It was a cold, rainy Tuesday night, and I deeply craved hot fries while watching a fun movie. I really did not want the huge greasy mess of deep frying in a giant pot of hot oil. I badly needed a much cleaner and faster way to cook late night snacks.
So, I bought two very popular air fryers to test out right in my own kitchen. Let me share my pure, honest thoughts on the Ninja AF101 Vs AF100.
Ninja AF101 Review
I opened the shipping box for this nice fryer on a bright and sunny morning. The dark gray outer shell looked very neat and clean on my home counter. It felt like a shiny new kitchen toy that I could not wait to plug in. Let us dive right into what makes this exact machine tick so very well.
Pros and Cons
I made a clear simple list of what works great and what totally fails. Here is my handy chart of the good and bad sides.
| Pros | Cons |
| The dark non stick parts are very fast and easy to wash clean. | The power cord is a bit too short to reach my wall plugs. |
| It has four nice smart cooking modes for many different foods. | The fast cooling fan makes a very loud noise when it cooks. |
| The heat goes very low so you can easily dry out wet fruits. | The tight food basket can be very hard to pull out sometimes. |
| Your hot food comes out extra crunchy every single time. | It takes up a whole lot of extra space on my wood desk. |
| The digital screen is super bright and very easy to read fast. | It gives off a weird burning plastic smell during the first use. |
Life With The AF101
I have used this daily cooking pot for a few long months now. It makes my basic daily meal prep so incredibly fast and totally easy. I really love the simple black crisping plate inside the main deep basket. It perfectly lets the hot air flow all around my thick cuts of raw meat.
My spicy chicken wings turn out super crunchy and fully hot every single time. The loud steady hum of the cooling fan is a bit much at first. But the rich nice smell of fresh cooked food quickly covers it up. I often happily stand by the warm unit, waiting for the soft sweet beep to tell me my dinner is totally done.
Recommendation
This smart model is absolutely perfect for busy folks and small active families who want fast meals. It is a truly great choice if you want to dry out fruits or slowly roast small fresh veggies. It is completely not a good fit if you need to cook a huge meal for a big holiday party. The inner food basket holds just four simple quarts, which is much too small for large hungry groups.
Ninja AF100 Review
I found this much older base model sitting at a quiet local shop just last month. The huge outer box had a little bit of grey dust sitting right on the top flaps. But the heavy black machine inside looked very tough, extra strong, and totally ready for hard daily work. I brought it straight home to see if the classic old style still holds up well today. It is a very basic simple tool, but it looks fully ready to fry big tasty meals.
Pros and Cons
Let us carefully look at the absolute best parts and the clear weak spots. This simple chart tells the true real story.
| Pros | Cons |
| The main front buttons are very huge and super simple to press. | It really only has one main cooking mode for all your daily food. |
| It cooks your plain frozen party snacks very fast and super nice. | It completely lacks a smart cool mode to roast or dry fresh fruit. |
| The deep wide basket easily fits large thick chunks of raw chicken. | The outside hard plastic shell gets a bit too warm to the touch. |
| It feels very solid, heavy, and extremely tough sitting on the table. | You have to pull out and shake the food a lot to get it cooked even. |
| The sale price is often very super low at most large local stores. | The shiny black paint quickly shows oily dirty finger marks very fast. |
Living With The AF100
Using this older heavy fryer feels very basic, totally plain, and extremely direct to the point. I fully tested it quite hard for many long weeks with all different kinds of raw food. It completely does not have any fancy extra modes or bright modern digital smart screens. But it surely cooks hot heavy food very fast when you are in a big super rush.
I actually slightly burned my left hand finger once on the hot metal basket edge. That simple small mistake very quickly taught me to be much more fully careful next time. The frozen thick potato fries always gladly come out very hot, crisp, deeply golden, and extremely tasty. The amazing rich smell completely fills my small warm home with total joy.
Recommendation
This older simple fryer is exactly best for plain normal folks who just want to quickly air fry basic snacks. It is a super great pick for fast single hot meals or very simple daily hot lunches. It is totally not a good choice for picky advanced cooks who want to deeply roast or perfectly dry foods. It fully lacks those extra fancy smart buttons that the nice newer units all seem to always have.
Detail Comparison for Ninja AF101 Vs AF100
It is finally time to totally match them up in a strict head to head cooking fight. I happily tested both heavy machines back to back on the exact same long days. Let us clearly see how they fully do in real world daily food tests. Here is my complete deep dive into the real true facts of the Ninja AF101 Vs AF100.
Capacity & Size: Ninja AF101 Vs AF100
Both of these dark air fryers easily hold exactly four full quarts of fresh or hard frozen food. They both take up the exact same full amount of tight space on my kitchen counter top. I can very easily fit two big thick flat raw chicken breasts right inside each slick basket. They are both totally perfect for making a fast simple hot lunch for two fully grown adult people.
| Feature Details | Ninja AF101 Specs | Ninja AF100 Specs |
| Total Basket Room | Holds four full heavy quarts of cooking space. | Holds four full heavy quarts of cooking space. |
| Counter Top Fit | Medium size, stands tall and perfectly round. | Medium size, stands tall and perfectly round. |
| Food Item Fit | Easily fits one full thick pound of long fries. | Easily fits one full thick pound of long fries. |
| Machine Weight | Weighs exactly ten point five total pounds. | Weighs exactly ten point five total pounds. |
Rating: Ninja AF101: 9/10, Ninja AF100: 9/10
Cooking Performance: Ninja AF101 Vs AF100
I happily cooked frozen potato cheese tots in both tight pots at the exact same time. The shiny newer model easily gave a much better all around loud deep crunch. The basic old one left a few sad wet soft spots right in the deep bottom middle. But both surely made my whole quiet house smell just like a fun bright summer food fair.
| Feature Details | Ninja AF101 Specs | Ninja AF100 Specs |
| Crisp Factor | Gives a super high loud crunch on all sides. | Gives a pretty good soft crunch on the top parts. |
| Even Heat Spread | Fast hot air beautifully moves very well here. | Fast hot air sadly gets totally stuck in the base. |
| Meat Juiciness | Perfectly keeps thick raw chicken very soft. | Sadly can deeply dry out plain thin chicken fast. |
| Heat Up Speed | Fully gets completely hot in just three minutes. | Fully gets completely hot in just three minutes. |
Rating: Ninja AF101: 9/10, Ninja AF100: 7/10
Temperature Range & Controls: Ninja AF101 Vs AF100
I really truly love easily tweaking the hot heat to get my food just perfectly cooked right. The smart new one fully drops down to one hundred and five degrees to gently dry things out. That is super completely great for making nice sweet dried fresh summer fruit. The tough old one just strictly stays very fully hot for plain basic fast air frying.
| Feature Details | Ninja AF101 Specs | Ninja AF100 Specs |
| Lowest Heat Mode | Cools to one hundred and five low degrees. | Drops to three hundred fully hot basic degrees. |
| Highest Heat Mode | Heats to four hundred completely hot degrees. | Heats to four hundred completely hot degrees. |
| Smart Cook Keys | Has four handy smart quick press mode keys. | Has zero smart keys, just time and raw heat. |
| Screen Type View | Has a nice bright shiny digital display screen. | Has a basic simple plain soft lit screen view. |
Rating: Ninja AF101: 9/10, Ninja AF100: 6/10
Ease of Use: Ninja AF101 Vs AF100
Both of the front dark panels are very highly clear and super simple for anyone to fully read. You just basically press a large soft button to totally start the fast hot cooking process. I really like the soft gentle beep they both make when the hot fast food is totally completely done. The bright newer digital screen just cleanly looks a bit more sharp to my tired old eyes.
| Feature Details | Ninja AF101 Specs | Ninja AF100 Specs |
| Fast Start Up | Just quick press and happily go right away. | Just quick press and happily go right away. |
| Button Feel | Very smooth and totally easy soft light touch. | Very firm and fully strong heavy hard press. |
| Sound Alerts | Gives a clear nice soft happy beep tone. | Gives a loud flat plain standard beep tone sound. |
| Basket Slide | Glides right perfectly out with a light pull. | Tends to fully stick just a tiny little hard bit. |
Rating: Ninja AF101: 8/10, Ninja AF100: 8/10
Cleaning & Maintenance: Ninja AF101 Vs AF100
Absolutely nobody likes to deeply wash dirty oily dishes after a totally long hard hard work day. Both of these slick dark food baskets easily slip right straight into my home wash machine. The totally great non stick wet parts make it so fast and super easy to fully gently rinse. I just happily wipe the main plastic base with a wet warm soft cloth to completely finish.
| Feature Details | Ninja AF101 Specs | Ninja AF100 Specs |
| Wash Machine Safe | Yes, all loose inner parts are totally safe. | Yes, all loose inner parts are totally safe. |
| Non Stick Coat | Very slick dark fully shiny easy clean coat. | Standard dark flat plain grey easy clean coat. |
| Hand Wash Speed | Only takes two short fast minutes to scrub. | Only takes two short fast minutes to scrub. |
| Outside Wipe | Extremely easy flat plastic shell gently wipe. | Extremely easy flat plastic shell gently wipe. |
Rating: Ninja AF101: 9/10, Ninja AF100: 9/10
Conclusion
Happily choosing right between the Ninja AF101 Vs AF100 is quite an easy clear pick for me today. If you fully want more fun easy smart ways to cook daily snacks, please firmly pick the newer smart one. If you luckily find a huge cheap money deal on the old basic one, it absolutely still cleanly fries great.