How to Choose the Best Air Fryer in Australia: Size, Features and What Suits Your Household

The best air fryer in Australia starts with two deceptively simple questions: How much food do you want to cook at once? And how much of your benchtop are you willing to give over to it?

At House, we keep you spoilt for choice, with 26 air fryer models spanning eight brands. They range from 6-litre compact units to 30-litre benchtop ovens. Still, we know a lot of the advice you get online won’t narrow that down for you. One guide puts 5- to 7-litre air fryers firmly in ‘family size’ territory, while another contradicts its own FAQ, and many of the results you land on are American, measured in quarts.

This guide points you in the right direction by taking you through chronological steps: size, then type, then features.

In this guide

What Size Air Fryer Do You Need?

To make sure your air fryer integrates smoothly into your daily kitchen routine, capacity should be your top consideration. Undersize it and dinner requires two batches. Oversize it, and you heat a big empty cavity to crisp up a couple of pieces of fish.

Air fryer sizes at House range from 4.5-litre compact models to 30-litre multi-function ovens. Before deciding on a brand, start with a head count of your household. Bigger isn’t automatically better, though. Larger units require more bench space and height clearance, so measure your benchtop and the gap beneath any overhead cupboards first. Larger units also draw more power and take longer to reach cooking temperature, which cannot match the speed advantage of smaller units.

Compact air fryers for one or two people (up to 6 litres)

Smaller air fryers with up to six litres capacity can fry chips for two, roast a tray of vegetables or bake a couple of chicken breasts. These air fryers have a reasonable size ceiling for one or two people.

The best small air fryer is the one that's most convenient for you to clean, since it’ll be in use four or five nights a week. Both the Baccarat GREEN STONE Air Fryer Glass 4.5L and the Healthy Choice 6L Glass Digital Air Fryer Oven have 8 preset programs and a transparent, dishwasher-safe glass basket that allows you to monitor your cooking. 

Family-size air fryers (7 to 11 litres)

A family-sized air fryer transforms how you cook your weeknight meal. A 7- to 11-litre capacity easily caters for three to four people. The Baccarat The Healthy Fry 9L runs at 1600 to 1800 watts and has 10 touchscreen presets. Its shape and size mean you can roast a whole chicken in it.

Bench space is the trade-off, with the unit measuring 32.7 x 38.3 x 35.2 cm. The Kitchen Couture Clear View Vertex Dual Drawer 11L has a total capacity of 11L, though as two stacked 5.5L drawers rather than one basket. This is better suited for cooking mains and sides than a single large roast.

Large-capacity and dual-zone air fryers (12 litres and up)

If you’re cooking for five or more people in the household, batch cooking or entertaining, a large-capacity air fryer is ideal. The NOOK by Baccarat 15L Air Fryer Oven offers 13 preset functions, a glass window and four accessories in a stainless steel body.

The Baccarat The Ultimate Fry XL Air Fryer & Oven 20L has 16 presets, a rotisserie kit and a dehydrate function, with every detachable accessory being dishwasher safe. Above that, our range also offers a Healthy Choice 30L Digital Multi-Function Air Fryer Oven. Here, footprint is the cost, and introducing a large-capacity air fryer is as much a decision about your kitchen bench space as it is about your cooking.

Basket, Dual Zone or Air Fryer Oven: Which Type Suits How You Cook?

The format is more about how you like to cook than what you cook. A single basket does one thing well. Everything cooks at a single temperature in one drawer, with the fewest parts to wash.

Dual-zone models have two independent compartments, so you can simultaneously set your chips at 200 degrees and barramundi at 180 degrees and have them ready to eat together. The Healthy Choice Dual Zone Double Stack Air Fryer With Foldable Top Display 13L 2300W features two 6.5L zones, with a space-saving vertical design and foldable top display.

An air fryer oven swaps the removable drawer for a door, racks and a glass front. This increases capacity and adds functions (such as a rotisserie and dehydrating) that a basket cannot offer. Still, it does come at the cost of bench space and heat-up time. Though if you want one appliance that reduces how often you use the wall oven, this is it. Compare the three formats below, then browse our range with a format already in mind.

The Features Worth Paying For (and the Ones That Aren’t) 

Wattage is the spec that’s always listed, but is generally the least explained. What an air fryer wattage rating buys you is heat-up speed and recovery when cold food goes in. At House, we offer air fryers 1600 to 1800W for the Baccarat 9L, 1700W for the Kitchen Couture 11L dual drawer and 1650 to 1900W for the Baccarat 20L Ultimate Fry XL. Notice how little the wattage of the 20L climbs while heating more than twice the volume. This is the reason why larger ovens preheat relatively slowly, and why the wattage number means little on its own without a capacity beside it.

The controls you choose are a matter of habit. Preset counts run from 7 on the Kitchen Couture 6L to 16 on the 20L oven. Regardless, most people settle into using three or four of them, so treat a long list as a tiebreaker. Dials give finer manual control, and digital panels are quicker once you know your regular programs.

It’s also good to check the cleaning requirements; don’t just assume. The removable basket and trivet of the Baccarat Healthy Fry 9L must be hand-washed and the main housing wiped with a damp cloth, whereas every detachable accessory of The Ultimate Fry XL 20L is dishwasher safe. Read the care instructions, not just the feature list, because the two sometimes don’t agree.

A viewing window is a small feature with a daily payoff, saving you from opening a drawer to check on food and dropping the temperature. The extras you may want to skip are the dehydration feature, which is bought often and used rarely, and internal lighting, which doesn’t affect how the food cooks.

Keeping It Clean and Making It Last

Non-stick surfaces can degenerate due to abrasion and baked-on grease, which later need to be scrubbed too hard. The routine that prevents this is short and sweet. Let the unit cool, wash the basket and tray in warm, soapy water with a soft sponge after each cook, then wipe the element with a damp cloth while it’s unplugged. 

Confirm if your model is dishwasher safe before placing anything in the machine, because some aren’t suitable. Liners reduce the work further, and racks and silicone pans let you cook two layers without touching the coating. Both are available as part of our air fryer accessories range. For more details about cleaning, refer to our air fryer cleaning guide.

Air Fryer FAQs

What size air fryer does a family of four need?

For most households of four, 7 to 11 litres. A 9-litre single basket cooks a full main meal in one go. An 11-litre dual-drawer is the alternative if you want mains and sides to finish together. Use a unit below 7 litres, and a weeknight family dinner needs to be cooked in two batches.

What features should I look for in an air fryer?

Capacity in litres first, then format, then wattage (which needs to be considered alongside capacity). After those, check the care instructions for dishwasher-safe parts and pick the control style you’d like to use. Presets are good if you’re a repeat cook, and dials will suit you if you like to adjust the temperature as you go.

What should I know before buying my first air fryer?

As a first-time air fryer owner, you need to allow for additional bench space, as this appliance needs clearance for vents. Batch cooking is necessary if the unit is too small, which can double your cooking time. Cleaning is required after each use, with some models being only hand-washable. Also, use a heat-resistant pad, bearing in mind that not all benchtops can tolerate heat. These points aren’t reasons to avoid buying, but helpful to know before selecting your air fryer.

To make the right decision, work in this order: size for your household, format for how you cook, then choose the features that suit both. With that settled, shop the air fryer range to compare models for the capacity you want, or browse the wider kitchen appliances collection if the air fryer is one of several items on your list.