The Chefman Multifunctional Air Fryer+ is a large 9.8-quart model with a unique design; instead of a basket, this tall air fryer has three wire racks stacked inside. The front panel has touch-sensitive controls with three preset cooking modes: 'Air Fry,' 'Bake,' and 'Dehydrate,' as well as buttons for various foods that adjust the settings further, and a 'Rotate' button that adds a rotisserie function. There's also a light in the cooking chamber and a viewing window in the oven-style door, so you can keep an eye on your recipe as it cooks.
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Our Verdict
The Chefman Multifunctional Air Fryer is an okay air fryer. It makes fair-quality fried food, with more than half of each batch coming out crispy and well-cooked, while another significant portion is either under- or overcooked. It preheats somewhat slowly, but cooks decently fast, so while it's not the quickest model out there, you don't have to wait too long for it to finish cooking. Beyond air fryer standards like onion rings and chicken nuggets, this model doesn't offer much versatility. It has a fairly wide range of temperature settings compared to other air fryers, but its fan is limited to a very narrow range of settings. This limitation makes it less suitable for tasks like proofing dough and broiling, and it also contributes to its lackluster frying performance.
Preheats somewhat slowly.
Makes just okay-quality fried food.
Limited range of fan speed settings.
The Chefman Multifunctional Air Fryer is an excellent choice for large-batch cooking. It has a 9.8-quart capacity, which is sufficient to feed more than six people at a time. Its oven-style design allows you to use all three wire racks simultaneously, providing ample surface area for cooking. The air fryer takes a while to preheat, but its cooking speed is satisfactory; making multiple batches takes some extra time, but not too long. Unfortunately, it only makes fair-quality fried food. While more than half of each batch winds up crispy, there's quite a lot left either mushy or burnt as well. It's not a particularly versatile model either, largely due to its narrow range of fan speeds, which makes it less suitable for applications like proofing dough or broiling.
Very large 9.8-quart capacity.
Lots of surface area, so you can spread food out.
Preheats somewhat slowly.
Makes just okay-quality fried food.
Limited range of fan speed settings.
The Chefman Multifunctional Air Fryer offers an alright frying performance. The wire cooking racks have a generous surface area, allowing you to arrange food in a single layer for better results. Unfortunately, the maximum fan speed isn't very high, and the air fryer doesn't maintain a very stable temperature while cooking. This combination leads to fried food that is just okay. More than half of each batch comes out crispy, but a significant portion remains undercooked or burnt as well. It cooks decently fast, so while you may not be overly impressed with its speed, you won't have to wait too long for results either.
Lots of surface area, so you can spread food out.
Makes just okay-quality fried food.
Limited range of fan speed settings.
Temperature fluctuates somewhat throughout cooking.
The Chefman Multifunctional Air Fryer provides an adequate cooking speed overall. Its preheat speed is just alright, but it cooks decently fast.
Preheats somewhat slowly.
The Chefman Multifunctional Air Fryer has a large 9.8-quart capacity, which is enough to cook full meals for the whole family. It has plenty of surface area between its three wire cooking racks, meaning there's plenty of room to spread food out for the crispiest results.
Very large 9.8-quart capacity.
Lots of surface area, so you can spread food out.
The Chefman Multifunctional Air Fryer is decently compact, particularly considering its nearly 10-quart capacity.
Compact considering its capacity.
Performance Usages
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Chefman Multifunctional Air Fryer comes in 'Black.' See the label for our unit.
If you discover another variant, let us know in the comments, and we'll update this review.
Popular Air Fryer Comparisons
The Chefman Multifunctional Air Fryer is an oven-style air fryer with a 9.8-quart capacity and a viewing window in its door. Like other oven-style air fryers, it struggles to make crispy food. The Breville the Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro, for example, makes fried food that is only a bit better than the Chefman's results despite having a much steeper price tag. That said, the Breville offers excellent versatility, which is common with oven-style air fryers, and this is something the Chefman also lacks. In contrast, large-capacity basket-style air fryers, such as the Ninja Foodi DZ550, produce better-quality fried food and typically cook faster, while also offering additional versatility. Smaller basket-style options, like the Chefman TurboFry RJ38-5-T, may not offer as much versatility, but they usually outperform oven-style options in terms of frying performance and speed. In this case, the TurboFry makes significantly better fried food than the Multifunctional Air Fryer and finishes cooking a few minutes faster overall. Ultimately, this air fryer is still a reasonable option, especially if you need to cook for a crowd while saving space; however, there are more impressive options available at a similar price point.
For more options to consider, see our recommendations for the best air fryers, the best budget and cheap air fryers, and the best large-capacity air fryers.
The Breville the Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro and the Chefman Multifunctional Air Fryer+ are both large oven-style air fryers with reasonable overall performance. Beyond those similarities, however, they're very different, and you may prefer either depending on your needs. The Chefman is the more compact option, with a smaller 9.8-quart capacity to match. It preheats and cooks faster than the Breville and comes at a much more affordable price. The Breville, on the other hand, has a much larger 23.2-quart capacity and takes up significantly more counter space. It makes better-quality fried food and offers a lot more versatility, with a wider range of temperature and fan speed settings, as well as additional preset cooking modes. It also offers some connectivity features, including app support and a feature called ‘Autopilot,' which can automatically switch between cooking modes.
The Ninja Foodi DZ550 is a better air fryer than the Chefman Multifunctional Air Fryer+. Both models have approximately 10 quarts of capacity, and while the Chefman has more cooking surface area, thanks to its oven-style design, this doesn't translate into better performance. The Ninja makes much better-quality fried food, leaving significantly more of each batch crispy and well-cooked, and it produces results faster. It offers more versatility, too, with a wider range of temperature and fan speed settings, as well as additional preset cooking modes.
The Chefman Multifunctional Air Fryer+ and the Chefman TurboFry RJ38-5-T cater to different cooking needs, and you may prefer either depending on your preferences. The TurboFry is a small 5.2-quart air fryer with limited versatility, but it makes better-quality fried food and cooks faster. The Multifunctional Air Fryer+ is a very large 9.8-quart model. It maintains a more stable temperature and offers more versatility with a wider range of temperature settings and three preset cooking modes. If you mainly plan to cook small batches of air fryer staples, such as fries and wings, opt for the TurboFry, but if you need more capacity and a bit more versatility, choose the Multifunctional Air Fryer+.
The Ninja Foodi DZ071 is a better option than the Chefman Multifunctional Air Fryer+ for most people. The Ninja makes better-quality fried food, so a larger portion of each batch comes out crispy. It also finishes cooking faster and maintains a more stable temperature throughout the process. The Ninja also offers more versatility. It has a wider range of temperature and fan speed settings as well as more preset cooking modes to choose from. The Chefman has a larger cooking capacity, and it's narrower than the Ninja, so it takes up less counter space. This won't be enough to sway most people, but if you need to cook for a crowd and have limited space to work with, it's worth considering.
Test Results
This air fryer has a 9.8-quart capacity, enough to serve more than six people at once, so you can make meals for the whole family. The wire racks are roomy, making it easy to spread food out, and with space for all three racks at once, the air fryer's overall cooking surface area is quite large. It's worth noting, however, that the oven-style design of this model makes it more challenging to turn food midway through cooking, as you can't simply pull a basket out and give it a shake. Instead, you have to carefully flip each item.
Neither the interior nor the trays have a nonstick coating, so cleaning up can be a bit of a hassle, but the accessories are dishwasher-safe, and you can pull the door off to make deep cleaning easier. The baking pan/drip tray features a PTFE coating, making it very easy to wipe clean.
This air fryer offers alright versatility. It has a fairly wide range of temperature settings, although many air fryers can reach even higher temperatures. However, it has a limited range of fan speed settings, so both its minimum and maximum speeds are acceptable, but not ideal, which limits its usefulness for alternative cooking methods, like proofing dough or broiling. Chefman advertises 17 preset cooking modes, but in reality, they all fit into three main settings: Air Fry, Bake, and Dehydrate. After choosing one of these options, you can manually set the time and temperature or select the type of food you're cooking to use additional automatic settings. There's also a 'Rotate' option available, depending on the settings you choose.
Air Fry
- Manual: 400 °F, 15 minutes, rotate available
- Fries: 400 °F, 20 minutes, rotate not available
- Chicken: 375 °F, 30 minutes, rotate available
- Fish: 350 °F, 10 minutes, rotate not available
- Meat: 375 °F, 25 minutes, rotate available
- Vegetables: 350 °F, 15 minutes, rotate not available
Bake
- Manual: 350 °F, 30 minutes, rotate available
- Cake: 350 °F, 35 minutes, rotate not available
- Chicken: 375 °F, 45 minutes, rotate available
- Fish: 350 °F, 15 minutes, rotate not available
- Vegetables: 350 °F, 25 minutes, rotate not available
Dehydrate
- Manual: 165 °F, 10 hours, rotate not available
- Chicken: 165 °F, 6 hours, rotate not available
- Fish: 165 °F, 8 hours, rotate not available
- Meat: 165 °F, 6 hours, rotate not available
- Vegetables: 125 °F, 10 hours, rotate not available
- Fruit: 135 °F, 5 hours, rotate not available
Aside from the wire cooking racks, it comes with several accessories, including a rotisserie spit, a retrieval tool, and a combination baking pan/drip tray.
This air fryer makes fair-quality fried food. When you air fry wings, French fries, or veggies, more than half of each batch comes out crispy and well-cooked, but a significant portion remains undercooked, while a smaller amount burns.
It offers a satisfactory cooking speed. It takes longer than average to preheat, but delivers decent cooking times that don't really stand out one way or the other. This less-than-impressive performance is partly due to the air fryer's relatively slow top fan speed, which is slower than that of other models, especially those with a similarly large capacity.
It offers adequate temperature stability. After you open the door to add food, it heats back up fairly quickly, and it maintains a decently stable temperature throughout the rest of the cooking process. This makes it fairly easy to follow recipes accurately, though air fryers with greater temperature stability make it even simpler.