Air fryers cook your favorite foods with minimal oil, but they still get greasy and require regular cleaning to stay fresh. Even best air fryers require maintenance, but the good news is that it's much easier than cleaning an oven and, with the right equipment, only takes a few minutes.
Air fryers use powerful fans to circulate hot air around the food, allowing it to cook quickly and evenly. This also means that crumbs and grease tend to spread throughout the machine. Luckily, many of your air fryer's components, including the basket and all trays, are removable for easy cleaning, and the basket has a non-stick coating that helps prevent food and oil from sticking to the surface.
Clean the outside surface
Before you do any cleaning, you need to make sure that the air fryer is completely cool. Cleaning it while it's still warm not only risks getting burned by the hot elements, but can also damage the machine.
Unplug the fryer and soak a cloth in warm, soapy water. Before wiping down the outside of your car, be sure to squeeze out excess water from the cloth. Resist the temptation to use harsh cleaning sprays or disinfectants as they may cause the outer shell to peel off or leach chemicals into the machine.
If you're using an air fryer with a glass window, it may seem intuitive to use glass cleaning spray to clean stains from the window. However, the next time you use the machine and it gets hot, the remaining cleaning solution will also get hot and may produce fumes that are best avoided. Instead, finish the exterior cleaning with a dry cloth to remove stains.
Clean the inside
Many air fryers have removable parts that are dishwasher safe. This makes life a lot easier if you just made dinner and need to clean up quickly. However, if there are large pieces of food stuck to the air fryer basket, it is best to remove them first to avoid clogging the dishwasher filter.
Because air fryers are designed to operate without a lot of oil, the cooking baskets are usually coated with a non-stick coating. To keep your car in good condition, it is important not to damage this coating, and the best way to do this is to carefully clean it.
If you need to remove dried-on food, you can soak the basket in warm water and dish soap and then gently remove the food with a wooden spatula. Stay away from metal utensils as they will damage the coating.
For the remaining parts, repeat the process using warm soapy water and a cloth and wipe thoroughly, leaving no excess water behind. If you notice food stuck in the fan or elements, a clean, unused toothbrush is the ideal cleaning tool.
Never immerse the fryer in water or attempt to clean it by heating liquid in the basket.
What to do if there is a smell from the deep fryer
If your air fryer smells funny, there are several potential causes. First of all, if it's fairly new and has a plastic smell, it's likely that you'll just need to run it for a few minutes without any food inside to burn off any manufacturing residue.
If you smell smoke or burnt food even though what you're cooking doesn't appear to be burning, there may be crumbs or pieces of food left in the machine or stuck in the fan. Follow our tips above for removing debris with a toothbrush.
Finally, the smell could be coming from food you prepared earlier, and despite your best efforts at cleaning, the smell just won't go away. In this case, wipe the inside with a slice of lemon, then rinse off the juice according to our instructions.
One more thing…
Using silicone or paper liners in your air fryer will help keep it clean, but make sure they don't block airflow or touch the heating element. The paper liners may swell inside the basket and will need to be weighted down with enough food.
Always make sure the air fryer is completely dry before storing (especially internal components such as the heating element) and store it in a dry, well-ventilated area to avoid corrosion and unpleasant odors. Closing the lid while the inside is still wet will create unpleasant odors, and if your machine has a plastic seal, it can become a home for bacteria.
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