The Ninja Foodi FlexBasket is a 7-qt air fryer that stands out from the brand's other models because you can use it as a single-basket or dual-basket air fryer. You can either cook separate ingredients on each side of the basket using different settings or use it with one big basket for bigger items. Its 7-quart capacity is enough to cook for groups of 5-6 people, and it has a variety of different modes for different cooking methods.
Our Verdict
The Ninja DZ071 is a great air fryer. It has a very good air-frying performance, so potatoes, chicken wings, fish, and other air-fried foods get evenly crisped and browned, with just a small proportion under or overcooked. It's fast and versatile, thanks to its wide range of temperatures and fan speeds, making it suitable for many different recipes and cooking methods besides air frying, like dehydrating.
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Makes very good-quality fried food.
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Preheats and cooks quickly.
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Wide range of fan speeds and temperature settings.
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Large surface area for cooking.
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Heat transfers between baskets.
The Ninja DZ071 is great for large-batch cooking. It has seven quarts of capacity, which is suitable for preparing food for 5-6 people. Because of its shallow basket shape, it has an impressive amount of cooking surface area for you to arrange food in a single layer. It's also fast, versatile, and makes very good-quality air-fried food.
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Makes very good-quality fried food.
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Preheats and cooks quickly.
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Wide range of fan speeds and temperature settings.
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Large surface area for cooking.
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Heat transfers between baskets.
The Ninja DZ071 has a very good frying performance. It produces very good-quality air-fried food, with a small proportion over or undercooked, but most come out well-cooked, golden brown, and crispy. Its big 7-quart basket has plenty of room for you to arrange food in a single layer. It's also fast and does a great job of maintaining a stable temperature, which makes it easier to follow recipes and cook delicate foods like fish.
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Makes very good-quality fried food.
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Preheats and cooks quickly.
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Large surface area for cooking.
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Heat transfers between baskets.
The Ninja DZ071 is a fast air fryer. It preheats and cooks your food quickly.
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Preheats and cooks quickly.
The Ninja DZ071 has a great cooking capacity. Its 7-qt overall capacity is generally suitable for preparing food for 5-6 people. However, because of its basket shape, it has a large cooking surface area for its capacity. You have more room to arrange food in a single layer than many air fryers with bigger overall capacities, so you can prepare bigger volumes of food and still get good results.
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Large surface area for cooking.
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Big 7-quart capacity.
The Ninja DZ071 is a big air fryer, which is expected for a large-capacity model. It's not very tall, but has a wide footprint.
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Bulky design.
- 8.0 Air Frying
- 8.2 Large Batch Cooking
Performance Usages
- 7.8 Frying Performance
- 8.2 Cooking Speed
- 8.2 Cooking Capacity
- 7.2 Size
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Ninja DZ701 only comes in 'Black.' Here's the label for the unit we tested.
If you encounter another variant, let us know in the comments, and we'll update our review.
Compared To Other Air Fryers
The Ninja DZ701 is a large-capacity air fryer with a good, versatile performance. Like the Beautiful 9QT TriZone, it actually has one basket with a divider, so you can use it as a dual-basket air fryer or as a single-basket air fryer with the divider removed when you're cooking bigger items like a whole chicken. Other Ninja dual-basket fryers like the 10-qt Ninja Foodi DZ550 have separate baskets, which you can't combine but are better insulated from each other. This 7-qt air fryer's shallow basket has about as much cooking surface area as the 9-qt Beautiful or the 10-qt Ninja Foodi DZ401, so you have about as much room for arranging food in a single layer.
If you want to see more air fryers, check out our lists of the best air fryers and best large-capacity air fryers.
Test Results
It has a large cooking surface area. Even though its overall capacity is 7 quarts, its baskets have nearly the same amount of surface area as the 10-qt Ninja Foodi DZ550 and the Beautiful 9QT TriZone. You have a lot of room to arrange food in a single layer. Like many other Ninja air fryers, its crisper trays have a ceramic non-stick coating, which you might prefer if you avoid PTFE coatings.
It has fantastic versatility. Since it's a dual-basket fryer, you can cook different foods on each side of the basket using different settings. You can also remove the divider in the basket and use it as a single-basket fryer, which is helpful if you're cooking something big like a roast or full chicken. However, that design also means the sections of the basket aren't as well insulated as completely separate baskets, so you may notice heat transfer from one side to the other if you're using very different settings for each. You can't pull out one basket at a time, and the handle can be awkward to hold onto when you're trying to shake the big basket.
Otherwise, it has similar features to Ninja's other dual-basket fryers, like the Ninja Foodi DZ401. You can use 'Smart Finish' to have both sides of the basket finish at the same time, even with different cook times. 'Match Cook' applies the same settings to both sides of the basket.
It has a big range of temperature and fan speed settings to suit different ingredients and cooking methods. It has a very low minimum temperature of 80 that you can use for dehydrating, and its maximum temperature of 450 is higher than many air fryers' and helpful for quickly cooking and crisping food.
- Air Fry: 300°F – 400°F, 1 - 60 minutes
- Air Broil: 450°F, 1 - 30 minutes
- Roast: 250°F – 400°F, 1 - 4 hours (Time is adjustable in one-minute increments up to one hour and in 50-minute increments beyond one hour)
- Bake: 250°F – 400°F, 1 - 4 hours (Time is adjustable in one-minute increments up to one hour and in 50-minute increments beyond one hour)
- Reheat: 270°F – 400°F, 1 - 60 minutes
- Dehydrate: 80°F –195°F, 6 - 12 hours (Time is adjustable in 15-minute increments)
It makes very good-quality fried food. Air-fried food like Brussels sprouts or chicken nuggets is mostly evenly cooked, so most of your food is well-cooked, crispy, and golden brown. However, a small proportion is either under or over-cooked.
It has great temperature stability. After you open the drawer to add food, it quickly returns to temperature. The temperature is very stable during cooking, which is helpful when you're cooking delicate foods that need specific conditions and when you need to follow the recipe accurately.