Ninja has released its first glass air fryers – the Crispi 4-in-1 Portable Glass Air Fryer ($299.99) and the Ninja Crispi Pro 6-in-1 Countertop Glass Air Fryer ($399.99)
Our kitchen experts put them through their paces to see how they perform
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CHOICE started testing air fryers around 2016 when their popularity began to skyrocket. Back then, we were baffled at the fuss over what is essentially a mini oven, but we started to see brands such as Philips and Kmart swoop in and take advantage of air-fryer fandom, dominating the market and releasing product after product.
Fast forward 10 years, and US-owned Ninja, previously known mostly for its vacuums, blenders and cult novelty appliances such as the Ninja Creami ice cream maker, has well and truly joined the air-fryer fray, with 12 Ninja air fryers currently available in Australia.
Its latest releases are the Ninja Crispi 4-in-1 Portable Glass Air Fryer ($299.99) and the Ninja Crispi Pro 6-in-1 Countertop Glass Air Fryer ($399.99). These are Ninja’s first air fryers to feature a glass basket.
CHOICE’s current air fryer review includes 11 models from Ninja, with eight scoring high enough in our testing to be recommended by our experts.
Ninja Crispi Portable vs Crispi Pro Countertop – what’s the difference?
Both models are part of the Crispi range, but are designed for different users. The Crispi Portable prioritises convenience and portability whereas the Crispi Pro Countertop offers more cooking space, temperature control and versatility.
Ninja Crispi Portable
This is the original Ninja Crispi, the first glass model from Ninja, designed for consumers who don’t cook in large quantities and have limited bench space. This model has a removable Crispi PowerPod that sits on top of the glass cooking container and houses the heating element.
The unit features 1700W power (air fryers in the current CHOICE review range in power from 1570W up to 2400W) and four cooking modes: Roast, Air Fry, Recrisp and Keep Warm.
It comes with two CleanCrisp glass containers to choose from when cooking: 1.4L and 3.8L, each with their own fixed, heat-safe feet you can place on most kitchen surfaces as well as snap-lock lids and crisper plates.
CHOICE home economist, Fiona Mair, says the smaller 1.4L container is particularly useful for reheating leftovers, preparing lunches or cooking smaller portions.
“The 3.8L container provides enough room for cooking larger meals and can accommodate a whole chicken,” she adds.
It also has a small footprint and can be packed away relatively easily, rather than permanently occupying valuable bench space. When using the small basket, it’s not much bigger than a wide kettle or toaster.
Fiona mentions one important limitation of this air fryer, however. “There’s no temperature control on the Crispi Portable.”
“You can only adjust the time, the temperature settings are pre-determined by the cooking mode selected.”
Ninja Crispi Pro Countertop
The Ninja Crispi Pro uses similar glass cooking containers but is designed to be a benchtop appliance with a larger footprint.
The Pro packs more punch with 2050W power and comes with two larger CleanCrisp glass containers – 2.3L and 5.7L. A 3.8L container (which is the largest size the Portable can accommodate) can be purchased separately for the Pro.
While the 2.3L container is ideal for everyday cooking, the 5.7L is a considerably larger capacity, perfect for families and preparing larger meals.
Like with the Portable, the CleanCrisp containers for the Pro each have their own fixed, heat-safe feet you can place on most kitchen surfaces as well as snap-lock lids and crisper plates.
The Pro also provides more versatility in its cooking modes, with functions for Max Crisp, Air Fry, Bake/Prove, Roast, Recrisp and Dehydrate.
“The Crispi Pro includes adjustable temperature control which is a welcome addition to this version of the Crispi,” says Fiona.
“Instead of relying on preset cooking modes, the Pro allows you to control cooking temperature more precisely.”
Text-only accessible version
Ninja Crispi Portable vs Ninja Crispi Pro: What’s the difference?
Ninja Crispi 4-in-1 Portable Air Fryer
Price: $300 Container sizes: 1.4L and 3.8L Power: 1700W Maximum temperature: 185°C Adjustable temperature: No Preset functions: Roast, Air Fry, Recrisp, Keep Warm
Ninja Crispi 6-in-1 Pro Air Fryer
Price: $400 Container sizes: 2.3L and 5.7L (3.8L available separately) Power: 2050W Maximum temperature: 240°C Adjustable temperature: Yes Preset functions: Max Crisp, Air Fry, Bake/Prove, Roast, Recrisp, Dehydrate
Unlike the drawer-style air fryers that we’re used to seeing, the Crispi range uses glass cooking containers. The idea is that you can cook, serve and store food all from the same container using the appropriate lid.
Ninja Crispi Portable
The Ninja Crispi Portable features a “Powerpod” adaptor that sits on top of whichever of the supplied glass containers you’re using. The heating element and fan lives in the Powerpod and circulates the hot air that crisps up your food. The controls are also located on top of the Powerpod.
Getting started with the Crispi Portable is simple, just plug it in, pop your food on the crisper plate inside the glass container, add the Powerpod on top, then select your cooking mode and time. That’s it.
Perfect air-fried food requires frequent shaking, and this can get tricky with the Crispi Portable.
Unlike other air fryers, where you can easily pull the drawer out with one hand, give a quick shake and replace, the Crispi requires you to remove the (slightly heavier) Powerpod with one hand and use tongs or a utensil to rotate your food with the other – the fixed heat-safe feet and glass bowl are tricky to shake.
Ninja Crispi Pro
The Ninja Crispi Pro is designed to be a permanent fixture on your benchtop and provide flexible cooking options. Weighing 8kg, it has a smart modular base with three height settings that can be easily adjusted to accommodate the 2.3L, 3.8L or 5.7L containers, which slide in and out of the unit. These height settings ensure the container seals correctly and the food is positioned at an appropriate distance from the heating element.
The Pro gives you much more control of the cooking process, not only providing more cooking functions, but allowing you to customise and adjust the time and temperature of these functions. So if a recipe calls for 180°C for 20 minutes you can mimic this easily with the Pro. This could be important if you’re a stickler for following recipes.
The weight of the glass containers (especially when full of food) can be an issue with this model. You’ll need both hands to lift the containers and the small handles provide limited protection from the glass which can get quite hot. Ninja recommends using oven mitts when you’re handling the glass containers but oven mitts can make it awkward to grip and hold.
Air fryers with glass baskets are becoming increasingly popular for consumers who want to move away from non-stick coatings. Brands like Healthy Choice and Dreame both have glass models and more recently, Kmart even released its own look-alike version of the Ninja Crispi Portable.
CHOICE home economist and seasoned air fryer tester, Fiona Mair, understands that attraction.
“The appeal of an air fryer with a glass basket is that you can observe your food while it’s cooking, so you don’t have to constantly open the air fryer to see if it is burning or when it needs a shake. Glass containers can also go in the dishwasher for easy cleaning and removal of odours and you don’t have to worry about non-stick coatings that can scratch or degrade over time.”
The Ninja Crispi comes with crisper plates that have a non-stick ceramic coating
But, while other glass-basket air fryers (such as this model from Healthy Choice) come with stainless steel crisping trays to sit in the base of the glass basket while cooking, the Ninja Crispi comes with crisper plates that have a non-stick ceramic coating.
The purpose of the crisper plate is to elevate the food in the container so that air can flow under it to cook ingredients evenly and give maximum crispiness (one of the key calling cards of air-fried foods). Not using the crisper plate may compromise your cooking results.
The glass basket means you can easily keep an eye on your food as it cooks, but it does get very hot.
If you do use the crisper plate, this means your food will come into direct contact with a non-stick coating, and that coating could easily scratch or degrade over time.
If this is a concern for you but you are still keen on the Crispi, there are a variety of stainless steel air fryer basket inserts in different sizes available through Amazon that you may want to use instead (but this might grate a little, considering you’ve already paid $300–$400 for the air fryer).
Also, the glass basket gets really, really hot. There are heat-safe handles to grab onto and a heat-warning symbol printed on the basket, but it would be easy to accidentally touch the exposed edges of the basket.
Fiona measured the glass exteriors on both models and found that they can reach between 100°C–110°C. So it’s vital to be cautious when the air fryer is on, especially if there are children’s hands lurking around.
Size matters in air fryers. In fact, we’d go out on a limb and say it’s one of the most important factors that will determine if you use your air fryer every day or whether it will be banished to the back of the cupboard.
But while an adequate capacity is key, there’s a balance to be struck with bench space.
Fiona has always advised that to get the most use out of your air fryer, it’s best to buy a model that can sit on your benchtop so you don’t have to lug it out of your cupboards for every use.
The Ninja Crispi Portable is very compact, and when using the small basket, it doesn’t take up much more space than a kettle or a toaster.
The amount of food that can fit in the larger basket suits a meal for Pru’s two kids.
This obviously limits the amount of food you can cook though, and it’s really only suited for meals for 1–2 people or for cooking sides.
When CHOICE audience and engagement editor, Pru Engel took the Crispi Portable home for a try she found the smaller container could fit either a single sausage roll or about 4–5 nuggets and the larger container could fit about 9 chicken nuggets, a few lamb cutlets or up to a 1.2 kg whole chicken.
Pru says, “While I love the compact design, this is a little too small for my family of four”.
If you’re cooking in larger quantities for your family, the Crispi Pro will give you more flexibility. You could cook the main part of your meal in the 5.7L container before switching to the 2.3L container to cook your sides (or the 3.8L if you decide to purchase it).
Keep in mind the Pro will take up more space on your kitchen bench, however, when it comes to air fryers that’s the price you’ll have to pay for more cooking capacity.
When put to the test in the CHOICE kitchen lab, these Ninja Crispi air fryers performed similarly for cooking performance. True to their name, they produced chips that were crisp on the outside while staying fluffy on the inside. Marinated chicken wings cooked perfectly and the roast pork was evenly browned with crispy crackling and juicy flesh. The main difference between the two was their performance for cooking crumbed chicken – the Crispi Portable received a “good” result while the Crispi Pro was rated as “excellent”.
Like other Ninja appliances, both models also come with a recipe booklet and a chart of recommended cooking times, which is handy to refer to.
Although preset cooking modes are useful, one downside of the Portable model is that you are unable to manually adjust temperatures, so it may take a bit of trial and error to determine the ideal cooking times.
The Ninja website specifies the following uses for each cooking mode of the Crispi Portable, and the temperature each cooking mode will operate at will vary depending on the size of the container you are using.
Recrisp – use for reviving leftovers (about 185°C)
Air Fry – use to crisp all your favorite food with little to no oil (from about 175°C to 185°C)
Roast – use to get an extra-crispy crunch with rapid heat. Best for prepackaged frozen foods (from about 175°C to 185°C)
Keep Warm – designed to maintain food at a safe serving temperature (around 80°C) without overcooking
The fact that the Ninja Crispi Portable can’t go any hotter than 185°C explains why it was slower to cook food than the Crispi Pro, which can reach higher temperatures up to 240°C.
Fiona says that many air fryers now have cooking temperatures above 200°C, all the way up to 240°C.
“The higher temperature of 200°C is perfect for cooking food from frozen, such as pastries like meat pies and sausage rolls as well as nuggets and frozen chips,” she says.
“At 180°C it will take longer and you might see less browning for frozen foods. Though 180°C is perfect for reheating, as you don’t want to dry out the food.”
How easy are the Ninja Crispi air fryers to use and clean?
The controls are generally straightforward and intuitive to use on both these models. Neither model provides shake or turn reminders during cooking so you’ll need to remember to do this throughout (and remember the glass containers can get heavy when loaded with food, so you’ll need both hands to lift the containers).
The glass containers provide excellent visibility so you can easily monitor the food cooking without having to regularly open/remove the container like you would with other air fryers.
After cooking, the glass basket is quite easy to clean
In the Crispi Pro, if you need to remove the container to stir, shake or check food, cooking will automatically resume once the container is returned to the base. This is not the case in the Crispi Portable where you’ll need to press the start button to recommence cooking.
After cooking, the glass basket is quite easy to clean, although the heat-safe handles and feet are slightly awkward – you can’t remove them for cleaning.
Ninja says the glass containers and crisper plates can all be washed in the dishwasher, but CHOICE recommends you avoid putting accessories with non-stick coatings in the dishwasher as it could degrade the coating over time.
The heating element and fan are protected by a stainless steel guard, however, the fan isn’t accessible for cleaning. Over time this can become an issue if grease and food residue builds up around the fan. If not cleaned regularly, the residue could potentially burn during use, resulting in unpleasant odours or smoke.
The snap-lock lids are designed to allow the cooking containers to be transformed into food-storage containers. However, Pru found the handles too bulky for this to be a convenient option.
CHOICE verdict: Should you by a Ninja Crispi?
If you’re interested in cooking with a glass air fryer, the Ninja Crispi range is worth a look. However, if your motivation is to reduce your exposure to non-stick coatings you may be disappointed that they use non-stick crisper plates.
If you’re looking for a compact air fryer that’s suitable for cooking foods for 1–2 people, relatively easy to use and clean, and you like to be able to observe your food while it’s cooking, the Ninja Crispi Portable is definitely up to the task. However, even with the flexibility of two container sizes, it may not be big enough if you’re cooking for a larger family.
If your motivation is to reduce your exposure to non-stick coatings you may be disappointed that they use non-stick crisper plates
If it’s a larger cooking capacity, more versatility and the ability to customise time and temperature that you’re after, the Ninja Crispi Pro would be a more suitable option.
The fact that the glass baskets become extremely hot and have exposed surfaces is something you’ll need to be very mindful of if you opt for one of these air fryers, as well as the fact you can’t easily shake food with one hand.
To see how the Ninja Crispi range compares to air fryers from brands like Philips, Tefal, Sunbeam, Kmart Anko and more, take a look at our air fryer reviews.
Pru Engel is the Audience and Engagement editor at CHOICE. Her job is to ensure as many Australians as possible know about the great work we do at CHOICE.
She works closely with our testers and experts to find the gems of information in our data and research that will resonate with Australian consumers and help them make the best decisions, whether they're purchasing an air fryer, looking for a new mattress or trying to find the cheapest car insurance. She also helps to drive meaningful change for consumers by collaborating with our Campaigns team on content covering issues such as grocery pricing, product safety and scams.
Prior to CHOICE, Pru worked as an editor at many of Australia's leading food and lifestyle titles.
Pru has a Bachelor of Arts in Communication (Journalism) from the University of Technology, Sydney.
LinkedIn
Pru Engel is the Audience and Engagement editor at CHOICE. Her job is to ensure as many Australians as possible know about the great work we do at CHOICE.
She works closely with our testers and experts to find the gems of information in our data and research that will resonate with Australian consumers and help them make the best decisions, whether they're purchasing an air fryer, looking for a new mattress or trying to find the cheapest car insurance. She also helps to drive meaningful change for consumers by collaborating with our Campaigns team on content covering issues such as grocery pricing, product safety and scams.
Prior to CHOICE, Pru worked as an editor at many of Australia's leading food and lifestyle titles.
Pru has a Bachelor of Arts in Communication (Journalism) from the University of Technology, Sydney.
LinkedIn
Rebecca Ciaramidaro is a Content producer in the Household team at CHOICE. Rebecca writes about a wide range of children's and household products, ranging from cots and strollers to ovens, BBQs, espresso machines and electric blankets. And also grocery items such as nappies, sanitary pads and laundry detergents.
Previously at CHOICE, Rebecca worked as a Test officer in the kitchen lab.
Rebecca has a Bachelor of Science (Nutrition and Food) from the University of Western Sydney. LinkedIn
Rebecca Ciaramidaro is a Content producer in the Household team at CHOICE. Rebecca writes about a wide range of children's and household products, ranging from cots and strollers to ovens, BBQs, espresso machines and electric blankets. And also grocery items such as nappies, sanitary pads and laundry detergents.
Previously at CHOICE, Rebecca worked as a Test officer in the kitchen lab.
Rebecca has a Bachelor of Science (Nutrition and Food) from the University of Western Sydney. LinkedIn
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