The beauty of the dual drawer design is the ‘sync’ feature. It means you can set each drawer to a different time and temperature and the air fryer will ensure both finish at the same time. I found this particularly useful for cooking meat and vegetables.

As with all cookware, you’re advised to keep your air fryer clean using non-scratch tools to avoid the build-up of burnt oil and starchy foods, the smoke from which can be harmful. Healthier Cooking: Dido Air Fryer allows you to enjoy guilt-free fried food with 85% less fat than traditional deep frying methods It doesn’t have a separate pre-set for fish, but with a manual mode it’s easy to tailor the temperature to suit whatever you’re cooking, using the + and - signs. The range goes from 60°C to 200°C, which gives you a lot of scope to bake or dehydrate foods at a lower temperature, or blast them at a more powerful heat to create that delicious crispy, fried finish. Anything from a few sprays to two tablespoons of oil is perfectly adequate for air fryer cooking, though the latter is only necessary for breaded or battered foods. Excess oil in an air fryer will drop through the grate onto the bottom of the air fryer, burn, and smoke. Some recipes may even need no oil at all, but it’s always worth a few light sprays to prevent food from drying. Are air fryers toxic? However, it is pretty special because it steams as well as air fries. The functions are a little awkward: even with the instructions, I struggled to find the compartment you have to fill with water (it’s on top, by the way). It also leaked the first couple of times I used the air fryer.It is true that thermoplastic coatings can still release harmful compounds when heated to very high temperatures of 260C or above, but air fryers don’t reach temperatures that high. If you’re dead set against thermoplastics, consider an air fryer that uses ceramic cooking surfaces, such as the Ninja AF100 above.

Yes. “Air fryers require less oil compared to deep fat frying or pan frying and so help reduce the calorie content of the overall meal; it’s definitely a healthier way to cook whilst preserving taste and texture,” confirms nutritionist Jenna Hope. It’s also markedly less messy than regular frying. The basket automatically rotates inside the fryer, so you get even results, and it has a clear lid so you can see the progress of your food as it cooks. It’s controlled via a semi-smart LED timer. Once finished, the removable bowl is easy to clean and dishwasher safe.

We cooked the same food in each model: chips, roasted vegetables, sausages and fish fingers. We were looking for tasty, healthy, appetising results (everything took a little experimentation to get right) but we also wanted to see how easy each machine is to use, how much space it takes up, how much it costs to run and how easy it is to clean.

If, like me, multi-tasking isn’t your strong point, you’ll also find the Shake mode helpful too. I used this when cooking chips on the Fries mode for 15 minutes at 200°C and it reminded me with a beep to shake them mid-way through the cooking cycle. Very handy.

Programmes: air fryer, Speedi meals, steam bake, steam, grill, steam air fry, bake/roast, dehydrate, sear/sauté, slow cook