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- Massive 10.4l capacity
- PFAS-free non-stick coating and metal interior
- Solid range of features
- Fairly large and bulky
- Max Crisp mode is no match for Ninja’s
If you’ve been scouring air fryer reviews for a model that fits your needs, then your search may just be over with the Cuisinart AirTwin XXL Dual Zone.
This air fryer looks great on paper: the dual drawer AirTwin arrives with a price of just £150, a very solid launch price at a time when many premium air fryers are landing with price tags north of £200; and a very roomy overall capacity of 10.4l, which is as large as you tend to get in a drawer-based air fryer. It also offers users the standard range of cooking modes and abilities I’ve seen in other dual drawer air fryers, though it does differ from many of its peers in one aspect of its construction: the air twin uses metal drawers and inserts, as opposed to plastic, and promises a PFAS-free, ceramic non-stick coating for its cooking surfaces.
As I said, all this looks great on paper. But how does the Cuisinart AirTwin perform when put to the test with our gamut of cooking challenges? Check out my full review below to find out how it measures up.
Cuisinart AirTwin XXL review: What do you get for money?
The sizable Cuisinart AirTwin XXL arrives with a price tag that, thankfully, belies its bulk, coming in at fairly reasonable £150 from Cuisinart.
In the box, you’ll find the main unit, two removable metal cooking drawers, two metal drawer inserts and an instruction manual. As well as using metal drawers and inserts in an effort to reduce the amount of hot plastic that surrounds your food, the AirTwin XXL’s marketing material also takes pains to stress that it uses a non-toxic non-stick coating, free from harmful ‘forever chemicals’ like PFAS, PTFE, PFOS and PFOA.
If you’re unfamiliar with these substances, a quick explanation is that they’re what Julia Roberts was campaigning against when she played Erin Brockovich in Steven Soderbergh’s Oscar-nominated biopic of the same name (and what Mark Ruffalo was investigating when he played lawyer Robert Bilott in Todd Haynes’ Dark Waters, which sadly received no Oscar nominations).
The AirTwin XXL, as its name would suggest, has a large overall capacity of 10.4l, spread across two 5.2l drawers. Naturally enough, this means the powerful 2,400W air fryer has a decent amount of heft to it, measuring 40.7 x 44.4 x 30.9cm (WDH) and weighing around 8.5kg.
The air fryer’s functions can be set via the touch controls on the front of the machine. As well as standard time and temperature settings for its twin baskets, the AirTwin XXL’s control panel gives users the option to choose between a range of cooking modes for each drawer, which include Air Fry, Roast, Grill, Bake and Dehydrate. There is also a sixth option, not selectable by itself: the air fryer’s ‘Max Crisp’ mode, which automatically sets one of the abovementioned modes (except for dehydrate) to the countertop cooker’s maximum temperature of 210°C. While this is a solid top temp as air fryers go, it is also a good bit lower than the Max Crisp mode featured on many Ninja air fryers, which cooks food at a sizzling 240°C.
Other notable features of the AirTwin XXL include its Keep Warm setting, Shake Reminder function, which emits a series of beeps halfway through cooking when turned on, and its Match and Sync settings for its dual baskets. A pair of features commonly found in dual drawer air fryers, Match mirrors the settings on both drawers for when you want to cook multiple portions of the same thing, while Sync ensures both drawers will finish cooking simultaneously, regardless of cook time, temperature or mode.
Looking at alternative and rival models, we see that the AirTwin has a few solid challengers. Our favourite air fryer overall, the Instant Vortex Plus (£150), can be picked up super cheap due to regular discounts and offers top cooking performance, as well as neat features like internal lights and clear basket windows. It isn’t as capacious as the AirTwin XXL, though, with its respectable 7.6l capacity falling short of the 10.4l on offer from Cuisinart.
Equally roomy (but pricier) rivals include the 10.4l Ninja FlexDrawer (£270), whose removable drawer partition gives users the option to cook in two drawers or one massive cooking space, and the Our Place Wonder Oven (£195), a reliable and stylish oven-style option which has a 12l interior and was named our Home Product of the Year for 2025. If you’re looking to save space while maintaining capacity, the 9.5l Ninja DoubleStack XL (£270) is another great option, as its vertical basket arrangement means it takes up much less space than other dual drawer models.
What’s it like to use?
The Cuisinart AirTwin XXL proved straightforward and simple in terms of set-up. Once I had unboxed it and given its removable parts – the drawers and their inserts – a quick wash with soapy water, it was ready to go. I should note as well, that these parts are also dishwasher-safe, so continuous clean-up and maintenance should be nice and easy if you have one in your kitchen.
Despite its larger size, which is necessary to reach its roomy capacity, the AirTwin still managed to fit onto my countertop pretty neatly thanks to its tall, boxy design. It also has a decently lengthy power cable, measuring 1m, which I was very pleased with – stubby power cables are a real pet peeve of mine, owing to the fact that I have a slightly awkward socket arrangement in my kitchen.
Once booted up, the AirTwin XXL is controlled via a touch control display on the front of the appliance, which I found to be bright and readable. After a quick read of the AirTwin’s instructions, I found it simple enough to navigate between the left and right drawers, select the air fryer’s various modes and functions and set the time and temperature. I will say, I was a little disappointed not to find a recipe guide or anything like that in the box, as I’ve seen come with other air fryers, as I think it helps those new to air fryers to hit the ground running.
I’ll go into more detail about the AirTwin’s cooking performance below, but I can say here that I was very happy with it from a usability standpoint. The metal drawers felt light but sturdy and their long, deep shape made it easy to fit various amounts of kinds of food in them. I generally associate the first few uses of an air fryer with unpleasant chemical smells, but the AirTwin XXL was largely odour free, making their non-toxic coating claims feel more legitimate. Furthermore, I didn’t find the ceramic non-stick coating of the AirTwin noticeably less effective than the coatings featured on other models – food generally didn’t stick and bits that cooked on lifted off easily with a little soap and water.
The AirTwin was also pretty quiet in operation, audibly reminded me to shake and turn my food halfway through cooking and allowed me to adjust time and temperature mid-cook, all of which are nice plusses.
I can add one small nitpick: when in use, the drawer timers on the AirTwin only show the number of minutes left in the cook, not the number of seconds. I find seeing the seconds useful as it lets me quickly see which drawers are active when cooking in Sync mode and, well, I just like seeing the seconds tick down. Like I said, it’s a pretty small nitpick.
How well does it cook?
I started my tests out by cooking some oven classics in the AirTwin, air frying some vegetable spring rolls and some mozzarella sticks. I find these items work well for my air fryer tests, as they have a high ceiling for how crispy they can get. I cooked these items at 180°C, their suggested temperatures for oven cooking, for a few minutes less than the stated oven cooking time, after which they seemed nice and done. As well as cooking quickly, both the mozzarella sticks and the spring rolls took on some nice browning and had a noticeable crispy exterior.
Next, I tried out the AirTwin’s Roast function on some mixed vegetables. I was pairing these vegetables with some falafel, so I decided to air fry those in the other drawer, giving me a chance to test out of the air fryer’s Sync function. This all worked pretty well: the AirTwin cooked my vegetables through while giving them a little exterior colour, nicely crisped up my falafel, all while syncing them up neatly so that everything finished in unison.
Air fryer baking can be a little goofy – it wouldn’t be my first preference – but the AirTwin had a bake mode, so I gave it a go. I whipped up some chocolate chip muffin mix (a great way to use up all that leftover Easter chocolate!) and ladled it into cases which I left freestanding in the drawer, as my muffin tray wouldn’t fit the air fryer basket. After a short pre-heat, the AirTwin’s Bake mode cooked my muffins in just 15 minutes, a good ten minutes less than the suggested baking time. The muffins took on some great colour and crisp on top (okay, maybe a little too much colour) and seemed well-cooked throughout. I’d label this a solid success.
After that, I moved onto my classic roast chicken test. The long, deep shape of the Cuisinart’s drawers meant that I had to maneuver the small organic chicken I was cooking to fit it inside, but I managed eventually. The chicken reached temperature in just under an hour and took on some nice browning on the top. I’d say the Cuisinart performed about average here: most air fryers will do a decent job on a roast chicken, but at a push, I would say the only seriously impressive results I’ve gotten have been from air fryers with rotisserie accessories.
Finally, I returned to the appliance’s Air Fry setting, this time letting loose the AirTwin’s ‘Max Crisp’ function on some frozen chips. These chips crisped up and browned nicely in just under 10 mins, which I was pleased with. I will say though, operating at 210°C, the Max Crisp setting isn’t much to write home about in and of itself. Ninja’s air fryers have long had a Max Crisp mode that maxed out at 240°C and in fact many air fryers have a regular temperature range that goes as high as 210°C, so this does feel a bit like Cuisinart were trying to shoehorn in another ‘function’ to bump the air fryer up to a ‘6-in-1.’ But ho hum, it works fine, so I can’t complain too much.
Should you buy the Cuisinart AirTwin XXL?
If you’re anything like me, you may not be the biggest fan of the plasticky smells given off by many air fryers and you may also have reservations about the make-up of their non-stick coatings. With its metal drawers and inserts and PFAS-free ceramic non-stick, the Cuisinart AirTwin XXL offers a viable alternative to the standard options out there, and one that goes some way to allaying our ever-increasing worries about things like microplastics, ‘forever chemicals’ and other nasties. Personally, I enjoyed my time with the AirTwin a lot more even just for the lack of plasticky odours when cooking.
Aside from all that, the Cuisinart AirTwin XXL is also an excellent all-round air fryer. Across its twin drawers, it offers a large 10.4l capacity to match the likes of the gigantic Ninja FlexDrawer (£270). It features a solid array of cooking modes and has the drawer-syncing capabilities I would expect to see in any dual air fryer worth its salt. Plus, it performed well in my tests, cooking up items ranging from chips, to whole chickens, roast vegetables and chocolate chip muffins, though I did note that its ‘Max Crisp’ mode doesn’t reach the high temperatures or top-drawer results we’ve seen Ninja models achieve.I’m also very happy with its launch price of £150, which feels like good value in relation to its quality and sets it up to be a solid rival to even our overall favourite air fryer, the Instant Vortex Plus (£150).
