and extra-large.

Small models typically have a capacity of no more than 2 quarts and are best suited for preparing individual meals. When I was a student, I rented an apartment with a kitchen and living room combined. I used a small 1-quart air fryer and that was a great space-saving solution. But I would not recommend this option for two-person families since it will accommodate just as much food as you can eat alone.
Medium air fryers are 3 to 5 quarts in size and are the most widespread option today. They cook enough food for more than one person but, at the same time, do not take up much counter space. Note that you will need somewhere to store the device between usages, so this factor really matters.

You may like T-fal Actifry Oil Less Air Fryer. To make French fries in the ActiFry, you may use only 1 tablespoon of oil.

While these devices are a true middle-ground solution, I have never considered them for buying when purchasing an air fryer for my family. Why? Medium air fryers lack many beneficial features that large-capacity models have. Since I had to cook for several people simultaneously, a greater number of programs, fan speeds, and accessories made a huge difference.

From my experience, large air fryers are just perfect! These appliances can hold 5 to 6 quarts and comfortably accommodate a whole chicken. Ideal for batch cooking, large air fryers are a frequent choice of families with children.
Extra-large air fryers offer 6 quarts and more. Designed to hold an entire turkey or multiple servings, large-capacity air fryers have some essential drawbacks, though. First, they will create lots of heat in your kitchen, and secondly, they are bulky and problematic to store.

What Size Air Fryer Do I Need?

A counter-question: what is your family size? If you are tight on a budget and have a family of 2, you can go with a small 2-quart air fryer. Not only are they cheaper, but they also require little power to operate, something that will affect your utility bills.

But again, I’d recommend a little bit large model to ensure the air will move around freely between the food items. For a family of 3, you should buy an air fryer with up to 3.5 quarts of capacity. These models have enough room for batch cooking and are pretty fast.

If you have a family of 4, consider sizes up to 6 quarts. The largest air fryers that are over 6 quarts are best suited for a family of 5. In addition to being amazingly spacious, they generally have extra features, accessories, and compartments.

Expert Opinion: Adam Ried, Equipment Expert

Adam Ried, a kitchen equipment expert

Adam Ried is a cookbook author, freelance writer, and kitchen equipment expert on America's Test Kitchen. Adam is the author of a book titled “Thoroughly Modern Milkshakes and Williams-Sonoma New Flavors for Soups”. Previously, he was a senior editor for Cook’s Illustrated magazine and lectured at MIT, Boston University, and the International Association of Culinary Professionals.

“[Air fryers] won't really deep fry food, but they promise nicely fried foods using a lot less oil. They are also supposed to be pretty quick and a lot less messy than oven frying. We tested nine units, the price range was $60 and $249. We tested each extensively by cooking a lot of frozen French fries, chicken wings, and lighter chicken parmesan. We compared all of the results with counterparts cooked in a conventional oven. As testers mastered the techniques, all of this food came out surprisingly well.

“In terms of accessing the frying chambers, there are two styles of access. This one has the drawer style, where it is just a drawer in the front. The second type is the flip-top type where you just pull the top up. Now, there are a couple of issues with this one. It is kind of unevenly weighted. This thing can really flop around if it is underneath the kitchen cabinet. The top can bang into the bottom of the cabinet and the worst thing the test has found is that the heating element is mounted in this lid and is a little loose. [Testers] really thought that the thing could come down on your hands while you are putting food in. That's definitely not good enough”.

15 Best-Selling air fryers for a family of 4 | Comparative Table

Customers' Choice

COSORI Air Fryer Max XL(100 Recipes) Electric Hot Oven Oilless Cooker LED Touch Digital Screen with 11 Presets,...

Award-Winning Design: Winner of the Red Dot Award for best design, the CP158-AF was designed in California and featured an angled display with easy-to-use presets. In addition, the air fryer's compact size allows it to easily fit on your counter
Less Fat: The air fryer uses up to 85% less fat than traditionally deep-fried food while maintaining the same delicious taste, making it the perfect gift for family or friends
Compared with a 4-quart round basket or even smaller one, the COSORI air fryer's 5.8- Quart Square Nonstick Basket can fit a 5 lbs-6 lbs whole chicken, while a small round basket can't. Buy this XL 5.8-Quart size, serves your family with at least 3-5 people
11 One-Touch Presets: Steak, Poultry, Seafood, Shrimp, Bacon, Frozen Foods, French Fries, Vegetables, Root Vegetables, Bread, and Desserts. Just choose your preset with 1 easy tap on display and you're ready to cook. You can also set cooking temp/time
The removable nonstick coated basket is dishwasher safe, PFOA-free & BPA-free. Air fryer Dimension: 11.8*11.8*12.6 in; Basket Dimension: 9*9*3.75 in. Buy our original air fryer accessory (search for C158-6AC) to create more
Comes with 100 original, delicious & easy recipes for every meal. Find out how our numerous influencers cook their food with COSORI air fryer in social media, also constant recipes and videos tutorials from our community
Cooking time is faster than a conventional oven, but with crispier and tastier results. It also has a shake reminder function. Preheat the unit before adding your ingredients to achieve the best results. ETL Listed, 170°F-400°F, 120V, 1700W
Helpful Service: Your purchase comes with assistance from our helpful Southern California-based Customer Support Team. Please note that 120V only applies to the USA and Canada

Best Value

Dash DFAF455GBBK01 Deluxe Electric Air Fryer + Oven Cooker with Temperature Control, Non Stick Fry Basket, Recipe...

HEALTHIER FRIED FOOD: Enjoy guilt-free food with the Dash deluxe air fryer; air crisp technology (instead of oil) reduces fat by 70-80%, without sacrificing the flavor of your fried food (no more residual smell hours after you’ve eaten)
6 QUART CAPACITY: The PERFECT appliance for picky eaters, large families, entertaining, or those with busy schedules The 6qt basket makes an abundance of appetizers, desserts, chicken wings, french fries, or even baked goods, and all within minutes of setting the timer - it couldn’t be easier
QUICK + EASY: Short on time? Simply load the large 6 qt capacity fryer basket, set the temp, and set the timer Your food comes out crispy, guaranteed, EVERY TIME, And in less time than it takes to pre-heat your oven, making it more energy efficient
SAFER: The auto-shut off function prevents overcooking, and the cool touch housing and handle make it safer to use It’s so simple, even your kids can use it (bonus, the non-stick fryer basket is dishwasher safe for even easier cleanup)
INCLUDES: The 1700-watt Deluxe air fryer is backed by a 1-year manufacturer warranty and includes a recipe book and recipe database access (all non-electric parts are dishwasher safe) Available in Black, White, Red, and Aqua
U S BASED SUPPORT: Dash is a U S based company that provides contact information in each product manual

Testing & Customers Reviews

We found reviews from real YouTube bloggers about the products featured in our article.

Mr. Gizmo: "We've had COSORI Air Fryer for quite a while now. We use it pretty much every night for something, whether we're heating something up or we're just making some things to go, like with steak or chicken or something like that. It's really a nice thing to have. It is just a very quick very painless way of cooking food.

One thing that people say is sometimes the drawers are not really good sized with air fryers or they're really narrow. This one's got a really nice size drawer to it. You can make a bunch of chicken in there. And because it's actually half the time even with a large family you can get plenty of chicken cooked really quickly. Does the food come out nice and crispy? Absolutely. I mean, that's really the claim to fame with this is if you put a piece of pizza in here just to heat it up quickly it will come out crispy as it came out of the oven, but you're not waiting to preheat the oven. The food really comes out really crispy without all of the deep frying, the oils the badness that comes with a lot of that fried food. This one has been fantastic for us. It's easy to clean as well.

The only thing that's really kind of, I would say, annoying about it is we always know when the kids are using it because you hear the beep every time with every button push that you do. But the nice thing about kids using it is I really don't worry too much about it. I mean, there's no grease involved there. This is kind of a self-contained unit. It's really portable. It's super lightweight so you could take it with you if you were going to somewhere for like thanksgiving. It cuts down your cooking time a lot, and the food tastes really good. I would highly recommend this one."

The Average Kitchen: "I think that Ninja Foodi 9-in-1 Deluxe Pressure Cooker and Air Fryer is the best value for what you get. It's a pressure cooker, an air fryer, a dehydrator, a steamer, all-in-one, amazing. Because I've had this for a couple of weeks, I've had the opportunity to try a couple of different things, and I absolutely love it. This piece of kit is amazing. It does a ton of different things, which I'm really excited about. Another thing that's amazing about this is this unbelievable book that they send you. So you can see here it's got all kinds of different recipes full instructional guidelines, which is great but the nicest part is in the middle, it gives you all your charts for your pressure cook, your steam, the air crisp, and dehydrate.

Another thing that's really cool about this is this dual-layer rack. It's also super portable, it's not light it's about 20 pounds. So it's not light that you're gonna throw in a backpack, but it's definitely portable. I mean, if you were a student and you were living in a small dorm or you had a bachelor-type apartment, this can really do everything. They say you can bake in this. So it's super versatile. It replaces a lot of other pieces of kitchen equipment that you may have. I really, like it. It's not very loud. It's very quiet. The other thing I wanna mention as well is considerably cheaper on hydroelectricity to run this small air fryer versus firing on your huge stove for an hour or whatever. It's probably about half the cooking time as you'd have in your oven no oil whatsoever.

We ran it through nine different sorts of tests. Overall, really impressed with this really, really impressed. I think it's gonna be great for cooking on the home front, and the possibilities are endless: baking, slow cooker, air fryer, dehydrator. It's, I think, roughly between eight to 10 hours to dehydrate fruit, but it should be great. We did the regular fries, sweet potato fries, and frozen fries. And I never cleaned this in between the three fries. And this is virtually clean. I mean, obviously, you gotta wash it, but if you look at the bottom, pretty minimal amount of residue leftover. The other thing I wanna talk about is storage. This is a big enough unit. However, everything goes inside of it with the exception of the pressure cooker lid. So it definitely is gonna take some space in your kitchen, but it can really replace a lot of other things. You don't necessarily need a slow cooker now, you don't necessarily need a standalone pressure cooker. It just does so many different things. So overall, super happy with it. "

15 Best air fryers for family of 4 on the market in 2022: Comparison Table