Handling and hand tools
Silicone-tipped tongs
The accessory that protects the most expensive part of the appliance, and manufacturers are unusually united about it.
AirfryerHQ’s verdict
Genuinely useful
Solves a real problem that comes up often, and does something you cannot easily improvise.
Almost every manufacturer in this catalogue prohibits metal utensils on their non-stick parts, and the coating is the wear item that ends an air fryer's useful life — baskets fail long before motors do. A pair of silicone-tipped tongs is a few pounds against a part that is often hard to buy separately. That is a good trade, and it is not really about the tongs.
What it actually does
Lifts and turns hot food without dragging metal across a non-stick surface, and reaches into a deep drawer without you putting your hand near the element.
Ordinary kitchen tongs with silicone rather than bare metal at the tips. Unremarkable, cheap, and the thing standing between a metal fork and the coating on your basket.
When it helps and when it does not
When it helps
- Turning anything mid-cook, which is when a metal utensil would otherwise scrape the basket
- Lifting food out of a deep drawer without tipping the whole basket
- Anything hot enough that fingers are not an option, which is all of it
When it gets in the way
- Nothing, beyond taking up a drawer. Silicone grips less firmly than metal on very smooth items such as a whole potato.
What to use instead
Wooden or plastic utensils you already own, provided they are heat-resistant. What matters is that they are not metal, not that they are tongs.
Using it safely
Temperature limit: about 220°C. Kitchen silicone is commonly rated in this region, but the rating belongs to the product rather than to silicone in general. Tongs touch food briefly rather than sitting in the chamber, so the limit rarely binds.
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.
Philips 5000 Series Megabasket Airfryer with Steam NA565
Kitchen tongs are supplied in the box with the NA565/02 and NA565/92 variants, and every cooking procedure in the manual ends by telling the user to remove food with them. The same manual prohibits metal utensils on the non-stick parts.
Philips Airfryer 5000 Series Megabasket with Steam NA565 — User Manual
Looking after it
Silicone tips hold onto grease and smell. Wash them properly rather than rinsing, and check the tips have not split — a split tip is a place for food to sit.
Evidence and confidence
- Applies to
- Applies generally
- Why this rating
- Four manufacturers from four companies say the same thing about metal on their coatings, and one of them now puts tongs in the box, which is as close to consensus as our sources get. The verdict follows from what the coating costs to replace rather than from anything about the tongs themselves.
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-30
What this does not cover
- No coating-durability testing has been carried out, and AirfryerHQ holds no data on how long a coating lasts with or without metal utensils.
- 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 (5)
Cosori Dual Blaze TwinFry 10L Air Fryer CAF-TF101S-AES — User Manual (PDF)
Arovast Corporation (Cosori) — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom)
Relied on for: That the basket and crisper plates carry a non-stick coating and that metal utensils and abrasive cleaning materials are to be avoided on them.
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 818/0764. The document covers several languages in one file; every figure recorded here comes from the English section.
Instant Vortex 4-in-1 Air Fryer — User Manual (PDF)
Instant Brands (EMEA) Limited — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom and European Union)
Relied on for: That the cooking tray has a non-stick coating and metal cleaning utensils must not be used on it.
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.
Tower T17023 2.2 Litre Air Fryer — Safety and Instruction Manual (PDF)
RKW Ltd (Tower Housewares) — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom)
Relied on for: That scouring pads, steel wool and abrasive cleaning agents must not be used on the appliance or its accessories.
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 745/2194.
Philips Airfryer 5000 Series Megabasket with Steam NA565 — User Manual (PDF)
Versuni Netherlands B.V. (Philips Domestic Appliances) — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom and European Union)
Relied on for: A manufacturer that supplies tongs with the appliance, writes them into every cooking procedure, and prohibits metal utensils and abrasive materials on its non-stick parts.
States this directly
Passage read and verified
Retrieved 2026-10-09 from dam.versuni.com
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.
- Silicone liners and moulds — Heavy enough not to be lifted, and rated above the temperatures these appliances reach. The airflow question is the one that remains.
If this is why you are here
- 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.
- Food sticks to the basket — Cold surface, no oil, or a coating that has begun to wear — and one of those three is worth acting on quickly.
Worth reading
Others in this category
Genuinely useful
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.
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.