Electrical or fire risk
Parchment or a liner lifted into the element
A fire that has not happened yet. It is the single most preventable hazard in this appliance class, and the prevention is one sentence.
Stop and read this first
If anything has caught fire inside the appliance, however briefly: switch off at the wall and unplug it. Do not open the drawer while anything is burning — opening it feeds the fire air. Do not use the appliance again until you have removed all the scorched material and satisfied yourself nothing is damaged, and contact the manufacturer if there is any scorching to the element, the chamber or the wiring. A fire in an appliance is a reason to stop using that appliance, not a lesson learned.
What is happening
In a basket machine the element sits a few centimetres above the food. A sheet of paper light enough for the fan to lift will reach it, and paper against a glowing element ignites. This is why every liner condition in the materials section requires the liner to be weighed down by food and never used in an empty or preheating chamber.
Why it happens
Commonest first. It is almost always the boring one, and a page that walks you through the exotic causes before the obvious one has given you a longer path to a fixed dinner.
Most common
The liner was in the chamber before the food
Preheating with an empty liner in the basket is the classic case: nothing holds it down, the fan starts, and it goes straight up. Every material record in this catalogue that permits a liner carries a condition prohibiting exactly this.
What to do
- Put the liner in with the food on it, never before
- If it reached the element: stop, unplug, and let it cool before removing anything
Common
The food on it was too light to hold it
A liner needs weight, not merely contents. A few pieces of something light will not do it.
What to do
- Put the liner in with the food on it, never before
- Use a rack or a solid tray instead of paper
Common
The liner was much bigger than the food on it
An overhanging edge with nothing on it is a sail. The food holds the middle down and the corners lift.
What to do
- Cut the liner smaller than the food
The fixes in full
- Put the liner in with the food on it, never before
The condition every liner record in this catalogue carries: weighed down by food, and never in an empty or preheating chamber. If you preheat, the liner goes in afterwards.
You will know it worked when: The liner does not move at all when the appliance starts.
- Cut the liner smaller than the food
No overhang, no corners standing proud, and never up the sides of the basket where the airflow catches them.
- Use a rack or a solid tray instead of paper
For light food that cannot weigh a liner down, a perforated silicone or metal accessory rated for the temperature is the right answer. Paper is the wrong material for that job.
Trade-off: Less convenient to clean than a disposable liner.
- If it reached the element: stop, unplug, and let it cool before removing anything
Switch off and unplug at the wall. Do not open the drawer and fan the flames if anything is alight. Let the appliance cool completely, then remove every scrap of scorched material before it is used again.
Evidence and confidence
- Applies to
- Specific to this type of appliance
- Why this rating
- The hazard is established by an electrical-safety body and the securing conditions are already carried by every liner record in the materials section. This page states the same mechanism from the symptom side, which is where a frightened reader will arrive.
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-13
What this does not cover
- Derived from manufacturer troubleshooting tables for the appliances AirfryerHQ holds manuals for. It is not fault-rate data and nobody has counted how often each cause actually occurs.
Sources (3)
Electrical safety advice for air fryers
Electrical Safety First — Electrical-safety authority or body (United Kingdom)
Relied on for: That items must not be able to come into contact with the heating element of an air fryer, and the fire risk this presents.
States this directly
Passage read and verified
Retrieved 2026-08-13 from electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk
Cosori Dual Blaze TwinFry 10L Air Fryer CAF-TF101S-AES — User Manual (PDF)
Arovast Corporation (Cosori) — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom)
Relied on for: That lining the basket with foil is permitted but the crisper plates must not be lined, because covering the perforations obstructs the airflow.
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.
AirfryerHQ assessment of airflow, element proximity and material behaviour
AirfryerHQ — Calculated or inferred by AirfryerHQ (Not jurisdictional)
Relied on for: The mechanism behind the symptom: airflow, element proximity and thermal behaviour in a small chamber.
AirfryerHQ's interpretation of what it says
Citation checked — the document exists and is described correctly