Ultenic K10 Air Fryer review: Great for a first-time air fryer owner

Air fryers have been everywhere for the last few years. If you’re looking for something that can help you cook quick, painless, and nutritious meals, an air fryer is a great option. But how do you sift through the hundreds of appliances out there to find the best air fryer ?

When I found the Ultenic K10, I was impressed by its sleek appearance, range of presets, and its budget price. The air fryer looks just as modern and stylish as a Cosori or a Ninja and will cost you less. It comes with a companion Ultenic app and can connect to your home Wi-Fi network over 2.4Ghz, but this feature didn’t work in testing. I used the air fryer just fine without Wi-Fi, but this might be a major issue if you wanted to sync it up with your Echo or Google Nest.

I cooked fries, fish, chicken nuggets, sausages, and — cue gasp — cupcakes in the Ultenic K10 air fryer. While the K10 blew me away with how juicy and crispy the fish and nuggets were, it left me a bit befuddled by its cupcake setting, which I’ll get into more later. Find out how this budget, family-sized air fryer holds up in this Ultenic K10 Air Fryer review.

Ultenic K10 Air Fryer review: Cheat sheet

• Who is it for? This is a budget airfryer from Ultenic with a big enough basket to cook for a small family.
• What does it do well? It comes with loads of presets and looks good on your kitchen counter.
• What are its weaknesses? The touchscreen is unforgiving for dust and the cupcake preset can dry out your bakes.
• What should you use it for? It’s great for preparing party food like nuggets and chips.

Ultenic K10 Air Fryer review: Specs

Ultenic K10 Air Fryer review: Price & availability

As with other Ultenic products, this air fryer is available from the Ultenic website for $79 and is only priced in USD — but U.K. and E.U. customers can still purchase with free shipping. It’s available on Amazon for $119 / £59 . It’s priced similarly to Cosori air fryers, which share the same sleek black design and touchscreen display panel.

Ultenic K10 Air Fryer review: Design & setup

When I unboxed this air fryer, the first thing I noticed was how sleek and stylish it was. The shiny black finish and touchscreen give it an uber-modern, luxury feel, and the rose gold embellishments are right on trend. While it’s not my personal style, I’m more a fan of retro and rustic vibes, this is objectively an attractive device, and looks great on my kitchen counter. It’s quite big, at 11 x 12 inches, but it wouldn’t be a family-size air fryer if it was 6 x 7 inches, would it? It looks just as good as the pricier Ninja Air Fryer Pro 4-in-1 ($119), with the same clean black exterior and metallic handle. Be warned, though — the touchscreen gets dusty instantly, so you’ll be wiping it down at least daily.

Upon plugging in the device, I was enamored by the touchscreen on top of the lid. I marveled at the range of presets, from your bog-standard chips and chicken wings, to shrimp and cupcakes ! I knew I had to try out the cupcake preset, and I did — but you’ll have to wait for the ‘cooking’ section to find out what happened.

While you don’t need the app to use the device, Ultenic’s instruction manual comes with app directions. To give the air fryer a full overview, I downloaded the Ultenic app, selected my device, but the K10 wouldn’t connect via Wi-Fi, even though I followed the instructions in the manual and other smart home products have connected to my Wi-Fi before. After repeat tries, I was forced to give up, but if the connection had worked, it would have linked to my smart home devices and I would have been able to start cooking using voice commands. So if this is a really important feature for you, maybe the K10 is worth a pass.

If the K10 isn’t connected to your phone, you can still use the Ultenic app for recipes. There are well-labeled sections like ‘vegetables’ and ‘seafood’ and you can save recipes that catch your eye. There are also some really unusual — bordering on amusing — recipes in the app. For example, “witch’s cauldron”, which calls for an entire bag of poppy seeds and a can of tomato soup. It’s essentially a Halloween-themed bread bowl, with black (from poppy seeds) bread and orange innards. I would recommend reading through recipes carefully before favoriting them, which is easy to do with the heart icon in the top corner. For this review, I followed the ‘fish nuggets’ recipe, and I was pleasantly surprised. The recipe was super-simple (great if you want to do some cooking practice with your child!) and came out juicy, flavorful, and paired perfectly with the fries I’d made just before.

Although it’s useful and a welcome addition to the device, the app isn’t perfect, by any means. Some recipes are in imperial measures, and some recipes are in metric — so there’ll be a lot of “Hey Google, what’s 300 grams in ounces?”. On top of this, some recipes accidentally say things like “Put the fries in your Proscenic air fryer”, which is another brand under Ultenic’s parent company. The recipes also don’t have servings and don’t give you an overall time, so use them with a pinch of salt (but is that in grams or ounces?).

Setting up the device was straightforward after I realized the Wi-Fi connection didn’t work, and after a gentle clean with a sponge and hot soapy water, I was ready to start cooking.

Ultenic K10 Air Fryer review: Cooking

For the first recipe, I decided to start with something foolproof: fries. I cut 3 potatoes into chunky wedges and laid them flat in the K10’s large basket before selecting the ‘fries’ preset. I was delighted when the air fryer beeped and told me to shake halfway through, as I usually forget that step. While cooking, my Decibel X app read 60dB, which is at the higher end of average for an air fryer, but it’s not ear-splitting by any means.

The K10’s max temperature is 400F/205C. This is about average for an air fryer. It matches the Instant Vortex 4-in-1 ($99) and the Dash Compact Air Fryer ($49), but falls short of Ninja’s Foodi Dual Zone ($179), which goes up to 460°F/240°C. The fries cooked for 20 minutes at 380°F/195°C, but I would recommend an extra five minutes. The potatoes were cooked through, but some outer parts were a bit pale for my liking, and overall, they weren’t crunchy or crispy. Disappointing in comparison to the  Dash Compact, which cooked fries to a perfect crisp (but can’t fit a whole chicken, unlike the K10).

The K10 can cook up to 2 pounds of fries at a time, which is great if you’re feeding a family of hungry kids, or having a few friends over. The K10 really excels with heating frozen food, ideal for busy parents and party food. It cooked my frozen potato waffles at 390F/200C for 5 minutes on each side. They were crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside. Much better than cooking them in the toaster, which I’m guilty of doing. I cooked Quorn chicken nuggets for 20 minutes (shaking halfway, as reminded by the K10) at 360°F/180°C and ohmygosh . I don’t think I can ever have them cooked another way. They tasted exactly like McNuggets. Finally, I cooked halloumi fries (I know, jealous much?). As instructed by the bag, I laid four fries flat on the basket and set the timer for eight minutes at 360/180. I shook them halfway as reminded, but when they finished, I thought they needed a little longer. I put them back in for four minutes at 380°F/200°C, which could just be my preference — if I’m eating greasy food, it has to be super crispy. They were delicious.

When I’d had enough of beige delights, I decided to test it with a basketful of peppers, zucchini, and tinned chickpeas, for an easy and nutritious meal. This meal was beautifully crisp, juicy, and a wonderful surprise.

As the K10’s ‘cupcake’ setting had caught my eye, I knew I had to test it out. To eradicate the possibility of human baking-related errors, I bought a premix packet and added water, oil, and eggs, as per the packet instructions. I poured the mix into six cupcake liners, which is the maximum the K10 can fit in its basket. I selected ‘cupcake’ and was immediately skeptical. The K10 read ‘30 minutes, 300°F/150°C’ for cupcakes. Usually cupcakes bake at 360°F/180°C for 15 minutes, so I was apprehensive of the K10’s settings. But I persevered and put them on to cook.

I should have trusted my gut, because when I took them out and let them cool, I was utterly heartbroken. These cupcakes probably needed 25 minutes, at a push. Possibly even 22 minutes. The tops, sides, and bottoms were crispy and dry — not what you want from chocolate chip cupcakes. While the centers were a little fluffier, I was hugely disappointed with how these treats turned out. As with all air fryers, you’ll need to embark on a bit of trial and error to find your perfect setting. As helpful as 11 presets are, the air fryer has no way of knowing how big your chicken breast is or how you like your steak cooked. So, do your due diligence and keep your eye on your food the first few times you use the air fryer.

To take my own advice, I remade the cupcakes and baked them for 14 minutes at 350°F/170°C. I was delighted to see the cupcakes fluffy, moist, and delicious, and promptly devoured them (yes, all six).

The K10 impressed me overall, considering it’s only $79. It lacks the roast, air fry, dehydrate, and reheat cooking modes seen on Ninja models like the AF101 Air Fryer ($89), but you do save yourself $10 with the K10. I wish it had a proof setting for bread like the Cosori Toaster Oven CS130 ($169), or a dehydration setting like the Chefman Multifunction Digital Air Fryer ($99). But this is still a great little air fryer for stress-free essential family cooking.

Ultenic K10 Air Fryer review: Storage & maintenance

While the basket is not clearly advertised as dishwasher safe like the Ninja Air Fryer Pro 4-in-1 ($119), I checked with Ultenic’s representatives and confirmed that the K10 can indeed go through the dishwasher. Besides, there is a removable grill inside the basket, so you can get in the nooks and crannies with a sponge if needed. This air fryer is super easy to clean with a damp sponge or cloth, and spillages lift off the basket without a massive amount of elbow grease.

The K10 is a large machine, so it’ll take up a lot of counter space unless you have a decently-sized cupboard in which to hide it. I left this out on my counter for the duration of testing, where it managed to attract every mote of dust in my entire kitchen, but with a regular wipe-down, it’s no problem.

Ultenic K10 Air Fryer review: Verdict

The Ultenic K10 is an attractive, modern device with a wide range of presets and a large 5.3 quart capacity. While its price and design are attractive, it’s missing a few features found on premium or “big name” rivals, including multiple cooking types and a proof mode.

That said, it does the basics right, so if you want a budget, stylish air fryer that looks good in your kitchen and can hack cooking for a family, this is a great option. I was impressed with its large basket and capability to cook entire meals in under thirty minutes. While it doesn’t have the features of the Chefman Multifunctional or the Ninja Pro 4-in-1, it’s a nifty air fryer, perfect for a first-time user.