Best Microwave Air Fryer Combos – Top-Rated Countertop Microwave Air Fryers

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Study, 2017, 93% of American households owned a microwave oven, making it one of the most common kitchen appliances in the country. But what’s the point of telling this? Hold on! I am coming to rescue you.

As microwaves do a targeted job of heating and reheating the food, Air fryers have also soared in popularity, offering a healthier twist on beloved fried cuisine. But isn’t having a dedicated appliance for each operation impractical? 

This is where we saw a “combo.”

While choosing a best microwave air fryer combos allows you to enjoy versatility, practicality, and efficiency in a compact way, the huge variety of these appliances sometimes becomes a scary ocean to sail through for non-techies.

So, from the very cheapest () to mid-rangers to luxurious microwave air fryers, if you’re still struggling to pick the best for you, let me do the business for you. Let’s jump on it together;

Best Microwave Air Fryer Combo Reviews – Find The Best Counter Microwave with Air Fryer

While you see a limited number of brands in the Outdoor pizza oven niche, this isn’t the case with the Air fryer microwave combination. On the one hand, you have big boys like Breville, Cuisinart, and Toshiba; but then Ninja Foodie, Calphalon, and Panasonic raise the combination to new heights. So, don’t sink yourself in the deep swamp of these appliances;

In a Time Crunch? Want to Make a Quick Decision? Let’s see Who wins the Race

Our microwave air fryer oven testing revealed a variety of pros and cons across different models, with Breville emerging as the CLEAR VICTOR due to its superior stability and incredibly practical features. 

Let’s discuss! 

The Element-IQ system takes the cake, offering a host of automated functions that streamline the cooking process. The Panasonic Homechef 4-in-1 combo comes in a close second with more preset options, but its higher price tag may limit its appeal.

While Breville too sits at a higher price point, there’s a more budget-friendly alternative that doesn’t skimp on quality or performance: the Toshiba 8-in-1 microwave with air fryer oven; Over Runner-up or second best microwave air fryer. This model offers numerous cooking options at a much more competitive price. It’s an ideal balance of performance, aesthetics, and build quality, making it the perfect choice for those who want to save a few bucks without sacrificing on functionality.

1. Breville 3-in-1 Wave – Overall Best Microwave Air Fryer Combo

Why Do We Choose This: You see Breville, and we see Iconic IQ-Element. Yes, we love that. Plus, the same bigger intuitive LED, as many Cooking Presets to give you finger cramps, sturdy enough to survive a food fight, it’s the heavyweight champ in the best microwave air-fryer arena. But is this just enough for its win? Surely not; the sublime patch of microwave, air fryer, and convection technology allowed us to try from tough nuts to goopy stuff, small bites to hefty chunks  in a single go. It’s like the Swiss Army knife of kitchen gadgets 

Who’s it For: Small households or singles, Health-conscious individuals, Space-conscious consumers, Busy professionals, Cooking enthusiasts

Who Should Avoid It: Budget Conscious users, Casual Chefs, High Volume Kitchens, Users who’s seeking very specialized cooking features

The Best Selling Points of Brevilee 3-in-1 Wave:

• Well-Executed Build Quality, Appearance, Performance: 3-in-1 wave is a mature countertop microwave with air-fryer. From build quality to design to performance, it’s a well-rounded Kitchen gadget.
• Iconic IQ Element System: We always loved this AI system that’s like a kitchen sidekick, giving beginners a confidence boost with its spot-on presets, ideal for any user seeking practicality and a dash of fun!
• Quality Led Versatility: Breville expertly marries quality and accuracy in a market flooded with cooking versatility. Breville knows how to execute it together.

Design and Build Quality:

The design is a real head-turner, featuring tactile buttons, smooth dials, and a swanky, large LCD display that elevates its style game. Leonard jumped into the design nitty-gritty and discovered its robust build quality. The sleek, silver-brushed stainless body screams luxury, boasting seamless finishing. Ideally, no rough edges or shoddy assembly came to our notice. And to be honest! Breville’s attention-to-detail makes it a top-shelf appliance.

The Big LCD display is something that differentiates it big time with its counterparts TOSHIBA 3-in-1 EC042A5C-SS, Galanz GSWWA16S1SA10 and other boys racing in this league. Not just a pretty face, the overall interface feels superbly intuitive with bigger icons and menus.

All these details may seem ordinary. But wait, there’s something unconventional. Breville’s soft-close door technology! It outshines the open-shut mechanism of most midrange and expensive microwave air fryers. Ah! So much relief while no more wincing at the sound of a slamming door—your ears will thank you!

Another sweet touch is the end-of-cycle music, saving our brains from the monotonous, piercing beeps. It was like music to our ears, quite literally.

While these snazzy bells and whistles may charm many, the single-rack cooking space hinders multitasking. So, don’t expect to whip up a feast for a party or big family gathering—this compact microwave air fryer combo got its limits.

Performance and Temperatures:

If you ask us what those 3 sweet words represent Breville’s performance? Not it’s not “I Love You,” but Versatility, Accuracy, and Practicality. The one thing that you’ll ever remember about this microwave air fryer combo is tons of intelligent cooking presets.

The reason behind this is the Iconic IQ Element system. While you may find similar presets in many ovens, we liked the “Auto” preset the most. For beginners, it’s like heaven. Put it food in it and let it sense what the best temperature is and the cooking type it needs.

Apart from this, we tried from soups to muffins to pizzas to wings. Handling these foods with presets saved a lot of our time and energy jumping from menu-menu. For pizzas, it was a nice brownish texture, decent crispiness in the crust, and cheese was dancing delightfully on the top. For cookies, you have to be a little careful as we feel the Baking preset is a little perky and sensitive.

It needs a high command of skills as they got browned a little bit more than expected. But these were ripped to perfection.

With a great range of cooking abilities, there were no major issues to counter. It’s a decently sound machine and doesn’t throw extra dBs on the meter. However, a “Whoosh” sound of air during baking may be a terrifying experience for newbies. Overall, the Breville Wave is a kitchen marvel with a nice fusion of usability and performance.

Alternatives to Breville 3-in-1 Wave – Calphalon 11-in-1

Many microwave ovens with air fryers give Breville a run for its money, but Calphalon stands out due to its multi-rack cooking bay. While it may be slower and less efficient than Breville, if multitasking and moderate volume cooking are your priorities, Calphalon delivers with its multi-level cooking capabilities. In other aspects, though, Breville takes the cake over Calphalon.

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2. Toshiba 8-in-1 ML2-EC10SA(BS) – Second Best Microwave with Air Fryer (Runnerup)

Why Do We Choose This: Let me pop out the curiosity regarding its fame in the compact microwave air fryer combo market and overall big-small retailers! Under 250$, you get a punch of classy aesthetics, creamy usability, and the most versatile performance with over 30 preset settings. Isn’t it looking like a beast hidden in the clothes of sheep? Certainly! It made us fascinated regarding the powers it poses.

Who’s it For: Budget users looking for versatile kitchen appliance, performance hungry chefs looking a sub-compact multirole appliance, Looks conscious, beginners not looking to invest heavily

Who Should Avoid It: More Air Frying Centric Operations Seeker, Fancy appliances with digital controls, Big cooking space units

The Best Selling Points of Toshiba 8-in-1 Oven:

• Lots of Options in Competitive Pricing: From very basic to practical ones to small yet unique features, it has a vast range of controls that never bore chefs with this machine.
• Versatile Cooking Ability: Majorly 8 presets further get divided into auto-settings, making the whole preset count 30, which is absolutely stunning in this category
• Classy Aesthetics: Glossy black and silver looks never falls short when you want exotic looks. The Toshiba top-rated microwave air fryer combo certainly has this.

Design and Build Quality:

Before we delve into the physical fixtures of this thing, let us give a shout-out to the “Lock” feature that locks out Control panel if your naughty ones are the messiest ones in the house. It isn’t new in the market. However, given the price range, we found it as the most distinctive utility in this price bracket.

Now, for the overall looks, the glossy finish black glass door with the greyish theme isn’t less than a treat for aesthetics lovers. I certainly love NinjaFoodie DCT451’s design and looks, but this thing is a class in its league.

Though it’s not more on the digital control panel side, which is fine seeing its category, the button controls are very much tactile and rightly arranged for better usability. It wasn’t very difficult for Leonard to understand the layout of the buttons as all 8 preset operations have given dedicated at the front.

The small digital display shows the timer, other warnings, and menu icons during operations. It isn’t very thorough and detailed, so beginners may need time to get used to it.

Apart from these controls, we also loved the Deodorizer functions, which let the fun run for 5 minutes to cool down the oven after long baking sessions. Again, it isn’t a flashier feature, but the utility is great for every type of user.

Performance and Temperatures:

With its variety of presets, from basic to advanced, Toshiba’s made quite the splash in the scene. It’s not just about fame, folks. It’s about the power and room it provides to chefs to spread their wings and whip up all sorts of meals without breaking a sweat. Within its 8-in-1 multifunctional design, our main man Brian found himself smitten with the slow cook preset for deep frying.

From deep dish pizzas to bread rolls to desserts, we put this baby through its paces. Sure, the oven might look small with its one cubic foot of cooking space, but when it comes to performance, it’s swinging for the fences! The pizza was hot and ready in under 30 minutes – maybe not a record, but the golden-brown texture, crispy base, and evenly cooked toppings had us all drooling.

 One thing we discovered, the user manual is a little flawed when it comes to representing its Air frying Abilities. But we found a plethora of air frying presets that allow you to go with fries, nuggets, spring rolls, mozzarella sticks, fish, wings, chicken thighs, and much more.

The last thing that can put a tiny smile on your face is the Mute option. Hate the loud beeping? Put it to mute and calm your mind. But be very attentive to your cooking as you won’t get alarms for your cooking.

Alternatives to Toshiba 8-in-1 – Galanz GSWWA16S1SA10 3-in-1 SpeedWave

We took Galanz SpeedWave as a closer alternative to Toshiba. Both ovens run for very similar properties. However, Toshiba has a higher edge over Galanz regarding performance and cooking modes. The most notable difference here is the unavailability of a grilling function and humidity sensor in Galanz. But then, Galanz offers bigger cooking space to cater to volumes better than Toshiba.

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3. Panasonic HomeChef 4-in-1 – Most Versatile with Combination Cooking

Why Do We Choose This: Though this oven might lean towards the pricier side, its straightforwardness and no-nonsense approach to cooking stole our hearts. It’s got versatility down to a tee, thanks to a combo of cooking modes that give it some exceptional culinary abilities. If you’ve been on the lookout for a conventional built-in microwave air fryer combo, this oven is that and then some! But a quick word to the wise, don’t put all your eggs in the air fryer basket – it might not live up to sky-high expectations.

Who’s it For: Beginners looking to pet a reliable machine, Brand conscious people, versatile and space-saving appliance,

Who Should Avoid It: Budget Conscious users, want bigger spaces, aggressively fancy kitchen appliances

The Best Selling Point of Panasonic 4-in-1 Homechef:

• Combination Cooking: Additional combination of cooking modes add wings to versatile cooking, giving you confidence in your kitchen
• Sleek Yet Minimalist Design: Forget those sporty flexes and curves; the sleek yet minimalist design adds decency to your kitchen countertop
• Great performance: Speedy yet accurate operations will always bring appreciation for you from your loved ones.

Design and Build Quality:

Without a doubt, the Panasonic 4-in-1 HomeChef brings a minimalist sleek design to the table, aiming for user-friendliness. But is that enough to tempt a buyer who’s already sifted through a plethora of the best microwave air fryer combo ovens? Probably not!

The main interface blends traditional buttons, dials, and an LCD display, which isn’t bad when it comes to intuitiveness and newbie-friendliness. But here’s the catch!

Considering its price tag, it would’ve been a nice touch if Panasonic went the whole nine yards with a fully touch-sensitive control panel instead of buttons and a small LCD display. But does this put a damper on this contender’s game?

Definitely not!

While it isn’t a giant when it comes to cooking space, compared to a conventional air fryer, it’s got quite the room. The 1.2 cubic feet cooking space measures 14.1 W x 9”H x 15.07D inches. We found it amply sufficient to roast a 5lbs turkey without breaking a sweat.

And what’s the lowdown on its overall dimensions?

It’s not ultra-compact to squeeze onto a crowded countertop. And oh boy, does it run hot! We’re not sure how much clearance space the manufacturer recommends, but to keep things cool, allow at least 10” of breathing space.

All in all, the design isn’t flawed but keeps it real and straightforward for an enhanced cooking experience. However, a touch of fancy wouldn’t hurt when it comes to bang for your buck.

Performance and Temperatures:

On the performance front, things are pretty shipshape. The Panasonic warms up to 425F in under 30 minutes, which isn’t record-breaking but still a commendable feat. What piqued our interest, though, is the combination cooking.

First off, this 4-in-1 microwave air fryer can microwave, broil, air fry, and bake. But here’s the twist! Brian stumbled upon two other combo cooking modes that not only fast-tracked the cooking process but also took the quality up a notch.

The broil + microwave mode was a game-changer when we took a stab at grilled chicken thighs, a 4lbs turkey, and beef kebabs. It hit it out of the park, rendering the chicken wings and thighs perfectly juicy, tender, and browned just right.

We put the other mode, convection + microwave, to the test by reheating a 14oz pizza slice, and it did not disappoint.

Our only gripe was with the air fryer mode, which lagged in speed compared to other ovens on the market. The absence of temperature control, limiting you to tweak the air frying temperature settings, is the culprit.

But that little hiccup fades into the background, thanks to the humidity sensors that work wonders in breathing life back into your leftovers. Whether it’s pizza, patties, or burgers, we put these built-in humidity sensors to the test, and they aced it!

So, it might not rewrite the rule book in terms of specifications, but the thoughtful features make it one of the shrewdest microwave ovens with an air fryer in the market.

Alternatives to 4-in-1 Panasonic Homechef – Breville 3-in-1 Wave:

From the price point, We picked Breville 3-in-1 wave Air fyer microwave combo as the closest alternative to Panasonic. Not only this, this IQ Element system tackles the combination cooking of 4-in-1 homechef. But Breville doesn’t offer Broil mode and lags a bit in terms of cooking space. Yet, keeping these lags aside, Breville is much more versatile and fancier than Panasonic with a bigger and fancier digital display. Also, it comes in relatively less pricing.

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4. Toshiba 4-in-1 ML-EC42P(BS) – Compact Microwave Air Fryer With Deep Space

Why Do We Choose This: Though we have already picked its sibling in our list, this one is great value-to-money, featuring practical sets of features in competitive pricing. The great depth packed in a compact body is surely a win for those who have congested kitchen counters. Apart from that, we love the cooking quality with lots of knick-knacks. Yes, there are some minor usability laggings, but the price is what overshadows these.

Who’s it For: Budget Users, Compact Microwave air fryer combo, performance hunters

Who Should Avoid It: Dedicated Air fryer and other function seekers, Fancy gadgets

The Best Selling Points of Toshiba 4-in-1 ML-EC42P(BS):

• Great Practicality: The most practical set of features not only turns into a versatile machine but also outputs superb performance
• Bigger Space in a Compact Body: A sub 250$ oven gives you 1.5 cubic feet of cooking space; it’s way more extensive than many expensive ovens. It allows you to cook a 12” pizza easily.
• Excellent Cooking Performance: Given the price bracket, the performance and speed are impressive. Despite some confusing information in the manual, we had finger-licking food.

Design and Build Quality:

Being a member of the ML-EC series, it poses charming grey + black styling with a glossy finish. Likewise, the finish is sublime, and the body feels robust.

As a budget user, the most impressive part here is the all-touch-sensitive control panel. For those tired of fiddling with hard-press buttons, knobs, and dials from the stone age, this gadget will jazz up your day with its touch-sensitive control panel.

The touch buttons are responsive and feel very tactile. However, the seen-through lights aren’t very bright. Leonard reported it even doesn’t lit up that much in the low lights, which is a minor usability issue for users with sensitive eyes.

But we guess, this shouldn’t be a deal breaker for those who are looking for a compact microwave air fryer oven combo with a big belly.

With dimensions 21.5″D x 21.77″W x 12.99″H, the 1.5 cubic feet of cooking space looked unreal to us, considering the price point and category. In similar words, where other smaller best air fryer microwave combo ovens don’t allow you to prepare pizzas, you can easily cook a 12” pizza with this oven.

So, a compact pricing, space-saving design, and intuitive touch control panel; isn’t the killer fusion you have ever experienced.

Performance and Temperatures:

It’s good to see a compact oven doing 4-in-1 stuff. As we mentioned above, ample space is the most prominent feature here, so we never felt shy about trying a whole turkey, mid-size pizza, hard cake, and other desserts.

Overall, the performance was impressive, with dedicated cooking modes and 1 combination mode speeding up the process. From 100-400F, pizza took around 35 minutes, which isn’t bad at all. But that said, the pizza came really crispy, the thighs were a bit brown, but the heat perfectly reached bones, and the chocolate cookies were also fluffy and soft.

But we haven’t reached the climax. Here is the twist!

The manual is a little flawed. For users who really want a dedicated air-fryer for their kids to enjoy fries and nuggets, you might get confused in some initial runs. This is due to the manufacturer having given an Air-fryer mode but practically its convection mode. The complexity behind activating the air-fryer mode will initiate the convection mode for 25 minutes.

So, if you have some higher expectations with the air-fryer mode, keep them a little low with this oven.

But fading this slight bummer, the humidity sensor was there to rejoice in our leftovers. We tested it with pizza slices and store-bought dough, and it never came out soggy.

Overall, the pizza oven stands robust on a great performance foundation, delivering quality food in a decent time.

Alternatives to Toshiba ML-EC42P (BS) – BLACK+DECKER EM036AB14

Seeing the feature set and price point, the black decker immediately came to our mind as an alternative to Toshiba midrange microwave air fryer combo. The main weakness of Toshiba ML-EC42P (BS) is the confusing air frying setup. Black Decker perfectly fills this with its air frying capabilities. 

Though there is no dedicated Air fryer mode mentioned in this oven, presets like potato, popcorn, and frozen vegetables can do the purpose nicely. Additionally, comparing the price point, we also observed Black Decker provides better value with nice Dialers and knob-free control panel, better safety with child lock, and overall good aesthetics. But that doesn’t make Toshiba a bad choice as it offers more cooking space and some intelligent presets than Black-decker

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5. GE 3-in-1 – Small but Noiseless Microwave Air Fryer

Why Do We Choose This: Basically, when you look for a compact microwave air fryer combo with excellent performance, easy maintenance, and good aesthetics; GE is fairly known in the market for such characteristics. Yes, there aren’t some fancy sensors cooking out there, but for very straightforward presets, it does a marvelous job. Only powered to 1050 watts, but we loved the whisper-quiet fan so much. Literally, if noisy microwaves aren’t your thing, you have landed at the right product.

Who’s it For: Small families, Congested Kitchens, budget users, Passionate beginners,

Who Should Avoid It: Mid-rangers, looking for bigger cooking space or quicker cooking operations

The Best Selling Points of GE 3-in-1:

• Superb Performance: Don’t go on Watt specification; the cooking quality is its significant point to showcase in the competitive market.
• Quite Cooking operations: Despite being a 1050w engine, we have tested the lowest fan noise among all the best built-in microwave air fryer combo ovens in our list
• Good-looking Machine: As a budget small microwave air fryer, it has not been compromised with retro-style knobs and dialers; a fancy touch-sensitive control panel is for your treat here.

Design and Build Quality:

The good thing we found; it isn’t retrospect due to a competitive price tag. The soft touch-sensitive buttons are crunchy and highly responsive. The digital display is there but only for showing a timer and some very basic information.

However, in our case, and many users have also reported this, the display brightness is dull in low lights. The digital numbers don’t offer easy readability specifically for weak eye-sight users.

But forget that!

The overall controls are very straightforward and have been placed right in front of your face. The presets have dedicated controls, but you can set manual time with an interval of 50F that maxes out at 400F.

Apart from that, the dimensions 16.6″D x 20.6″W x 11.88″H offers  1.0 cubic feet of cooking space for congested countertops. We have tested a full 4lbs roast, 8-inch bread rolls, and 9-inch personal pan pizza, and it took great care of our food items.

It has not been widely reported, but we feel the door is a bit hard to open. We aren’t sure as it’s a known fault, but the opening of the door required slight hard force.

Overall, the oven has good usability norms, good aesthetics, and sturdier build quality to make it design-wise a sound choice.

Performance and Temperatures:

Considering the overall wattage, we found it as a beast in its category. The 400F temperature reach, and combination cooking overshadows the typical Watt specification.

Brian was very skeptical about its cooking abilities, but we tried a 9-inch pizza, 4 lbs turkey, beef steaks, and some desserts. The overall performance was impressive but with a good learning curve.

First of all, it’s a bit slower in the Air frying race, which we can’t complain about. The broil function is a little unstable as sometimes it lags, and otherwise, it browns the food a bit more. But we managed to learn its mechanism and got good quality results after some trials.

In all these performance testing, where the majority of the ovens become loudmouth with a noisy fan (specifically in air frying), this is the quieter microwave air fryer oven we have tested so far in our series of best microwave ovens with air fryers.

Overall, the performance setup is amazingly good, with a straightforward approach and some distinctive features.

Alternatives to GE 3-in-1 – TOSHIBA ML-EM45P(BS)

So, you want something better with much more compressed pricing. Here we took Toshiba ML-EC45P(BS), an improved version of its older version of ML-EC42P. With a humidity sensor, bigger space, and less pricing, you get better value when it comes to the fusion of cooking and volume. Though it also doesn’t have a dedicated air fryer mode like its older brother, it fulfills regular air frying needs. Otherwise, it’s a bit louder, whereas the GE 3-in-1 has a higher edge. 

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People Also Ask – FAQs

Can An Air Fryer Replace a Microwave?

A very restricted Yes, you can use an air fryer as a replacement for Microwave for some specific tasks. However, Air fryers and microwaves serve different purposes and have unique functionalities, so they aren’t PERFECT substitutes for each other. For example, if you mostly use a microwave for reheating and defrosting, then an air fryer might not be a perfect replacement. But if you’re looking for a healthier alternative to frying and enjoy crispy, roasted foods, an air fryer could be a great addition to your kitchen.

Which One is Better: Microwave or Air fryer?

Both appliances have different purposes or areas of working. So, these both kitchen gadgets have their pros and cons. While the microwave is effective for heating leftovers and poses excellent versatility, the airfryer is good at mimicking deep frying with great health benefits. But this has limited scope of working. On the other hand, if you want bigger space, a microwave is good to go while if you want healthier food, airfrying is the right thing.

Do Air Fryers Use a lot of Electricity?

Typically, the air fryers don’t use as much electricity as a regular electric oven does. A regular air fryer consumes between 700-1800 watts which is relatively less than a regular electric oven ranging from a minimum 1000w to 5000w. But this whole story depends on make and model and your usage.