At a Glance#
Product : Ninja Crispi Microwave and Air Fryer (MW101)
Brand : Ninja
Best For : Small kitchens that want one appliance to both reheat and crisp
Form Factor : Countertop flatbed microwave with a built-in air fryer
Buy Now : Ninja Crispi MW101 on Amazon
Key Highlights:
- FusionCrisp two-stage cooking: it microwaves for speed, then air fries for crunch, in one automatic cycle, so leftovers come out crisp instead of soggy.
- 14-in-1 versatility: eight microwave presets, five air-fry modes and FusionCrisp in one box, so it can stand in for a separate air fryer.
- Flatbed cavity: no turntable, which Ninja says gives you 40 percent more usable cooking space.
- Real air-fry heat: superheated cyclonic air up to 450F, on 1700 watts of air-fry input power.
- Dishwasher-safe glassware: the 5.5-quart CleanCrisp dish is PFAS, PTFE and PFOA-free.
Who Should Buy This#
If your counter is crowded and your leftovers keep coming out soggy, buy the Ninja Crispi MW101. It folds two appliances into one footprint. You get microwave speed for reheating and true air-fry crunch for anything that should be crispy. It's also Ninja's first microwave of any kind. Microwave and air fryer combos aren't new, and the first Ninja actually claims is narrower: it says the Crispi "brings CleanCrisp glass to countertop microwave cooking for the first time". What stands out is how much power Ninja gives the crisp stage. Here's who gets the most out of it.
- The small-kitchen dweller: You have no room for both a microwave and a separate air fryer on the counter.
- The leftover reviver: You hate reheated pizza that turns to rubber and want it crisp again in minutes.
- The busy weeknight cook: You want frozen food to go golden fast without preheating a full-size oven.
- The declutter-minded upgrader: Your old microwave is dying and you want one smarter box to replace it.
It Crisps Leftovers Instead of Steaming Them#
Here is the problem anyone with a microwave knows. Microwaves heat food fast, but they do it by exciting water molecules. That means steam, and steam makes everything soft. Yesterday's crispy fries turn limp. Leftover pizza goes floppy. Fried chicken loses its crunch entirely. An air fryer fixes texture, but it is slow and it does not reheat the middle of a thick portion quickly.
FusionCrisp is Ninja's answer to that exact split. It runs the two methods back to back in one cycle. First the microwave stage heats your food through, fast, all the way to the center. Then the machine automatically switches to air frying. Superheated air rushes over the surface and restores the crunch the microwave stripped away. You do not press a second button or move the food. The transition happens on its own.
The outcome is the part that matters, and Ninja puts numbers on it. It says the Crispi cooks full meals up to 60% faster than a conventional oven, and takes frozen food to crispy in 10 minutes with 1700 watts and 450F air. For leftovers, the win is simpler: the middle gets hot and the outside gets crisp in the same run.
Think about what that changes day to day. Ninja aims it at the foods a microwave ruins, like fries, pizza and frozen food, and one review's air-fry test found its fries came out crispy and evenly browned. You stop choosing between fast and good. FusionCrisp gives you both in the same run, without a hand-off you have to time yourself.
It also lowers the mental load of cooking. You are not babysitting two machines or timing a hand-off. You load the food, pick the mode, and walk away. For anyone who reheats or crisps something most days, that saved effort compounds quickly.
No Turntable Means Room for a Real Meal#
Open almost any microwave and you meet the turntable. It spins your food to even out hot spots, but it costs you in two ways. It wastes space around the edges, and it forces every dish to fit a circle. Put a rectangular casserole in and it clips the walls or refuses to turn.
The Ninja Crispi ditches the turntable entirely. It uses a flatbed cavity, a flat floor with no spinning plate, and Ninja says that gives you 40% more usable cooking space. Ninja can't agree on the comparison, though. Its launch announcement measures against a 0.9 cu ft turntable microwave, the same size as the MW101's own 0.9 cu ft cavity, and its product page against a 1.1 cu ft one. Either way, the inside is wide and open instead of pinched by a rotating plate.
That space is not just a spec. It is practical, and Ninja spells out what fits: "a 9"x11" baking dish, 2 bags of popcorn at once, or 4 bowls of leftovers in one cook". A full dinner plate sits flat without catching a corner. For a household that reheats multiple portions, that turns two microwave runs into one.
Don't count on it heating more evenly than a turntable model, though. One review found no cold spots on a dinner plate, and it found that microwaves all heat shallow dishes about the same. The flatbed changes what fits, not how evenly it heats.
There is a quality-of-life bonus too. Flat floors are easier to wipe clean. There is no ring, no roller guide, and no plate to lift out and wash - Ninja's own line is that the "turntable-free interior wipes clean". Spills sit on a single flat surface you can reach in one pass. And one restriction that matters for exactly the crowded kitchen this suits: Ninja states it is "for countertop use only, not intended for built-in or enclosed cabinet installation", so it cannot be tucked into a cabinet nook.
One Box Replaces Your Microwave and Air Fryer#
The headline number is 14-in-1, and it earns it. The Crispi is not a microwave with a token crisp button bolted on. It carries a full spread of cooking modes on both sides of its personality.
On the microwave side you get eight presets. There is Popcorn, Potato, Defrost, Beverage, Soup, Frozen Dinner, Frozen Vegetable, and Soften Butter. These are the everyday jobs a microwave should own, tuned so you are not guessing at times and power levels. Press the preset and the machine handles the rest.
On the air-fry side you get five modes: Air Fry, Max Crisp, Air Roast, Air Bake, and Air Broil. This is where the Crispi stops pretending to be a microwave and behaves like a real Ninja air fryer. Max Crisp drives the air hard for the crunchiest results. Air Roast and Air Bake open it up to actual cooking, not just reheating. Air Broil adds a top-down blast for browning.
The power behind all of this is the reason it works. Ninja pairs a 1000-watt microwave with a 1700-watt air fryer that pushes superheated cyclonic air up to 450F. That is a true air-fryer temperature, not a warm setting in disguise. Ninja even claims "equal results to a Ninja Crispi Pro air fryer". Take that loosely. The footnote compares wattage only, 1700W against 1500W, and the model it names is the FN101, Ninja's Crispi 4-in-1 portable glass air fryer, not the Pro.
Add the FusionCrisp mode on top and you have a genuine two-appliance replacement. You can reclaim the counter space your standalone air fryer eats, and retire the aging microwave next to it. One box, one footprint, one plug. If you have been eyeing a separate air fryer but have nowhere to put it, this collapses that decision into a single purchase.
For a lot of kitchens, that consolidation is the whole pitch. You are not adding a gadget. You are removing one while gaining capability.
Cleanup Is Genuinely Easy#
Air fryers have a dirty secret, literally. The baskets are a pain to clean, the coatings scratch, and many people worry about what those coatings are made of. The Ninja Crispi tackles both problems with its glassware.
At the center is a 5.5-quart CleanCrisp dish paired with a crisper plate. Both are made without PFAS, PTFE, and PFOA. Those are the compounds that make people uneasy about nonstick coatings. Ninja built this cookware to skip them, so the dish you cook in is glass, not a chemical layer that can wear down over time.
Glass brings a second benefit beyond peace of mind. It is easy to clean and it does not hold onto odors or stains the way scratched nonstick does. Ninja says the dish and the crisper plate go in the dishwasher, but its manual says to hand-wash the plate. One restriction matters if you already own Ninja's standalone Crispi: that glassware is, in Ninja's words, "only compatible with this unit in Microwave mode. For Air Fry and FusionCrisp functions, use only the Ninja Crispi Microwave Glassware included with this unit." So the dish in the box is the one that crisps.
Don't let 5.5 quarts fool you. Ninja says the dish feeds up to 10 people and holds up to 6 lbs of wings, 4 lbs of fries, an 8-lb chicken or 4 pizza slices. Whether that really serves ten depends on how hungry your household is, but this is not a single-portion dish.
Living with the Crispi day to day is refreshingly low-fuss. The flat interior wipes down in seconds. The glass dish goes in the dishwasher. The presets remove guesswork. You spend your time eating, not maintaining an appliance. That is the quiet luxury of a well-thought-out design.
Technical Specifications#
Model : MW101
Microwave Power : 1000 watts
Air Fry Power : 1700 watts (convection/air fry input power)
Max Air Fry Temperature : 450F superheated cyclonic air
Cavity Capacity : 0.9 cu ft
Glassware Capacity : 5.5 quarts (CleanCrisp dish and crisper plate)
Cavity Design : Flatbed, no turntable, with 40 percent more usable cooking space by Ninja's count
Total Functions : 14-in-1
Microwave Presets : 8 (Popcorn, Potato, Defrost, Beverage, Soup, Frozen Dinner, Frozen Vegetable, Soften Butter)
Air Fry Presets : 5 (Air Fry, Max Crisp, Air Roast, Air Bake, Air Broil)
Glassware Material : PFAS, PTFE and PFOA-free, dish dishwasher-safe, crisper plate hand-wash
Dimensions : 20.3 in L x 17.56 in W x 14.1 in H, with a 32-inch cord. Countertop use only, not for built-in or cabinet installation
Weight : 41.01 lbs
Finish : Silver. Ninja also sells Black, Cyberspace and Stone Gold versions under their own item numbers
In the Box : Microwave, 5.5-qt CleanCrisp glassware, crisper plate, recipe book
Warranty : One year limited
Safety : Two-step child safety lock, manually disableable
Pros & Cons#
Pros:
- Crunch that actually lands: FusionCrisp crisps leftovers and frozen food instead of steaming them soft.
- Two appliances in one: it retires a standalone air fryer and frees your counter.
- Fits square dishes: the flatbed takes square and rectangular dishes, like a 9"x11" baking dish.
- True air-fry heat: 450F cyclonic air delivers real texture, not a warm setting.
- Cleaner cookware: glassware is dishwasher-safe and free of PFAS, PTFE and PFOA.
- Covers every job: 14 functions handle reheating, defrosting, roasting, and crisping.
Cons:
- It is big, and it needs headroom: Ninja lists 41.01 lbs at 20.3 by 17.56 by 14.1 inches, says it is "not intended for built-in or enclosed cabinet installation", and its manual wants 12 inches of clear space above it and 27 inches from the counter to any cabinet above.
- Premium outlay: it costs more than a plain microwave, so it is an investment.
- One dish only crisps: your existing Ninja Crispi glassware works in microwave mode only, so air fry and FusionCrisp are tied to the dish in the box.
- Too new to know: it's Ninja's first microwave, so long-term reliability data is thin.
FAQ#
Is the Ninja Crispi MW101 a microwave or an air fryer?
It is genuinely both in one box. Ninja lists the microwave input power at 1000 watts with eight presets, and the convection/air-fry input power at 1700 watts reaching 450F. FusionCrisp mode combines the two, microwaving first for speed and then air frying to add crunch, all in a single automatic cycle.
Does the Ninja Crispi have a turntable?
No, and that is deliberate. It uses a flatbed cavity with no spinning plate, which Ninja credits with 40 percent more usable cooking space and the ability to take "a 9"x11" baking dish, 2 bags of popcorn at once, or 4 bowls of leftovers in one cook".
Is the Ninja Crispi glassware safe and easy to clean?
Yes. The 5.5-quart CleanCrisp dish is glass rather than coated metal, and Ninja says the dish and the crisper plate are "made PFAS, PTFE, and PFOA-free". Ninja's product page says both go in the dishwasher, but its manual says to hand-wash the crisper plate, so wash that one by hand. One catch: glassware from Ninja's standalone Crispi works in this unit's microwave mode only, so for air frying and FusionCrisp, use the dish that came in the box.
How fast is FusionCrisp cooking?
Fast. Ninja says it cooks full meals up to 60% faster than a conventional oven, and takes frozen food to crispy in 10 minutes at 1700 watts and 450F. You get microwave speed first and air-fry texture at the end.
How big and heavy is it?
Big enough that you should measure your counter first. It's 20.3 inches long, 17.56 wide and 14.1 high, weighs 41.01 lbs by Ninja's count, and comes with a 32-inch cord. Inside, the cavity is 0.9 cu ft with no turntable taking up room, a size Ninja's own specs don't list.
Final Verdict#
Buy it. One review lined the Ninja Crispi MW101 up against three other microwaves that air fry, and its automatic switch from microwave to air fryer is what set it apart. It reheats at microwave speed and then crisps at real air-fryer heat, automatically, in a single cycle. FusionCrisp is not marketing gloss. It solves the soggy-leftovers problem that has annoyed people for decades, and it does it fast.
The rest of the package backs up that headline feature. The flatbed cavity takes square and rectangular dishes that would have no room to spin on a turntable. The 14 functions mean you are genuinely replacing two appliances, not adding a third. The dishwasher-safe, PFAS-free glassware removes the cleanup and coating worries that come with so many air fryers. Yes, it is large, it is a premium buy, and as Ninja's first microwave it has no track record yet. Those are fair caveats. But none of them undercut what the machine does well.
Our recommendation: If you have a crowded counter, dying microwave, or a stubborn hatred of rubbery leftovers, this is an easy call - a consolidation that removes an appliance instead of adding one.