The Ninja DZ071 FlexDrawer has been available since July 2023. It is a single drawer air fryer with a removable divider and two separate heating zones. The idea behind it is simple: give you the capacity of a big drawer air fryer but the flexibility of two drawers.
Ever since the comparison between the Ninja Dual Zone and the Ninja Dual Zone Max went live, people have been asking about the FlexDrawer. So this review answers the real questions. Can it actually deliver two different temperature zones with just a removable sheet of metal dividing them, and how practical is it to live with and cook with every day?
Table of Contents
What Exactly Is the Ninja FlexDrawer?
Before getting into performance, there is a small identity issue worth clearing up. This model is officially called the Ninja FlexDrawer, but because it has the word “MegaZone” printed on the front, you will also hear people referring to it by that name. They are the same air fryer. What MegaZone actually refers to will be explained shortly.
The FlexDrawer is the big brother of the AF400 Dual Zone Max. Its capacity is just under a litre bigger, though it is not noticeably larger when you place the two side by side on the worktop. It carries the same settings you would find on the other two Ninja dual drawer models, but with the bonus of an additional prove setting. This can be set anywhere between 35C and 75C and from 45 minutes up to 4 hours.
There are also some slight variations in the temperature ranges on the FlexDrawer compared to the earlier models. Most notably, Max Crisp has a fixed temperature of 240C, whereas on the earlier models there was some rather pointless temperature overlap with the air fry setting.
The Removable Divider
The standout feature of the Ninja FlexDrawer is its removable divider, which promises to keep temperatures in the two halves of the drawer genuinely separate. This was the most curious aspect of the model and the thing most worth testing properly.
The divider is only a small sheet of metal that slots into the drawer. The big question is whether it can truly keep two cooking zones at distinctly different temperatures.
Temperature Test One
The left hand side of the drawer was set to roast at 190C, while the right hand side was left empty with an oven thermometer placed inside. After 10 minutes, the empty right hand side had already reached 80C. After another 5 minutes of running just the left side, the right hand side had climbed to 95C. Not an encouraging start.
Temperature Test Two
To give the Ninja FlexDrawer a fair chance, the next test ran both zones simultaneously at different temperatures rather than leaving one side empty. The left side was set to bake at 160C and the right side was set to prove at 75C. After just 10 minutes, the right hand side, which was supposed to be sitting at 75C, had already shot up to 110C. That is nearly 50 percent over the target temperature.
How Does the Ninja Dual Zone Max Compare?
To put these results into context, the Ninja DZ071 two drawer model was tested in the same way. When the left drawer was set to roast at 190C, after 10 minutes the right drawer temperature barely registered on the thermometer and the crisper plate was cool enough to touch. When the left drawer was set to bake at 160C and the right to dehydrate at 70C, after 10 minutes the right drawer was measuring exactly the right temperature.
The conclusion from these tests is clear. The divider is only useful if you want to cook two foods at fairly similar temperatures next to each other. It is no substitute for having two genuinely separate drawers. The FlexDrawer is very much a single drawer air fryer first and not a true dual drawer.
It is worth noting that Ninja advertises the FlexDrawer with an image showing two dishes being cooked at temperatures only 20 degrees apart. If you want one half running at a dehydrate temperature while the other runs at a full air fry temperature, it simply is not going to work the way you hope.
Also Read : Ninja Dual Zone Max vs Cosori Dual Basket
Living With the Divider Day to Day
On a more practical level, the divider is genuinely easy to pop in and out and very easy to clean. However, it is quite small. In a busy family kitchen, there is a real chance it will get mislaid. After only a couple of weeks of ownership it had already been accidentally scooped up with other items from the worktop and found its way under things or trapped inside a recipe book.
It is a real shame that Ninja did not include some sort of dedicated holder on the side or at the bottom of the air fryer to store the divider when it is not in use. They have done something similar for the temperature probe on some other models, so it is a feature that would have made a genuine difference here.
One more practical point worth knowing: the base of the drawer in the FlexDrawer is not flat. If you want to remove the crisper plates and place a large dish directly inside, it will wobble on the central raised divider. You can absolutely place a dish across the crisper plate, but do not expect to use the extra depth that comes from removing the plates.
Size & Capacity
The Ninja DZ071 FlexDrawer has a total capacity of 10.4 litres. Each half of the drawer measures roughly 18.5cm by 21.5cm, while the full drawer without the divider measures 37cm by 21.5cm. Ninja states you can fit a 2kg chicken in one side or a 2kg leg of lamb in the full drawer. A 1.8kg chicken fits into a single half with ease and has plenty of room when the divider is removed.
MegaZone Explained
That full drawer cooking mode is exactly what the MegaZone label on the front refers to. When programming your cooking settings, you choose between Zone One on the left, Zone Two on the right, or MegaZone, which uses the entire cooking area as one.
Everyday Practicalities You Will Not See in the Marketing
After using this air fryer at home for a couple of weeks, several things became apparent that are not immediately obvious when browsing online. If you only want to cook in one half of the drawer, you still have to wash the entire drawer afterwards.
The drawer is dishwasher safe like all Ninja air fryers, but it is massive and takes up almost a full rack in the dishwasher, which makes that option less appealing on a daily basis. Washing it by hand is also less than straightforward because the drawer is larger than a standard kitchen sink.
Shaking food midway through cooking is another everyday habit that becomes more complicated with this design. If you are cooking salmon fillets in one half and potatoes in the other, you cannot simply shake the potatoes without risking tipping the salmon fillets into a messy heap.
That means using tongs to manually turn things, which adds a step. And because of the divider, you also cannot tip the contents of one side out easily when the food is done. Again, tongs are the practical solution.
Specification Table
| Feature | Ninja FlexDrawer DZ071 |
|---|---|
| Drawer Type | Single drawer with removable divider |
| Total Capacity | 10.4 litres |
| True Dual Zone Cooking | No, heat bleeds between zones |
| Prove Setting | Yes, 35C to 75C |
| Max Crisp Temperature | Fixed at 240C |
| Divider Storage | No dedicated holder |
| Flat Base for Large Dishes | No, raised central divider |
| Dishwasher Safe | Yes, but very large |
| Best For | Large single dish or similar temperature cooking |
| Ease of Shaking Food | Complicated with divider in place |
Is the Ninja FlexDrawer Actually Worth Buying?
All of these individual points might seem minor on their own, but together they represent a real trade-off. The honest question to ask yourself is whether you actually need that extra space or whether you simply want an air fryer that is easy to use and easy to wash up.
For most everyday cooking tasks, whether that is warming up leftovers, cooking a quick meal for one child before they head off to a club, or doing a simple batch of chips, the FlexDrawer is more air fryer than is necessary. If the goal is to cook something genuinely large like a leg of lamb, the oven handles that job perfectly well and is arguably better suited to it.
That said, the FlexDrawer clearly has passionate fans, and if your cooking needs regularly involve large quantities or oversized joints of meat, there is a case to be made for it. But if the appeal is specifically the dual zone cooking with very different temperatures, the Ninja Dual Zone Max with its two fully separate drawers is the more capable and more practical option based on the tests carried out here.
Read More: Ninja Dual Zone Max Air Fryer Settings Guide
