Dual zone air fryers from Instant Brands are available now – like Ninja Foodi Dual Zone but actually available to buy

(Image credit: Instant Brands)

published 22 December 2022

The Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer suddenly became the runaway success story of late 2022, with hungry shoppers clamouring for Ninja's well-made fryer with its pair of cooking zones. Alas, Ninja could not keep up with demand. This left anyone who wants to make their Christmas dinner in an air fryer – which I don't really recommend, although they are good for roast spuds – frustrated and looking for brands they've heard of, and that still have stock of similarly big, bold air fryers. Enter Instant Brands.

We want to be clear here that T3 hasn't reviewed these air fryers, but they're on their way, and we have reviewed several Tower air fryers and found them to be excellent products that are keenly priced – just check our guide to the best air fryer and you'll see.

• Shop all Instant Brands air fryers now or read on for more details on their three 2022 models.

There are also some great Tower dual zone air fryer deals right now – Shop all Tower Housewares air fryer deals now. Or If you’re after something even bigger there’s a great Ninja SmartLid OL750UK air fryer deal on at Amazon. Score £50 off Ninja’s smart multi-cooker and fryer now!

You may not have heard of Instant Brands, but you will have heard of their best-selling product Instant Pot. This fabulous range of pressure cookers and multi-cookers was the last must-have kitchen gadget, before air fryers became the number one. Instant Brands is the parent company, and just to keep things slightly more confusing than they need to be, their air fryers are sold under the 'Instant Vortex' banner. Not to be confused with Vortx, which is what Tower calls its air fryers.

Instant Vortex air fryers on sale now

Take the highway to the VersaZone for just £219. This machine is similar to the Tefal 2-in-1 that we looked at yesterday in our roundup of (fairly) cheap air fryer deals. Here, you have the choice of two 4.2 litre zones or combining them into one whopping great 8.5-litre one – enough to cook a chicken. If you opt for two zones, SyncCook & SyncFinish modes mean that the contents of both will be ready to eat at the same time.

The VersaZone is extremely easy to use, letting you know how the cooking is going, and telling you when to turn food, or give fries a shake. Air frying isn't all this does
by any means. It's essentially a small oven, and its sdditional modes include baking, roasting, grilling, dehydrating – make your own prunes! – and, erm, 'reheating'.

I haven't used this particular air fryer, but I've always found Instant Pots and Vortexes (or is that Vortices?) to be well constructed and a joy to use. Amazon users give this one an average mark of 4.8 stars and, very unusually, nobody has ever given it fewer than 4 stars. That's a lotta love!

Buy the VersaZone for £219 at Amazon

Instant Vortex Plus with ClearCook is very much like the above but with a viewing window. This big beast has a capacity of 7.6 litres or 'up to 8 portions'. The function count here is six, with air frying, baking, grilling, dehydrating – seriously, who ever uses this one? – roasting and reheating. And with separate controls for each basket, you can get seriously versatile – live the dream and roast some chicken while dehydrating some apricots at the same time!

Instant's EvenCrisp technology gives you the 'crunch and tenderness of deep frying with 95% less oil.' Again, both drawers can be synced to finish at the same time, saving you the misery of having to wait for your main dish to arrive, while your side dish goes cold.

Buy the Instant Vortex Plus with ClearCook Dual Zone for £200 at Amazon

Instant Vortex air fryers — Instant Vortex Plus with ClearCook

If you prefer to keep things simple, and even more cost effective, the Instant Vortex Plus 6-in-1 Air Fryer with ClearCook is the same as the above, but smaller.

With a 5.7-litre/6-portion capacity, the functions here are again air fry, bake, grill, dehydrate, roast and reheat. Instant Vortex says the 'ClearCook Window and easy-to-use interface will transform the way you cook and will have friends and family asking for more,' and who can say fairer than that?

Buy Instant Vortex Plus with ClearCook Single Zone for just £119

Six things we wish we knew before getting an air fryer
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And the best air fryer chicken

Duncan is the former lifestyle editor of T3 and has been writing about tech for almost 15 years. He has covered everything from smartphones to headphones, TV to AC and air fryers to the movies of James Bond and obscure anime. His current brief is everything to do with the home and kitchen, which is good because he is an excellent cook, if he says so himself. He also covers cycling and ebikes – like over-using italics, this is another passion of his. In his long and varied lifestyle-tech career he is one of the few people to have been a fitness editor despite being unfit and a cars editor for not one but two websites, despite being unable to drive. He also has about 400 vacuum cleaners, and is possibly the UK's leading expert on cordless vacuum cleaners, despite being decidedly messy. A cricket fan for over 30 years, he also recently become T3's cricket editor, writing about how to stream obscure T20 tournaments, and turning out some typically no-nonsense opinions on the world's top teams and players.

Before T3, Duncan was a music and film reviewer, worked for a magazine about gambling that employed a surprisingly large number of convicted criminals, and then a magazine called Bizarre that was essentially like a cross between Reddit and DeviantArt, before the invention of the internet. There was also a lengthy period where he essentially wrote all of T3 magazine every month for about 3 years.

A broadcaster, raconteur and public speaker, Duncan used to be on telly loads, but an unfortunate incident put a stop to that, so he now largely contents himself with telling people, "I used to be on the TV, you know."