Haier I-Master Series 3 Flex Double Drawer Air Fryer review: a huge, flexible family-sized mini oven

Air fryers have become one of those annoying kitchen inevitabilities. You tell yourself you’ll never bother with one, then you convince yourself it might be worth it for the odd quick meal, and suddenly, you’re doing chicken on Tuesday, wedges on Wednesday, and roast tatties on Thursday. Before you know it, you’ve turned your weekly eating schedule into a Craig David song by Sunday.

Ninja has been the brand most people associate with that air fryer takeover, and to be fair, it’s earned it. The brand’s machines are intuitive, consistent and reliable, and they tend to nail the day-to-day basics without you needing to think too hard.

Meanwhile, the rest of the industry hasn’t exactly been sat on its hands. It’s turned into a full-on air fryer arms race, with brands trying to win people over with bigger capacities and innovative features like viewing windows and app connectivity. Basically, anything that makes an air fryer feel like a proper oven replacement, rather than just the thing you fire up for frozen beige food when you’re feeling lazy.

That is exactly the lane Haier is trying to muscle into with it's incredibly long named I-Master Series 3 Flex Double Drawer Air Fryer. On paper, it has it all going on. It sports a massive 11-litre maxi-drawer that can be used as one big space or split into two zones with a divider and sync function, naturally, alongside a viewing window and internal light, plus eight cooking functions, including the lesser-seen slow cook and defrost.

I’ve been using it for the past month in place of my usual air fryer across quick weeknight dinners, full English breakfasts and, of course, more frozen chips than you can shake a spatula at. Here’s what it’s been like to live with.

Haier I-Master Series 3 Flex Double Drawer Air Fryer review: Price and availability

The I-Master Series 3 Flex Double Drawer Air Fryer (HAF3ADW 001) is available to buy now from Haier’s official website for a UK RRP of £229.99, putting it in the more premium end of the air fryer world, particularly for a model that is trying to compete with the big-name flex-drawer crowd.

However, Haier has already discounted it quite heavily right from launch. At the time of writing, it was listed for just £149. While that's not a small difference, it’s the difference between a serious purchase and an actual bargain, especially for an 11-litre flex model like this.

Outside the UK/Europe, it gets a bit murkier. I couldn’t find an official US or Australian product listing with local pricing on Haier’s regional sites, so if you’re reading this abroad, you might be looking at imports rather than a local launch. If you do go by currency conversion on the UK RRP, £229.99 works out at roughly $310 / AU$450.

Haier I-Master Series 3 Flex Double Drawer Air Fryer review: design and build

First things first: this thing is not subtle. Thanks to its bigger-than-average capacity, it’s pretty cumbersome and looks rather bulky on a kitchen counter. Measuring around 36cm wide and just under 50cm deep, you need to be honest with yourself about your worktop space before you commit.

That said, there is a good reason behind this bigger footprint. The topline feature here is the huge maxi-drawer, which is designed in the same way many air fryers are these days – as one large cooking zone for bigger portions, or as two separate zones with a divider, so you can cook different foods at different times and temperatures. It's the kind of setup that makes a lot of sense for family cooking, or for anyone who wants to do a whole meal without juggling multiple appliances.

The best design feature is probably the viewing window. This is great because you don’t have to keep opening the drawer to check on how your food’s cooking, saving on heat escape, which can mess with cooking consistency. With this Haier air fryer, you can just tap the light button and have a gander at how the food’s doing.

There is a small catch, though. The internal light is positioned on the left side, which means visibility is best on that side. If you're using the drawer in split mode and you have food on the right, you can’t see everything. It is not a dealbreaker, but it did feel like Haier has cut corners here on including a feature that’s otherwise a big selling point.

Build-wise, the Haier air fryer does not seem all that premium. It boasts a slightly plasticky vibe, with the casing and general finish feeling a bit cheap, especially compared to some higher-end air fryer models that feel more solid. Nothing feels flimsy, though – it’s been absolutely fine during my month of use – and it looks decent, but if you are expecting it to feel expensive in hand, it doesn’t really deliver that.

Haier I-Master Series 3 Flex Double Drawer Air Fryer review: performance and features

Let’s get the big annoyance out of the way first, because it’s the thing that affected almost everything I cooked in this air fryer: the I-Master Series 3 Flex Double Drawer Air Fryer, wait for it, tops out at 200°C. Maybe I’m overreacting, and reviewing air fryers for a living has warped my brain into having niche, slightly unhinged expectations of an inanimate kitchen appliance. But honestly, it feels like a weird choice to me.

Sure, most air fryers sit around 200°C to 210°C, but plenty of popular models push higher for crisping - especially if they have bigger capacities like this one. My old Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer had a 230°C “max crisp” setting that’s brilliant for quickly finishing food with a proper crunch. With the Haier, you simply do not have the option for that final blast of heat.

If you want that final crunch on chips, breaded bits, roast potatoes, or anything frozen that relies on a hot blast at the end, you’ll often find yourself adding extra minutes. The problem is that extra time can dry the inside of food more than you’d like, especially with things like chicken pieces or thicker items where you want the middle to stay juicy. It’s not a dealbreaker, and perhaps the average person won’t even notice it all that much. But, for me, it’s a constant little compromise, and it feels strange to see that on such as big, family-sized air fryer.

That said, once you adjust your timings, it generally cooks well. Everyday stuff like bacon is easy and predictable, and the non-stick grill plates make it simple to turn food mid-cook without it sticking or tearing. I also found it handled bigger, busier loads better than a standard twin-basket air fryer because you’ve got so much surface area to spread food out, which is often the real limiter with air frying.

The flex drawer setup also works really well here. As one huge zone, I found the 11-litre capacity super useful for batch cooking and family meals. I managed a full English for three people in one go, with sausages, bacon and hash browns, without it feeling like I was stacking food in a way that ruins airflow.

When you add the divider, it becomes a dual-zone machine with the Sync function letting you run different times and temperatures while still having everything finish together. That is the feature that makes this style of air fryer feel like it’s actually designed for real meals, not just side dishes.

My biggest day-to-day frustration, however, has to be the controls. The air fryer’s touch-control dashboard takes way more pressing than it should. The icons and numbers are small, it’s not especially intuitive, and it feels slower to operate than rivals, especially if you’re used to the simplicity of a dial-based setup - like on the brilliantly performing Panasonic Flex NF-BC1000KXC that I reviewed recently.

Image 1 of 2

The most annoying example is when a cook finishes and you realise something needs a few minutes extra heat. Instead of a quick add-time option, you’ll find yourself having to restart the whole programme just to tack on a couple of minutes, which is frustratingly long-winded.

Then there’s the machine’s unnecessarily loud shake reminder, which can be quite jarring mid-cycle. Sometimes it’s helpful, especially for chips, but most times it feels pointless, and during my time with the machine, I couldn’t find a way to turn it off. You’ll either learn to ignore it or you’ll start rolling your eyes at it pretty quickly.

You do get a good spread of cooking modes, though. Haier includes eight functions: air fry, grill, roast, bake, dry, reheat, defrost and slow cook. Defrost is a nice inclusion that you don’t always see on air fryers, and it helps the machine feel a bit more versatile than the usual presets. There’s also the hOn app connection, but based on my experience, I wouldn’t buy this expecting proper remote control in a meaningful way. It’s more like a companion for recipes and guidance than something that genuinely changes how you use the machine.

Haier I-Master Series 3 Flex Double Drawer Air Fryer review: verdict

The Haier I-Master Series 3 Flex Double Drawer Air Fryer is a well-performing, big-drawer air fryer with a couple of genuinely useful ideas, especially the viewing window and the flexible split-zone setup. For family cooking and batch meals, it’s lovely and roomy, capable and generally reliable, and the range of cooking modes adds versatility.

But the 200°C max temperature is a strange limitation for a modern air fryer, and it makes crisping feel slower than it should, while the touch controls are more fiddly and long-winded than rivals. If you find it at a big discount, it becomes much easier to recommend. At full price, it's harder to justify next to more polished competition.