The Air Fryer That Thinks It’s a Toaster Oven (And Mostly Succeeds)
If you’re looking at the Nuwave Bravo XL Pro, you’re likely past the point of wanting a simple, single-basket air fryer. You’ve probably owned one, loved the concept, but hated the capacity and the constant shaking. You’re now in the market for a countertop appliance that can replace more than it adds to. This isn’t a gadget; it’s a potential workhorse for a small kitchen or a household that’s tired of heating up the big oven for every meal.
The biggest misconception people have about these large, multi-function air fryer ovens is that they’re just big air fryers. They’re not. They’re compact convection ovens first, and that changes everything. If you treat it like a magic “crisp” box, you’ll be disappointed. If you treat it like a faster, more efficient oven, you’ll be thrilled.
Where the Bravo XL Pro stands out—and where it stumbles—is in its commitment to being an oven. The triple-layer rack system isn’t a gimmick; it’s the core of its utility. You can genuinely roast vegetables on the bottom, bake potatoes in the middle, and crisp chicken thighs on top, all with surprisingly even results. The 1800W element and fan are powerful enough that you don’t need to preheat for most tasks. A frozen pizza goes directly onto the middle rack at 400°F and emerges in about 10 minutes with a perfectly crisp bottom and melted top—something that baffles my regular oven.
But this oven-like design creates its own quirks. The door is the most obvious one. It’s large, glass, and swings down to form a shelf. This is fantastic for loading, but it means the appliance needs a full 12-14 inches of clearance in front of it. You cannot tuck this under a cabinet that you plan to open it under. More subtly, the interior height between racks is tighter than you’d expect. A standard 9-inch pie plate will not fit on any rack unless you remove the one above it. That tall “XL” name refers more to the footprint than the interior vertical space. You’re baking in a wide, shallow zone.
The performance split is clear: it excels at anything that benefits from dry, circulating heat. Roasted vegetables achieve a blistering, caramelized edge. Reheating fried food (fries, egg rolls, wings) returns a shocking amount of crunch. It makes excellent toasted sandwiches. However, where it struggles is with the very thing people buy “air fryers” for: dense, frozen, breaded foods. A full basket of frozen french fries, if piled in, will steam more than fry. The key is to use the racks, not the basket, and spread items in a single layer. The included air fry basket feels almost like an afterthought—useful for small batches of wings or shrimp, but the racks are the real stars.
What you might regret not knowing is about the controls and cleanup. The dial-and-button interface is simple but imprecise. There’s no beep when preheat is done (if you choose to preheat), and the timer counts up, not down, after finishing—a small detail that leads to overcooked food if you walk away. Cleaning the main cavity is easy; the back wall is smooth. The racks are dishwasher safe, but the rack guides—the thin, painted channels the racks slide into—collect grease and crumbs. They pop out for cleaning, but it’s a fiddly extra step that’s easy to miss until you smell old grease on your next cook.
In the end, the Nuwave Bravo XL Pro wins you over not by being the best at one thing, but by being good enough at a dozen things while taking up less space and energy than your oven. It won’t bake artisan bread, and it demands you rethink your loading strategy. But for turning out a fast, crispy, low-mess dinner on a regular Tuesday, it moves from the back of the counter to the center of the kitchen. Just make sure you have the clearance for that door to swing.