Ninja Crispi Microwave vs Breville Combi Wave 3-in-1: which air fryer microwave should you buy?

I love my air fryer. As a mom, it’s my weeknight secret weapon. It cooks chicken legs, crisps vegetables, and warms pies in a fraction of the time my energy-thirsty oven takes. But I live in a city apartment, which means my counter space is limited—like really limited. So I’ve often wished I didn’t have both an air fryer and a microwave taking up space. That’s why the idea of an air fryer microwave appeals to me—it combines two (large-ish) appliances I use every day.

Air fryer microwaves aren’t entirely new. Breville launched its Combi Wave 3-in-1 back in 2019, and brands like Toshiba have also introduced microwave-air fryer combos. But it’s still a surprisingly small category. That changed last week when Ninja unveiled the Crispi Microwave, bringing its popular glass cooking tech and automatic crisping to its first-ever microwave.

So, how does the newcomer stack up against one of the category’s best-known models? Today, I’m breaking down the Ninja Crispi Microwave vs. Breville Combi Wave 3-in-1 to help you decide which air fryer microwave is a better fit for your kitchen.

Quick verdict: Who should buy which air fryer microwave?

Go with the Ninja Crispi Microwave if you want the fastest, most hands-off route from frozen to crispy, with a basket that’s actually easy to clean. Go with the Breville Combi Wave 3 in 1 if you want one appliance to replace your entire countertop oven, with more manual control over how things cook. If soggy reheated food is your specific complaint, the Ninja is built to fix exactly that.

The specs above come from SharkNinja’s official launch announcement and Breville’s official product listing. A few things jump out right away: the Ninja is cheaper and skips the turntable, while the Breville has more wattage and nearly twice as many presets. But neither is obviously “better” from the table alone, which is why we need to take a close look at the details.

The Biggest Difference: How Each Machine Air Fries

Ninja Crispi Microwave: Automatic FusionCrisp cooking and glass cookware

Here’s something about the Ninja’s air fry technique that got my attention. You don’t pick a sequence or babysit it through two stages. Its FusionCrisp tech starts heating with the microwave, then automatically switches over to superheated cyclonic air. According to Ninja, that takes food from frozen to crispy in about 10 minutes in one continuous program. That’s rare for a microwave. Usually, I have to stand there for the first minute while it heats, check that it hasn’t overheated, and then estimate how much more time my food needs.

Breville Combi Wave: Traditional convection cooking with more manual control

The Breville takes a different approach. Its Element iQ system steers power to any part of the cavity that needs it, but Air Fry and Convection stay separate functions. You select them and adjust yourself. It’s more setup than the Ninja, but if you controlling the time and temperature mid-cook, this air fryer microwave gives you what you’re looking for.

My Verdict: If convenience is what you’re after, the Ninja wins this one easily. It heats and crisps your food in one session, no extra decisions required. But, if you’d rather stay in the driver’s seat, the Breville hands you the wheel.

Which Microwave Cooks Frozen Food Better?

This is a big one for me—one of my favorite Friday night side dishes are frozen fries cooked in the air fryer. FusionCrisp is basically designed around this exact use case. According to Ninja, the Crispi Microwave can take food from frozen to crunchy in 10 minutes—just like my air fryer.

The Breville has its own “Cook From Frozen” preset, but you’re still choosing between Air Fry and Convection rather than getting one blended cycle that makes the decision. If you already know how you like your food cooked, that’s a plus. If you just want dinner ready with as little effort as possible on a Tuesday night, it’s an extra decision.

My Verdict: I’d bet on the Ninja for better one-touch results with frozen meals, while the Breville rewards people who already have opinions about their food.

Which Is Easier to Clean: Ninja Crispi or Breville Combi Wave?

CleanCrisp glass basket

Here’s something that makes me happy: Ninja’s 5.5-qt. basket is glass, not coated metal, and it’s free of PFAS, PTFE, and PFOA. Glass just doesn’t hold onto grease or scratch up over time the way nonstick coatings eventually do—which happens matter how careful you are with a sponge.

Stainless steel interior and turntable

The Breville’s Combi Crisp Pan and glass turntable both hand-wash without much fuss. Top Ten Reviews found the pan and rack “wipe down to appear basically new” after cooking, though the nonstick surface needs a hand wash rather than a session in the dishwasher.

My Verdict: Both machines clean up better than a typical air fryer basket. But if you’re someone who dreads scrubbing baked-on grease at 9 p.m., the Ninja’s glass basket is the one I’d go for.

Which Air Fryer Microwave Saves More Counter Space?

This is the whole reason an air fryer microwave appeals to me in the first place; negating the need for two separate devices. Let’s see how the Ninja Crispi Microwave and the Breville Combi Wave 3-in-1 stack up here.

The Ninja skips the turntable completely and goes with a flatbed layout instead, so square dishes and takeout containers sit flush instead of needing room to spin. That flatbed design also claims 40% more usable surface than a comparable turntable microwave, enough to fit a 9×11 baking dish or four bowls of leftovers in one go.

The Breville’s 1.1 cu. ft. cavity is bigger on paper, but the turntable eats into how much of that space you can actually use for anything that isn’t round.

Neither is small, though the Ninja has the smaller footprint of the two: 16″ L x 19.65″ W x 14.08″ H, versus the Breville’s 20.4″ L x 20.2″ W x 12.4″ H, even though it stands about an inch and a half taller. Tom’s Guide notes the Ninja weighs more than 50 pounds and needs open airflow on every side, so it still can’t go inside a cabinet or a built-in nook. The Breville weighs 34 pounds.

My Verdict: Overall, Ninja asks for less counter footprint than its weight and larger cooking surface would suggest, a genuine win if every square inch counts.

Which Microwave Is Better for Families and Meal Prep?

As a mom, I’m interested in this section. Reheating leftovers for four people usually means four separate bowls, thus four separate heating sessions. Interestingly, the Ninja’s flat surface can hold all of them at once instead of rotating them through one at a time. Frozen dinners, cooked vegetables, leftover casserole—basically, an entire week’s meal routine—work great in the crisping cycle.

The Breville’s bigger cavity earns its keep when you’re cooking, not just reheating. Baking a full tray of nuggets, roasting a small chicken, or running convection on a sheet pan of vegetables is squarely in its lane. If your version of meal prep starts with raw ingredients, that manual convection control is worth something.

My Verdict: For households that reheat more than they cook, I’d put my money on the Ninja. For families who actually cook from scratch most nights, the Breville’s oven functions do more of the heavy lifting.

Ninja Crispi vs. Breville Combi Wave: Price and Long-Term Value

At $449 versus $499.95, we’re only talking about a $50 gap, which isn’t enough on its own to decide much. The Ninja undercuts the Breville slightly, and SharkNinja markets itself as the top-selling air fryer brand by dollar sales, which usually means decent accessory support down the line.

Breville has the track record, though. Top Ten Reviews cites an appliance expert estimating the Combi Wave should last 15 to 20 years with regular use, which is a longer runway than most countertop microwaves get credit for. The Ninja is too new for anyone to have that kind of data yet, for better or worse.

Upfront, the Ninja is the cheaper buy. Long-term, Breville has actually earned its reputation for durability, while Ninja is still writing its résumé on this particular machine.

Buy the Ninja Crispi Microwave If…

You want crispier leftovers without a separate air fryer eating up counter space, and you hate scrubbing grease out of a basket every other night. You’re reheating frozen meals several times a week and would rather press one button than dial in settings yourself. Cooking on glass instead of another nonstick coating is a bonus.

Buy the Breville Combi Wave 3 in 1 If…

You bake or roast regularly, not just reheat, and want more manual control over how your food cooks. You already trust Breville’s build quality, or you lean on convection cooking enough to want it as its own dedicated function.

Final Verdict: Is the Ninja Crispi Microwave Worth It Over the Breville?

The Breville Combi Wave is still an excellent all-rounder, and it’s earned its reputation for durability. The Ninja Crispi Microwave solves one of the most common complaints about microwaves: soggy food. And it’s doing it in a way nothin else in this category has tried yet. For most buyers picking between these two premium countertop machines, the Ninja is the more exciting choice if crispy reheated food is what you’re actually after.

So, which one would I buy? Given my tight kitchen and how much reheating I do for my kids on a weeknight, I’d go with the Ninja Crispi Microwave. The one-touch crisping and the glass basket are exactly what would make me trade in both my microwave and air fryer.

That said, if you bake and roast regularly, already have a Breville in your kitchen, or just want one machine that replaces your oven entirely, the Combi Wave is still the smarter buy. It’s not about which one is objectively better. It’s about which kitchen habit you’re actually trying to fix.