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AirfryerHQ

Grilling and skewers

Grill plate

Ridges give contact marks and a different surface. If your machine came with one, use it; buying one separately is a narrower call.

AirfryerHQ’s verdict

Useful for a specific job

Right for one particular job. If you do not do that job, it will sit in a drawer.

A grill plate changes how heat arrives: metal contact along the ridges browns faster than moving air does, which is the one thing an air fryer is otherwise not very good at. That is a real gain for steak, halloumi and burgers and no gain at all for chips. Where a manufacturer supplies one it is part of the machine and its charts assume it; where it is an add-on, it is worth buying only if you cook the foods it suits.

What it actually does

Puts hot metal in contact with the food along raised ridges, producing contact browning and marks that airflow alone does not, while the gaps let fat drain and air circulate.

A ridged metal plate that replaces or sits over the crisper plate, so food rests on raised bars with gaps between them. Several appliances in this catalogue ship with one as a standard part.

When it helps and when it does not

When it helps

  • Steak, burgers and chops, where contact browning is what moving air cannot give you
  • Halloumi and firm vegetables, which mark well and release cleanly from ridges
  • Anything you want to keep out of its own rendered fat

When it gets in the way

  • Chips, wedges and small loose pieces, which fall between the ridges or sit in them unevenly
  • Anything breaded, where the ridges take the coating off
  • Delicate fish, which sticks to and tears on ridges

What it does to the airflow

Obstructs the air a little

A ridged plate is more solid than a perforated crisper plate, so less air reaches the underside. The trade is deliberate: you are swapping some airflow for metal contact, and it is worth it only for foods that want contact.

What to use instead

The crisper plate that came with the machine, which is better for most foods. If your machine already includes a grill plate, this question does not arise.

What specific manufacturers say

Statements read from a named model’s own documentation. AirfryerHQ does not infer that an accessory fits a machine from its advertised capacity, and no manufacturer here publishes the dimensions that would let anybody do so.

  • Tower T17088 9L Dual Basket Vortx Air Fryer

    Its two 4.5-litre drawers each ship with a removable grill plate as standard, so the grill plate is part of the appliance rather than an accessory for this model.

    Tower T17088 9L Dual Basket Vortx Air Fryer — Safety and Instruction Manual

  • Ninja Foodi MAX Health Grill & Air Fryer AG551UK

    The grill plate is a supplied part, is dishwasher safe alongside the cooking pot and crisper basket, and the manufacturer's own charts cook vegetables and fruit on it with per-food preparation stated.

    Ninja Foodi MAX Health Grill & Air Fryer AG551UK — Instructions

Which machines it suits

Makes sense in: Basket air fryer, Dual-basket air fryer, Multicooker with air fry, Oven-style air fryer.

Looking after it

Ridges hold burnt-on residue in the grooves where a sponge cannot reach. Soak rather than scrub, and where the plate is coated, keep metal tools off it — several manufacturers prohibit metal utensils on their non-stick parts.

Evidence and confidence

Moderate confidenceWell supported, but from a narrower base of sources than we would like.
Applies to
Applies generally
Why this rating
Two manufacturers supply a grill plate as a standard part and publish charts that use it, which establishes what it is for better than any argument from first principles. The limitation — that it costs some airflow — follows from it being more solid than the perforated plate it replaces.
Last reviewed
2026-08-30

What this does not cover

  • No comparison of browning between a grill plate and a crisper plate has been measured.
  • AirfryerHQ has not bought, fitted or used any accessory. Every judgement here is reasoned from what the accessory does physically and from what manufacturers publish about it.
Sources (3)

  • Ninja Foodi MAX Health Grill & Air Fryer AG551UK — Instructions (PDF)

    SharkNinja Europe Limited — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom)

    Relied on for: That the grill plate is a supplied, dishwasher-safe part of the appliance rather than a third-party addition, and sits alongside the crisper basket as an alternative surface.

    States this directly

    Passage read and verified

    Retrieved 2026-08-13 from argos-support.co.uk

    Retrieved from Argos's manual library for Argos product 735/0124. The document identifies itself as revision AG551UKSeries_IB_MP_Mv1_200630_Mv1.

  • Tower T17088 9L Dual Basket Vortx Air Fryer — Safety and Instruction Manual (PDF)

    RKW Ltd (Tower Housewares) — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom)

    Relied on for: That a dual-drawer machine ships with removable grill plates in both drawers as standard.

    States this directly

    Passage read and verified

    Retrieved 2026-08-13 from argos-support.co.uk

    Retrieved from Argos's manual library for Argos product 409/6137.

  • AirfryerHQ assessment of airflow, element proximity and material behaviour

    AirfryerHQ — Calculated or inferred by AirfryerHQ (Not jurisdictional)

    Relied on for: The mechanism this is read against: forced convection, boundary-layer disruption and a small chamber.

    AirfryerHQ's interpretation of what it says

    Citation checked — the document exists and is described correctly

AirfryerHQ sells nothing and earns nothing here. There are no affiliate links, no sponsored placements and no brand recommendations anywhere in this section. The verdict above is what we think, arrived at before anybody asked whether it would sell anything.

Can it go in? The material questions

  • Metal tins, trays and cookware — Explicitly permitted by one manufacturer for baking, and recommended by three others whenever a batter is involved.

If this is why you are here

Cooking pages this affects

Worth reading

Others in this category

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    Skewer rack

    Genuinely good at the one job it does, and that job is narrower than the packaging suggests.