Air fryer buying guide: how many litres you actually need
Air fryers under €100
An air fryer is a small fan oven with a basket. Hot air races around the food, so chips and chicken skin turn crisp with a spoon of oil instead of a pan full of it. All fryers on the shelf do that much. The real differences sit elsewhere: how much food fits in one go, how you set the heat, and how long the cleaning takes afterwards.
Litres are where most buyers guess wrong. Small fryers and large ones look almost the same in a photograph, and the bigger machine is often only a few centimetres wider on the worktop. Cook for one or two people and the small basket wins: it heats faster, draws less electricity and fits inside a cupboard between meals. Cook for four in the same fryer and dinner becomes two rounds, with the first half going cold while the second one crisps.
This air fryer comparison takes four air fryers sold across the Amazon stores: three from Tefal's Easy Fry & Grill line and one from Chefman. All four are mid-range fryers — in most stores each one stays under $120, and the group sits near $90 — so the choice is not about budget classes but about what each fryer does differently. We go through them from the cheapest to the priciest and weigh what separates one fryer from another: capacity, controls, the grill plate and what owners report after months of use.
In short
- Capacity decides more than anything else: four litres feed one or two people, six and a half feed a family of four.
- Dials or a touch panel is the difference owners notice every day — neither is more durable, they fail differently.
- Only the Tefal fryers come with a grill plate; without one an air fryer heats meat rather than browning it.
- The four sit close on quality, so what you are really paying for is litres and controls, not better results.
Models in this comparison
Typical price across these models: about €81. Rough figures from store prices converted at fixed rates: what you pay also depends on the store and the region you order from. With our browser extension you can compare every Amazon store at once, right on the product page.
Four fryers, and half of what separates them is printed on the box in words the box never explains. The short list below is worth a look before the models themselves.
Words on the box, explained
The terms you will meet in the sections below — open the one you need.
Extra Crisp
Tefal's name for the way hot air moves through its fryers. It is a label for the airflow, not a mode you switch on.
Hi-Fry
Chefman's boost: 232 °C for the last two minutes of a programme, for extra crunch on breaded food. The rest of the run tops out at 200 °C.
Flexcook divider
A removable partition in the Tefal XXL that splits the chamber in two, so a main and a side cook side by side.
Synchronisation mode
Times both halves of a divided chamber so the two dishes finish at the same moment instead of one waiting for the other.
Die-cast grill plate
A cast aluminium plate with raised strips that sits in the basket. Meat touches the strips and browns instead of steaming in its own juice.
Dehydrate function
A long run at low heat, around 80 °C, that dries fruit or vegetable slices into crisps rather than cooking them.
Chefman Hi-Fry 5.7 L, the cheapest fryer of the four
The Chefman comes from outside the Tefal family and changes the shape of this comparison. It holds nearly six litres, draws seventeen hundred watts and reaches a higher peak than the Tefal fryers here, all inside a narrow body that needs less than thirty centimetres of worktop. Chefman calls the top of that range Hi-Fry and is honest about how it works: the boost lifts the heat only for the final two minutes, for extra crunch on breaded chicken and chips, rather than cooking there throughout. The basket is ceramic lined, non-stick and dishwasher safe. Four presets sit on a touchscreen, and a shake alarm sounds halfway through the programme so that you remember to toss the food. There is no grill plate, which is the one thing the three Tefal fryers have and this one does not.
Chefman Hot Air Fryer 5.7L with Hi-Fry Technology | Compact, Touch Controls, Non-Stick, Dishwasher Safe, Black
ASIN: B0F24M6GQ2
- ✓5.7 litres in a narrow body that takes little worktop space
- ✓Hi-Fry boost raises the heat to 232 °C for the last two minutes
- ✓Shake reminder sounds halfway through the programme
- ✓Ceramic-lined non-stick basket, dishwasher safe
- Capacity
- 5.7 litres
- Power
- 1,700 W
- Temperature
- 32–232 °C
- Presets
- 4
- Controls
- Digital touchscreen
- Weight
- 4.6 kg
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With almost 2,800 ratings this is by far the most reviewed of these fryers. Owners praise how fast it heats, how evenly it cooks and how much volume they got for the money. Buyers report chicken legs, baked fish, pizza, bacon-wrapped pork medallions and even a sauce turning out well. Several bought it as a garden or second-kitchen fryer, because it is the lightest of these fryers to carry. The version with a viewing window comes up repeatedly, as the people who own it like checking progress without opening the drawer. The complaints are minor but real: you need a second hand to hold the body while pulling the basket out, the end beep and the shake reminder are both short and quiet, and the manual is thin. One careful reviewer also points out what the marketing hides — the working maximum is two hundred degrees, and the headline figure is available only for that two-minute finish.
Pros
- Heats quickly and cooks evenly, in report after report
- Nearly six litres in a body under thirty centimetres wide
- Ceramic-lined basket that goes into the dishwasher
- Viewing window on the versions that have one
Cons
- No grill plate at all
- The top temperature only holds for the final two minutes
- Beep and shake reminder are quiet and easy to miss
- Thin manual, and the body needs a second hand when the basket comes out
Tefal Easy Fry & Grill XXL, the fryer for two dishes at once
This is the fryer that answers the two-rounds problem. Its chamber takes a whole chicken or a kilogram of chips, and a removable Flexcook divider splits it into two compartments when you would rather cook a main and a side together. A synchronisation mode times both halves so that they finish at the same moment, which is what makes a divider genuinely useful instead of fiddly. None of the other fryers here offers that. The same eight programmes are on board, the temperature ceiling rises twenty degrees above the small Tefal fryers, and the grill plate produces real stripes with almost no smoke. It is the largest fryer of the group on the worktop, so measure the space before committing to it — though not the dearest one, since in most stores it sits below the compact digital Tefal fryer.
Tefal Easy Fry & Grill XXL Hot Air Fryer 6.5 L - Airfryer with Flexcook Divider (XXL or Split), 8 Programmes, 80-220°C, Die-Cast Grill Plate, Low Fat Frying, Dishwasher Safe EY8018
ASIN: B0B88RDCSR
- ✓6.5 litres in one zone, or two dishes at once with the Flexcook divider
- ✓Synchronisation mode finishes both dishes at the same time
- ✓Reaches 220 °C, higher than the smaller Tefal fryers here
- ✓Die-cast grill plate browns meat with almost no smoke
- Capacity
- 6.5 litres
- Power
- 1,680 W
- Temperature
- 80–220 °C
- Programmes
- 8
- Divider
- Flexcook, removable
- Weight
- 5.53 kg
Reviews are warm and specific. Owners praise the build, the presets that can still be overridden by hand, and chicken wings that came out crisper than in a full-size oven. One buyer living alone reports the divided basket cooking enough for three or four people. Another took a used-but-like-new unit and found it flawless. A recurring note is that this fryer is quiet, which matters at that size. Read the manual first, one owner adds, since several of the poor ratings here look like they came from people who did not.
Pros
- A whole chicken or a kilogram of chips in one round
- Divider plus synchronisation cooks a main and a side together
- Highest ceiling of the three Tefal fryers, grill plate included
- Quiet for a machine of this size
Cons
- Widest and tallest of the four on the worktop
- Owners say the result depends on reading the manual first
- More fryer than one person cooking a single portion needs
Tefal Easy Fry & Grill Classic, the fryer with dials
The Classic is the compact Tefal fryer with the electronics removed. Time and temperature sit on two mechanical dials, and the timer winds down like an egg timer and rings at the end. There are no automatic programmes, so you set the degrees and the minutes yourself. In exchange this fryer heats with a hundred and fifty watts more than the digital fryer of the same size, and it still includes the die-cast aluminium grill plate. Tefal repeats its claim about beating a conventional oven and adds another about ninety-nine per cent less fat on a batch of fresh chips. One caution about capacity: the sales description promises more litres than the specification table lists, so treat this fryer as the same size as the Precision rather than a step up.
Tefal Easy Fry & Grill Classic Air Fryer XL Hot Air Fryer & Grill Function - 4.6L Capacity, 2-in-1 Device, Crispy Frying & Juicy Grilling, Low Fat, for Large Family Kitchen EY5018
ASIN: B09DL8DQVB
- ✓Time and temperature on two dials, with an alarm at the end of the run
- ✓1,550 W, more than the digital Tefal of the same size draws
- ✓Die-cast aluminium grill plate included for meat and vegetables
- ✓All removable parts are dishwasher safe
- Capacity
- 4.2 litres (4.6 l claimed)
- Power
- 1,550 W
- Temperature
- 80–200 °C
- Controls
- Buttons and dials
- Timer
- 60 minutes
- Weight
- 5.3 kg
By average score this is the highest-rated fryer of the four, on more than a thousand ratings, and the reviews explain why. Owners who fought with sensor buttons on earlier machines are visibly relieved by the dials. Several have used this fryer daily for years: reheating rolls, grilling a sausage, roasting potato wedges, even cooking a small joint for two. They also note how much less electricity it uses than a full oven in summer. The one odd report is a smell like burning cable during the very first run, which had disappeared by the third.
Pros
- Two dials that never miss a press, even with greasy fingers
- Highest average rating of these four fryers
- Grill plate included, like the other Tefal models
- Years of daily use in several owner reports
Cons
- No automatic programmes: every dish is set by hand
- Basket sized for one or two people, whatever the box says
- The sales description and the specification table disagree on litres
Tefal Easy Fry & Grill Precision, the compact digital fryer
The Precision is the small Tefal fryer with a screen. Eight automatic programmes cover the food people actually make in these fryers: chips, nuggets, roast chicken, pizza, meat, fish, vegetables and dessert. A separate drying mode runs long and low, which is how apple slices become crisps. Everything else is set from a digital panel: temperatures between eighty and two hundred degrees, and a timer that runs up to an hour. The grill plate is cast aluminium with raised strips, so meat and courgettes come out marked rather than steamed. The fryer weighs a little over five kilograms, light enough to leave standing beside the kettle, and Tefal covers it with a two-year warranty. Across the Amazon stores this is the dearest fryer of the four, which is worth knowing before you pay for the programmes.
Tefal Easy Fry & Grill Precision Hot Air Fryer 4.2L - 2-in-1 Airfryer with Grill Plate & Drying Function, 8 Programmes, 80-200°C, Extra Crisp Technology, Low Fat Frying, Digital, XL EY5058
ASIN: B09DL7KV24
- ✓Fryer and grill in one: a die-cast aluminium grill plate comes in the box
- ✓Eight automatic programmes, from chips and nuggets to fish and dessert
- ✓Drying function for home-made fruit crisps and other dried snacks
- ✓Digital panel for 80 to 200 °C and a timer up to 60 minutes
- Capacity
- 4.2 litres
- Power
- 1,400 W
- Temperature
- 80–200 °C
- Programmes
- 8 plus drying
- Controls
- Digital touch panel
- Weight
- 5.4 kg
Owners describe a fryer that quietly earns its place on the worktop: daily use, even and crisp results with little oil, a compact shape chosen for a small kitchen. Several mention the grill function separately, because it browns properly instead of merely heating. Two complaints repeat. The first is the touch panel — one detailed review says it does not always register a press, and you have to hit the symbol precisely before the fryer accepts the command. The second is a warning for anyone who shops across borders: a buyer in Ireland received a unit whose plug did not fit the local sockets, because it came from a market with a different standard. Nothing about the fryer was wrong. It simply arrived with the wrong plug on the cable.
Pros
- Eight programmes plus a drying mode, so guesswork is rare
- Grill plate that really browns meat and vegetables
- Compact and quiet, with dishwasher-safe removable parts
- Exact degrees and minutes on the panel
Cons
- Touch panel misses presses unless you aim carefully
- The dearest of the four in most Amazon stores
- The basket is tight for more than two people
- Ordered abroad, it can arrive with the wrong plug
Air fryer capacity: how many litres you really need
Capacity is the one figure worth arguing about, because it decides whether cooking takes one round or two. The litre number describes the whole chamber, not the usable floor of the basket, and food only crisps where hot air can reach it. Chips piled two layers deep steam each other instead. The honest reading of these fryers is roughly this: a small air fryer with a four-litre basket feeds one or two people, something near six litres covers three, and a chamber of six and a half litres handles a family of four with room to spare. Both small Tefal fryers sit in that first band. Chefman states three to five people for its own model, while Tefal claims up to eight for the XXL, and that second number plainly assumes side dishes rather than a main course each.
The trade-off is not only worktop space. Bigger fryers draw more power, and these four run from fourteen hundred to seventeen hundred watts. A bigger basket also takes longer to reach temperature, so the smaller fryers are quicker for a single portion. Height matters if your cupboards hang low, because the XXL stands several centimetres taller than the compact fryers. One owner of the Classic put it flatly after years of use: the fryer is ideal for one or two, and the best air fryer for a family is the bigger one, bought from the start. Buying a size too small is the mistake people regret. Buying a size too large costs only worktop space and a few seconds of heating.
Air fryer comparison by the specifications
The numbers behind the four fryers sit in one table, in the same order as above — from the cheapest model to the dearest.
| Parameter | Chefman Hi-Fry | Tefal XXL | Tefal Classic | Tefal Precision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity | 5.7 l | 6.5 l | 4.2 l (4.6 l claimed) | 4.2 l |
| Power | 1,700 W | 1,680 W | 1,550 W | 1,400 W |
| Temperature range | 32–232 °C | 80–220 °C | 80–200 °C | 80–200 °C |
| Controls | Digital touchscreen | Digital touch panel | Buttons and dials | Digital touch panel |
| Programmes | 4 | 8 | — | 8 plus drying |
| Grill plate | — | Included | Included | Included |
| Two-zone cooking | — | Flexcook divider | — | — |
| Size (W × D × H) | 28 × 37.8 × 28.2 cm | 43.2 × 30.3 × 36.2 cm | 36.1 × 27 × 32.4 cm | 36.1 × 27 × 32.4 cm |
| Weight | 4.6 kg | 5.53 kg | 5.3 kg | 5.4 kg |
| Rating | 4.5 (2,789) | 4.5 (1,068) | 4.6 (1,133) | 4.6 (552) |
Read the table together with the number of ratings, because that changes the weight of every score. The Precision carries the fewest opinions of these four fryers, so its average rests on a smaller crowd than the identical figure of the Classic. The Chefman sits half a step lower, but on almost 2,800 ratings, a firmer basis than the Tefal fryers here. Watts deserve a second look as well, since the gaps between these fryers are small in practice, and a fryer with a well-shaped chamber will beat a stronger one with a badly shaped basket.
The table says nothing about what actually arrives on your doorstep, and there the four differ more than the numbers suggest.
What comes in the box
Chefman Hi-Fry
- Air fryer with a ceramic-lined non-stick basket
- Digital touchscreen with four presets
- No grill plate
Tefal XXL
- Air fryer with a 6.5 litre chamber
- Removable Flexcook partition for two dishes
- Die-cast aluminium grill plate
Tefal Classic
- Tefal EY5018 air fryer
- Die-cast aluminium grill plate
Tefal Precision
- Tefal EY5058 air fryer, 4.2 litres
- Die-cast aluminium grill plate with real grill strips
How to choose an air fryer for your kitchen
These fryers differ in ways the box does not print. Weigh several things at once, instead of reading down to the largest litre figure.
- Portions, not litres. Count the people you cook for on a normal weekday and add one. Two are safe with the smallest fryer here, while four need one of the bigger fryers: something near six litres, or a divided chamber that cooks a main and a side together.
- Dials or touch. Mechanical dials never miss a press and survive greasy fingers. A digital panel gives you programmes and exact degrees. Owners of both kinds in this group are clear that this is the difference they notice most in daily use.
- The grill plate. In an air fryer with a grill plate, cast aluminium with raised strips browns meat instead of steaming it. All three Tefal fryers include one, the Chefman does not, and adding a plate afterwards is rarely worth the trouble.
- Cleaning. Look for a non-stick basket and grid that go into the dishwasher, as all four fryers here do. This is the daily part of ownership, and the reason a fryer either stays on the worktop or moves into a cupboard and is forgotten.
- The footprint. Measure the width, the depth and the gap under your wall cupboards. These fryers differ by fifteen centimetres in width, and the narrow Chefman fits where the Tefal XXL will not.
- Peak temperature, and how long it holds. A headline figure that runs for two minutes is not the same as a fryer that holds a high temperature throughout. Read the small print before paying for the bigger number.
The common mistake is buying the smallest fryer because it costs least, and then cooking every dinner in two rounds. The second is paying for eight programmes and using two of them for the next three years. The third is forgetting the plug. Fryers ordered from another Amazon store arrive with that market's plug on the cable, and a cheap fryer plus an adapter is a fair trade only when you know about it in advance.
Frequently asked questions
- How many litres do I need for a family of four?
- Plan on something near six litres, and six and a half is more comfortable. Chefman states three to five people for its own model and Tefal claims up to eight for the XXL, though that figure assumes side dishes rather than a full main course for everyone.
- Can an air fryer replace an oven?
- For everyday cooking it usually does. Owners in these reviews reheat rolls, grill sausages, roast potato wedges, bake fish and even cook a small joint for two people. They keep the oven for large trays and long roasts, and several mention how much less electricity the fryer uses in summer.
- Is the grill plate actually useful?
- Yes, if you cook meat or vegetables rather than only frozen food. The die-cast plate in the three Tefal models has raised strips that brown the surface, and owners say the browning is real. For chips and nuggets alone you will not miss it.
- Are the parts dishwasher safe?
- All four models here list dishwasher-safe removable parts, and easy cleaning is one of the most repeated points of praise in their reviews. The housing itself is always wiped by hand.
- Will the plug fit my country if I buy from another Amazon store?
- Not always. One buyer in Ireland received a unit whose plug did not match the local sockets, because it was shipped from a market with a different standard. Check the store you order from and budget for an adapter if the standards differ.
- Dials or a touchscreen — which lasts better?
- Both work, and the reviews split by habit rather than by failure. Owners who had trouble with sensor buttons on older machines prefer the two dials of the Tefal Classic, while buyers of the Precision and the Chefman accept the occasional missed press for the sake of programmes and exact degrees.
Verdict
Every model on the same criteria
Score against price
- Chefman Hi-Fry4.3 at about €50
- Tefal XXL4.5 at about €84
- Tefal Classic4.4 at about €89
- Tefal Precision4.3 at about €100
The overall score divided by the typical price, with the best in the group as the full bar. A rough guide, not a verdict — a cheap model that misses the feature you need is no bargain.
Read the bars as trade-offs rather than as a ranking. The cheapest fryer of the four is the only one without a grill plate. The roomiest fryer takes the most worktop, and it still costs less in most stores than the small digital Tefal fryer that heats the slowest. The two compact Tefal fryers are the same size and differ mainly in how you set the heat, and the one with dials is the cheaper of that pair. No fryer here is weak: their averages sit between 4.5 and 4.6 on several thousand opinions together.
So the order of the questions matters more than the order of the prices. Count the plates you fill on a normal evening, decide whether your hands want dials or a screen, then ask whether you will ever put meat on a grill plate. Two of those answers rule out half of this list on their own, and only then is it worth comparing what each store charges.