How to Clean Air Fryers
With so many different models, sizes and styles of air fryers cleaning can be very specific to the one you own. But there’s general cleaning practices that are great for all models to maintain your air fryer. Good cleaning habits can prolong the life and quality of your investment. Here’s our tips for cleaning air fryers below.
How to Clean Air Fryers
Tips and Guide for air fryer cleaning:
- Unplug your air fryer. Make sure your air fryer is completely cool.
- Check your manufacturers instructions for specific cleaning tips for your air fryer model. Don’t forget to read your manual!
- Don’t submerge any electrical part of the air fryer in water.
- Avoid metal, steel, wire or abrasive sponge and tools. These could damage your non-stick or ceramic coating.
Tools for Cleaning Your Air Fryer
- Non-abrasive sponge
- Mild abrasive cleaners
- Dish Soap
Hot Soapy Water: Soak the basket or trays in hot soapy water for at least 15 minutes. Use a large bowl or soak a small basket/tray. Or fill the basket and tray together with hot soapy water. Use a non-abrasive sponge or dish bowl to wipe grease and food debris.
Best Cleaning Products for Air Fryers :
- We don’t suggest using abrasive cleaning products on your air fryer, unless your manufacturers manual says it’s ok. Our test kitchens use non or mild-abrasive products that work well especially with baked-on grease.
- Baking soda: Make a paste by using baking soda and a little water. Lightly scrub the paste on the greasy basket or rack then rinse with hot water.
- Barkeepers Friend: This is a mild-abrasive that has worked good on really really parts like interior of air fryer baskets and trays. Use the same paste method as mentioned above.
Are Air Fryer Parts Dishwasher Safe?
Most racks, trays and baskets are dishwasher safe. But refer to your manufacturers manual to make sure what parts of the air fryer are safe in the dish washer. Do a quick rinse with hot soapy water to remove the excess oil or big chunks of food before you put it in the dishwasher.
Tips for Cleaning Exterior, Interior and Heating Element of Air Fryer:
- Refer to your manufacturers manual for best recommendations.
- Make sure air fryer is completely cool and unplugged. Use a hot soapy soft sponge or damp cloth on the exterior. Then wipe off the soap with another cloth.
- Use a wet soft sponge or damp cloth and gently wipe down the interior and heating element or coils. We don’t use any chemical cleaners or soaps on the heating coils because if there’s soap residue on it we don’t want any of it to get on our food during cooking.
Maintain Good Cleaning Habits. Try to at least do a quick wipe down of the inside and outside of your air fryer after cooking. Make sure the air fryer is completely cooled and safe before you stick your hand in the air fryer cavity. If you keep up good cleaning habits, you’ll prolong the longevity, quality and look of your air fryer.
Tips for Keeping Air Fryers Clean While Cooking
It’s a fact, air fryers will get greasy, grimy and dirty after use. But here’s some simple tips that can help minimize the grease spills and splatters from sticking to the inside of your air fryer.
- FOIL: Foil the base drip pan for oven-style or countertop toaster oven style models. Make sure the base drip pan is at the very bottom of the air fryer so that you don’t block the hot circulating air that is crucial for even cooking. If you have a basket style air fryer you can line the base of the basket with a sheet of foil to catch food particles and grease.
- PERFORATED PARCHMENT: Use these perforated parchment sheets to help food stick less for easier cleaning. But it’s only for a one time use, so it can be pretty wasteful. You can use silicone mats that are re-usabble and food safe. Read more about Perforated Parchment Sheets for Air Frying Here.
- Awesome Non-Stick, Food Safe and Re-usabble silicone cooking mats. You can–> Buy the Square Mats here and Round ones here. These are non-stick silicone mats with holes in them and are used to cook food in your air fryer. These mats are usually cut to size that will fit in your air fryer basket, racks or trays. Or some brands allows you to cut the mat to fit the size of your air fryer. It’s a great accessory to have and the latest innovations in these silicone baking mats are the addition of perforated holes. The perforated holes allows the hot circulating air to cook the food, but at the same time keeps the food from sticking.
- BREAD: Add a slice of bread or flour tortilla underneath to soak up excess grease. Minimizes splattering and helps minimize smoking too.
Want to learn more tips like why your air fryer is smoking and safety tips? Read our great articles here on—> Air Frying 101 Tips and Troubleshooting.
Want to share this advice? Please don’t copy it. Just share the link, credit and link back to this copyrighted article. We’ve have issues with people stealing our words and content (photos) and putting their logos on it and putting on their blogs or posts. It’s wrong to do this. We put a lot of time and research into this so sharing is caring! Thank you so much. This article was originally published in 2019.
3 Comments on “How to Clean Air Fryers”
I really appreciate the tips. Thanks much for the easy steps.
I need a replacement basket the leg broke off the basket when washing it after having soaked it
I have the Ninja , Z26J1501A9u6
Otherwise we love t u e product
Hi Dorothy,
We are not manufacturer. We do recipes & reviews. Here is a link for the Ninja customer support. https://www.ninjakitchen.com/support/ They would be the ones you need to reach out to.