I just tried this self-cleaning air fryer that's a hit on TikTok — here's what happened

I've tested air fryers for years, and while they perform differently, they all start to look the same after a while. That's why the Fritaire air fryer caught my attention. It's made of glass, comes in a range of wacky colors, and looks a bit like a hat. Be warned though, because that orange hat is the heating element, not a fashion statement, You simply lift it away to add your food to the Fritaire's cooking bowl, which is what those handles are for.

The Fritaire claims to be self-cleaning, a feature I've yet to see from even the best air fryers . Some TikTok hacks will tell you that you can add water and dish soap to your basket and run your fryer for a few minutes to clean, but for some reason, you'll struggle to find a manufacturer that will endorse adding large amounts of water to their electrical product — and yes, I've asked them.

Fritaire, however, will happily advise that this is the best way to keep its air fryer clean. In fact, it's a selling point. On the brand's website, it says "With Fritaire, you just fill the glass bowl with soapy water and let the hot air stream circulator rinse it out from the inside."

There are lots of videos of Fritaire on TikTok , some with over a million views. So, does it work? I tried this self-cleaning air fryer in our test kitchen, and here's how it went.

Fritaire Air Fryer: $199 at Amazon
The Fritaire air fryer comes in three fun colors, and includes a rotisserie attachment and rotisserie basket for an evenly cooked finish. With six cooking modes to choose from, it's got a lot to offer besides its self-cleaning function.

How does the Fritaire self-cleaning work?

According to Fritaire, all you need is a drop of dish soap and some warm water to use the self-clean function with this air fryer. I cooked a day's worth of meals in this fryer before testing the self-cleaning setting, so it had crumbs, fat and cooking liquids baked onto the base of the bowl.

The air fryer has a powerful fan on the underside of the colorful lid, which circulates heat around the cooking bowl. This same fan causes the water to swirl around the base of the air fryer as it heats up, mimicking a mini whirlpool that's pretty satisfying to watch.

To use, there are five steps:

1. Pour 1-2 inches of water into the bottom of the air fryer

2. Add a drop of dish soap

3. Plug in your Fritaire and switch it on

4. Set the temperature to 400°F and the timer to 10 minutes

5. Once finished, wait for the water to cool before pouring it away and rinsing the bowl of any soapy residue.

Does it deliver?

Does the self-cleaning mode work on the Fritaire air fryer? Surprisingly, it did a pretty good job. It didn't get as sudsy as I expected, perhaps because you are only advised to use a small drop of dish soap. If you were to add too much, I could see there being an issue with foam building up in the bowl and possibly getting the heating unit wet, which would be a bad idea.

Still, when the 10 minutes were up and I let my water cool, there were splotches of re-solidified fat and cooking juices floating on my lather of water, and when I poured this away, it took the remaining crumbs away with it.

I then gave the bowl a good rinse, and did need to wipe away a mark down the side of the bowl which sat out of reach of my water. It was easy enough to remove though, likely because the steam from my hot water had lifted it slightly, so it wasn't as baked-on as it was before self-cleaning.

Because you can only add a moderate amount of water to this machine, it won't do such a good job of reaching up the sides of the bowl. And of course, it takes 10 minutes for the cycle to run, plus time taken for the water to cool off before you pour it away, which is more than enough time for you to clean this bowl 10 times over with a sponge and some dish soap.

So while this air fryer does technically do a good job of cleaning itself, that doesn't mean that this is the best way of keeping it clean.

Here's the catch

The Fritaire comes with a handful of very fine-mesh metal inserts, and from experience, these are a nightmare to keep clean. There's a shelf that allows air to circulate your food as it cooks, a rotisserie basket that keeps food such as fries or vegetables consistently rotating so they're evenly heated, and an attachment that can be used to rotisserie large cuts of meat like chicken. Can the Fritaire clean these, too? Unfortunately not.

While you can use the self-clean setting for the fryer's glass bowl, the attachments can go in the dishwasher or be cleaned by hand. The glass bowl, unfortunately, is not dishwasher-safe, so while you set your air fryer on for its 10-minute self-clean cycle, you're more likely to be scrubbing your mesh of crumbs and grease over the sink than taking a well-earned break on the couch. If I were you, I'd just throw the bowl in the sink for good measure.

More from Tom's Guide

• 9 things I’ve learned since buying an air fryer
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• 5 reasons why I'm switching to a dual-basket air fryer