Best Air Fryers in Australia: The Right Type for Your Household

The short answer

There is no useful single “best air fryer” for every household. The biggest differences in this shortlist are basket architecture, meal geometry and kitchen fit.

• Choose the Anko AF4002 when horizontal width is unusually tight and small-batch capacity is acceptable.
• Choose the Ninja AF141 when you want a straightforward 4.7L single basket for everyday cooking.
• Choose the Philips NA230 when one larger 6.2L basket is more useful than running two independent zones.
• Choose the Russell Hobbs RHAF2768 when two equal 4.5L baskets match your normal meals.
• Choose the Ninja AF400 when two equal 4.75L drawers are the recurring requirement.
• Choose the Philips NA352 when dinner is usually one larger main plus a smaller side.
• Choose the Ninja SL400 DoubleStack when you still need two substantial equal zones but horizontal bench width is the binding constraint.
• Choose the Ninja AF500 FlexDrawer when you regularly alternate between two zones and one large uninterrupted cooking area.
• Choose the Philips NA551 when steam-specific functions will genuinely be part of your normal cooking.
• Choose the Sunbeam AFP6000 when a front-opening, oven-style convertible cavity and multi-level arrangement suit your workflow better than a pull-out drawer.

Start with one basket or two zones

A single basket is the cleaner choice when most meals use one cooking temperature and one batch. Moving to dual zones makes sense when two foods repeatedly need independent settings or timings and the second zone replaces sequential cooking.

For smaller single-basket cooking, the Anko AF4002 is the narrow-width example, while the Ninja AF141 gives more basket capacity. The Philips NA230 moves the same simple architecture to a 6.2L basket rather than adding a second zone.

If you are unsure whether dual-zone cooking is actually necessary, start with the question: how many of your last five air-fryer meals would genuinely have benefited from a second independently controlled basket?

If you need two zones, choose the zone shape

Equal zones: Russell Hobbs RHAF2768 or Ninja AF400

Equal baskets make the most sense when both foods routinely need similar space. The Russell Hobbs uses two 4.5L baskets; the Ninja AF400 uses two 4.75L baskets.

Do not choose an equal-zone layout just because its total litre figure looks large. If one side of your meal is normally much smaller, part of that equal capacity may be poorly matched to how you actually cook.

Main + side: Philips NA352

The NA352's 6L + 3L split deliberately gives one food more room than the other. That is a better fit when your normal pattern is a substantial main plus a smaller side.

The trade-off is equally clear: if both foods regularly need similar volume, the 3L side becomes the limiting basket and an equal-zone format is more coherent.

Narrow dual-zone: Ninja SL400 DoubleStack

The SL400 keeps two equal 4.75L zones but stacks them vertically. Its 28.6cm width can solve a horizontal-space problem, while its 48.8cm depth means it should not be described as universally compact.

Choose it because width is the constraint, not simply because the word “stacked” sounds smaller.

If meal shape changes, consider convertible space

Ninja AF500 FlexDrawer

The AF500 switches between two 5.2L zones and one 10.4L MegaZone. Its advantage is not the small increase in total litres over fixed dual-drawer models; it is the ability to remove the divider and create one uninterrupted cooking area.

That flexibility earns its footprint when you can name recurring meals that need both formats. If the divider would almost always stay in place, a fixed dual-drawer model can be the cleaner decision.

Sunbeam AFP6000

The Sunbeam solves a similar one-large-or-two-zones problem with an 11.4L front-opening oven-style cavity that can split into two 5.5L zones.

Choose between the Sunbeam and AF500 primarily by physical workflow: front-opening racks and multi-level arrangement versus a large pull-out drawer. Neither format is automatically better; the useful question is which one creates less friction for the food you cook most often.

Treat steam as a separate decision

The Philips NA551 shares the same 9L, 6L + 3L main-and-side concept as the NA352 but adds Steam, Steam + Air Fry and Steam Clean.

That makes steam the meaningful reason to step across, not the fact that the NA551 simply has more functions. If those steam-specific modes would rarely be used, the extra capability should carry little weight in the decision.

Read Is a steam air fryer worth it? for the focused test, or compare Philips NA352 vs NA551 for the direct product decision.

Kitchen fit can overrule the cooking format

A product can match your meals and still be the wrong appliance for the available bench.

The SL400 demonstrates why width alone is not enough: it is narrow but deep. The Anko AF4002 demonstrates the opposite trade-off: very narrow width comes with much smaller stated cooking capacity. Capacity and footprint need to be considered together rather than ranked separately.

If space is the binding constraint, use the small-kitchen air fryer guide before choosing a format.

The PIQSY decision rule

Choose the simplest architecture that repeatedly solves a real problem:

1. Start with the batch size you genuinely cook.
2. Add a second zone only if parallel cooking is recurring.
3. Choose equal or asymmetric zones from normal meal proportions.
4. Choose stacked only when horizontal width is the problem.
5. Choose convertible space only when both configurations will be used.
6. Give steam meaningful weight only when steam-specific cooking is part of your routine.

That is why PIQSY does not force these ten products into one universal ranking. The products solve different constraints, and a higher feature count does not by itself produce a better household fit.