Smoke, smell or noise
A new air fryer smells of plastic
Normal on a new machine, and one manufacturer says so in as many words. It is also the symptom most easily confused with one that is not normal.
Stop and read this first
A plastic smell that is faint and fading on a new appliance is expected. A smell of BURNING plastic, or any electrical smell, at any point in an appliance's life is not — stop, unplug at the wall, and contact the manufacturer rather than continuing to use it.
What is happening
A brand-new air fryer commonly smells of hot plastic for the first few uses. This is one of very few troubleshooting answers in this catalogue where a manufacturer states outright that the symptom is expected, and it is worth its own record precisely because the honest answer is reassuring — which makes it important to be clear about where the reassurance stops.
Narrow it down
Each of these has an answer you already know, and each one rules something out.
How many times have you used it?
- One to three
- More than about five, and it is not fading — Past this point the manufacturer's own answer is to contact them.
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
Manufacturing residue burning off
Protective coatings, machining oils and packaging residues remain on internal surfaces and volatilise the first few times the appliance reaches temperature. The manufacturer's own position is that this is normal and that a test run clears it.
What to do
- Run it empty, following the manual's test-run instructions, with the window open
Common
Packaging or a protective film has been left inside
Foam inserts, film on a control panel and cardboard between accessories are easy to miss, and they melt rather than burn off. This produces a much stronger smell than ordinary residue and it does not fade.
What to do
- Check for packaging with the appliance cold and unplugged
Occasional
The smell has not faded after several uses
The manufacturer's own instruction is that a smell persisting after a test run is a matter for customer support. Something that continues to volatilise is not the residue that was supposed to burn off.
What to do
- Contact the manufacturer
The fixes in full
- Run it empty, following the manual's test-run instructions, with the window open
The published remedy. Nothing in the chamber, the extractor on or a window open, and expect it to fade over the first few uses.
You will know it worked when: The smell is weaker on each successive run.
- Check for packaging with the appliance cold and unplugged
Look inside the drawer, under the basket, behind and beneath the crisper plate, and on the control panel for a protective film. Anything melted onto a surface should be removed cold rather than picked at hot.
You will know it worked when: Nothing remains inside the chamber that did not come as part of the appliance.
- Contact the manufacturer
This is the manufacturer's own instruction for a plastic smell that survives a test run. It is not a fault you should keep cooking through in the hope it stops.
Evidence and confidence
- Applies to
- Specific to this type of appliance
- Why this rating
- The only published manufacturer statement on new-appliance smell found in fifteen manuals, and it answers the question directly. The packaging cause is added from mechanism because it produces the same complaint with a different remedy.
- 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.
- One manufacturer's position. Others say nothing about it, which is not disagreement but is also not corroboration.
Sources (2)
Cosori Dual Blaze 6.4L Smart Air Fryer CAF-P583S-KUK — User Manual (PDF)
Arovast Corporation (Cosori) — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom)
Relied on for: That any air fryer may have a plastic smell from the manufacturing process, that this is normal, that the test-run instructions clear it, and that a persisting smell is a matter for customer support.
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 818/0159.
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