Instant Vortex Plus VersaZone Air Fryer review

The Instant Vortex VersaZone Air Fryer is a great example of why appliances from this particular brand always make it onto our top product lists. Initially known for inventing the epic multicooker, it’s a brand that’s now widely recognised as making some of the best air fryers.

With the market seemingly flooded with single and dual zone air fryers of all shapes and sizes, it appears that air fryers with versatile cooking zones are the next big thing. Which makes sense if you ask me, why limit yourself when you can have the best of both worlds and swap between a single or dual zone as and when you need to.

Having recently reviewed the Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer, which is the Instant VersaZone’s biggest competitor, I was excited to try this one for comparison. It’s a more manageable size than the whopping 10.4 litre model from Ninja. But other than that, there’s not much difference between the two, except the Instant VersaZone is definitely more affordable.

Instant Vortex Plus VersaZone Air Fryer specs

• Capacity: 8.5 litre or 2 x 4.2 litre
• Modes: bake, roast, grill, reheat, air fry or dehydrate
• Weight: 7.1kg
• Power: 1700 Watts
• Size: (H)31.4 x (W)38.4 × (D)40.4cm
• RRP: £199.99

Who tested this air fryer?

Helen McCue

After completing a Home Economics degree, Helen went on to work for the Good Housekeeping Institute and has been reviewing home appliances ever since. She lives in a small village in Buckinghamshire in the UK, where she reviews all sorts of home and garden appliances using her wealth of experience. 

Helen used this air fryer for two weeks in her own home, cooking familiar foods and recipes to test it out in single zone as well as dual zone mode. She was allowed to keep the air fryer after the review.

Unboxing, setting up and first impressions of the Instant Vortex Plus VersaZone

In comparison to the 10.4 litre Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer, that I recently reviewed, this flexible zone air fryer from Instant felt relatively compact when I pulled it out of the packaging. Though I was annoyed by the chunks of non-recyclable white foam protecting it in the box.

Nevertheless, its completely black exterior looks sleek and streamlined and like most Instant air fryers, it features an easy-to-see angled control panel. The controls consist mostly of a flat, touch sensitive panel that’s very clearly laid out and easy to understand. The central dial is used to adjust the time and temperature settings. And by pressing the dial twice, you can toggle between single and dual zone modes.

Despite having just one drawer, there are two chunky handles which I imagine will make it easier to move around when it’s crammed full of food. The way the single drawer splits into two is with a central divider that you simply slide into position. And since there are two separate heating elements, it’ll work just like a dual zone model when the divider is in position. In fact you can cook at different temperatures and even in different modes simultaneously.

A sync cook button allows you to set up one zone and then mirror the settings in the second zone. Or, if you set them up with different times and temperatures, by pressing the sync finish button, it’ll delay the start time on one side so that they both finish together, ready for plating up.

It’s worth noting that there's no instruction manual or recipe book in the box. Instead there’s a getting started guide which includes safety and warranty information along with several QR codes that’ll take you to a digital instruction manual online.

Testing the Instant Vortex Plus VersaZone

I cooked a lot of different foods in this air fryer so it’s hard to know where to begin. But let’s start with the classic air fryer food; chips. I put the divider into position and after cutting up my chips (about 500g) and soaking in water for 30 minutes, I dried them and coated lightly in oil.

I set both sides to air fry, but set the chips side to cook for 25 minutes at 200C and on the other side, where I intended to cook scampi, I adjusted the settings to 190C for 10 minutes. Then I hit the sync cook button. It automatically preheats for around 21/2 minutes, so I didn’t add the chips until it beeped and alerted me to add the food.

Even with the divider in place, both sides are so roomy that my two portions of chips had more than enough space. In fact it looked like barely anything and the same can be said for the whole bag of scampi. 

Once I’d hit start, it began cooking the chips but kept the scampi side on hold. It’s up to you whether you add the food to both sides at the beginning or wait until it’s about to start heating the second side before adding the food. But it won’t alert you to add the food to the second side, so you’ll have to set your own timer to remind you to pop it in.

After a couple of stirs to shake them up during cooking, the chips turned out evenly cooked and fluffy on the inside. They browned nicely and the scampi was lovely and crunchy but still juicy on the inside.

Scampi wasn’t the only breaded food I cooked in this air fryer. During the couple of weeks that it sat in my kitchen, I cooked, breaded veggie burgers, quorn escalopes, breaded chicken goujons and breaded fish fillets. Without exception, the air fryer mode crisped up the crumb on each of these to a delightfully crunchy texture, while whatever was under the crumb remained succulent. What’s more, they all cooked in a fraction of the time they’d take in an oven.

As per every air fryer review I do, I air fried some bacon. I removed the divider to make the most of the space. I was cooking up two different types of bacon, but you should be able to fit in 6 slices of regular back bacon. 

I air fried it at 195C and it was crisped up in around 8 minutes, the fat rendered well and the meat didn’t dry out - it was the perfect air fried bacon.

I decided to use the bake function to make cookies. And instead of using my tried and trusted chocolate chip cookie recipe I found a new recipe for oatmeal and raisin cookies and gave that a try. After mixing up the cookie dough I preheated the air fryer on bake to 160oC.

To make sure the cookies didn’t slide through the perforated tray, I cut a piece of baking paper to roughly the right size and baked them on that instead. I managed to fit five balls of cookie dough in at a time. 

They cooked in 10 minutes, which is about right, but I had quite a big mixture and it was a hot day and I didn’t love the idea of standing there doing another 5 batches. So after the first two, I improvised.

I wasn’t entirely happy with the consistency of the cookie dough, it was much softer than my usual dough and the cookies weren’t the right texture nor oaty enough. I knew I should have stuck to my usual recipe! 

So instead of carrying on with the inferior cookie dough, I added extra oats and raisins and put the rest of the dough into a victoria sandwich tin. Thankfully there’s plenty of space for this size tin inside the drawer. I baked it at 165C for 20 minutes in the hope that it’d turn out like a cross between a big cookie and a flapjack. 

At the end of the 20 minutes the top was golden brown, lightly crisped and really even in colour. After I’d left it in the tin to cool for an hour or so, I turned it out to see if my experiment had worked. But it was still a bit raw in the middle, so I carefully placed it back in the air fryer and baked it upside down for a further 15 minutes.

Thankfully, after the extra time, it was great, so much better than the cookies, and exactly the cross between flapjack and big cookie that I'd been hoping for. Don’t you just love it when an experiment goes to plan?

On another occasion I used the bake function to cook up a big batch of my homemade granola. This is a regular recipe for me and one that I now always cook using the bake function in my air fryer. I preheated it to bake at 160C. The preheat takes about 2 ½ - 3 minutes. 

I removed the perforated cooking tray and filled the base of the drawer with my granola. It took about 20 minutes to cook and crisp. The time was similar to my other air fryer but it wasn’t as well crisped, so I’d probably increase the temperature slightly next time and try it at 170C to make sure it’s extra crunchy.

To try out the roast setting I decided I’d roast up a whole chicken. I got a medium size chicken - about 1.6 kg and attempted to put it in the drawer. And while there is more than enough space, the drawer isn’t tall enough and the top of my chicken was hitting the body of the air fryer as I tried to close the drawer.

Undeterred, I cut the chicken down either side of the backbone to flatten it out into a spatchcock. Then I slathered it in chilli oil and some spices and placed it breast side down on the perforated tray. I set it to roast at 180C for 45 minutes, flipping it over half way through.

When the timer went off it was golden brown with crisp skin and the meat was succulent and tender. Personally I don’t mind having to spatchcock it because it cooks fast and evenly. But it’s something to keep in mind if you prefer your chicken left whole.

Lastly I used the grill function to cook and char some big red peppers and red onion wedges. I could have used air fry or roast to do this too, but thought I’d give the grill a go. I grilled them at 205C and they cooked and charred to perfection in 18 minutes. 

At the same time I decided to air fry a breaded Quorn fillet at 190C for 10 minutes. But I forgot to press the sync cook button. Luckily you can cancel one side without affecting the other. So I cancelled the air fry side and then waited until the peppers were 10 minutes from being done and re-set it so they’d finish together. It’s super handy to be able to stop, adjust and re-start one side, all without affecting the other.

Cleaning

The cooking tray and divider can go in the dishwasher but the drawer can’t. And given that it’d take up half your dishwasher if you did try and put in, I’d say it’s best to wash it by hand anyway. And thanks to the non-stick coating, it doesn’t take much cleaning.

The drawer is a bit cumbersome to wash, but it fit easily into my butler style sink. If you have a very small sink, it might be a bit more of a squeeze. That said, you can just add some warm water and washing up liquid into it and wash it out, without needing to really put it in a sink full of water.

The shiny exterior and touch control panel can both mark with greasy fingerprints, so you’ll need to give them the occasional buff to keep them clean. Likewise, the top will collect dust if you’re not using it frequently.

How does it compare to similar air fryers?

The most obvious comparison is the one I’ve already mentioned several times - the Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer. It’s probably the most similar model out there at the time of writing. The Ninja is more expensive at around £270. But it’s bigger, offering an additional 2 litres of capacity - though this does mean it also takes up more space. Both models feature similar cooking modes and easy-to-use control panels so it comes down to whether or not you need to feed a crowd.

One thing the Instant VersaZone does not have is a viewing window in the door. For that you’ll need to look at other Instant air fryers like the Instant Vortex Plus Dual Basket air fryer. Each of its two cooking drawers have a window in the front so you can watch your food while it cooks. It’s cheaper at around £150 and the overall cooking capacity is only a bit less than the VersaZone. But the drawers can’t be combined, so it’s a little less versatile.

Should you buy the Instant Vortex Plus VersaZone Air Fryer?

I can’t think of many reasons why you shouldn’t buy this air fryer. It’s a top-notch air fryer with a capacity that’ll be ample for most families. The flexibility to use it in either single or dual zone mode immediately solves the dilemma of whether to buy a single or double drawer air fryer and gives you the best of both worlds.

The RRP is £199.99 but at the time of writing it was reduced to £150, which really is excellent value for money. It might be a tad big for 1-2 person households and as I noted above, I couldn’t fit a chicken in it whole. But all-in-all it cooks well and is easy to use, so I think it’s a great buy.