Jacket potato in an air fryer

What usually goes wrong

Hard centre with a good skin. The outside is finished and the middle has not had time; large potatoes need considerably longer than their size suggests because heat has to travel a long way through a poor conductor.

Running the appliance safely

These apply to every food and every air fryer, so they are here once rather than repeated under each state above. They come from Electrical Safety First, from UK product-safety notices and from the manufacturers’ own manuals.

• Plug an air fryer directly into a wall socket. Do not run one from an extension lead.
• An unusual smell, an unusual noise, or scorch marks on the plug mean stop using it and contact the manufacturer.
• Do not overfill. Food touching the heating element is a fire risk, not a cooking problem.
• White smoke from fatty food is usually normal. Black smoke means unplug it immediately.
• Do not leave an air fryer running unattended.
• Leave clear space above and around the appliance, and never cover the air intake or the outlet.

• Aim for a golden yellow colour or lighter on starchy foods such as chips and roast potatoes, rather than a darker brown.
• Buy from a reputable retailer rather than a third-party marketplace seller.
• Clean the drawer, the plate and the element after use. Accumulated grease is what smokes, and then what burns.
• Register the appliance with its manufacturer. It is how a recall reaches you.
• Do not rely on the appliance's own thermal protection. A UK recall was issued because it did not operate.

Each links to its own page, with what it means in practice, what to do if it has already happened, and the source it comes from. Every safety rule AirfryerHQ holds.

Why potato behaves this way

A potato is mostly water held in a starch matrix. Heat gelatinises the starch and drives water out of the surface layer; when that dehydrated layer is thin, dry and hot enough it becomes crisp. The whole game is getting water away from the surface faster than it arrives from inside, which is why crowding a basket produces soggy chips — the escaping steam has nowhere to go and condenses back onto the food. Sugar content decides browning speed, which is why some potatoes darken far faster than others at the same setting.

More on potato

Where to go from here

The pages that answer the questions this one tends to raise.

• Using a thermometer, and where to put itThe times above are for a piece that is not the one you are holding. This measures yours — and it is the single change that fixes most dry jacket potato.
• How food actually gets crispyWhy patting it dry, spacing it out and a little oil are all the same instruction — so you can apply it when a page runs out.
• Reheating leftoversA different question governed by a different rule — steaming hot throughout, and only once.
• Why published timings differIf another chart says something else, this is usually why — and which one to believe.
• Air fryer versus ovenFaster and cheaper to run for small quantities; no advantage at all for a full tray, and worse at several things.
• Basket or oven style?A drawer crisps harder and holds less. An oven-style cavity holds more, sees the food, and asks you to think about shelves.
• How much electricity does an air fryer use?Not what the label says. The number on the back is the most it can draw, not what it uses — and the gap between those two is the whole subject.
• Is an air fryer cheaper to run than an oven?For one or two portions, decisively. For a full meal, it depends on how many times you have to run it — and that is the term nobody includes.