Product Evaluated:

Cosori 5.8-Quart Air Fryer

Kalorik 26-Quart Digital MAXX Air Fryer Oven

About This Evaluation

Air fryers are extremely popular appliances that are relatively new to the kitchen ecosystem. Much like multi-cookers, air fryers sprang to popularity seemingly overnight, largely driven by online sales. We’ve been using air fryers for some time but wanted to dig deeper into the products on the market, what the major differences are between types of air fryers, and evaluate specific brands through systematic kitchen appliance testing.

We evaluated two air fryers in this analysis: an oven-style air fryer and a basket-style air fryer. The oven-style air fryer is from Kalorik, a brand founded in Belgium in 1930. The basket-style air fryer is from Cosori, an upstart appliance manufacturer whose product is one of the top-selling air fryers on Amazon.

We tested both models in our Portland-based test kitchen, which is designed to mimic a home kitchen so we can get a real-world idea of how these products work in the environment they will be primarily used in by the consumer.

Note that Kalorik and Cosori make a variety of air fryers. Both offer oven- and basket-style air fryers in various styles and capacities.

What We Love

The Kalorik air fryer oven is a jack-of-all-trades, offering a battery of attachments and functions that do everything from convection baking to rotisserie cooking. For most folks, it could easily replace a traditional oven. In fact, we stopped thinking of this appliance as an air fryer and more as a countertop oven with air fryer capabilities.

It looks the part, too. With a stainless finish and French doors, this appliance was made to sit on your countertop and be admired by gadget enthusiasts. And, with the exception of the very loud timer (a great feature if you’re on the other side of the house or have other background noise going on), the Kalorik oven is exceptionally quiet. In our test kitchen, which has a moderate level of ambient noise, we had to put our ears right next to the appliance to hear any sound at all.

The Cosori air fryer has more limited functionality, but what it does it does really well. It is incredibly intuitive to use with highly visible icons on its fully integrated control panel (no mechanical “buttons” to push or knobs to turn–more of a smartphone-esque interface).

It has a sleek, modern design and a modest footprint that belies its large capacity. Getting it up and running is a super smooth experience. We went from unboxing to cooking in 10 minutes. It also has a “shake” function, which we really loved. The appliance beeps halfway through cooking to prompt you to remove the basket and shake the food, promoting more even cooking.

For both the Kalorik oven and the Cosori fryer, opening the doors or removing the basket during cooking doesn’t affect time or temperature settings you’ve already programmed into the machines, so you can check on your food whenever you want without having to fuss with settings.

The user manuals for both air fryers state that preheating these appliances is recommended. However, we found this step to be largely unnecessary for many cooking processes. We tested these appliances without preheating and had great success with cooking chicken, vegetables, and French fries. We recommend preheating for baking functions and for broiling steaks and chops.

Opportunities

While the Kalorik oven has more functionality than the Cosori basket-style air fryer, this comes at the expense of being less intuitive to use overall. There are more moving parts–a rotisserie spit, a bacon tray, a steak/dehydrator rack, and an air frying rack, all of which have slightly different instructions and positions for use.

Expect to spend more time perusing the manual and getting used to the nuts and bolts of using this appliance. This is a reasonable trade-off if you’re looking for an appliance that can do it all (and honestly, kudos to Kalorik for not pretending that you can optimally perform a wide variety of cooking methods with only one accessory) or even replace a traditional oven, but maybe not if you just want an air fryer.

We also found the attractive French-style doors to be a bit touchy–when the doors were open the slightest nudge would cause them to spring shut. It’s something that takes a little getting used to, so just be aware.

While the Cosori is great at being an air fryer, it’s not so great at other stuff. Baking in the Kalorik oven is pretty straightforward–use the pans you have for the most part. Baking in basket-style air fryers like the Cosori requires special pans and other equipment. Building your kitchen out around an air fryer’s capabilities seems like a pain, especially if you already have baking equipment or a normal oven.

Manufacturers of trendy appliances frequently design their products to be capable of a broad range of functions, but the further away you get from the primary function (air frying in this case), the worse the appliance tends to perform. While you absolutely can bake things in the Cosori air fryer, we don’t recommend it unless you have no other option.

Feature Analysis

Kalorik

• The Kalorik’s 500°F max temperature sets it apart. Essentially, this means you can broil in this appliance. For certain foods, the broil setting is going to get you better browning and faster cooking.

• The Kalorik’s French doors are a nice touch for users who want line of sight to the food they’re cooking (they also have handy placement indicators on them that tell you where to place the appliance’s different racks and accessories), and they have a classic appeal for those with more traditional kitchens. However, they take some getting used to, as they tend to slam shut at the slightest nudge.

• The Kalorik’s marketing materials tout the oven’s ability to cook food 25-30% faster than a regular oven, and it delivers on this promise. Just being able to forgo the usual preheating for most foods is a huge time saver, and then the oven’s convection fan speeds up the cooking process considerably.

Cosori

• The Cosori air fryer features a large nonstick basket set inside a slightly larger housing. The manufacturer touts the basket’s non-stickiness and how easy it is to clean. We found this to be the case. We loved how the basket allowed oil and drippings to fall through to the outer housing, keeping the food from sitting in oil. Both basket and housing were very easy to clean (especially if you have a dishwasher). The release button that separates the basket and housing took some getting used to, but was intuitive overall.

• One feature we loved was the Cosori’s “shake reminder.” On some settings, the machine beeps halfway through cooking to tell you to shake the contents of the basket to promote even cooking. It’s an easy step that keeps the cook engaged in the cooking process. Given that the Cosori air fryer is literally a black box, you can’t see what’s going on inside. The shake reminder gives you an opportunity to see how the food is coming along and whether or not you should reduce the cooking time or check the food early.

Real World Testing

Roasting Veggies

• For this test we roasted 1 pound (454g) of mixed vegetables with 1 tablespoon oil and ¾ teaspoon salt.
• Cosori: Used vegetable preset (12 minutes at 400℉ with shake reminder halfway through)
• Kalorik: Used vegetable preset (10 minutes at 400℉); after 10 minutes the veggies weren’t done, so we repeated the cooking process, using the preset again. Total cooking time: 20 minutes
• Results: The vegetables cooked in the Cosori air fryer were beautifully cooked, tender, and nicely browned. The vegetables cooked in the Kalorik oven took longer to cook through and came out slightly tougher and drier but well browned.

Searing Meat

• For this test we cooked two 1” thick boneless ribeye steaks

• Cosori: Used steak preset (6 minutes at 400℉); after 6 minutes the steak wasn’t cooked to medium-rare, so we repeated the cooking process, checking the temperature of the steak after 3 minutes. Total cooking time: 9 minutes.

• Kalorik: Used steak preset (13 minutes at 500℉)

• Results: The steak cooked in the Cosori air fryer was cooked to a pretty near perfect medium-rare. Note that we did have to keep a close eye on it after the first 6 minutes of cooking. However, the browning on the meat was disappointing and more grey than brown. A steak enthusiast would not be pleased. And honestly, this result isn’t surprising since the Cosori has a max temp of 400℉. To get a true sear you want temperatures much higher than that.

• The Kalorik air fryer oven got pretty smoky during the broiling process. Luckily, we had an exhaust fan right next to the unit that we could turn on, but if you didn’t the process would definitely smoke up your kitchen (to be fair, searing a steak in a skillet will have the same effect, if not much worse). The steak was well-browned and beautiful after cooking, but 13 minutes is way, way too long for all but the thickest of steaks (the broiler sits about 2” from the tray when it’s in the steak cooking position, so you wouldn’t want to go any thicker than 1½” for the steak). Further, you’re only going to be able to brown one side of the steak to perfection. You could flip it halfway through cooking, but then neither side will be truly seared.

Whole Chicken

• For this test, we cooked 2 whole chickens of approximately the same size (3.56 pounds and 3.43 pounds)

• Cosori: Used chicken preset (25 minutes at 380℉). Chicken was not done after 25 minutes, so we repeated the cooking process, wrapping the ends of the drumsticks in foil to prevent burning. Total cooking time: 50 minutes.

• Kalorik: Used rotisserie and cooked for 40 minutes at 425℉. We had to remove the wingtips at 28 minutes because they were starting to burn. After 40 minutes the chicken wasn’t quite done, but was cooking unevenly, so we stopped the rotisserie and just cooked it on air fry mode for 10 minutes more to finish the cooking process.

• Results: The chicken fit nicely in the Cosori air fryer’s basket. However, we bought the smallest chicken we could find (we went to a natural foods grocery store–a regular store is unlikely to have anything as small) and are skeptical that a larger bird would fit without grazing the heating element, even though the Cosori’s Amazon page says it can fit a 5-pound chicken. That said, the chicken turned out beautifully browned, with crisp skin and tender meat. 10/10 would roast again!

• Using the Kalorik’s rotisserie feature requires some fiddling, and even if you spend a good amount of time trying to get the chicken evenly balanced on the spit, it’s impossible to get the weight evenly distributed. In practice, what this means is that the imbalance causes the rotisserie to struggle to pull the heavier side up, and then once the heavy side reaches the top, it drops quickly. This results in uneven cooking. The weight imbalance is likely also hard on the rotisserie mechanism, but only time will tell how much wear and tear it can take.

• We had to remove the chicken’s wingtips 28 minutes into cooking because they were already fully cooked, starting to pull away from the rest of the chicken, and grazing the heating element, creating smoke and burning the wings. In the end, the chicken was nicely cooked and well browned (albeit a little less evenly than the Cosori-cooked bird), but it made us question the utility of the rotisserie when you could more easily roast the chicken using the air fry or oven setting and get comparable results.

Frozen French Fries

• For this test, we cooked one 20oz bag of sweet potato waffle fries in each air fryer.

• Cosori: Used French fry preset (25 minutes at 380℉ with shake reminder halfway through). Took out fries with 9 minutes left on timer.

• Kalorik: Used French fry preset (15 minutes at 450℉)

• Results: In the Cosori’s basket, it was impossible to spread out the fries in a single layer, whereas it was easier to space them out on the Kalorik’s rack. The fries were starting to get very brown in the Cosori, so we pulled them with 9 minutes left on the timer. It’s likely that sweet potato fries tend to brown faster than fries made with russet potatoes due to their higher natural sugar content, thus the discrepancy in time. It’s also possible that the preset was designed for homemade fries. 

• The Kalorik made more evenly cooked fries overall, and the preset was spot-on.

Cookies

• We used premade ginger molasses cookie dough and portioned it in 1-tablespoon balls. We made 4 cookies in each air fryer.

• Cosori: Since none of the presets seemed appropriate for cookies, we manually set the air fryer at 350℉ for 12 minutes. We placed the dough balls on a piece of parchment paper cut to fit inside the air fryer basket.

• Kalorik: We used the bake function (350℉) and set the timer for 12 minutes.

• Results: The Cosori’s fan blew the parchment paper around a bit, creating cookies that were malformed. The air fry setting also bakes hotter than a normal oven, so the cookies got very dark on top–almost burned. The Kalorik transitions seamlessly from air fryer to normal convection oven, so the cookies came out perfectly shaped and golden brown.

Price Point

• The Cosori 5.8-quart air fryer costs $120 on Amazon. For reference, that’s the same price as the Instant Pot Max 6-quart pressure cooker and about 2½ times less expensive than the smallest Kitchen Aid stand mixer.

• The Kalorik oven sells for $200 online. While more expensive than the Cosori air fryer, that is to be expected since this isn’t just an air fryer, but more like a small oven. Kalorik makes an air fryer more comparable to the Cosori air fryer (their 5.3-quart Digital Air Fryer XL), which sells for $100.

Specs & Subjective Analysis

• Size/footprint

  • The Cosori air fryer is 14.3” tall, 11.8” wide, and 12.6” deep.

  • The Kalorik oven is 14” tall, 15.75” wide, and 12.5” deep. 

• Ease of use/intuitiveness

  • The Cosori is extremely simple and intuitive–it took less than 3 minutes for our team to learn how use.

  • The Kalorik is less intuitive overall than the Cosori–it took an average of 10 minutes for our team to get the hang of its functions, how to operate the controls, and how to use the different settings. However, because this oven has much greater functionality than the Cosori, this is not a design problem.

• Noise 

  • The Cosori is louder than Kalorik, but by no means “loud.” The Kalorik oven is almost silent. In our test kitchen, with moderate ambient noise, we had to put our ear right next to the appliance to hear anything. That said, the Kalorik’s timer alarm is louder than the Cosori’s.

• Capacity (how many servings can you prepare at once)

  • The Kalorik oven can handle 4-6 servings worth of food, depending on what you’re making. It can fit one small to medium sized chicken, 9 bone-in chicken thighs, a 6-cup muffin tin, and a 10” cake, bundt, or springform pan.

  • The Cosori air fryer will fit about 4 servings worth of food. It can hold one small chicken, 5 bone-in chicken thighs, individual muffin cups, or an 8” cake pan.

Analysis