Ninja Double Stack XL Air Fryer Review: Counter Revolution

Best Prices Today: Ninja Double Stack XL

$229.99

Dual-drawer air fryers are a game-changer. They make it possible ditch your oven completely when you’re making a meal, even if you’re cooking for the whole family. That means faster and cheaper meals.

But the limiting factor for most people is counter space. Many of us just don’t have enough room in the kitchen to add another microwave-sized appliance to the army of on-counter gadgets that crowd out all the workspace. Enter the Double Stack XL.

In many ways, I’m the perfect guinea pig to test the Double Stack as my kitchen is closer to guinea pig size than actual person size. It wouldn’t look out of place in a camper van. Accordingly, counter space is at a premium and I was very keen to try it out.

By the way, if you’re in the US, the Double Stack XL is called The DoubleStack XL (no space between the words) but is otherwise the same appliance.

Design and Build

• Grilling racks double the cooking space
• Much narrower than other dual-drawer models, but projects out further
• Match and sync functions

What Ninja has done with the Double Stack is essentially flip a conventional dual-drawer air fryer on its side, so that the drawers are stacked one above the other. The Double stack has roughly the same dimensions as the Foodi Max Dual Zone, but the space savings are made by using the ‘dead’ space above and in front of a conventional air fryer.

This does mean it’ll jut out beyond your other countertop appliances, so it still may not be the perfect option for all small kitchens. Still, there’s still plenty of clearance above it to fit beneath standard kitchen cabinets, and space in front to open the cooking drawers.

The official dimensions of the Double Stack are 38.5 (H) x 28 (W) x 47cm (D) (15.14in x 11.25 x 19.22in). We have a dedicated article on how much counter width the Double Stack can save you, but if you take a look at it next to the Ninja FlexDrawer, you’ll get a good idea. Bear in mind that the Double Stack is considerably deeper.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Emma Rowley / Foundry

The Double Stack is largely made of matt grey plastic. Like all Ninja’s dual drawer air fryers, it lacks the steel panels you’ll find on the Speedi and the Health Grill & Air Fryer, which give the appliances a more robust, premium look and feel. I also found that the silver finish on the plastic handles in front sustained a couple of little scrapes during the testing period. But overall, it feels solid and well-made.

The design of the appliance means that there’s no obvious place to put the digital control panel, so the engineers have opted to have it projecting from the right-hand side, in front of the air vents, which require space anyway. Although it seems to be extending into an otherwise useful area, it’s a good reminder not to crowd your air fryer on the counter.

The control panel is where Ninja has almost all other brands beat. It’s intuitive and simple to use, with a mix of button and dial programming. It features the time-saving Match (allowing you to copy a set of cooking instructions from one drawer to another, if you want to use all the space to cook one item) and Sync buttons (which ensure that both cooking programmes finish at the same time, even if they’re completely different).

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Emma Rowley / Foundry

The Double Stack has fewer modes than many other air fryer models: there’s air fry, max crisp (for frozen food), bake, roast, reheat and dehydrate. But you can adjust these functions by time and temperature so that they cover almost anything you’d want to cook in the appliance.

By way of advice, there’s a peel-away label on the front of the air fryer, with suggested cooking times for popular foods, including chicken, chips, sausages, steak, fish and veggies. Plus, you’ll get a quick start guide, which contains from-scratch recipe suggestions and cooking charts, so you won’t have to rely on guesswork.  

The Double Stack comes with two crisper baskets, and two grilling racks. The grilling racks really elevate it as a cooker – by elevating a layer of the cooking, allowing you to stack two different food types at a time in each drawer. This provides much more space and flexibility. Ninja suggests that you cook veggies underneath and protein above, but during testing, I found it gave good results when used more flexibly.  

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Performance and Features

• Fast, crispy results
• Perforated drawers limit food types
• Uneven cooking results depending on food type

While the design of the Double Stack does save space, it also demands a couple of compromises.

It has a 9.5L/10QT capacity over the two drawers, making it one of the most capacious air fryers around. However, as the heat sources are situated at the back of the appliance (one heating coil sits behind each drawer), rather than at the top, the backs of the drawers are necessarily perforated to let the hot air circulate.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Emma Rowley / Foundry

This means you’ll need to be extra careful not to overload them and makes it unsuitable for certain types of wet cooking. You will not be making rice or stews in the Double Stack the way you can in the Ninja Speedi, unless you buy silicone liners.

I used the Double Stack in place of my usual air fryer for a month and found it to be a fast and efficient cooker, producing reliably crispy and well-cooked food.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Emma Rowley / Foundry

The grilling racks make a huge difference to its capacity and mean you can cook every part of a meal together. And, thanks to the Sync function, you can ensure that both cooking programmes finish at the same time.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Emma Rowley / Foundry

But I did encounter one problem, which becomes apparent when cooking larger volumes of food, such as roast potatoes or chips. And that is uneven cooking. As the heat source is at the back of the drawer, food cooks faster at one end than the other.

Uneven results are compounded by the fact that there isn’t a shake/turn alert during cooking. Many air fryers feature such an alert, which goes off at around 60% of the way through the cooking programme. But if this exists on the Double Stack, I couldn’t find it.

During the testing period, I found that there was a noticeable difference between food cooked at the front and the back of the drawer, with a distinct ombré colouration from pale to golden, even when the drawer was far from overfilled.   

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Emma Rowley / Foundry

That means you’ll need to set an alarm on your phone, or remember to come in and shake up your food during cooking to get perfectly even results.

This is really the only issue I had with the Double Stack but it does prevent it from getting a perfect score.

Price and Availability

The Ninja Double Stack is widely available in both the UK and the US.

It’s a pricey appliance in the UK, retailing for £269.99 and at this stage, there’s no price advantage from choosing any retailer, with an over/under difference of around £1. It’s available from Ninja, John Lewis, Argos and Currys. This makes it around £50 more than the FlexDrawer and £90 more than the Ninja Foodi Max Dual Zone, both of which are comparable models in terms of functionality and cooking space. Whether it’s worth it or not to you really depends on how much you value a bit more counter space.

In the US, it’s a bit less spendy, with an MSRP of $229.99. You can buy it from Ninja, Amazon and Walmart, among other retailers. Again, it’s around $50 more than the FlexBasket, which is only an 8QT appliance in its US incarnation. However, it’s actually less than the 10QT two-drawer Foodi, which may make it a more appealing choice.

If this isn’t the right air fryer for you, and you’d like to browse more recommendations, have a look at our round-ups of the best air fryers, the best Ninja air fryers and, for more cooking capacity, the best air fryer ovens.

Should you buy the Ninja Double Stack?

Ninja has such a great range of air fryers that there’s an ideal option for everyone. Whether this is the right one for you depends on your household and the type of cooking you do.

The Double Stack is perfect for making smaller meals with a lot more variety. If you often want to cook fish or chicken, plus three types of vegetables for two to four people, the Double Stack will suit you perfectly and help you regain a bit more counter space at the same time.