Cosori Turbo Tower review: the best vertical dual-basket air fryer?

It has been about 18 months since Ninja launched the first vertical double-basket air fryer and quite literally turned this booming industry on its head.

Understandably, the other big names in air frying tech have been quick to produce their own idea of the perfect stackable air fryer. I've tested a few now, but this week I'm looking at the Cosori Turbo Tower.

The reason this ingenious design has become so popular so quickly is because it saves so much space. It's a dual-basket air fryer that takes up the same worktop area as a single-basket air fryer. And with so many appliances now available for the modern kitchen, saving space is big business.

The first thing to discuss about the Cosori Turbo Tower, though, is it's quite big. Sure, it's taller than it is wide, but unlike many vertical air fryers, the base is wider than the top. This means that, while it absolutely does take up the same surface area as a single-drawer air fryer, it still takes up a fair bit.

The bottom drawer is over a litre larger than the top drawer, which is actually quite handy for cooking large portions, but that's why it's a bit wider than the competition.

It won't bother everyone, and it does afford a few other benefits - chief among these being the dual heating elements being above and below the chambers. In the Ninja Doublestack, it's behind each chamber. And that's not as effective.

The Cosori Turbo Tower also has controls on the top, rather than the side. And that helps it fit into its own footprint. It does mean, however, short people might have to "peer" at it a bit, but it's unlikely to be an issue in most kitchens, and it is angled towards the user.

Another consistent quality of Cosori's products is build quality. It feels really nicely made, with high-quality materials, and it's easy to take apart and clean.

The digital touch-sensitive display on the top feels a bit less premium, but it's easy to use and it'll be instantly familiar to anyone who's used a dual-basket digital air fryer before.

In use, it has all the usual functions and modes you would expect from a high-end air fryer, and it cooks food really well. Air circulation is superb, and I've had huge portions of veg in and it's all cooked nice and evenly. Likewise with meat.

So it's all shaping up rather well. But there's another key feature to discuss, and that's the smart feature. There are two versions of the Cosori Turbo Tower - the standard version, and a "Pro Smart" version. The former costs £239.99 and the Smart version costs £299.99. And the "Smart" version is smart because it connects to an app.

And this isn't just an app with a few recipes and some user guides on, it's a full monitoring system. This is a feature creeping into more and more air fryers, and I love it. You can set your food running, retreat to the comfort of the sofa, and just like waiting for your Domino's pizza to go through the system, you can watch the progress of your portions and get reminders on the fly.

While we're comparing it with Ninja, it's possible to buy the brand's Double Stack XL, which is only slightly smaller than the Cosori Turbo Tower, for £269.99. And while that might make the Cosori sound quite expensive, you have to remember the Pro Smart version has better heating elements, and that smart app. So it does win on features, and I actually think it cooks better.

So I know a £300 air fryer is always going to be expensive, but it's about the only thing I dislike about the Turbo Tower. I guess you could argue it's not all that attractive, but that's a superficial observation, and it's the functionality that's important. And its functionality is absolutely superb.

If you want to find the best vertical air fryer out there, this is probably it.