Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer MAX + Tongs, 9.5 L, 2470 W, 2 Drawers, 8 Portions, 6-in-1, Air Fry, Roast, Bake, Nonstick, Dishwasher Safe Baskets, Amazon Exclusive, Copper/Black AF400UKCP

Product Information

At the end of the cooking time, the hash browns were super-crispy on the outside, yet evenly cooked and still fluffy on the inside. This is a vast improvement over cooking them in the oven. The holy grail of air fryer food, the humble nuggets and chips combo was our first test with the mighty Ninja dual-zone air fryer. Straight out of the freezer, the nuggets were supposed to take 15 minutes in the oven, while the sweet potato fries should've taken 20. On the day of testing itself, it was plainly obvious that the Ninja Foodi MAX Dual Zone was by far the superior appliance. It was the nicest to program, while some of the Tower models had oppressive beeps and stiff drawers and it had by far the best cooking ability. It was the fastest and achieved an incredible crisp on nuggets and fish fingers, with the quality of the machine itself also being standout. The large capacity of the Ninja Foodi Max Dual Zone Air Fryer AF400UK makes it a bulky appliance. Measuring 32.5 x 41.5 x 27cm / 13.9 x 12.8 x 17.1inches (h x w x d) and weighing 8.8kg / 19.8lb, this isn’t an appliance you’ll be storing in a cupboard and lifting out every time you need it. Cleaning all of the dual-zone air fryers I was testing on this day was pretty similar, with both baskets needing a good scrub in the sink to get rid of grease and residue, especially as the last test in the series was cooking bacon.

Effectively, this model delivers all the great features of last year’s model, only with a 9.5-litre total capacity. For larger families, or simply for cooking bigger items, this is a great fryer – provided you have the room to store it. Design and Features

Cook two different foods at the same time with this large-capacity air fryer

We were impressed by the Sync feature, which allows you to cook two different foods with different cooking modes, temperature,s and durations, to be ready at the same time. Alternatively, you can set one zone with a cooking mode, temperature, and duration, and press the Match button to duplicate the settings in both zones, doing away with fiddling with the controls again. Cook the same food in both zones to make twice the amount of food in the same amount of time! Or easily cook two different foods with the same cooking instructions.

If you want to use the two drawers together, you have a choice of two modes: Match and Sync. Match applies the same settings to both drawers, letting you double-up portions. Sync allows individual settings, but the AF400UK ensures that both drawers complete cooking at the same time. There’s no getting around the fact that the Ninja Foodi MAX Dual Zone Air Fryer AF400UK is a beast of a model. Measuring 325 x 415 x 270mm and weighing 8.8kg, you’re going to need a fair amount of space to store it. In my opinion it’s way too big for single person households unless you host a lot. And if you have a teeny kitchen, you’ll need to be prepared to find space for it, since it’s quite wide and tall. Furthermore, it’s one of the most expensive Ninja air fryers - a fact that can’t be ignored in your decision about whether to buy. What’s more, you can use the Match feature to double your portion size. Cook the same food in both drawers, with the same cooking programme to make twice the amount of food – perfect for feeding the whole family or if you have guests round for dinner. Plus, you can easily cook different foods with the same cooking instructions for added flexibility. Lots of OptionsI forgot to say that you can set each drawer at a separate temperature and time or sync them to finish at the same time! Cook everything from fries and crisps to vegetables and beef jerky thanks to the Ninja AF400UK Air Fryer. Using little to no oil, this handy appliance lets you create your favourite meals and sides just the way you like them with up to 75% less fat than traditional frying methods. At the end of cooking time, my chips were perfectly cooked – evenly crisp throughout, without any sign of being burnt or overcooked. Cooking for two different dietary requirements? Cater for everyone by cooking vegetarian food in one drawer and meat in the other.

With the SYNC feature you can cook two different foods using different times, temperatures and programs – both are ready to serve at the same time!Reheat – Restore leftovers to that delicious fresh-out-of-the-oven finish, perfect for reviving leftover pizza, quiche, spring rolls and more. The Ninja Foodi Max Dual Zone AF400UK is a slightly cheaper air fryer from Ninja with a slightly smaller overall capacity at 9.5 litres. It offers the same excellent cooking power and ease of use, but with two individual zones that can’t be combined into a larger zone. So if you don’t want to cook large joints of meat, it’s a great alternative to the pricier FlexDrawer. That said, despite having quite a big, deep butler style sink it only just fits in my sink. If you’ve got a small sink you might struggle to fit it in. Although since it just needs some warm soapy water in it - you don’t really need to be able to fit the whole thing into your sink to give it a good clean. The problem with most air fryers is that once you come to love what they do and become used to them, you then have to work out how to cook different items at the same time. Last year’s Ninja Dual Zone Air Fryer AF300UK solved that issue by including two individually controlled drawers. This year, we have the larger model the Ninja Foodi MAX Dual Zone Air Fryer AF400UK, presenting even more cooking room.

The easy-to-use digital control panel with a countdown timer makes it easy to see how much cooking time is left. Build quality aside, the AF451UK is aesthetically pleasing, especially perched in pride of place on my kitchen countertop. The control panel has a nice solid feel to it while being satisfyingly easy to operate. Its flat top is also a welcome design feature for those with limited space, as it means you can store things on there that you might otherwise have had to relegate to a cupboard to make room, like a toaster (yes, I am speaking from experience). testing and calculations based on recommended cook time for sausages, using air fry function versus conventional ovens Cooking for extra guests or feeding the whole family? Use the MATCH feature to double your serving size, with the same cooking program and time across both drawers. But what makes it so good? For one, it’s absolutely bursting with features, all of which help to make the device easy to use and efficient for all cooking scenarios. There are six cooking options: air fry, max crisp air fry, bake, roast, dehydrate, and reheat. The only thing it’s missing is the option to grill. Ninja clearly wants you to buy a separate health grill for that. In my tests, each and every function has worked as expected, even when I tried dehydrating some oranges ahead of my weekend of negroni sipping.As with the older model, the AF400UK excels for cooking options. Each drawer can be controlled individually, with a choice of Max Crisp (240ºC heat for crisping up chips, for example), Air Fry, Roast, Bake, Dehydrate (perfect for saving herbs) and Reheat. You can control the temperature for each mode and select a cooking time. Everything here can be cleaned in the dishwasher once you’re done, meaning there’s very little clearing up to deal with. Performance To give the Max Crisp function a go, I used it to cook frozen hash browns – which all too often come out of a regular oven slightly soggy. Although they’re supposed to be cooked in the oven for around 20 minutes, I set the cooking time to 11 minutes because of the high 240ºC temperature. Once you do splash out on the Ninja, you're going to want to know how to clean it so keep it looking pristine. My top tips for this air fryer would be to separate the grill and the basket elements out and to clean them separately, and to invest in a Dish-o-matic to make the whole process a lot easier.