Flex-drawer air fryer (one drawer, removable divider)

Flex-drawer air fryer

One large drawer with a removable divider. Two zones with their own settings when you want them, one big space when you do not.

What changes in this appliance

Undivided, treat it as a basket machine with more room: times and temperatures transfer unchanged and the extra area means a portion that would have been heaped in a smaller drawer can go in one layer, which is worth more than any time adjustment. Divided, check your own manual for whether each zone is set separately; on the machines we have read it is, so treat each zone as its own small basket and use that zone's own figure where the manual gives one — the zones are not always the same size. Do not carry a whole-drawer figure into a zone, or a zone's figure into the whole drawer: one manufacturer's own table gives a kilogram of chicken wings 22 minutes in a zone and 30 minutes undivided, and changes the temperature as well as the time for a whole chicken and for prawns. The difference from a dual-basket machine is the drawer: pulling it out to shake or turn one food opens both zones and lets the heat out of both, so pair foods that need attention at about the same moments.

Every cooking page on AirfryerHQ is written for a single-drawer basket machine. This is how to read those figures if yours is different.

How it is built

A single deep drawer, larger than a conventional basket, with a divider that drops in to create two compartments. It answers the dual-basket machine's real weakness — that neither drawer is big enough for a whole chicken — by letting the divider come out. The shape does not decide how the two compartments are controlled; each machine's manual does. On the four machines of this kind whose manuals we have read, each compartment takes its own temperature and time with the divider in, and on one of them the two sides differ in what they can do: steam works on one side only. What is given up on all four is separate access: there is one drawer, so reaching one food means opening both.

Chamber: One drawer with a removable divider
Independent zones: 2
Element and fan: Several elements
Preheating: Has a preheat programme

Typical specifications

Ranges for this architecture, not a claim about any particular machine. Your own manual is the authority for yours.

Advertised capacity: 7–10 litres
Usable single-layer area: 700–1000 cm²The number that actually decides how much food you can cook well. Manufacturers do not publish it.
Power: 1700–2700 W
Temperature range: 80–205°C
Adjusts in: 5°C steps
Usually offers: Air fry, Roast, Bake, Grill, Reheat, Dehydrate

Does it genuinely air-fry?

No standards body defines air frying, so these are AirfryerHQ’s own assessment criteria. They are published rather than applied silently, so you can disagree with the reasoning instead of taking a verdict on trust.

Air moves fast, not just around — met
Air reaches every surface of the food — met
Recovers temperature quickly after loading — met
Fat and moisture drain away — met
Reaches genuine browning temperatures — met

Good at

One large space when you need it, which no dual-basket machine offers
Real usable area rather than depth, because the drawer is wide rather than deep
Fewer parts to wash than two drawers and two crisper plates

Not good at

One drawer for both zones, so one food cannot be taken out or shaken without opening the other
The divider is a separate part that has to be stored somewhere
Airflow around the divider is not perfectly symmetrical, so the two halves are not identical

Models of this kind

Instant Vortex Plus VersaZone 8.5L — One 8.5-litre drawer that a removable divider turns into two 4.2-litre zones, each of which takes its own programme, temperature and time.
Cosori Dual Blaze TwinFry 10L Air Fryer — One 10-litre drawer with a removable divider, and — unusually for that geometry — a separate element and fan on each side.
Philips 5000 Series Megabasket Airfryer with Steam NA565 — One large drawer with a removable divider — and the manual prints the same preset at two different times, depending on the wattage of the version you were sold.
Tefal Dual Easy Fry Flex 9L EY9228G1 — One 9-litre drawer that a divider splits into a 5.5-litre and a 3.5-litre zone, each with its own heating element and its own settings.