Welcome back to Air Fryer Bro. Today we are rounding up the best air fryers for those one-person households. Did you know that in America, one-person households have been growing since way back in the 60s? As of 2019, there were just under 35 million one-person households in America, so there’s a lot of people that might want some ‘air fryer action’ but don’t know where to turn. You may see air fryer brands such as Philips (with their famous Rapid Air Technology), Cosori and Dash, but have no idea which to buy! If that’s you, then read on to find out our recommended air fryer for a single person. Get the right air fryer for you 🙂
During this roundup, I will recommend picks for the best air fryers from Amazon. If you want to check an air fryer out in more detail yourself, simply click the image to be taken straight over to the Amazon listing.
Also, I will start this article by outlining my rationale for choosing the air fryer perfect for a single person. If you want to jump straight to the recommendations, simply scroll through the first section or use the table of contents above!
What Type of Air Fryer Should a Single Person Buy?
So you want to cook with hot air but don’t know which air fryer to buy as a single person? When it comes to buying an air fryer, I can help 🙂 As someone who has been around and seen more air fryers than most 🙂 For example, I have seen a lot of other people assuming that if you live on your own, you should buy the teeny tiniest mini air fryer known to man. Personally, I don’t agree.
I have an air fryer that is around 3.5 quarts in size, so it’s a pretty standard size. Often, when I cook for myself, I find that this size air fryer is barely enough for me to cook a whole meal inside, leading to the need for batch cooking. I would call myself a heavy air fryer user though, as this is one of my main methods of cooking. If you just want an air fryer to cook from time to time, or just to cook part of your meals in one (fried chicken, for example) I would call you a light air fryer user and a smaller air fryer might work for you.
In general, I would always go for something slightly bigger than you think you need when air frying, as long as your space allows. In general, the compact nature of the air fryers recommended below means that even if you have a small kitchen, you can go for a more interesting kitchen appliance than just a bog standard toaster oven 🙂 You are not only restricted to air frying in an air fryer either. It is also good for baking, broiling, roasting and even dehydrating in some cases! Don’t limit yourself to just french fries 🙂 An air fryer has the potential to replace several appliances on your countertop, so be aware of this when considering the size you can buy.
You may have heard a lot about air fryer ovens in recent years, which basically fits an air fryer’s rapid hot air technology into the form factor of an oven. For a single person, this is overkill, though. You would be fine with the typical cooking basket air fryers or ‘bucket’ style air fryers. Yes, having a more tray based form factor is nice but not required when cooking for one. If you want multiple levels to cook at the same time, just buy the biggest capacity air fryer from the list and add a wire rack to make a second level! Easy!
Other than size, I don’t really see any other requirements that differ from other air fryer users. You want an appliance that is solid, reliable, easy to use and clean. On the subject of quality, the air crisp technology inside the unit should be good enough to provide well cooked and crisped food too! Pretty simple!
Best Air Fryer for One Person (if you are a HEAVY user)
Ninja Air Fryer 4 Quart
For regular readers of my blog, you might get sick of hearing me recommend Ninja air fryers! Usually, I like their air fryers because they are innovative and stand out from the crowd. This particular unit is a little different!
It’s a pretty bog standard unit really, being a more traditional air fryer with all the features you would expect. I like how Ninja uses a ceramic coating to help with non-stick, so it shouldn’t contain any nasty chemicals (such as PTFE and PFOAs) for you to worry about.
Quality is key for air fryers, as a lot are prone to quality issues. This air fryer has almost 17000 user reviews over at Amazon, and those total up to a 4.8 star score at the time of writing. This is impressive stuff and backs up the fact that you are buying a quality product.
If ease of use is important to you, I really like the control panel on this unit. Ninja has an excellent way of making their interfaces simple and easy to use and this one is no different. No need to read the product manual this time!
And if you have the space in your kitchen, I would go for a 4 quart air fryer (such as this) even if you are a single person household. It gives you the flexibility to cook whole meals in there if you would like and lessens the need for batch cooking. There is nothing worse than struggling to fit everything you need in your air fryer and needing to cook in multiple batches!
This air fryer even has the temperature range to allow for dehydrating, which is a nice bonus if you are interested in this.
As the air fryer basket and accessories such as the crisping plate are dishwasher safe, this will make the cleanup easier in your one-person household 🙂
Finally, I believe that this air fryer is an excellent price considering the quality on offer. I own a Philips air fryer and love it dearly! These really are the apex in air fryer quality, but you would pay pretty much double for the privilege. This is why I would go for something like the Ninja instead. You pay less but you still get top-notch rapid hot air cooking technology on par with Philips!
Fabuletta Air Fryers 4.2QT
Are you ready for the wild card surprise package of the bunch? The next air fryer I want to recommend offers a similar experience to the Ninja unit above, but as you are buying from a more unknown brand in Fabuletta, you will get better value whilst keeping similar features. They even include the ability to cook at a low temperature range that allows for a dehydrate function the same as the Ninja above!
One of the great things here is that you have a very nice looking and compact designed air fryer unit, making its 4.2 quart size actually seem a lot less. It has a clean and simple digital control panel at the top, which I also like a lot. If compact and elegant is your thing, this air fryer could ‘float your boat’!!
Coming in at 1550 watts, you know you are getting all the hot air circulation power you need when air frying in this unit! You could also argue this means it is not as energy efficient, but the difference in wattage is minimal.
For all you health-conscious people out there, Fabuletta has confirmed that their non-stick coating is PFOA and BPA free, which is good to know.
And, as I have said a million times, when you are looking at lesser known brands, it’s a good idea to make sure the Amazon customer reviews are good. Thankfully, this one hits a home run here. At the time of writing, it has one of highest Amazon customer review scores for any air fryer.
Best Air Fryer for One Person (if you are a LIGHT user)
Elite Gourmet EAF-0201BG 2.1 Quart Air Fryer
Elite is not a brand that you may have heard of, but they have built up a decent reputation in the air fryer world. They have been making solid appliances for quite a while now! If you watch TV shopping channels such as QVC you might have seen an Elite air fryer on there!
As a light air fryer user, this 2.1 quart unit would give you a decent amount of cooking space. Just be aware it is going to be hard to cook whole meals in here (unless you like small portions!).
I like how this unit goes for simplicity. For example, it only uses rotary dials instead of fancy digital displays. This should mean there are fewer electronics to go wrong in the future, giving this air fryer more of a chance of lasting.
The only downside for me is that this air fryer only comes with a 30 minute cooking timer. Most air fried meals won’t need anything more, but slow cooking or dehydrating can’t be done easily here!
If you want a compact air fryer around the 2-quart mark, that also has a retro look to it, simply go for the ‘mint’ color option 🙂 For me, this is simply the best small air fryer at the time of writing.
GoWISE USA GW22661 Air Fryer 2.75-Quart
GoWise is another brand along the lines of Elite, you have probably never heard of them unless you watch a lot of TV shopping channels!
The first thing to say is that although this brand is called GoWiseUSA, don’t think that any of these air fryers are made in America. Along with 99% of other air fryers, these are made in China.
2.75 is a good size for one person, with this particular unit looking very compact in nature. This air fryer comes in some ‘interesting’ colors, including pink and yellow. If you are looking for a stand out color, this could be the air fryer for you 🙂
I like the sleek and modern design of this air fryer as well. It would look great in most kitchens (as long as you choose the right color!!).
As with most smaller sized air fryers, this one only has a 30 minute timer.
Best Air Fryer for One Person (if you have no space!)
If space is your priority, you have got two choices (and it’s not only about air fryer size!). You can either save counter space by buying a smaller compact air fryer, such as the ones recommended above for light users. But you could take another route if you want, by finding an appliance that fulfills the job of several kitchen appliances. This would mean that, even if the unit is slightly bigger, it would still make sense.
Remember that all the air fryers above are traditional bucket/ basket style air fryers. This means they are easy to pack away in a cupboard when not in use.
Ninja FG551 Foodi Smart XL 6-in-1 Indoor Grill with 4-Quart Air Fryer
Remember how I said near the start of this article how I like Ninja for their innovations? This is a prime example. They have come up with an air fryer hybrid that is combined with an indoor grill. When talking about multiple air fryer uses, this is a prime example.
Simply because this air fryer can air fry, bake, roast, dehydrate and grill. It could take over your grill, your oven, and air fryer in your kitchen. If you often cook with these methods, this air fryer would be perfect for you. This is the ultimate multi cooker!
Yes, it is one of the larger air fryers in this roundup, but it is the one with the widest amount of uses. If you want to look outside the simple air fryer basket models seen above, this air fryer is a great alternative.
BBday 10-in-1 6.5-qt. Air Fryer
If you like the idea of the Ninja air fryer grill above but think the price is too high, this could be your alternative. You could buy from this rather random sounding brand BBday, which surely must be one of those Chinese generic brands.
When dealing with such brands, you must be doubly careful that the unit comes well reviewed from users. This particular model has a 4.5 star rating on Amazon at the time of writing, so it paces this test with flying colors.
Also, be sure to check the warranty carefully when buying from these random generic brands, so you know you are covered if things go wrong.
If you are willing to go with such a brand, the benefit you will have is that this model is not far off half the price of the Ninja model. It has all the cooking functions of the Ninja and actually included more cooking accessories right out of the box (including a roast basket and a grill plate). And, at 6.5 quarts in size, you have all the cooking capacity for your air fried food needs 🙂 So if the size of your air fryer is key to you (for that roast all in one experience!), then this could be a hidden gem!
It just doesn’t pull it off with the same slickness or big brand feel of the Ninja, in my opinion.
All in all, I take my hat off to such a random brand such as BBday, who were able to make a unit that competes well with Ninja and gives so much more value!
There you have it, my list of recommendations for a single person household. I tried to not just list out all the small air fryers and give you a wider variety of options to go with. If you are looking for an air fryer as a single person, look no further 🙂
If you are a single person with experience of air fryers, it would be great if you could leave some of your experiences in the comments section below 🙂
