The Ninja Foodi comes with six cooking options, versus Tower's four – adding reheating and dehydrating to the standard air frying, roasting, baking, and grilling – yet it's larger and bulkier, and offers fewer presets (six vs Tower's eight.) When cooking different foods with different cooking times in each basket, the Sync Finish function will do the thinking for you. At the touch of a button, Sync Finish will control cook times so that both compartment finish cooking at the same time. No more juggling multiple cooking times for easy meal preparation

Measuring 310mm (H) x 420mm (W) x 360mm (D) and weighing 6.55 kilograms, the Tower T17099 Vortx Air Fryer adds a stylish and robust touch to your kitchen. It’s designed for easy cleaning, so you can spend more time enjoying your culinary creations and less time scrubbing. Its compact dimensions will fit neatly into smaller kitchens or onto already crowded countertops, and the controls couldn’t be simpler: two physical dials allow you to set the cooking temperature between 80ºC and 200ºC and set a timer of up to 30 minutes.The best models will have a number of basics you should look out for. These include weight and temperature settings, so you can adjust the heat and cook time to suit your ingredients. The Tower T17099 Vortx Air Fryer, a game-changing kitchen appliance, provides numerous cooking options with its 4.3-litre capacity and an easily customizable digital control panel. Among Tower air fryers, this model stands out for its Vortx air frying technology, which enables rapid hot air circulation, cooking food up to 30% faster than a conventional oven and using 99% less oil. The 360-degree stirring paddle is incredibly handy and ensures food is evenly and consistently cooked without the need for shaking your food mid-cooking cycle. Nine automatic cooking functions take most of the guesswork out of air frying but there’s still an option to manually set the time and temperature if need be. What’s more, if you’re using these presets, the Genius+ (and every other Genius model in the range) automatically adjusts the temperature and stirring paddle during cooking so your food isn’t overcooked. They also both have ten preset functions, rather than the Duo’s eight. Ultimately, though, the differences are minimal, so which one better suits your needs will simply come down to style and whether you prefer two equal sized baskets or one big and one small.

In terms of noise, the air fryer is almost whisper-quiet. It recorded just 59dB on the decibel meter on my phone, which the app describes as being equivalent to a "quiet street." Air fryers work by convection, meaning they circulate hot air around your food, ensuring every bit of surface area is exposed to the oil and heat. You simply need to spray or pour a little oil onto whatever you’re cooking before switching on the appliance – although you don’t always have to use oil if you don’t want to. Add just a dash, however, and a clever chemical process called the Maillard reaction creates a crispy result with far less fat – up to 99% in some cases. Set the cooking time and temperature. If using both baskets, different cooking times can be set if needed. I was seriously impressed with the results from the Vortx Duo. However, if you can afford to bump your budget a little higher and don’t mind sacrificing some capacity or those grill plates, the 7.6L Ninja Foodi Dual Zone remains my preferred choice. The results aren’t that much different but the design and build quality is a little better and it generally feels a bit nicer to use.There’s no doubt that Tefal’s Genius range is expensive, but you really won’t find a line of air fryers that do the job better. With a sophisticated design that enhances kitchen decor, the Tower T17099 Vortx Air Fryer delivers the same enticing fried taste with less oil. Though the construction features thin stainless steel sections and plastic handles that may not offer an optimal feel, this is not just an air fryer, as it does not compromise the flavour of the food. It is rather large and heavy, measuring 42 x 36 x 31cm (WDH) and weighing 8kg, but its plastic and stainless steel finish looks pretty stylish and it received quite a few compliments from friends and family during testing.

The Tower T17099 Vortx Air Fryer is easy to set up, owing to its clear instruction manual and minimal assembly needed. To set it up, follow these steps: You can cook separate meals simultaneously in the two 4.5L drawers with a combined capacity of 9L, enough to feed 8 people at once. The Smart Finish control will adjust cook times automatically, so that both baskets finish cooking at the same time. You can also choose from 10 one-touch pre-sets to take the guess work out of cooking. Air fry crispy, delicious heathy foods without the need to deep fry. Overall, the Tower T17099 Vortx Air Fryer delivers impressive performance across all cooking functions. The Dual Zone’s Max Crisp function is also worth shouting about, as it cooks thinner frozen foods such as chips, onions rings, and nuggets in a fraction of the time it would take a standard convection oven. During testing, one portion of frozen potato lattices came out perfectly crisp and golden in just six minutes, compared to the recommended 15-minute oven cooking time stated on the bag. This air fryer can also bake, roast, dehydrate, and reheat, making it a versatile tabletop multi cooker.When cooking different foods with different cooking times in each basket, the Smart Finish function will do the thinking for you. At the touch of a button, Smart Finish will control cook times, so that both baskets finish cooking at the same time.

One of the biggest perks of the Vortx Eco Dual Basket Air Fryer is that it cooks delicious food using little to no oil so you'll be enjoying much healthier meals. You'll still get all the flavour you'd get if you were cooking it conventionally but you'll get up to 99% less fat. A perfect kitchen companion! READ NEXT: The best multi-cookers you can buy Tower Vortx Duo Capacity Basket Air Fryer review: Should you buy it? Despite these niggles, there’s not much else here I can criticise. Once you’ve got your head around the instructions, it’s straightforward enough to use and, while it’s annoying there’s no one button to set both baskets going collectively, this isn’t the end of the world.Vortx 9 Litre Dual Basket Air Fryer with Vizion Windows and Smart Finish Cook your air fryer family favourites together at the same time Two baskets are better than one! Complete with two large 4.25L individual ovens in one Air Fryer providing ultimate cooking versatility. Use one basket for smaller portion cooking or both baskets at the same time to cook full crispy and healthy meals for the entire family For other recipes, where the cooking temperature and times were more subjective, I used the manual settings.