Across the range of air fryers we tested this one took a little longer to roast the vegetables how we liked, but we could not fault the even cooking. The air fryer has an insert at the back of the air fryer that claims to remove odors as it cooks. This can be removed and inserted easily for cleaning, and it uses removable filters which need to be replaced.
We did find it browned frozen French fries and chicken nuggets well, but the limited capacity of the inner pot made it difficult to air fry large batches of food. The Instant Vortex has four pre-programmed settings to air fry, bake, roast and reheat similar to the Instant Pot’s seven settings. The caveat here is the Vortex only has eight buttons, four of which are those programs, plus Start, Cancel, Time and Temp.
It narrowly missed being ranked as best, but I found that the added versatility of the Ninja’s seven functions, the sleeker design, and the larger temperature range makes it superior. In terms of dedicated air frying ability, I prefer these basket-style fryers to the other winner in the list—the Breville Joule Oven Pro—which didn’t yield quite as crispy results when frying. We love this machine’s slim, compact footprint, and we liked that its nonstick cooking basket was simple instant vortex to clean and had a removable bottom for deeper cleaning. Its digital controls and dial-operated menu made setting the time and temperature easy and intuitive. It automatically stopped cooking as soon as the set time was up, and its drawer allowed us to remove its cooking basket without exposing our hands to the heating element. While it can’t hold as much food as our winner can, it can handle small batches of frozen foods or air-fryer recipes intended to serve two people.
Both the handle and the controls don’t get much warmer than room temperature. We measured a noise level of 66.5dB during heating, which is the loudest of the air fryers we had on test. It’s worth mentioning that this is not so noisy that you won’t be able to have a conversation over the top of it while it’s running.
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It’s air fried evenly since day one and has never given us mechanical issues with the electronics, internal burner, basket integrity (even after an accidental drop), etc. Along with our in-house experts, our team analyzes thousands of product reviews from the most trusted websites. These parts are also easily cleaned by hand with warm, soapy water and a non-abrasive sponge. If there’s any particularly difficult to remove grease or stuck-on food, let the parts soak in hot, soapy water first. The basket is on the smaller side, but it’s dishwasher-safe for simple cleanup. If you’re a beginner, this couldn’t be simpler to use, and if you’re more experienced, it’s well-built for daily use.
We’ve come to expect the best from the maker of the Instant Pot, and the Instant Vortex Plus doesn’t feel quite like it. While I loved the dehydrate feature and enjoyed watching a small chicken rotate on a spit, there are still some rough edges here. The Instant Vortex has an incredibly intuitive control panel that made it one of the easiest to use in my tests. You can easily remove the basket from the machine, and a built-in light lets you see what’s happening inside the oven without opening the drawer.