Air Fryer Accessories Actually Worth Buying (And What to Skip)

Buy an air fryer and within about a week the internet decides you need a twelve piece accessory kit. Skewer racks. A silicone trivet. A mold that promises waffles and delivers a sad, flat disc. Most of it ends up in the back of a cupboard, which is a shame, because three or four genuinely good accessories really will make your air fryer easier to live with.

So here is the honest split: the air fryer accessories worth buying, the ones that are situational, and the ones the evidence says to leave on the shelf. EggBoo does not run a test kitchen, so this is research based. We compared what appliance testers like America's Test Kitchen and Consumer Reports have published, what manufacturers say about their own coatings and airflow, and what owners consistently report living with. Where a claim could not be pinned down, we left it out.

One rule sits underneath everything below: an air fryer works by blowing hot air all around your food. Any accessory that blocks that airflow is trading crispness for something else. Sometimes that trade is worth it. Often it is not, and that is the fastest way to sort the useful from the gimmicky.

The short version

Buy first: an instant-read thermometer

The Yolk: It is the one accessory that answers a question you genuinely cannot eyeball, which is whether the middle of that chicken thigh is done. Check current price on Amazon (as of September 2026).

Air fryers are fast, and fast is exactly when people misjudge doneness. The outside browns hard while the inside lags, so the visual cues you trust from an oven stop being reliable. A two second reading turns the whole thing into a non-event.

The ThermoWorks ThermoPop 2 is the pick most testers land on for home use. ThermoWorks lists it at around $34 direct, reading in roughly 2 to 3 seconds with accuracy verified to plus or minus 1F, in a pocket-sized body with a rotating display. It is also available on Amazon. If $34 is more than you want to spend on a probe, ThermoPro's folding models sit at the budget end and are widely recommended as good-enough alternatives.

• Pros: Fixes the single most common air fryer failure, which is guessing. Useful far beyond the air fryer. Small enough to live in a drawer.
• Cons: The good ones cost more than most accessories on this list. Cheap no-name probes drift and lag, which defeats the purpose.
• Skip if: You genuinely only ever cook frozen fries and reheat pizza. No protein, no thermometer needed.

Buy: a non-aerosol oil sprayer

The Yolk: A pump mister gives you the thin coat of oil that makes food crisp, without the propellants that eat nonstick coatings. Check current price on Amazon (as of September 2026).

This one is less about upgrading your cooking than about not quietly ruining your basket. Aerosol cooking sprays are a widely reported problem in air fryers for two reasons: the propellants are hard on nonstick surfaces, and the soy lecithin used as an emulsifier does not hold up to sustained air fryer heat, so it bakes into a gummy film that ordinary washing will not lift. Owners describe baskets going patchy and tacky months into ownership, and the fix is almost always the spray, not the machine.

A refillable non-aerosol mister sidesteps all of it, because there is nothing in the bottle but your own oil. The Evo sprayer is the one most often named here, listed around $18 on Amazon as of September 2026, and its selling point is a fine fan-shaped mist rather than a dribble. Cheaper glass pump sprayers work too, with the usual caveat that thick oils clog fine nozzles, so stick to thin ones like avocado, canola, or light olive.

• Pros: Protects the coating you paid for. Costs less than a replacement basket. Uses whatever oil you already own.
• Cons: Needs an occasional rinse or it gets sluggish. The spray pattern is never quite as even as aerosol.
• Skip if: You already brush or toss food with oil in a bowl before it goes in, which honestly works just as well.

Buy: silicone-tipped tongs

The Yolk: A few dollars of silicone standing between your metal tongs and a scratched basket. Check current price on Amazon (as of September 2026).

America's Test Kitchen puts nonstick-safe tools near the top of its air fryer list for the boring, correct reason: metal utensils scratch nonstick coatings, and a scratched basket is one that sticks, smokes, and gets replaced early. Silicone-tipped tongs are nimble enough to turn wings mid-cook without lifting the whole basket out. Add a nonstick-safe spatula if you cook flat things, like fish, that need lifting rather than grabbing.

• Pros: Cheap, dishwasher safe, works everywhere else in your kitchen too.
• Cons: Long tongs can be clumsy in a small basket, so look for a shorter pair, around 9 inches.
• Skip if: You already own silicone or wooden tools and were never going near the basket with metal anyway.

Buy, with a caveat: perforated liners

The Yolk: The right liner turns a scrub into a wipe, at a small and predictable cost to crisping. Check current price on Amazon (as of September 2026).

Liners are the most common air fryer accessory and the most misunderstood one. The important distinction is not paper versus silicone, it is perforated versus solid. A solid sheet, in either material, blocks the airflow under your food, so the bottom steams instead of crisping. A perforated liner keeps most of that airflow and still catches the mess.

There is a real safety point too. Consumer Reports flagged disposable paper liners as one of the accessories it would not recommend, because light foods are not heavy enough to hold the paper down and it can lift into the heating element. That risk is manageable rather than disqualifying: never preheat with an empty liner in the basket, always put food on top immediately, and never use one under something light and flat like a single slice of bread. Our full guide to using parchment paper in an air fryer walks through the sizes and the safe-use rules in detail.

Reusable silicone liners solve the flying-paper problem outright, since they are heavier and stay put. Food-grade silicone is rated to roughly 446F, comfortably above normal air fryer temperatures. The trade is that a solid silicone basket insert blocks even more airflow than paper, and Consumer Reports found cook times went up with a full silicone pot. Buy the perforated version if crisping matters to you at all.

• Pros: Saves the worst of the cleanup on sticky, saucy, or sugary food. Cheap, and reusable versions pay for themselves.
• Cons: Every liner costs you some crisping. Paper ones are single-use and you go through them fast.
• Skip if: Your air fryer diet is mostly fries, tots, and wings. Those want maximum airflow and a bare basket.

Buy if you cook for three or more: a stackable rack

The Yolk: The cheapest way to stop cooking in shifts, because a second layer beats a crowded pile every time. Check current price on Amazon (as of September 2026).

Overcrowding is the number one reason air fryer food comes out pale and soft instead of crisp, and it is the most common mistake beginners make. A stackable stainless rack fixes it structurally: instead of piling food two deep in the basket, you spread it across two or three levels with air moving between them.

Sizing is the whole game here. Square racks around 8 to 8.5 inches are made for 6 to 8 quart baskets with an interior wider than about 8.7 inches, which covers most Cosori, Ninja, and Instant Vortex models in that range. Measure the inside floor of your basket before you buy, not the quart rating, because two 6 quart fryers can have very different footprints. Racks like the BYKITCHEN 8 inch square set are sold as three stackable tiers with silicone feet, and the whole set typically runs under $15.

• Pros: Effectively adds capacity for the price of a sandwich. Doubles as a dehydrator rack on machines that support it.
• Cons: Only helps foods that sit flat. Loose fries fall through, so racks are for wings, bacon, chicken pieces, and vegetables, not shoestrings. Extra pieces to wash.
• Skip if: You cook for one or two, in which case a rack mostly adds washing up. If capacity is your real problem, the answer might be a different machine, and our guide to choosing an air fryer covers what sizes actually feed how many people.

Buy if you bake: a 6 inch cake barrel

The Yolk: The accessory that turns an air fryer into a small convection oven instead of a fry basket. Check current price on Amazon (as of September 2026).

This is the one "extra pan" accessory that consistently earns its cupboard space. Consumer Reports found baking pan kits genuinely useful for small cakes, pound cakes, and bread rolls, and America's Test Kitchen recommends a round cake pan, 8 inch for larger machines or 6 inch for smaller ones, as the accessory that opens up what an air fryer can do. The standard cake barrel is a nonstick pan with roughly a 6 inch inner diameter and about 3 inches of depth, sold as fitting most models 4 quarts and up. It is also the practical way to cook anything wet, from mac and cheese to egg bakes, that would otherwise pour straight through the crisper plate.

• Pros: Genuinely expands what the machine does. Cheap. Dishwasher safe on most nonstick versions.
• Cons: Quality varies a lot at the budget end, with owners reporting coatings that do not last. Measure your basket first, because a 6 inch barrel does not fit every compact fryer.
• Skip if: You have a full-size oven you actually like using and no interest in single-layer cakes.

Buy, for pennies: a cleaning brush and soft sponges

The Yolk: The crisper plate holes and the intake vents are where grease hides, and a sponge cannot reach either. Check current price on Amazon (as of September 2026).

A soft-bristle brush and a couple of non-scratch sponges are barely accessories, but they matter more than most things here, because baked-on grease is what makes an air fryer start smoking and what kills coatings early. Manufacturers including Cosori specifically call for a soft-bristle brush around the heating element and bottom vents. Our air fryer cleaning guide has the full two minute and monthly routines.

• Pros: Costs almost nothing, extends the life of the basket, prevents the smoke problem before it starts.
• Cons: Cheap brushes shed bristles. Pick a firm-handled dish brush over a flimsy bottle brush.
• Skip if: Nothing. Everyone should own these.

What to skip

Aerosol cooking spray. Not technically an accessory, but it is the single most damaging thing people put in an air fryer. Propellants erode nonstick coatings and lecithin bakes into a residue that will not wash off. Use a pump mister or a brush.

The 8 to 12 piece accessory kit. Built to look like value on the product page. In practice most homes use two or three pieces, and the rest are the skewer rack, the trivet, and the mold nobody touches. Buy the pieces you actually want, individually.

Skewer racks. They photograph beautifully and they are awkward in real cooking. Loading them is fiddly, they hold small portions, and everything they do can be done by laying the same food flat.

Waffle molds. Consumer Reports found them too shallow for typical waffle batter and not sturdy enough to handle safely. An air fryer is a bad waffle iron.

Branded "air fryer cleaner" sprays. There is nothing in them that warm soapy water plus a baking soda paste does not do, and some are harsh enough to be a poor idea near nonstick.

Metal utensils and scouring pads. The fastest way to a scratched basket, which is the fastest way to a sticky basket.

Anything plastic that is not explicitly high-heat rated. If the listing will not tell you the temperature rating, do not put it in a 400F machine.

How to decide what you actually need

1. Start with what goes wrong. Food not crisp? That is a rack and less crowding, not a gadget. Basket a nightmare to clean? Liners. Chicken overcooked? Thermometer. 2. Measure the inside of your basket. Almost every returned accessory is a sizing failure. Quart ratings do not tell you the footprint. 3. Ask what it does to airflow. Solid barriers cost crispness. Perforated ones cost less. Racks add airflow rather than blocking it. 4. Buy singly, not in kits. Two good pieces beat twelve mediocre ones. 5. Check heat ratings before anything goes in. Food-grade silicone is fine to roughly 446F. Unrated plastic is not.

If you are still choosing the machine itself, our air fryer finder tool narrows things down by size and budget, and the best air fryers for small kitchens roundup is the place to start when counter space is the constraint. No accessory fixes a fryer that is the wrong size for your household, and none fixes the habits that make food soggy either, which are free to correct.

FAQ

What air fryer accessories do I actually need?

None of them, strictly. An air fryer works out of the box. If you are buying anything, start with an instant-read thermometer, then silicone-tipped tongs, then liners if cleanup is your pain point and a rack if capacity is. That is the entire list for most households.

Are silicone air fryer liners safe?

Food-grade silicone is rated to around 446F, comfortably above the temperatures a normal air fryer reaches, and it does not react with food at those temperatures. The caveats are practical rather than chemical: buy from a seller that states a heat rating, and prefer a perforated liner, since a solid one blocks the airflow that makes food crisp.

Can I use aluminum foil in an air fryer instead of a liner?

You can, with the same rules that apply to parchment: weighed down by food, not covering the whole basket floor, never touching the heating element. Foil blocks more airflow than a perforated liner, so treat it as a workable improvisation rather than an upgrade.

Is a silicone basket insert better than the basket?

Not for crisping. A full silicone pot makes cleanup much easier, but Consumer Reports found cook times increased with one, which is what you would expect from wrapping food in an insulating layer. Use one for sticky or saucy dishes, not for anything you want crunchy.

Do I need special accessories for a dual-basket air fryer?

Mostly no, but sizing gets tighter. Dual-zone drawers are narrower than a single large basket, so the standard 8.5 inch rack or liner often will not fit. Measure each drawer individually and buy the smaller size.

EggBoo Verdict

Most air fryer accessories exist to be sold, not to be used. The short list that genuinely earns its place is a good instant-read thermometer, a non-aerosol oil sprayer, silicone-tipped tongs, and a soft-bristle brush, with perforated liners and a stackable rack added if cleanup or capacity is your specific complaint. That is a short, cheap list, and it will do more for your cooking than any twelve piece bundle.

Skip the aerosol spray, the skewer racks, the waffle molds, and the kits. And remember the one principle that sorts the whole category: if it blocks the airflow, it costs you crispness, so it had better be earning that back in convenience. No rotten eggs, no drawer full of plastic you never touch.