How to clean an air fryer

Questions this answers

• How do I clean my air fryer properly?
• Which parts come out and which do not?
• What should I never use on an air fryer?
• Where does the smell actually come from?

The three things every manual in this catalogue agrees on

Fifteen manufacturer manuals were read for this catalogue and three instructions appear in nearly all of them, with no qualifications attached to any of them. Never immerse the main unit, the cord or the plug in water. Never use anything abrasive on a coated part. Let it cool completely before you start.

That level of agreement is rare here — the same manuals disagree by a factor of two about how long a frozen chip takes — and it is worth stating separately because those three rules cover most of the ways an air fryer is damaged by cleaning rather than by cooking.

Clean the fat path, not just what the food touched

The single commonest mistake is washing the basket and stopping. Fat leaves the food, falls through the basket and lands in the outer pan; some of it reaches the underside of the element, and on machines with a shield between the element and the food it collects there in quantity.

None of those places is visible when the basket is out, and all of them are why an apparently clean appliance smokes on its next use and makes everything taste of the last thing cooked. One manufacturer states the mechanism directly: failing to fit and clean the splatter guard results in oil building up on the heating element, which causes smoking.

Every part, and what it needs

The records below cover each component with the soil that actually collects on it, how often it needs doing, whether it may go in a dishwasher, the methods that work, and — separately and prominently — the methods that must not be used and the reason why not.

Where a manufacturer publishes a specific method, it is named. Where nobody does and AirfryerHQ is reasoning from mechanism, the record says so rather than presenting the two in the same voice.

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.

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.

Drawer — Greasy filmThe drawer and the pan under the basket — The part that collects the fat, and the part people wipe rather than wash — which is where the smoke starts.

Trays and bake pans — Burnt-on residueRacks, shelves, trays and bake pans — Hand wash and an hour's soak for anything baked on — one manufacturer publishes exactly that.

Splatter guard — Greasy filmThe splatter guard, and why it decides whether the machine smokes — The part almost nobody knows they have, and the one manual that documents it says failing to clean it puts oil on the element.

Crumb tray — Ordinary residue after cookingThe crumb tray — Empty it regularly, clean it more often when air frying, and never run the machine without it.

Interior of the chamber — Greasy filmThe inside of the chamber — A damp non-abrasive cloth, never immersed, and dry before it goes back on.

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.

Exterior and body — Greasy filmThe outside of the appliance — A damp cloth, and nothing else. This is the one instruction every manual in the catalogue shares.

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

If it went wrong

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