How to remove burnt-on grease
This is where most cleaning advice reaches for something abrasive and where doing so destroys the part. There are three published alternatives in this catalogue, from three manufacturers, and all of them work by softening the deposit rather than by removing it with force.
Questions this answers
- How do I get baked-on grease off my air fryer?
- Can I use oven cleaner in an air fryer?
- Does the baking soda trick actually work?
- Can I clean an air fryer by running it with soapy water in the drawer?
Why not oven cleaner
No manual read for this catalogue permits it, several prohibit strong solvents outright, and the surfaces involved are a nonstick coating and a surface that touches food. A caustic product formulated for enamelled steel is designed for neither.
The same reasoning rules out the popular trick of running the appliance with a cleaning solution in the basket. It appears in no manual, and it involves heating a chemical solution in a chamber with a live element directly above it. Where a manufacturer does publish an empty run, the chamber is empty.
A sticky film that washing leaves behind
A basket that still feels tacky after it has been washed is not dirty in the ordinary sense. It is oil that has been heated, cooled and heated again until it has started to harden into a varnish, and it is the first stage of the brown deposit this page is about. That is general kitchen chemistry and not something any manual here explains; the practical consequence is that it no longer dissolves the way fresh grease does.
It is also why a dishwasher cycle often leaves it where it was. A dishwasher is good at fresh fat and loose food and poor at a film that has bonded to the surface, and the manuals behave as though they know it: where one addresses stuck residue it prescribes a soak, including for parts it has just called dishwasher safe. Ninja says to put the plates or drawers in a sink of warm, soapy water and let them soak. Tefal says to fill them with hot water and washing-up liquid for about ten minutes.
The film builds fastest where oil is sprayed onto the basket instead of onto the food, and aerosol cooking sprays are the usual source. Oil the food, and the basket stops collecting it.
Running it with soapy water in the drawer
The widely shared version is to pour water and washing-up liquid into the drawer, switch the appliance on for a few minutes and let it clean itself. The manuals do not leave this open. Tower, Tefal, Cookworks and Philips each print the same instruction about the part that slides out: do not fill it with oil or any other liquid. The reason is in the design: the fan is directly above the drawer, and its job is to throw whatever is in there around the chamber and up at the element.
What the same manuals offer instead is the soak, done with the appliance off. Tefal's version is to fill the bowl and grid with hot water and washing-up liquid and leave them for about ten minutes. It is the same water and the same soap, standing in the sink or on the worktop instead of being blown at a live heater.
A dishwasher tablet dissolved in the drawer is the same trick with a harsher chemical, and the non-stick coating is what it attacks. No manual read here describes it.
One exception is real, and it is specific. The two Philips steam models here have a steam-cleaning programme: twenty minutes, fifteen of steam and five of drying, fed from the water tank and not from water poured into the pan. Philips says it loosens grease, and still expects the pan to be washed afterwards. That is a manufacturer's own mode on its own machine, not a method to copy on one without a tank.
The method, part by part
| Part | What is on it | How often | Dishwasher |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basket | Burnt-on residue | When it needs it | Depends on your model — check the manual |
| Basket | Stuck food | When it needs it | Depends on your model — check the manual |
| Splatter guard | Greasy film | After every use | Dishwasher safe on the models we hold |
Basket — Burnt-on residue
Burnt-on grease on a basket or crisper plate
Burnt-on residue is where most cleaning advice online reaches for something abrasive, and where doing so destroys the part. The published alternative is chemical rather than mechanical: a mild alkaline paste that softens the deposit so it lifts rather than being scraped off.
- How often
- When it needs it
- Dishwasher
- Depends on your model — check the manual
What works
Baking-soda paste, left for fifteen minutes
Cosori's published method: mix 30g of baking soda with 15ml of water into a spreadable paste, spread it over the basket and crisper plates with a sponge and scrub gently, leave it to stand for fifteen minutes, then rinse and wash with soap and water before using. It is the only manufacturer-published method for burnt-on residue found in any manual read for this catalogue.
Published by Arovast Corporation (Cosori).Soak in hot soapy water for an hour, or overnight
Russell Hobbs publishes a one-hour soak in warm-to-hot soapy water for anything baked onto a rack or pan, followed by a sponge or a soft cleaning brush. Ninja publishes an overnight soak for the splatter guard. Both are the same idea: let water do the work that a scourer would otherwise do to the coating.
Published by Spectrum Brands (Russell Hobbs).A soft brush or the blunt end of a cleaning tool
Ninja supplies a cleaning brush and suggests using the opposite end of it as a scraper for baked-on sauces and cheese. A plastic scraper is not an abrasive and is the right tool where one is needed.
Published by SharkNinja Europe Limited.
What not to do, and why
Oven cleaner or caustic degreaser
No manual read for this catalogue permits it, several prohibit strong solvents outright, and the surfaces involved are a nonstick coating and a surface that touches food. A caustic product designed for enamelled steel is not designed for either.
Published by RKW Ltd (Tower Housewares).Metal scourers, wire wool or a knife
They will get the deposit off and take the coating with it. This is the single commonest way an air-fryer basket is ruined.
Published by Arovast Corporation (Cosori).Letting the appliance run empty with a cleaning solution in the basket
It appears in no manual read for this catalogue, and it involves heating a chemical solution in a chamber with a live element directly above it. Where a manufacturer publishes an empty test run, it is with nothing in the chamber at all.
- Your own manual is the governing document. Where it differs from anything here, follow it — this is a synthesis of what several manufacturers publish, not an instruction for your specific machine.
- The baking-soda method was published for one manufacturer's baskets. It is mild and unlikely to harm another nonstick coating, but that is reasoning rather than their instruction.
Basket — Stuck food
Food stuck to the basket or plate
Sticking and coating damage are the same problem at two points in its life: food sticks because the coating has worn, and the coating wears because stuck food was scraped off. Breaking that loop is the whole content of this page.
- How often
- When it needs it
- Dishwasher
- Depends on your model — check the manual
What works
Fill the basket with hot soapy water and leave it
Twenty minutes for ordinary sticking, overnight for anything carbonised. Every manufacturer in this catalogue offers soaking before it offers anything mechanical.
Published by SharkNinja Europe Limited.Use a plastic scraper or the blunt end of a brush
Ninja supplies a brush and suggests its opposite end as a scraper for baked-on sauces and cheese.
Published by SharkNinja Europe Limited.Prevent it: oil the food rather than the basket, and preheat where the machine wants it
Food goes onto a cold surface, sticks as its proteins set, and releases once it has browned. Tossing food in oil before it goes in does more than spraying the basket, and one manufacturer specifically warns against aerosol sprays because of the propellant.
Published by Arovast Corporation (Cosori).
What not to do, and why
Metal scourers, knives or wire wool
They remove the coating, which guarantees worse sticking next time. Prohibited by name in more than one manual in this catalogue.
Published by RKW Ltd (Tower Housewares).Putting a hot basket straight into cold water to loosen it
Thermal shock warps the basket and can craze a coating. Let it cool and then soak it in hot water instead.
- Your own manual is the governing document. Where it differs from anything here, follow it — this is a synthesis of what several manufacturers publish, not an instruction for your specific machine.
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.
Evidence and confidence
- Applies to
- Specific to this type of appliance
- Why this rating
- Three published softening methods from three manufacturers, against a set of prohibitions two of them state explicitly. The absence of any published caustic method across the manuals we have read is itself the argument against one.
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-13
What this does not cover
- Your own manual is the governing document for your appliance. Where it differs from anything here, follow it.
Sources (10)
Ninja Foodi MAX Dual Zone Air Fryer AF400UK — Instructions (PDF)
SharkNinja Europe Limited — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom)
Relied on for: That food residue stuck on the crisper plates or drawers is dealt with by soaking them in a sink of warm, soapy water.
States this directly
Passage read and verified
Retrieved 2026-08-13 from argos-support.co.uk
Retrieved from Argos's manual library, which mirrors the manufacturer's booklet for Argos product 952/3997. Not retrieved from ninjakitchen.co.uk, whose support portal redirected to an authentication gate.
Tefal Easy Fry 9in1 11L Air Fryer & Mini Oven — Instruction Manual (PDF)
Groupe SEB (Tefal) — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom and European Union)
Relied on for: That stuck dirt is soaked in hot water and washing-up liquid for about ten minutes, on accessories the same manual calls dishwasher safe.
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 201/0524.
Cosori Dual Blaze TwinFry 10L Air Fryer CAF-TF101S-AES — User Manual (PDF)
Arovast Corporation (Cosori) — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom)
Relied on for: The baking-soda paste method, with quantities and a fifteen-minute standing time.
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.
Russell Hobbs Express Air Fry 12.6L Mini Oven 26680-56 — Instructions (PDF)
Spectrum Brands (Russell Hobbs) — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom)
Relied on for: The one-hour soak in warm to hot soapy water for anything baked on.
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 564/2566.
Ninja Foodi MAX Health Grill & Air Fryer AG551UK — Instructions (PDF)
SharkNinja Europe Limited — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom)
Relied on for: Overnight soaking to soften baked-on grease, and the ten-minute boil for a splatter guard.
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 735/0124. The document identifies itself as revision AG551UKSeries_IB_MP_Mv1_200630_Mv1.
Tefal Easy Fry Max EY245B40 5L Air Fryer — Instruction Manual (PDF)
Groupe SEB (Tefal) — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom)
Relied on for: The instruction not to fill the bowl with oil or any other liquid, and the ten-minute soak in hot water and washing-up liquid for stuck residue.
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 328/8568.
Tower T17067 4L Digital Air Fryer — Safety and Instruction Manual (PDF)
RKW Ltd (Tower Housewares) — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom)
Relied on for: The instruction not to fill the drawer with oil or any other liquid.
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 947/6769. The document carries no revision code.
Cookworks 5L Digital Air Fryer KDF-596D — Care & Instruction Manual (PDF)
Argos Limited (Cookworks) — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom)
Relied on for: The instruction not to fill the frying tray with oil or any other liquid.
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 148/6623.
Philips Airfryer HD925X (HD9252/91, HD9252/70) — User Manual (PDF)
Versuni Netherlands B.V. (Philips Domestic Appliances) — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom)
Relied on for: The instruction not to fill the pan with oil, frying fat or any other liquid.
States this directly
Passage read and verified
Retrieved 2026-10-10 from dam.versuni.com
First read in August 2026 from a retailer's manual library, when the manufacturer's host refused requests. The manufacturer's copy is the same file, byte for byte. Re-reading it corrected two errors in our first reading, recorded on the passages below.
Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Airfryer with Steam NA55x — User Manual (PDF)
Versuni Netherlands B.V. (Philips Domestic Appliances) — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom and European Union)
Relied on for: A steam-cleaning programme of twenty minutes that loosens grease, after which the pan is still washed.
States this directly
Passage read and verified
Retrieved 2026-10-09 from dam.versuni.com