If you are looking for an affordable dual drawer air fryer from a trusted UK brand, the Lakeland dual basket air fryer might have caught your eye. In this review, I am testing out the Lakeland Jewel Basket Air Fryer, a two drawer eight litre model available from a well-known high street shop for less than £100.
Lakeland is a highly trusted brand here in the UK, and their products come with a three year guarantee. But does buying a cheap air fryer mean you get an appliance that is lacking some key features? Or are you simply avoiding the inflated costs of a big brand name? Let us find out.
Table of Contents
First Impressions and Appearance
Appearance wise, the Lakeland dual basket air fryer looks pretty compact and smart, featuring a high gloss touchscreen control panel. There is some bold branding on the top, so everyone is going to know exactly where you bought it from, whether you like it or not. It is a clean and modern looking appliance that would not look out of place on most kitchen worktops.
Drawer Size and Capacity
Each drawer offers a four litre capacity and measures fifteen by twenty four centimetres. The drawers have a non stick, lead, cadmium and PFOA free PTFE coating, and they are not dishwasher safe. Lakeland advises washing them in hot soapy water with a non abrasive sponge.
One thing worth noting early on is that the drawers on this model are long and thin. It was noticeable that many of the pans and dishes regularly used in other dual drawer air fryers are slightly too big to fit this model. The dimensions of the drawer will not be a problem if you only intend to cook chips, fish fingers or frozen foods. However, if you want to branch out into baking or cooking a whole chicken, it could get tricky.
As a comparison, placing the drawer from a seven point six litre Ninja next to the drawer of this eight litre Lakeland dual basket air fryer makes it very clear that one of these models is far more likely to fit a whole chicken inside the drawer than the other.
If that is a deal breaker for you, it is worth knowing that Lakeland also makes a model with the same eight litre capacity but with drawers of different sizes, which may work better depending on your cooking needs.
Who Is This Air Fryer Designed For?
This model, and perhaps the entire Lakeland dual basket air fryer range, seems to be particularly targeted at people who are new to air fryers. The instruction book starts by explaining the very basics of what an air fryer is, and while the instructions are genuinely comprehensive, they are also a little exhausting to read.
For instance, if you want to use the left hand drawer for the first time, there is an eighteen point guide explaining how to do exactly that. Then on the very next page, there is another eighteen point guide for how to use the second drawer.
Clarity in instructions is always appreciated, but there is a real risk you might fall asleep halfway through reading these ones. A few diagrams and a lighter word count would have gone a long way to improving the experience for new users.
Control Panel and Cooking Presets
While on the subject of complicating things, this air fryer features no fewer than twenty six different icons on the control panel, including eight cooking presets. Those eight presets are steak, chicken legs and wings, seafood, fish, pizza, fries, bakes and vegetables.
There is no dehydrate function on this air fryer, as the temperature does not go low enough. You would need a setting below 45 degrees Celsius for dehydrating, and the lowest temperature on this model is 80 degrees Celsius.
Each preset has a default time and temperature, which acts as a suggested cooking setting for particular food types. However, every single preset actually has exactly the same temperature range and the same time range of one to sixty minutes. As far as can be determined, they also share the same fan speed.
Lakeland was contacted to clarify the situation regarding fan speed, and they stated they were not able to confirm what speed the fan runs at on different presets. This was less than helpful but does suggest there is simply one fan speed across all settings.
Also Read: Tefal Easy Fry Dual Zone Air Fryer Review
The Drawer Windows and Interior Light
One noticeable feature on the Lakeland dual basket air fryer is the windows built into the drawers, along with an interior light. In theory, this allows you to check on your cooking without opening the drawer and releasing the warm air inside.
That said, while having a window is a nice touch, it is still generally easier and quicker to simply pull the drawer open and look at your food from above, rather than bending down to worktop height and peering through the glass.
How Intuitive Is It to Use?
When it comes to actually using this air fryer, there are a couple of quirks worth mentioning. To select a preset, you might assume you press the icon you want directly on the screen. In fact, you have to use a single preset button in the bottom left corner and toggle through all the settings one by one.
So if you want to choose the fries preset, you need to press the button six times. If you move too quickly and accidentally skip past the setting you want, you have to go all the way back around through every option again, which means pressing the button fourteen times. It is a minor frustration but one that adds up over time.
When the air fryer is running, the display alternates between showing the time and the temperature. This means it is easy to glance at the screen, see the number 200, and not immediately know whether it is showing you the temperature or the remaining time of two minutes.
On a more positive note, this air fryer includes a memory function. When it turns off at the end of a cooking program, if you want to start it again immediately, it will remember the time and temperature you were using and automatically apply those settings. This is genuinely useful when batch cooking, such as cooking large quantities of breaded chicken across more than two drawers worth of food.
There is also a synchronized end function, which allows you to set two different dishes cooking for different lengths of time in each drawer so they both finish at exactly the same moment. The on and off button also doubles as the start button, which means it handles both powering the appliance on and beginning the cooking program. Having separate buttons for those two functions would have been a cleaner and more intuitive design choice.
The Compromises of Buying This Budget Air Fryer
The main compromise with the Lakeland dual basket air fryer comes down to its temperature range. This model can only be set between 80 and 200 degrees Celsius. You really need a higher temperature than 200 degrees to get a truly crispy finish on certain foods, and you need a lower setting than 80 degrees to dehydrate, so you are missing out on some of the capabilities offered by other air fryers on the market.
This model has also sacrificed a little in terms of design and intuitiveness. Having one preset button to toggle through all options rather than eight individual buttons is clearly part of how the cost has been kept down, and the same applies to the combined on and off start button. The preset button in particular proved quite irritating, and the faster you try to scroll through the options, the more likely you are to miss the one you want entirely.
There is also the matter of the instruction book, which includes only three recipes. Other brands typically include a free recipe book with their air fryers, so you may find that some of your cost savings are spent on buying a dedicated air fryer cookbook to get yourself started.
- Trusted Lakeland brand with a 3-year guarantee and solid in-store customer support
- Memory function and synchronized end feature genuinely help with batch cooking
- Under £100
Specification Table
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Brand | Lakeland |
| Model | 27211 |
| Total Capacity | 8 Litres |
| Individual Drawer Capacity | 4 Litres Each |
| Drawer Dimensions | 15 x 24 cm |
| Temperature Range | 80 to 200 Degrees Celsius |
| Timer Range | 1 to 60 Minutes |
| Number of Presets | 8 (Steak, Chicken, Seafood, Fish, Pizza, Fries, Bakes, Vegetables) |
| Dehydrate Function | No |
| Drawer Coating | Non Stick PTFE (Lead, Cadmium and PFOA Free) |
| Dishwasher Safe | No |
| Drawer Window | Yes |
| Interior Light | Yes |
| Memory Function | Yes |
| Sync Finish Function | Yes |
| Control Panel | High Gloss Touchscreen with 26 Icons |
| Guarantee | 3 Years |
| Price | Under £100 |
Final Verdict
Despite its quirks, it is important to remember that this is a Lakeland product. Lakeland is known for giving excellent customer service, and they are confident enough in their products to back them with a three year guarantee. You can also visit one of their physical shops, speak to knowledgeable staff in person and see the product before buying, which is something online only brands simply cannot offer.
If you are on a budget and can put up with the small niggles mentioned throughout this review, the Lakeland dual basket air fryer may well be the right model for you. It delivers solid everyday cooking performance at a price that is hard to argue with, especially with the backing of a brand you can genuinely trust.
Read More: Ninja FlexDrawer Air Fryer Review
