Cuisinart AirTwin XXL Dual-Zone Air Fryer review: a surprisingly quiet, family-sized and affordable marvel

Over the years, the best air fryers have gotten bigger and bigger, and the Cuisinart AirTwin XXL Dual-Zone Air Fryer might be one of the biggest I’ve ever seen. With a huge combined capacity of 10.4-litres, it’s not a small air fryer by any stretch of the imagination, but considering how much everyone loves air fryer cooking, the Cuisinart AirTwin XXL Dual-Zone Air Fryer could be the only appliance you need in your kitchen.

Despite my role as T3’s Home Editor and my expertise in air frying, I don’t particularly like air fryers – collective gasp. I’ve always preferred using an air fryer and for a while, I thought that air fryers took the joy out of cooking. But then I spent a few weeks with the Cuisinart AirTwin XXL Dual-Zone Air Fryer, and I think I might have been converted – here’s why.

Cuisinart AirTwin Air Fryer review: price and unboxing

The Cuisinart AirTwin XXL Dual-Zone Air Fryer (AFD10OBLU) is priced at £149.99 and is available to buy at Cuisinart and select retailers, like Amazon. This is the typical price you’d be looking to pay for a big or dual basket air fryer, but compared to models from brands like Ninja and Tower, £150 is a pretty reasonable price.

As was to be expected, the Cuisinart AirTwin XXL Dual-Zone Air Fryer arrived in a pretty big cardboard box – because the air fryer itself is absolutely massive! In the box is the air fryer, complete with its two baskets and two non-stick crisper trays so you can break up the baskets even further into layers.

Cuisinart AirTwin Air Fryer review: design and features

The Cuisinart AirTwin Air Fryer is a dual basket air fryer that can make up to eight portions of food at a time. Each basket has a 5.2-litre capacity, which when combined, makes a total of 10.4-litres, which Cuisinart claims can feed up to 12 people. So, as you can probably guess, the Cuisinart AirTwin Air Fryer is a pretty big air fryer, measuring 30.9cm height, 40.7cm width and 44.4cm diameter.

With 2400W of power, the Cuisinart AirTwin Air Fryer uses Air Advantage technology to generate airflow around the baskets to cook food using little to no oil. The Cuisinart AirTwin Air Fryer has seven functions, including air fry, bake, roast, grill, dehydrate and max crisp – it also has a keep warm function that immediately kicks in for 20 minutes after cooking has finished.

The Cuisinart AirTwin Air Fryer has a large touchscreen display at the top of the air fryer. Once you turn the air fryer on, you can select which basket you want to use, using the L and R buttons, before selecting the cooking mode and then customising the temperature and time.

The Cuisinart AirTwin Air Fryer starts cooking immediately when you press play, and it has a shake reminder function that goes off during cooking to ensure your food cooks evenly. There are also synchronised cooking and match setting functions which allow you to prepare two meals at the same time, and copy programmes across both baskets.

Cuisinart AirTwin Air Fryer review: performance

My first impression of the Cuisinart AirTwin Air Fryer was that it was pretty darn big, but I was pleasantly surprised after hauling it out of the box that it was very lightweight. So, while it might take up a lot of room on your countertop, and is fairly unlikely to fit into any kitchen cupboard, it’s very easy to lift and move around.

The Cuisinart AirTwin Air Fryer is the biggest air fryer I’ve used so far, and I live in a 2-person household, so the size of it was probably wasted on me, as I don’t need to cook for a family just yet. But I couldn’t deny that the Cuisinart AirTwin Air Fryer had great capacity, plus the additional plates makes it easier to stack different foods for even more cooking space.

My favourite part of the Cuisinart AirTwin Air Fryer was its control panel. The touchscreen display was very easy to use, and didn’t require too much pressure on the button. As it’s a touchscreen, the Cuisinart AirTwin Air Fryer did get a bit grimy but it was easy to clean, as were the baskets after cooking.

I made many different meals in the Cuisinart AirTwin Air Fryer, including chicken goujons, sausages, croutons and vegetable traybakes. I found the Cuisinart AirTwin Air Fryer to work best when cooking meats, as it kept chicken especially moist and juicy. I found that it could add a crispier exterior to some foods, like chicken goujons, and while it cooked vegetables nicely, it occasionally browned them too much while keeping foods like broccoli and peppers a bit crunchy on the inside.

I was impressed by how quickly the Cuisinart AirTwin Air Fryer heated up, and how it made pretty minimal noise, considering its size and power. It occasionally beeped to remind me to shake the baskets in the last few minutes of cooking, and then beeped when cooking was complete. I found this helpful and appreciated that it wasn’t particularly loud – it sounded similar to an extractor fan.

The one issue I had with the Cuisinart AirTwin Air Fryer was its synchronised cooking didn’t always work. I found that I had to set both baskets individually to cook at the same time and temperature, because the match settings function didn’t feel like being selected! Additionally, when you pull out one basket, cooking in both baskets would stop which I thought was a bit of a flaw.

Image 1 of 2

Cuisinart AirTwin Air Fryer review: verdict

If you want a larger than life air fryer that can cook a mountain of food, then the Cuisinart AirTwin Air Fryer is for you. The capacity is impressive, it’s surprisingly lightweight and quiet, and the touchscreen display is quick and easy to use. Combine that with the price, easy cleaning and tasty results, then Cuisinart AirTwin Air Fryer is on to a winner.

It does have a few design flaws like the match settings and the paused cooking when a basket is removed, but the Cuisinart AirTwin Air Fryer is an admirable dual basket air fryer that families and meal preppers are sure to enjoy.

Cuisinart AirTwin Air Fryer review: alternatives to consider

For a choice of a dual basket and one giant chamber, the Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer is a brilliant choice. It can be converted from a dual zone air fryer to a full 10.4-litre basket, and it has a similar style to the Cuisinart AirTwin Air Fryer, if you like the look of it. It’s a bit more expensive at £269.99, but worth the money for the versatility.

The COSORI Dual Blaze TwinFry 10-litre Air Fryer is another good alternative. It has a similar capacity and control panel, but can be used as one big drawer or individual baskets.