Tefal Easy Fry Dual Air Fryer & Grill review: A kitchen multitasker

It isn’t just the twin drawers, ability to sync cooking times and its sleek good looks that make Tefal’s Easy Fry Dual Air Fryer & Grill stand out from the crowd. 

There’s also the fact that Tefal’s first double-drawer model has been two years in the making, and has a considerable heritage in the rear-view mirror: it’s been 16 years since Tefal launched its first air fryer, the ActiFry. Add to this some impressive claims of cooking meals “40% faster” with an energy saving of up to “70% less energy” than a conventional oven, and it’s clear that this large, capacious air fryer has every intention of making the same kind of impact as its predecessor did almost two decades ago.

Tefal Easy Fry Dual Air Fryer & Grill review: What do you get for the money?

While it might be more expensive than basic air fryer models, Tefal’s Easy Fry Dual Air Fryer & Grill sits around the same price point as other two-drawer models, such as the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone air fryer. You won’t find any accessories in the box but there are a few recipes to get you started; for a wider selection, you’ll need to download the Tefal app. 

Lack of extras aside, this Tefal air fryer packs in a number of attractive features. Most notable is its 8.3l capacity, which is split across two asymmetric drawers: one holds 5.2l, while the other accommodates 3.1l. Each works independently, which means that if you’re simply making a snack or a side dish, you can use the smaller drawer instead of having to heat up a large one. You can also use the two drawers at the same time to cook different foods at varying temperatures and duration, while the ability to sync them enables both to finish cooking at the same time.

The large capacity does mean this Tefal model is a worktop hog; it measures 40.2 x 41.8 x 30.5cm (WDH). Taking into account the requirement to leave 15cm of space around it as it cooks, plus space at the front for the drawers to open, this cumbersome fryer will take up most of the depth of the average 60cm kitchen worktop when in use. At 7.8kg, it’s also heavier than many single-drawer air fryers.

On the plus side, it is quite attractive. Available in three finishes, including Stainless Steel (our test model) plus the lower-priced Black and Coal models, details such as cladding on the drawer handles add to its premium feel. In addition, when the air fryer isn’t in use, only the Start/Stop option is lit on the touchscreen digital control panel, rather than having a messy plethora of buttons on display. The Tefal offers six presets – Chicken, Fries, Vegetables, Fish, Dessert and Dehydrate – plus manual cooking and a Grill programme.

Unlike many cheaper brands of air fryer, the Easy Fry Dual Air Fryer & Grill is repairable, thanks to Tefal making parts available for 15 years for its newer products.

Tefal Easy Fry Dual Air Fryer & Grill review: What’s good about it?

If you’ve ever felt restricted by a single-drawer air fryer – for example, if your partner wants to dehydrate apple slices over several hours, while you’re hankering for a portion of freshly cooked chips – then that won’t be an issue with the Easy Fry Dual Air Fryer & Grill, which offers superb cooking flexibility. Here, you can cook more than one food at a time, using a different cooking method for each. The only limiting factor could be the size of the second drawer.

In addition, its large total capacity means you can cook whole meals, such as a Sunday roast, with meat or poultry in the large drawer and roast potatoes or pigs in blankets in the other. Plus its sync ability means that rather than having to remember when to start one drawer cooking to match the other one, the Easy Fry Dual Air Fryer & Grill will do it for you. Once synced, opening one drawer pauses both.

Its Grill function also performs better compared to basic air fryers: steaks, lamb chops or grilled veggies emerge browned, rather than the more “baked” results of other models. 

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Cooking performance of the Easy Fry Dual Air Fryer & Grill lived up to expectations. I used it to cook frozen hash browns using the Fries setting (with the suggested time of 25 mins at 180°C for frozen potato wedges). While the programme time seemed quite long, with the temperature set lower than often recommended for air frying frozen food, the hash browns emerged perfectly cooked: slightly crispy at the ends but still pleasantly soft to bite into in the middle. 

I used the same programme to make fresh chips from washed and dried potato pieces lightly tossed in oil. Again, the recommended cooking time appeared longer than expected – 40 minutes, compared to a usually recommended 25 minutes – at a much lower temperature of 180°C compared to 200°C. However, the results were impressive, with some delicious crunchy chips, good overall browning and only a few paler pieces (these were still adequately cooked, but may not have had quite enough space within the smaller drawer to brown). Thinner pieces tended to cook more satisfactorily. 

I was also pleased with the results of cooking a whole chicken: lightly golden, with only a slight charring to the top of the bird, and super moist. 

As you would hope, both drawers and grill plates are dishwasher safe, and easy to clean by hand.

Tefal Easy Fry Dual Air Fryer & Grill review: What could be better?

One of the big attractions of an air fryer with a large drawer is that it can be used to cook joints of meat and poultry, and often includes a programme specifically for cooking chicken. However, there are some caveats. 

The first is that with a grill plate in place, the large drawer here is only really suitable for a small chicken. Tefal’s guidelines list a cooking time and temperature for a 1.3kg bird, though I managed to squeeze in a 1.5kg chicken by tucking its legs in at an angle. I added 10 more minutes to the recommended cooking time of 50 minutes at 160°C. This meant it would cook around 30-40 minutes faster than it would in a conventional oven.

I then decided to sync up cooking another food item in the smaller drawer. However, here Tefal could have made the process far simpler. Both drawers need to be set in a specific order for the sync option to appear. Once you’ve set the first drawer, it needs to be opened, food added and closed, before you can set the second drawer. Miss the opening and closing of the first drawer and syncing won’t be an option. Fortunately, once both drawers are programmed and the food is in, you can still open and close both units to make any additions before starting to cook. 

While the drawer with the longer duration will start cooking straight away, “holding” the cooking in the other, there’s no notification to make you aware that cooking has begun in the second drawer. The Tefal does offer a reminder to shake part way through cooking on the fries programme, for example, but it’s only halfway through the set time: the fresh chips I made needed to be shaken four times according to guidelines, so a reminder beep when they started to cook would have been helpful.

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In fact, setting the Easy Fry Dual Air Fryer & Grill could be easier in general. The temperature buttons sit on the left at the bottom of the screen, while the time adjustment buttons are on the right. This means that changing the temperature for drawer 2 (the right-hand display) requires buttons to be toggled on the left, or the time to be toggled on the right for the left-hand display for drawer 1 – rather than using the buttons directly below each unit, which feels more instinctive. You’ll also need to deliberately turn off drawer 1 (using start/stop) if you only want to cook using drawer 2, as drawer 1 operates by default, whereas drawer 2 is off by default. 

A final quibble is that the Grill programme is only available on drawer 1, so you’ll have to use the larger drawer even if grilling only a couple of sausages, for example.

Tefal Easy Fry Dual Air Fryer & Grill review: Should you buy it? 

A large capacity, cooking versatility and robust build quality give Tefal’s Easy Fry Dual Air Fryer and Grill lots of appeal for families, who may find the smaller dimensions and single drawer of some air fryers restrictive. Plus, unless you’re filling a conventional oven, the air fryer is likely to prove more cost-effective. This model could also be invaluable for those who only have space for one oven in the kitchen but require supplementary cooking space when entertaining. 

However, the fact that this more generously sized “small appliance” takes up a fair amount of room on a worktop means that it’s a more considered buy for those for whom space is at a premium. Even if you plan to store it away when not in use, you’ll need a decent amount of cupboard or shelf room. If you feel that making space for it is a small price to pay for crispy low-fat chips, which will be ready at the same time as a speedy roast chicken, this big, and clever, air fryer is the one for you.