Can't keep your air fryer clean? These 5 foods could be the culprit

I've been testing the best air fryers for years, and it's safe to say that dual zone air fryer gets a lot more use than my oven. Quick, convenient, and easy to clean, there's seemingly no limit to what you can cook in these gadgets. But just because you can doesn't mean that you should.

Despite reviewing new air fryers all the time, I always default back to my go-to two-drawer air fryer, which has been going strong for nearly two years. However, despite regular cleaning, I've noticed that there are some foods that create a buildup that's really hard to shift from my air fryer basket. Even worse, when these foods build up in your basket, they can become baked into your heating element and start to create odors and a host of other air fryer faults.

Of course, some of this comes down to knowing how to clean an air fryer the right way and keeping up with daily debris to prevent foods from becoming stuck to your inserts and drawers. But if you can't manage to keep your air fryer clean, these five foods could well be the culprit when it comes to odors.

Foods that make your air fryer impossible to clean

1. Bacon fat

Bacon is one of my favorite foods to cook in the air fryer, but if you're finding a buildup of grease and fat that feels impossible to shift, all that bacon could be to blame. I enjoy the fact that my air fryer renders the fat from my bacon, leaving it crispy and allowing excess fat to drop into the base of my air fryer basket. Unfortunately, when this fat falls through the slats of your basket, it will solidify as soon as it cools down and become very tricky to shift.

If you do plan on using your air fryer to cook bacon, I'd suggest giving your bacon fat a wipe with a piece of paper towel before it has the chance to fully solidify, and soaking your basket in hot water and dish soap between each use to prevent any fat splatters from baking into all the various corners of your air fryer.

2. Anything with batter

One of the biggest air fryer mistakes you can make is cooking batter-coated foods inside of them. This is because your batter will fall through the slats of your cooking basket and bake into the gaps and onto the base of your basket.

Food that's battered or coated in tempura is always better deep-fried or pan-fried because it becomes crispy through being suspended in your hot oil as it cooks. Contrast that with an air fryer basket, where your wet mix could even end up making your fish or wings stick to your basket.

If you did want to cook battered food in your air fryer, I'd recommend using a receptacle so your food isn't placed above slats where batter can fall through.

Silicone Air Fryer Basket Liners Square: $9.99 @ Amazon
This two-piece set of air fryer basket liners is easy to clean and will prevent batter from falling into the base of your air fryer. It's also a useful tool for cooking any of the foods in this list, as it will stop residue from falling into the base of your air fryer.

3. Sugary foods

I've used air fryers to cook cake before, and while it wasn't a huge success, it also didn't make a mess of my air fryer. The bigger issue arises when you cook sweet, sticky glazes, or foods with a sugary sauce. Anyone who's tried to clean caramel off a saucepan will know that burnt sugar will stick to a surface like no other, not only creating a strong, horrid smell but also proving incredibly difficult to remove.

Because a lot of air fryers require gentle cleaning so as not to disturb nonstick coating, you could do some real damage to the lining of your air fryer if you cook anything with a sugary sauce in your air fryer and it spills or drips.

4. Baked potatoes

The issue with cooking baked potatoes in your air fryer isn't that it will cause the air fryer to get dirtier, but that it will involve running your air fryer at a high heat for a very long time. This will mean that any oils or other grease in your air fryer become firmly baked into place, which will make them virtually impossible to shift without some serious soaking and scrubbing.

If you want to make a baked potato in the air fryer, I'd recommend microwaving your potato for a few minutes before crisping up the skin in your air fryer. It will take a fraction of the time and leave your air fryer much easier to clean.

5. Dry rubs

Air fryers are great at roasting and baking meats and fish, but if you plan on using a dry rub on your food, I'd advise against it. I tend to use a drizzle of oil to adhere my spices and rubs to my food, because if I "dry" rub them into my meat, they won't stick into place in the air fryer.

It's important to remember that air fryers are essentially convection ovens. They use powerful fans to circulate hot air around your foods, and can often cause lightweight foods to move around in the cooking basket if you're using a particularly powerful model! If that can happen with bacon or popcorn, imagine what will happen to your spices when they're hit with hot air.

Dry rubs will circulate around your basket, possibly even becoming lodged in the heating unit, where they'll burn (giving off an acrid odor) and be impossible to reach for cleaning. So next time you use a rub, make sure you use a lower temperature to prevent them from being spread around your air fryer or use a good drizzle of oil to ensure they stay in place.

More from Tom's Guide

• 5 pros and 5 cons of cooking with an air fryer
• Air fryer vs oven, which is cheaper to use?
• How to stop your air fryer from overheating