The Ninja Dual Zone AF300 and AF400 are two of the UK’s best-selling air-fryers. Their two-drawer design makes them versatile and popular with families, but which one should you buy?
I bought both and tested them out with popular dishes side by side to see which has the more practical dimensions for regular use by a family of four. You can see the results in the video below.
Transcript
This is the Ninja Dual Zone AF300, it’s Amazon’s biggest-selling air-fryer, but is it actually big enough for your family? This in comparison is the AF400 it’s 25% bigger but do you really need to commit the extra money and worktop space for the larger capacity? One manufacturer, two air fryers, but which one is right for you?
So first up let’s have a quick look at the physical differences between these two models. The AF300 has a 7.6 litre capacity with each drawer holding 3.8 litres and the AF400 has a 9.5 litre capacity so each drawer is just a fraction under one litre larger than the 300. Now obviously I knew the 400 was bigger but I wanted to see how thta played out in the real world and whether it was really a consideration when you choose between these two models. Does it actually take up vital extra worktop space?
And as you can see there’s barely any difference between the 400 and the 300, the 400 is only 4cm wider and about 1cm taller and deeper. The layout of the display on the 400 is different to the 300 but the choice of functions is exactly the same. I think I slightly prefer having the dial on the 400 but I could happily live without it.
For the last couple of weeks I’ve been testing these two models side by side….but remember this is not a cooking video, this is purely about capacity and which of these two models is likely to best suit a family of 4. I think you’ll make your own mind up as we go along but I’ll tell you my opinion at the end and one really important factor to consider before you take the plunge with buying either!
So the first test for these two air fryers was to do a whole roast chicken in each. Both chickens weighed 1.5kg and both fitted in the drawers, but we discovered the chicken in the 300 was too high in the drawer and early on it started burning on top where it was making contact with the heating elements so we had to pull it out and rejig it a bit and cut some extra off the legs to make it fit. The one in the 400 was absolutely fine. Considering these weren’t particularly big chickens this was a bit frustrating and a definite early tick in the box for the extra capacity of the 400, we also did roast vegetables in both drawers and there was lots of capacity in both models for those
Next up was checking the capacity in both drawers for individual chocolate puddings, now the recipe for these is linked in the description but it was supposed to fill four individual pudding dishes to ¾ full and it did with these, so they are 8cm across and are a pretty standard size. However if you try and fit 4 of them in the 300 drawer, it was fine for 3, but once you get to the fourth it becomes a bit tight and you have to start trying to squeeze it in by overlapping the dishes and having one at a slight angle.
Now if you were to put a rack in there to try and stack them the problem with that is that the top dishes are too high in the air fryer, the top of them is actually level with the edge of the drawers, so as they cooked and rose they would burn on the heating element
However, if you try those pudding basins in the 400 drawer, you can happily add all four with a little bit of space around them as well.
Now of course you can downsize, so for comparison, I also tried it with some silicone ramekins which are 7.5cm wide, I only have three of them but it will give you an idea, so as you can see that 4 would easily fit in the drawer of the 300, however in the 400 you can comfortably fit 3 of them down the length of the drawer so it would take 6 in total
I also did a cookie test, that was a great personal sacrifice and the maximum I was able to fit in the larger drawer of the 400 was six cookies and the maximum I could fit in the 300 was 5
Next up was the sausage test, obviously you can layer sausages on top of each other and give them a shake halfway through cooking, but I wanted to illustrate how many you could fit across the base of the drawer just to give you an idea of capacity, in the 300 I managed to get 9 in, with the 400 it took 12 which of course is usually two packs so that works out quite well.
We also tried out a side-by-side comparison cooking chicken fajitas. I measured out the chicken in two identical size bags which were the recommended size for four portions. What I was particularly interested to see was whether the extra space in the 400 meant the chicken cooked faster and as you can see when I pulled the drawers out halfway there were a few but not many bits of chicken which weren’t cooked in the 400, however in the 300 there was much more uncooked chicken. It’s not a huge difference, but it is a difference nonetheless
I didn’t really notice a difference in the cooking duration but the 300 definitely needed more help moving the chicken around to get the hot air circulating
Now if you are thinking about cooking bread or loaf cakes in your air fryer here’s a useful side-by-side comparison. This is a one-pound loaf tin which I bought from Amazon, there’s a link to it in the description below. It’s very cute, but probably more practical for baking cakes in rather than bread. It’s 8cm across, 19cm long and 6cm deep. It fits happily in the 300 with space free at both ends of the drawer and lots of space down the sides so you can lift it in and out easily and of course there’s even more room in the 400 with lots of space all around it.
Now if we step up to a 2lb loaf tin like this which is 8.5cm deep, 19cm long and 13cm across it will fit in the drawer for the 300, but it’s hard up against the edges and there’s very little space around it, which make sit tricky to remove when the drawer and the tin are both hot and even using a tin foil sling underneath it would be difficult because there’s not much space above the top of the tin for enough to stick out so you can lift it, in comparison if you put that 2lb tin in the 400 it is much easier to put in and much easier to remove
So final conclusion on this, yes you can get away with the 300 for a family of 4, but I think it’s really best for a family who is using it for less than 4 most of the time, if you have the budget and it’s only about £20 or £30 more… it’s definitely worth stepping up to the 400… one word of caution if you go to the 400 and buy accessories like silicone baskets or racks make sure you check their size because lots of the accessories are identical for the 400 and 300 and that might cut any of the space you gain.
Links to purchase
Ninja AF300 (7.6L) Air Fryer https://geni.us/zPi7
Ninja AF400 (9.5L) Air Fryer https://geni.us/MR9Di
