Air fryers are a great option if you often find yourself impatiently waiting for your oven to preheat or wishing your meals, sides, and snacks were crispier. Using about as much counter space as a microwave, these compact appliances quickly cook and crisp your food with little to no oil. Instead, they use hot air, with the best models producing evenly cooked, crispy, and golden-brown food.

Many air fryers also offer surprising versatility. Models with a wide range of temperature settings and fan speeds can roast, bake, dehydrate, and more, which is ideal if you want to multitask or avoid heating your full-sized oven on a hot day. Dual-basket models even let you cook different foods on each side of the air fryer, so you can prepare your main dish and a side simultaneously. While the capacity of the air fryers we've tested ranges from 2 to 10 quarts, larger models tend to perform better. Unlike in a deep fryer, you won't get the best results by filling the basket with ingredients. Instead, you'll want to arrange your food in a single layer as much as possible. With that in mind, you may want a bigger air fryer (or one with a wider basket) even if you only cook for one or two people.