What to clean an air fryer with

Questions this answers

• Can I use a scourer on an air fryer basket?
• What is safe to clean an air fryer with?
• Can air fryer parts go in the dishwasher?
• How do I get burnt-on grease off?
• Can I use oven cleaner in an air fryer?

What every manual agrees on

Hot soapy water and a non-abrasive sponge or cloth. Soaking for anything that will not come off easily. That is the method, and it is the same in every document read for this catalogue.

And the prohibitions, which are stated more forcefully than the method. No scouring pads. No steel wool. No abrasive cleaning powders or creams. No metal utensils on any coated part. Tower's manual extends this to strong solvents and says it applies to the accessories as well as to the appliance; Cosori and Instant Brands say the same about metal on their non-stick parts.

The awkward implication is that the green side of a standard washing-up sponge is a scouring pad, and it is what most people use on a basket without thinking about it.

The dishwasher, which is model-dependent and usually narrower than people assume

This is genuinely a per-model question and the answers differ. Ninja's dual-zone manuals state that the drawers and crisper plates are the ONLY dishwasher-safe parts — and then recommend hand-washing even those to extend their life. Cosori permits the basket and crisper plates. Cookworks states its frying tray and basket are dishwasher-proof. Russell Hobbs' mini oven specifies hot soapy water for the bake pan, drip tray and mesh rack.

One thing is universal: the main unit never goes in a dishwasher and is never immersed in water. It contains the element, the fan and the wiring.

Where your model's page in this catalogue records dishwasher-safe parts, that is read from its manual. Where it does not, your manual is the governing document and this page is not a substitute for it.

Burnt-on grease, including a manufacturer's own method

The instinct is force and the answer is time. Soaking in hot soapy water does most of the work on most deposits, and an overnight soak is a documented method rather than a folk remedy — Ninja's multi-function grill manual specifies exactly that for its splatter guard, and adds that the part may be deep-cleaned by boiling it in a pan of water for ten minutes.

For deposit that survives soaking, Cosori publishes a specific method for its own coated parts: mix 30g of baking soda with 15ml of water into a spreadable paste, spread it on the basket and crisper plates with a sponge and scrub, leave for fifteen minutes, then rinse and wash with soap and water before use. AirfryerHQ records that because it is a manufacturer's instruction for its own appliance, not because baking soda is a universal remedy — and it is worth noting it is a mild abrasive being permitted by the same manual that forbids abrasive cleaners, which is the manufacturer drawing a line only they can draw.

What none of them suggests is oven cleaner. Caustic oven cleaners are formulated for enamelled steel cavities, not for coated aluminium, and no manual in this catalogue permits one.

The parts a sponge cannot reach

Crisper-plate perforations and grill-plate grooves are the two places a flat sponge bridges rather than enters. A soft-bristled brush is the tool, and at least one manufacturer supplies one in the box and lists it as dishwasher safe.

Around a probe socket or an electrical seam, liquid is the wrong approach entirely — Ninja's manual recommends compressed air or a cotton swab there rather than a liquid cleaner.

The element area gets a damp cloth and nothing else, when cool and unplugged. Instant Brands instructs checking the heating coil for oil spatter and food debris and cleaning it with a damp cloth as needed. Not a brush, not a chemical, not while warm.

Two rules that are about safety rather than results

Unplug it and let it cool. Electrical Safety First advises at least thirty minutes. Nothing about cleaning an air fryer is urgent enough to skip that.

Never immerse the main unit, and never let water into the chamber's electrical parts. Every manual in this catalogue says so, and it is the one instruction here where the consequence is not a damaged basket.

What AirfryerHQ has not established

Whether any cleaning product not named in a manual is safe for a coating. If your manual does not permit it, this page cannot, and no product has been tested here.

The baking-soda method is recorded as one manufacturer's published instruction for its own parts. It is not established as safe for another manufacturer's coating and should not be read as general permission.

Nothing here rests on demonstration, comparison or measurement. It is a synthesis of what four companies instruct.

The method, part by part

Basket — Ordinary residue after cookingThe basket and crisper plate, after every use — Warm soapy water or the dishwasher on most models, and never anything abrasive — the coating is the part that does not grow back.

Basket — Burnt-on residueBurnt-on grease on a basket or crisper plate — One manufacturer publishes an actual method — a baking-soda paste left for fifteen minutes — and it is the only sourced one in this catalogue.

Basket — Ordinary residue after cookingWhich parts are dishwasher safe — Most baskets and plates on the models we hold are. One accessory is explicitly not, and one whole machine publishes no permission at all.

Basket — Stuck foodFood stuck to the basket or plate — Soak it. Everything else risks the coating, and the coating is why it stuck.

Crisper plate — Looking after the coatingLooking after the nonstick coating — The coating is the shortest-lived part of an air fryer and almost everything that shortens it is avoidable.

Heating element area — Carbonised depositThe heating element area — One manufacturer permits cleaning the coil of food debris and requires it to be completely dry before switching on. Nothing else about it is optional.

Cooking probe — Ordinary residue after cookingThe cooking probe — The one accessory that must never go in the dishwasher, and whose cord must never be immersed.

Evidence and confidence

Appliances

• Basket air fryer
• Dual-basket air fryer
• Oven-style air fryer

Materials

• Metal tins, trays and cookware

If it went wrong

• The basket coating is flaking or peeling
• Everything tastes or smells of the last thing cooked