Ninja Air Fryer Max AF160UK review

To keep our air fryer reviews fair across the board, we tend to perform similar cooking tests for each here at Exceptional.

Air fryers are best known for creating that similarly delicious fried finish you can get when using a deep fat fryer, so cooking chips in the air fryer was an obvious choice of test for us.

We also followed the recipe for naked chicken tenders to see well the Ninja Air Fryer MAX AF160UK air fryer performed when cooking poultry. We also decided to take advantage of the Air Fryer MAX’s ‘Bake’ setting and conjured up a small air fryer banana bread.

Additionally, we used the Decibel Meter app to measure how quietly the Ninja Air Fryer MAX AF160UK performed in use and also rated its design and easy cleaning features.  

At 5.2kg (11lbs 7oz), the Ninja Air Fryer MAX AF160UK is easy to lift and you should find getting it out of the box and onto the worktop relatively simple. Then it’s a matter of washing the basket with warm, soapy water the first time you use it.  

Its base feels secure on the worktop and we found its height just low enough to fit under our standard kitchen cupboards.

It comes with a very comprehensive instruction manual and booklet in the box that gives you cooking timing ideas on a wide range of ingredients. There’s also recipe ideas for meals such as Cajun prawns with potato and corn, salmon fillets with fresh tomato and cucumber salsa, and roasted barbecue chicken. 

The design of the Ninja Air Fryer MAX AF160UK feels smooth to touch and operate.

The body of the air fryer has an attractive grey, black and chrome finish that looks premium and is modern enough to suit most classic and contemporary kitchen schemes. It also looks and feels like one of the least bulky 5.2 litre air fryers we’ve tried – possibly due to its rounded edges and sophisticated streamlined design. 

The ceramic-coated cooking basket is generous too and comes with a ceramic-coated crisper plate inside. While it may not have the dual drawers as a model such as the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer AF300UK, the overall drawer size does give you a lot more freedom to cook larger portions – enough to get a 2kg (4lb 6oz) chicken inside, in fact. 

One thing we found a little annoying is how easily the basket slides out – and this is something we have noticed on quite a few air fryer designs where there is no catch to stop the basket sliding out fully. 

You’ll need to make sure there’s enough worktop space in front of the air fryer to rest on – otherwise you run the risk of the basket sliding out and onto the kitchen floor if you’re not careful or in a hurry.  

Navigation-wise, Ninja has made it easy. The control panel is well positioned above the main handle and clearly illustrated.

The most important two buttons that allow you to change the time and temperature settings – between 60°C and 240°C – are nicely located at the top of the panel. A countdown timer makes it easy to see how much of the cooking cycle you have left and the machine beeps when your food is ready.

At 1750W, the Ninja Air Fryer MAX AF160UK air fryer is powerful and comes with time and temperature settings that are easy to control. The website states that it can cook food up to 50% faster than fan ovens and, in our cooking tests, we definitely noticed just how powerful it can be. 

What we really like about this air fryer is the way you can easily tailor the time and temperature settings – even when the air fryer is on. This is a welcome feature when you’ve used a pre-set and want to tweak it slightly as it saves you the faff of having to stop and restart the air fryer. 

The AF160UK also comes with a specific ‘Max Crisp’ setting to recreate the nice crunch you get when cooking foods in a deep-fat air fryer. You can use this setting on its own to cook, or add a little extra crunch to any foods after air frying. 

The air fryer does, in fact, have a powerful and noticeably higher temperature offering than you will find on some of the air fryers we have tried such as the Lakeland Digital Compact Air Fryer, which goes up to 200°C.

We used the ‘Max Crisp’ setting to cook a 450g batch of chips, which suggested 240°C for 10 minutes. We increased it to 15 minutes, which is what the instructions suggest for frozen chips. After 12 minutes, we opened the drawer to give the chips a bit of a shake and noticed they were starting to look very crisp. By this point the chips were cooked through and ready to eat.

If you prefer your chips less crunchy, you may want to opt for a standard air fry 200°C cooking temperature for around 10-15 minutes, which we think would be more than enough. 

The grill on the base of the air fryer lifts off enough to drain away any fat from meat or oils you’re using. We think the round shape would work well with up to four burgers or steak. And as we found out, it’s great for air frying chicken pieces too. We seasoned our chicken pieces in paprika, oil and garlic and placed them in the air fryer basket, setting it to 200°C for 15 minutes as the recipe states. They came out perfectly. 

To give the ‘Bake’ setting a try we also made some banana bread in a small tin loaf that fits nicely inside. We selected the ‘Bake’ setting, which suggested 160°C for 15 minutes and this achieved a nicely browned and risen banana loaf on the outside.

When we pricked the inside with a knife, we found that it came out a little wet, so we baked for a further 10 minutes to produce satisfying results. The banana bread baked really nicely in the air fryer – with a crunchy exterior and soft and fluffy interior.  

In terms of being easy to use and reliable, we think the Ninja Air Fryer MAX AF160UK performs really well. The sides can get a little hot in use, but the handle remains easy to grip and cool to touch at all times. 

While it’s not the noisiest air fryer we’ve tested, it isn’t the quietest either. At 60.5 decibels you’ll know it’s on. The air fryer emits a usefully loud beep to let you know when your food is ready. 

While it won’t replace a microwave, we think that having the ‘Reheat’ function within the control panel is a really useful feature that not all air fryers offer. You can use it to give meals you may have left inside a little longer than anticipated a quick burst of heat before you plate up, but also use it to reheat chilled foods and leftovers.  

The Ninja Air Fryer MAX AF160UK is one of Ninja’s entry-level single-drawer air fryers that have both wide variable temperature and timing controls.

What makes this air fryer great value for money is the six cooking functions it offers overall, which allows you to air fry and also ‘Max Crisp’, bake, reheat, dehydrate and roast just as you would in an oven in potentially far less time. And for this reason alone, we think this air fryer is great value for money.  

We think the Ninja Air Fryer MAX AF160UK is average in price for a good-value air fryer, but has far more to offer than your standard design.

While we loved the Ninja , if you’re after an equally high-performing air fryer, you may want to check out the Instant Vortex Plus, which retails for around £120.

A great all-rounder, the Instant Vortex Plus gives you the option to air fry, roast, grill, bake, reheat and dehydrate. Meanwhile, its illuminated ClearCook window allows you to monitor your food without disrupting the cooking cycle.

If you’re looking for an air fryer that has the same capacity and wattage but at a cheaper price, check out the Breville Halo (Argos, £100).

This powerful air fryer has a large basket, making it ideal for families, and comes with five cooking presets for chips, chicken, vegetables, steak and fish. The digital touch screen makes it easy to adjust timings and temperatures and while it may not have as many pre-set options as the Ninja  MAX AF160UK, it’s a great choice for those on a budget or looking for their first air fryer.

On board the Ninja Air Fryer MAX AF160UK you’ll find all the tools you need to air fry a range of sweet and savoury foods.

The good temperature range means you can cook food slowly on a low heat, or give it a crispy crunch in a matter of minutes. And its extra pre-set cooking modes for baking, roasting and more mean that you’ll be able to use it for a number of tasks – not just air frying.

You can tweak the settings while it’s in use too and we found this to be a really useful design feature.  

Unlike some of the Ninja air fryers we’ve tried, this model doesn’t have a pre-heat option and this means you won’t have to wait around for it to heat up before adding food.

Bear in mind that it can be very powerful and you’ll get results fast, so you’ll probably need to reduce your usual cooking times to avoid overcooking your food. But if it’s a good-quality air fryer you’re after, with a luxurious finish, convenient pre-set modes and variable control, it’s an excellent choice.