As Food Editor at GoodtoKnow, I have tested various air fryers over the years and this one in particular from Lakeland has been my favourite dual basket air fryer to date.
I am a big fan of Lakeland, since my days of making and decorating cupcakes, it’s been my go-to for all things baking. Lakeland is a brand that keeps giving and has expanded its repertoire to more than just baking – think coffee machines, storage solutions, pizza ovens, and now, the air fryer.
And on that note, meet the Lakeland Dual Basket air fryer – one of the best family air fryers with an 8-litre capacity, two basket drawers, an easy-to-navigate LED digital touch panel and pre-set functions, and the highlight for me, two windows on each basket so you can keep a close eye on food when cooking. Perfect for the control freak in me who constantly spends dinner time staring through the oven door to make sure nothing gets burnt!
The Lakeland Dual Basket air fryer with Easy View is a large-capacity model that can cook anything from 500g of frozen chips to a batch of chocolate chip cookies in record time. After three minutes of preheating, your machine is ready to be used. A really easy setup with a thorough instruction booklet explaining what each pre-set icon means on the control panel, how to select each drawer individually as well as activating the basket synchronisation end function. Despite it not being dishwasher safe, the baskets and non-stick trays are so simple to clean with warm soapy water and certainly didn’t put me off.
In a nutshell
The Lakeland Dual Basket air fryer is a great option for family cooking – be it chicken breasts, potato wedges, frozen foods, and more. Double the basket means double the quantities and the synchronisation mode means food is cooked and ready to be served simultaneously. Buy it if you have a household of two to four people, want to cook multiple things, and want a machine that isn’t an eyesore either.
Over the last few weeks, I have used this machine daily, mostly at dinner time when the ease and efficiency of an air fryer has been well and truly needed. I intended to put this machine through its paces and would say it was a successful and delicious challenge. From frozen fish fingers to chicken gyoza, from tempura prawns to honey and soy chicken fillets – and of course, potato wedges – I’ve cooked a whole lot in this air fryer. Here’s everything you need to know about how the Lakeland Dual Basket air fryer fared.
For this review, GoodtoKnow turned to our Food Editor to put this popular kitchen appliance to the test in a busy family household. The result? This air fryer excelled at dual cooking foods to perfection.
Price & availability
At the time of writing the Lakeland Dual Basket 8-litre air fryer with Easy View is priced at £99.99 at Amazon, and the same price directly from Lakeland, which I feel is a reasonable price for a large dual air fryer, particularly as it features a range of pre-set functions, and enables simultaneous cooking.
Compared to other brands on the market, such as Sensio Home Dual Basket Zone, Dunelm Digital Two Drawer, and HomCom Double Basket, the Lakeland Dual Basket air fryer is priced at an average for an 8-litre air fryer which means it’s an great value for money model especially as it’s designed by a well-known, established brand too.
(Image credit: Future)
Design & features
Capacity: 8L | Dimensions: Approx. 42 x 40 x 32.5cm H | Wattage: 2700 W | Colour: Black | Functions: Air Fry | Style: Dual Basket | Max temp: 200 degrees Celcius | Dishwasher safe parts: No
Whenever I unbox a new air fryer to test, I’m rather anxious that it’s going to be super complicated to set up and take forever to get going. With the Lakeland Dual Basket air fryer, this worry was eliminated in minutes of reading the manual – and just in time for dinner too.
Start by plugging the machine into the main socket to switch on. The LED digital touchscreen panel will light up with a number one and a number two. Select which drawer you would like to use, or alternatively, if you want to use both baskets at the same time, you can press both number one and two icons.
You can then adjust the temperature and the time manually if preferred, or you can select from one of the preset functions, which include chicken seafood, steak, fish pizza, fries, bake, and vegetables. You can synchronise the drawers to ensure that both baskets finish cooking at the same time so everything is ready to serve up without having to wait around for the other food to finish cooking.
First, on the menu, I decided to cook potato wedges at around 350g, which covered the base of the drawer evenly. In the second basket, I cooked two chicken breasts, diced and seasoned. I cooked both on the pre-set functions listed on the machine and chose to synchronise the finished cooking time so both finished at the same time. Meanwhile, I cooked rice on the hob and prepared vegetables like normal ready for our healthy take on takeaway kebabs.
Once the food has finished cooking, the timer will beep and the light will go off in the drawer to indicate that the food is cooked. The diced chicken cooked well in the air fryer, crisp on the outside, still tender and soft on the inside, and most importantly, completely cooked all the way through. I reduced the cooking time by five minutes as I could see through the window that the chicken was starting to catch. I wanted to make sure I didn’t overcook it as chewy chicken is not favourable. I also heated some falafel in the air fryer which came out nice and crisp with soft insides.
(Image credit: Future)
During the cooking process, I opened the drawers to shake the potato wedges and flip the pieces of chicken over to ensure they were cooking thoroughly. Once the drawers were pushed back into the machine, they continued to cook at the same temperature for the set amount of time I’d chosen.
Having the easy view windows on each basket drawer was appreciated as it meant I could keep a close eye on the food to ensure it didn’t overcook especially when first trying the machine out. Some air fryers I’ve tested over the years I found run hot and the pre-set functions are sometimes not the best way to cook your chosen food. The light in the basket drawers made it much easier to see cooking progress too as each light up when pushed back into the model during cooking, and turn off once cooking has been complete.
The fan noise of the air fryer didn’t offend me at all and went completely unnoticed in my busy kitchen. I would say it was on par with the level of my conventional oven in terms of noise.
Cooking two foods simultaneously was super useful, especially when one cooked longer than the other. I could then use the first drawer again to cook any other foods.
The machine certainly didn’t overheat or feel ridiculously hot to touch externally either after cooking which is good to know with my kid’s inquisitive hands around.
Please note that with this dual air fryer, you need to preheat without any food before use for three minutes at the required temperature to ensure even cooking throughout – the first time using the machine I completely forgot to preheat the machine – it didn’t make an impact on the food, to be honest, but I kept in mind for next time.
(Image credit: Future)
How we tested
- Vigorously tested for a couple of weeks by a busy working mum feeding two hungry school children (one of whom eats just as much as I do), a husband (who eats more than we all do put together), and a dog – who enjoyed any type of scraps she could get her paws on.
- Foods cooked in this machine included: potato wedges, frozen chips, fresh and frozen cod, frozen fish fingers, tempura prawns, chicken gyoza, honey and soy chicken fillets, frozen potato wedges, and chocolate chip cookies to name a few.
- The air fryer was assessed based on how easy it was to use, navigate, set up, how well it cooked food using the pre-set functions and manual settings, what it looked like, how big, noisy, and efficient the machine was overall.
Things you wouldn’t find on the box
One thing to keep in mind with this machine is that it does take up quite a bit of surface area on your kitchen side so if you are limited to kitchen surface space or you have a small kitchen, you will need to make sure that you have a good amount of space to house this machine as it is quite bulky to keep lifting in and out of a cupboard. I had to make room on my kitchen counter for testing purposes but if I were to keep it as a permanent fixture in my kitchen, I would need to clear away my bread bin for example, or my stand mixer to house this air fryer instead.
This air fryer certainly has a lot of power behind it and ‘runs hot’ on a couple of the pre-set functions. For example, when cooking diced chicken, I chose the chicken pre-set function, however, this is for bigger cuts of chicken like breasts or drumsticks, so my diced chicken caught a little and was a tad dry overall. I ended up reducing the time on the pre-set function when cooking diced chicken shortly after. When cooking fish I did the same thing as I could see the two fillets of cod were getting rather crisp on the outside which I don’t particularly mind myself but it meant dry fish on the inside and I’d rather it be soft and flaky. Cooking raw meat and fish after my first experiences I decided to bypass the preset functions and set the temperature and time manually myself.
I love baking, so wanted to make sure that this air fryer could bake to perfection. The first thing I tested out was a batch of chocolate chip cookies (my mother-in-law’s recipe). In one of the drawers, I put the cookies directly on the non-stick grill tray and the other batch in the second drawer on baking paper. The ones on the baking paper were so much easier to remove, whereas with the ones that were on the non-stick grill tray the cookie dough sunk through the grate which meant I had a lot of cleaning to do afterward (however, super easy to scrub off when soaked for five minutes).
The cookies came out really well, with a golden crunch on the outside, super soft and moist on the inside with the chocolate chips, slightly melted and gooey. Not a burnt chocolate chip in sight. I managed to bake a batch of 12 cookies for each drawer with the machine going two times for 12 minutes. When using my conventional oven, I could’ve baked all 12 cookies in one go at 180° for 12 to 15 minutes so it didn’t really save me time, but it’s reassuring to know that the machine can bake cookies and bake them well.
Cleaning the drawers on this air fryer was simple. Each non-stick grill tray can easily be removed from the baskets by pulling up from the middle. I washed both in warm soapy water and did the same with the two drawers. The baskets and attachments were left to dry overnight ready for use again the following day to reheat leftovers and bake cupcakes with the kids.
Who is it best for?
The 8-litre Lakeland Dual Basket air fryer with Easy View is just perfect for family cooking. I comfortably managed to feed my family of four using this machine at dinner time and would recommend it to families with smaller children too – especially if they are a fan of the old frozen foods – and you’re prone to hosting playdates that overrun.
Need an alternative?
Lakeland has a whole range of air fryers in their collection including the 9-litre Lakeland Adjustable Large Drawer Air Fryer which is perfect for bigger families wanting to cook more per use and the Lakeland Digital Crisp which is a small but mighty 3-litre air fryer. We’d also recommend the Salter Dual Air Fryer EK4750BLK reviewed by our Money Editor as a stylish, easy-to-use choice for families.
Looking for more? Discover the best air fryer cookbooks as well as the best air fryer recipes.
