The Ninja Dual Zone air fryer was one of the runaway successes of 2023, the biggest selling air fryer on Amazon and a sellout on Black Friday. So it is not surprising to see Cosori, one of the other big manufacturers in this market, coming out with their own dual basket air fryer. The Ninja and the Cosori are a similar price, a similar size, and do pretty similar stuff. So which one should you go for?
Table of Contents
How Does the Cosori Dual Basket Compare to the Ninja?
First of all, let us look at the differences between these two rival big brand dual basket air fryers. The Cosori Dual Basket is an 8.5L capacity, so it sits right between the 7.6L Ninja Dual Zone and the 9.5L Ninja Dual Zone Max. That is clearly no accident. Cosori have worked out what the market wants and they have put it all into this model, as you will see when I tell you about the other features.
Standout Features of the Cosori Dual Basket Air Fryer
The first thing you will notice is that Cosori Dual Basket have added something to their air fryer that Ninja does not have, which is a really significant addition: windows in the drawers. As for how useful they are in practice when you are in your own kitchen at home, we will find out about that in a moment when I walk you through some of the cooking I have done with it.
Accessories Included in the Package
Cosori Dual Basket have also realized a great way to add value to their product is by throwing in some accessories as part of the package. They have seen the success of all those third-party sellers on Amazon and they have worked out which items people are buying to go with their air fryer and have included them as part of the deal. So with this air fryer, you get a baking rack, a skewer rack, and skewers.
Preheat Function and Shake Reminder
Another big difference is the preheat function. Although Ninja have always said you do not need to preheat their Dual Zone air fryer, Cosori have recognized that people want that function and so they have added it as an automatic part of most of the programs on this model. There is also a built-in shake reminder halfway through a lot of their programs too.
Long Slow Cook Setting
You can also set the Cosori Dual Basket up to do really long slow cooks for up to 48 hours if you want to. So this is a feature-packed air fryer with everything that families have been asking for at a pretty competitive price.
Putting the Cosori Dual Basket to the Test
I have been using this Cosori Dual Zone in place of my Ninja Dual Zone for the last couple of weeks. We did the obligatory roast chicken test, which you guys always ask for. Cosori says the drawers on this model take a chicken up to 1.8kg, and we tried out a 1.6kg chicken. This is not a cooking video, but you may notice I now start cooking my roast chicken upside down and then turn it after half an hour, which gets it crispy all over.
The legs do still stick up a bit and have to be maneuvered so they do not come into contact with the heating element above, but the crucial thing is that the 1.6kg chicken did brilliantly in the Cosori Dual Basket and we got a very nice crispy, juicy chicken with no problems with it making contact with the heating element.
What Are the Drawer Windows Actually Like in Real Life?
So about those windows on the drawer, the big special feature. There is a light inside both drawers which is on at the start of any cooking cycle and then it turns off automatically after 2 minutes. There is also a button on the console for each drawer so you can press it to turn the light on again when you are halfway through cooking, and that will automatically turn off as well.
The windows themselves are really nice to have. I would rather have them than not have them, but mostly I do not really use them. You have to bend down to see inside the window, and the view is partially obscured by the handle, and what you can see is not terribly clear.
I can see the point of having the windows so that if you are checking up on something to see whether it is rising, you can do that without letting the heat out. But beyond that, it is frankly just easier to pull the drawer out and have a look from above.
Control Panel Design and Usability
The control panel on the Cosori Dual Basket is really nicely designed. I like the way it is very sleek and completely black except for the power button when it is turned off, and I like that the controls are at a 45-degree angle which makes them easier to read. But it is a high gloss finish, so you know what I am going to say.
It attracts every little bit of dust or dirt in your house, and you will notice this particularly when you are standing over it while cooking. You will find yourself wiping it down constantly, and of course, it being a touchscreen, the moment you try to wipe it when it is running a cooking cycle you run the risk of accidentally turning it off, which is infuriating.
That little annoyance aside, using this air fryer is very intuitive. I always try and use any air fryer I review without reading the instruction booklet first, because I think that is how most people start out with them, and then I read the instruction booklet afterwards. This one passed the test of not needing the instruction booklet first. It is very easy to use.
To operate it, you first select a drawer using the L or R button, and it will be on L automatically when you switch it on. Then you select a program and toggle between time and temperature to increase or decrease them. Some programs have that built-in preheat option or the shake warning halfway through, and if you want, you can turn those off with a touch of a button.
Also Read: COSORI Pro Gen 2 Air Fryer Review
Cooking Programs Available
Program-wise, you have a choice of Air Fry, Roast, Reheat, Bake, Grill, and Dry. That Dry setting is actually more versatile than it might seem and it is quite badly named. It is essentially a long, cooler cook with a slow fan, which you can set as low as 35 degrees Celsius, and as mentioned before, you can leave it for up to 48 hours running. It is great for joints of meat as well as for more conventional uses like dehydrating meat and fruit.
Sync Cook and Sync Finish Functions
The Cosori Dual Basket also comes with a lot of standard functions that you will see on the Ninja Dual Zone. There is a Sync Cook function, which means you can set one drawer up with a cooking time, temperature, and program and then easily duplicate all of those settings to the second drawer at the touch of a button.
The Cosori also has Sync Finish, where you set both drawers to cook for different lengths of time and different temperatures if you want, and they automatically start so that they both finish cooking at the same time.
Crisper Plates and Accessories
The crisper plates in this model are made of aluminium with a non-stick coating. As you would expect, they can be removed to create extra space in the drawer for cooking and also for washing. The accessories that come with this air fryer are a nice touch.
The rack can be used for meat or toast. If you have never tried toast in an air fryer, give it a go for a couple of minutes and you will get the crispiest toast you have ever eaten. The skewer rack and skewers can be used for kebabs. There are only a few of them, so if you want to do more kebabs, it is worth knowing that any accessories that will fit the Ninja will also fit this machine.
A Few Niggly Issues Worth Knowing About
There are a couple of small frustrations with the Cosori Dual Basket that are worth mentioning. First, the Grill setting can only be used on one drawer at a time. The crisper plates are also quite a tight fit, tighter than the Ninja, and you have to push them down into the drawer and then pull them out again.
It is a little bit stiff. They do have silicone protectors on the corners, so that is not a problem in terms of scratching the drawer. It is just a little bit of a frustration.
Another slightly odd issue is that there does not appear to be a way to stop cooking in just one drawer midway through the cycle. After reading the instruction booklet and trying a few things, it seems that although you can pause cooking in one drawer while the other one is running, you cannot stop it before the time is up. If you know the answer to this, please do leave it in the comments below.
A couple of things worth knowing from the instruction booklet as well: you need to leave 5 inches at the back of the air fryer and 5 inches above it for air to circulate, so just think about that in terms of where you locate it in your kitchen. Also, if you want to switch the air fryer from Celsius to Fahrenheit, that is really easy to do by pressing and holding the temperature button.
- Drawer windows with interior lights let you check food without releasing heat
- Included baking rack, skewer rack, and skewers add great out-of-box value
- Intuitive touchscreen with 45° angled display, preheat, and shake reminders make it easy to use
Specification Table
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Capacity | 8.5L total dual basket |
| Dimensions Clearance Required | 5 inches at back, 5 inches above |
| Temperature Range | 35 degrees Celsius and above |
| Max Slow Cook Duration | Up to 48 hours |
| Cooking Programs | Air Fry, Roast, Reheat, Bake, Grill, Dry |
| Sync Functions | Sync Cook and Sync Finish |
| Preheat Function | Yes, built into most programs |
| Shake Reminder | Yes, halfway through selected programs |
| Drawer Windows | Yes, with interior lights (2-minute auto off) |
| Crisper Plate Material | Aluminium with non-stick coating |
| Included Accessories | Baking rack, skewer rack, skewers |
| Compatible Accessories | Ninja Dual Zone compatible accessories |
| Temperature Display | Celsius and Fahrenheit (toggle by holding temp button) |
| Max Chicken Size | Up to 1.8kg |
| Control Panel | High-gloss black touchscreen at 45-degree angle |
Final Verdict
So the big question is, after a couple of weeks of having this Cosori Dual Basket on trial in my kitchen, which Dual Zone air fryer is now sitting on my worktop as our family air fryer? I am amazed to say it is the Cosori. I think it is the touchscreen that, even though it is a dust magnet, has cemented it for me. So this is the current choice in our kitchen, until of course something else comes along and topples it from its throne. But I do love this machine.
Read More: Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Vs Dual Zone Max
