Ninja SP101 Digital Air Fry Countertop Oven with 8-in-1 Functionality – Silver
$149.99
The Ninja Foodi Digital Air Fry Oven packs a lot of features and cooking capacity in a small countertop footprint. Air Fry, Air Roast, Air Broil, Bake, Bagel, Toast, Dehydrate, and Keep Warm—all in one appliance—and when you’re done cooking, reclaim your counter space by simply flipping the oven up and away to clean and store.
If your bottom line is the end result, this unit cooks very well, heats and cooks quickly.
But... there is a learning curve before you understand the various settings (mostly via two buttons and a dial), to control temperature, time, darkness, slices, and other decisions required to complete your task. You will NEED to keep the manual handy until you acquire this required learning!
There is a banner-like piece of paper that states not to use olive oil, butter, or margarine. It suggests canola, grapeseed or avocado oil. This is NOT mentioned in the manual or the quick start guide. Mot recipes I read online used olive oil. My assumption is that olive oil, butter, and margarine have low smoke points so they are not good choices for this type of cooking. I do not plan to determine if I am correct.
Before you "flip" the unit, you will need to wait for it to tell you it has cooled down. Then you will want (need?) to clean out the unit enough so that you do not get any crumbs or other debris into the back of the unit. You are likely to just leave it laying down and unplugging it instead of the wait time and cleaning needed before you can flip it. You can clean the unit via the "easily accessible back panel" on the bottom. Much easier than cleaning through the front of the unit. I wouldn't refer to this unit as "easy cleaning". They do not tell you that you HAVE to spray oil on the basket or broil/roast/bake pan. Anything that can stick to the basket and/or pan will leave you with a royal pain to clean! I have yet to try putting the basket or pan in the dishwasher. I will likely have to scrape off most of the debris before doing so.
I don't think "large capacity" is accurate. It is a good length/width but not very tall. You have about 4 inches above the broil/roast pan. Even less for the air fryer basket. Barely tall enough for a chicken breast.
I don't regret this purchase. Yet.
Update: I used the air fryer with the grill pan below and cooked breaded fish and shrimp. I brushed the fryer basket and grill pan with grapeseed oil. Some of the food stuck to the fryer basket. The drippings in the broil pan were impossible to clean! They state that you should not use scouring products like steel wool. I did my best to clean the basket and pan. I shredded a scour sponge trying to get them clean. I will have to live with the fact that it will not be spotless. "Easy cleaning" basically implies easy ACCESS to clean the unit. Since you can remove all of the tray, pan, rack, etc and then open the bottom of the unit, THAT is what provides the access to all areas. You will still have a job on your hands to clean this unit.
Perhaps a different type of oil will reduce or eliminate the sticking and reduce the elbow grease required to keep this thing clean.