Best Nuwave Air Fryer: Our 5 Picks from Brio to Bravo XL Pro

Buy the Bravo XL Pro 30QT if you want one appliance that air fries, bakes, roasts and toasts. Buy the Brio Plus 8-Quart if you want a classic basket. Buy the Brio 7.25-Quart if you need the lowest price and can live with a dial that needs correcting.

Our ratings are editorial scores out of five, not lab measurements.

We score each Nuwave on five things: cooking results, temperature accuracy, build and coating durability, cleanup, and value for the counter space it takes. We bought no special units and asked for nothing from Nuwave. Each model is judged as a home cook would buy it.

Cooking results carry the most weight, and we then look at the parts that fail first in a countertop appliance: coatings, touchpads and fans. Value is judged against price and footprint together. Prices move week to week, so we describe them as tiers, roughly $100 to $160 across this lineup.

Our full write-up lives in our NuWave Bravo XL review.

Who It Is Best For

Pick the Bravo XL Pro if you cook for a household and want one appliance to handle weeknight dinners, toast, pizza and the occasional loaf. Whether you bake in a Dutch oven on the lowest rack or roast a chicken, it copes. The interior fits two 13-inch pizzas, a 10-lb chicken, a 6-lb roast or 2 lb of fries, and it also takes a six-cup muffin pan, so it can stand in for the big oven on hot days.

What We Like

The results are the reason it wins. Thighs come out crisp and juicy, bread bakes well, and it toasts better than a KitchenAid air fryer oven. The glass door lets you watch browning without opening it, and the interior feels roomier than the outside suggests.

Cleanup is easy. The pull-out bottom tray catches crumbs, and the PFAS-free interior wipes down without drama. The fan gives off only a soft hum on high, audible in a quiet room and no more.

Drawbacks

The menus take a while to learn. The many options mean rereading instructions for less-used functions, and changing the cooking time by more than a few minutes is awkward. Default settings are hard to customize, and there is an on/off switch but no always-lit clock.

It is also larger than most people expect. Measure the height under your cabinets before you order, because the pull-down door gets hot to the touch and needs room. The interior is coated metal rather than full stainless steel, and it fits a quarter sheet pan (9 x 12 in).

Who It Is Best For

This is the pick for a family that wants a basket fryer and nothing more. The basket holds about 3 lb of fries, 3 lb of wings or a 5 lb chicken, which covers dinner for four without batching. Whether you cook frozen snacks or whole chickens, the 8-quart size gives you room to spread food in a single layer.

What We Like

The controls are simple, the price is the second lowest on this list, and the extra wattage settings let you back the heat off for delicate foods. The parts are dishwasher-safe, and the removable basket makes shaking and checking food easy. The retail Brio Plus is a no-probe unit, though an older Brio 8QT ships with one, so check the listing for the exact model.

Drawbacks

The coating is the part to baby, so hand-wash the basket with a soft sponge even though the parts are dishwasher-safe. With no probe and a 400F ceiling, it also cannot match an oven for roasting.

Choose this oven if you feed a large family and love rotisserie chicken. The accessory set includes a grill or griddle plate, mesh rack and tray, drip tray and probe, so it covers roasting, air frying and dehydrating in a single box. Our notes come from an earlier production run, so check the current listing.

What We Like

Rotisserie chicken is the standout, and tots and fries crisp well. The stainless steel racks and drip tray are dishwasher safe, and the door detaches for fast cleaning. The 100 presets and 50 memory slots let you save favorite settings, which the smaller Bravo cannot do.

Drawbacks

It is smaller inside than its huge exterior suggests. The rotisserie will not take a large whole chicken, and about five chicken thighs is the practical batch. Unbreaded thighs also come out pale and looking almost boiled even when cooked through to 165F, so coat them or finish under the broil (see the safe minimum internal cooking temperatures for other cuts).

The touchpad is oversensitive, and a light graze on the power button while reaching for the light shuts the oven off mid-cook. Plan on leaving it out on the counter for good.

Where It Wins and Where It Slips

The 7.25 suits a small household on a tight budget that wants fine control over temperature. The wattage options are useful, and the on-the-fly adjustment means you can change the temperature mid-cook without restarting. The basket, riser and reversible stainless rack are all dishwasher-safe. The 10-in-1 version adds an app with 100+ recipes and 100 presets plus 50 memory slots, while the 7-in-1 version has far fewer, so confirm which one you are buying. We could not confirm a probe, so do not buy it expecting one.

Its main weaknesses are the temperature dial and the basket coating. The dial needs correcting by hand, and chicken breast needs more time than the manual says. Food sticks to the basket, the mesh screen at the base traps debris, and cleaning shreds sponges. A new unit also leaves a manufacturing-oil taste on the first several batches of food.

Drawbacks

Every mode starts at 350F and 15 minutes because defaults cannot be saved, so a quick two-minute reheat needs manual setting each time. That gets old fast, and compact is relative for a unit this wide. We could not confirm a probe or a preset count on this model.

What We Like

Cooking is strong for the size. The Bravo Pro version we reference air fries frozen fries in 12 to 14 minutes and gives chicken thighs deeply crisped skin, and the adjustable top and bottom heat prevents scorching on bakes. The fan runs around 42 to 45 dB on low and medium and about 52 dB on maximum, roughly a quiet dishwasher.

Cleanup is easy, too. The enamel-coated interior wipes clean with a soft sponge, the crumb tray slides out without opening the door, and hand-washing beats the dishwasher for the coated parts.

Who It Is Best For

This is the pick for a small kitchen that wants an oven-style fryer without the size of the XL Pro. It suits singles, couples and anyone replacing an old toaster oven. The function count is marketed as 10-in-1 on one listing and 12-in-1 on another, so judge it by what it does: air fry, bake, broil, toast, reheat, dehydrate and roast.

Here is every pick in one table, so you can compare capacity, power and footprint at a glance.

Start with the shape of the machine, then match capacity to your household, then decide how much control you actually need. Nuwave's Linear T system continuously adjusts heater power to hold the set temperature instead of cycling the heater on and off, and it is the feature that defines the brand.

Basket Fryer vs. Air Fryer Oven

A basket fryer such as the Brio Plus or Brio 7.25 is compact and fast but limited for roasting. A Bravo oven gives you racks, a glass door and true baking, at the cost of counter width. If you already own a convection oven and only want crisp fries and wings, our comparison of air fryer vs. convection oven explains where each wins.

Capacity and Household Size

For one or two people, the 7.25-quart basket or the 21QT oven is enough. For a family of four, the 8-quart Brio Plus or the 30QT XL Pro fits dinner without batching. Feed more than that, or roast whole birds often, and the 15.5-quart rotisserie oven makes sense, though its usable interior is smaller than its exterior implies.

Linear T Temperature Control and Presets

Linear T is a real advantage on paper, but it does not guarantee accuracy, so check any unit against an oven thermometer. Presets are handy, though the count matters less than whether you can save your own defaults.

A long preset list does not help if the machine will not remember the setting you use every day.

Probe and Smart Features

A probe takes the guesswork out of roasts. The XL Pro and the Brio 15.5 include one, and the XL Pro's reads quickly. Probe inclusion differs by model and version, so read the listing, and do not assume the Brio Plus or the 7.25 has one.

Cleaning and PFAS-Free Coatings

Look for PFAS-free coatings and dishwasher-safe parts, then hand-wash anyway. Across this lineup the coatings are the wear point, so a soft sponge extends their life.

Shoppers often buy on capacity alone. A 30-quart oven sounds better than an 8-quart basket, but if you only cook fries and wings the basket is faster and easier to store. Nuwave ovens also cook faster than an older plain toaster oven, so trim time and temperature on the first few cooks.

Choose by the space you have, not the feature list. If the cabinet above your counter is low, skip the 30QT and the 15.5-quart oven, because both need generous headroom and a permanent spot. If you would rather store the machine in a cupboard between meals, only the baskets and the smaller Bravo are realistic. Whichever you pick, confirm the exact model and version on the listing first, because probes and preset counts differ between versions.