Handling and hand tools
Oil sprayer
Good for coating food evenly with very little oil. At least one manufacturer forbids spraying it into the chamber, and aerosol cooking sprays damage non-stick coatings.
AirfryerHQ’s verdict
Genuinely useful
Solves a real problem that comes up often, and does something you cannot easily improvise.
A thin, even film of oil is what makes food brown evenly rather than in patches, and getting a teaspoon to cover 500g of chips evenly is genuinely hard. A refillable pump sprayer does it, uses less oil than tossing, and lets you use your own oil. The verdict stops short of essential for one reason: tossing food in a bowl with a teaspoon of oil achieves most of the same thing and costs nothing.
What it actually does
Breaks your own oil into a fine mist so a small amount covers a large surface. It fills in the microscopic roughness of a dry surface, which is what lets heat arrive everywhere instead of only at the high points.
A pump bottle you fill with your own oil, which delivers a fine mist. It is one of the few accessories that does something a spoon genuinely cannot — but where you point it matters more than which one you buy.
When it helps and when it does not
When it helps
- Coating a full basket of chips or wedges evenly, which a spoon does badly
- Delicate items — fish, breaded pieces — that would break up if tossed in a bowl
- Using noticeably less oil than tossing, which is the reason most people bought the appliance
- Refreshing a surface part way through a long cook without adding a pool of oil
When it gets in the way
- Spraying into the appliance rather than onto the food — at least one manufacturer prohibits this outright as a fire risk
- Aerosol cooking sprays from a can, which carry propellants and additives that build up on and degrade non-stick coatings; a refillable pump filled with plain oil does not
- Any food already carrying enough fat of its own — bacon, sausages, skin-on chicken thighs — where added oil only smokes
What to use instead
A bowl and a teaspoon. Put the food in, add the oil, toss with your hands, tip it into the basket. It uses slightly more oil and covers slightly less evenly, and for most cooking that difference is invisible.
Using it safely
- Spray the FOOD, in a bowl, outside the appliance. Instant Brands' manual states in a caution box that cooking oil must not be sprayed into the cooking chamber, citing risk of fire, property damage and personal injury.
- Use a refillable pump sprayer with plain oil rather than an aerosol cooking spray, which several manufacturers of non-stick cookware advise against for coating damage.
- Oil accumulating on the element and inside the chamber is what smokes and eventually what burns, which is why the point above is a safety condition rather than a preference.
Looking after it
Oil left in a pump sprayer goes rancid and gums the mechanism. Fill it with what you will use in a few weeks, and wash it out in hot soapy water rather than topping it up indefinitely.
Evidence and confidence
- Applies to
- Applies generally
- Why this rating
- The useful half of this page is not that a sprayer works but that where you aim it is a safety question, and that comes straight from a manufacturer caution rather than from AirfryerHQ. The alternative offered is another manufacturer's published instruction.
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-30
What this does not cover
- The claim that aerosol propellants degrade non-stick coatings is widely stated by cookware manufacturers and is not established by any source in this register. It is recorded as a caution rather than a finding.
- 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)
Instant Vortex 4-in-1 Air Fryer — User Manual (PDF)
Instant Brands (EMEA) Limited — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom and European Union)
Relied on for: A caution box stating that cooking oil must not be sprayed into the cooking chamber, to avoid risk of fire, property damage and personal injury — and that metal cleaning utensils must not be used on the non-stick cooking tray.
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 936/1104. Covers the Vortex 4 and Vortex 6 in one document.
Russell Hobbs SatisFry Air Fryer & Grill Multi Cooker 5.5L — Instructions (PDF)
Spectrum Brands (Russell Hobbs) — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom)
Relied on for: Cooking-table rows instructing the reader to toss chips in oil and to brush a jacket potato with oil — the manufacturer's own method for getting oil onto food, which is the alternative this page offers.
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 206/6444.
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.
If this is why you are here
- The air fryer is smoking — Usually rendered fat on a hot surface below the basket. Distinguishing that from an electrical smell is the first thing to do.
- Food is not crisping — Almost always moisture that cannot get out, and almost always because there is too much in the basket. One manufacturer says so directly.
- The basket coating is flaking or peeling — Usually mechanical damage from cleaning, and it does not repair. A basket shedding coating should be replaced rather than used.
Cooking pages this affects
Worth reading
Others in this category
Genuinely useful
Silicone-tipped tongs
The accessory that protects the most expensive part of the appliance, and manufacturers are unusually united about it.
A convenience, not a capability
Heatproof gloves
A convenience unless you cook on multiple levels or lift hot inner baskets, in which case it stops being one.