NuWave Brio 6 Quart Digital Air Fryer review

Our Verdict

The NuWave Brio 6 Quart Digital Air Fryer is the best air fryer for cooks who like to have a lot of command over the cooking procedure.

For

Excellent at roasting a chicken
Comes with a digital probe and divider for cooking 2 different things at one time
Big number of preset programs and cooking options

Against

Difficult to program

Tom's Guide Verdict

The NuWave Brio 6 Quart Digital Air Fryer is the best air fryer for cooks who like to have a lot of control over the cooking process.

Pros

+
Excellent at roasting a chicken
+
Comes with a digital probe and divider for cooking 2 different things at in one case
+
Large number of preset programs and cooking options

Cons

-
Hard to program

NuWave Brio 6 Quart Digital Air Fryer: Specs

Size: 11 ten 13 ten thirteen inches
Capacity: v.viii quarts
Weight: xv pounds
Controls: Digital
Modes: Sear, 100 Presets, Grill, Warm
Smart features: None

If y'all want more control over the cooking process, so y'all'll beloved the NuWave Brio 6 Quart Digital Air Fryer. In addition to 100 preset programs, it offers multi-stage cooking, has a sear function, comes with a probe for cooking to exact temperatures and a basket divider for cooking 2 things at once. However, all this functionality makes information technology rather complicated to operate.

If you read our full NuWave Brio half-dozen Quart Digital Air Fryer review, you will meet the strengths and weaknesses behind this design and how information technology performed when air frying some everyday recipes.

Here's the all-time air fryers you can buy
Bank check out the all-time electric ranges right now

NuWave Panache 6 Quart Digital Air Fryer: Price and availability

The NuWave Panache half dozen Quart Digital Air Fryer is available at Amazon for $109.99 and at nuwavebrio.com for $159.96. Information technology is only bachelor in black.

NuWave Brio 6 Quart Digital Air Fryer: Design

The NuWave Panache vi Quart Digital Air Fryer is a large boxy apparatus. The control panel is on top of the machine which is angled downwardly to arrive accessible. The buttons for the various functions are large and well marked. On the superlative, some programs are listed for guidance, which makes it wait cluttered every bit there's 20 of them. Because of its size, measuring 11 x thirteen 10 13 inches, and weight of 15 pounds, it's not easy to move this appliance around if you don't want to give it a permanent abode on your countertop.

NuWave Panache 6 Quart Digital Air Fryer: Cooking functioning

During our tests, the NuWave Brio 6 Quart Digital Air Fryer scored relatively well across the board, especially for air frying Brussels sprouts, for which it achieved top marks. We have seen ameliorate browning and crisping from other models, just the results were very tender and moist. It fell down somewhat on its performance with the chicken wings it produced, which again weren't very browned or crisped. Withal, it roasted a craven well, achieving full marks for this.

NuWave Brio 6 Quart Digital Air Fryer review — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Information technology is complicated to program the NuWave because information technology has so many functions. Before you lot even begin cooking, you need to read the transmission carefully so keep it nearby for reference. For pre-programmed cooking, there'south a button labeled "Program"; in one case yous select information technology, you lot enter a number from 1-100 for the various presets. Twenty are listed on the machine itself, but you need to refer to the laminated Quickstart Guide that comes with the air fryer for the other eighty. You can too create up to 50 presets, assign them numbers, and salve them into memory. Some other selection is to plan the oven for multi-phase cooking, which means it will automatically switch from ane temperature to some other. When you are cooking something like chicken or steak that you want cooked to a specific temperature, you can use the probe.

Once you do set up information technology to melt, the NuWave immediately goes into a preheat office. Conveniently, after the preheat period, information technology gives you 5 minutes to add your food before information technology begins to cook. You can cancel the preheat setting which comes in handy if food needs actress time — meaning you can get straight to cooking without preheating.

Although the basket has a half-dozen-quart capacity, the manufacturer suggests non filling it more than than 4/fifth full, but we suggest cooking no more than one pound of food or every bit much equally can fit on the bottom of the basket in ane layer. For all-time results, halfway through cooking it'southward recommended that you lot shake or turn over your food; the NuWave beeps three times to alert you to rearrange your food.

The NuWave did an excellent job of air frying Brussels sprouts, scoring full marks for this. Breaded chicken cutlets, frozen and made-from-scratch French fries came out somewhat unevenly browned and crisped, merely did stay tender and moist. The only real thwarting was chicken wings, which barely browned and crisped in the xx minutes it took them to cook through.

Image 1 of three

Epitome 2 of 3

Epitome three of 3

Using the temperature probe, we roasted a whole chicken, which cooked to a perfect doneness and came out with a crackling skin on the top and sides in just 55 minutes. Every bit nosotros rarely find that roast chickens brownish on the bottom unless they are turned during cooking, we were more than satisfied with this result.

Image ane of 2

Image 2 of 2

In the NuWave, we cooked four 4-ounce hamburgers. After preheating, they cooked in xiii minutes. In spite of the grill part on this air fryer, they appeared broiled rather than grilled; they were juicy and browned, but didn't have the deep crusty browning that a grill or fifty-fifty a skillet imparts to burgers.

NuWave Brio 6 Quart Digital Air Fryer: Ease of utilise and cleaning

While the buttons on the control panel are easy to read and press, programming this air fryer is complicated. In that location is an inner and outer basket that you lot tin can easily pull out of the unit and replace. When you want to carve up them for cleaning, you merely press a push.

Most of the exterior surfaces, including the handle and panel, stay cool enough that they can be touched without causing a fire, but the lesser of the front reached a temperature of 151.7°F in operation. As it air fries, this appliance has a dBA reading of 63.iv, which is louder than the boilerplate air fryer — about the equivalent to a room air conditioner.

Both the exterior and the interior baskets are coated with a nonstick finish and tin be cleaned on the peak rack of the dishwasher. The stainless steel filigree on the bottom of the basket can collect gunk and can be difficult to clean however.

With this air fryer you get a very detailed use and care manual as well as a laminated Quickstart Guide that includes extensive cooking charts and codes for the presets. Nuwave also provides a soft-cover cookbook with forty recipes. Yous tin also download the NuWave Cooking Club app to run across the recipes.

NuWave Brio 6 Quart Digital Air Fryer: Verdict

The NuWave Panache six Quart Digital Air Fryer does a good chore of air frying, with the exception of chicken wings. Information technology offers a lot of preset programs equally well as many options for customizing your own cooking preferences. Even so, so many choices could be overwhelming and confusing for some. It's necessary to refer to the manual often to effigy out how to accept reward of the diverse programming choices. Some cooks will similar the versatility while others will merely notice this product too complicated to utilise.

Compared to the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro, which also comes with a lot of functions, the results were very similar, although NuWave's model scored meliorate for made from scratch and frozen French fries. Breville's air fryer was better at producing breaded chicken, still NuWave was much easier to make clean and the exterior didn't grow as hot. The NuWave is not a bad price either, considering the versatility it offers.

Sharon Franke is a journalist who specializes in testing and writing near kitchen equipment. A thirty-twelvemonth veteran of the Practiced Housekeeping Institute, Sharon also worked every bit a professional chef in New York City restaurants for seven years. In her free fourth dimension, she is an avid habitation cook who is in the process of mastering the art of baking sour dough bread.