You have had an air fryer for a while and are concerned about the mess on the heating element. This is when this guide is perfect as we are going to show you the ultimate air fryer hack for cleaning the heating element.

This works brilliantly with cleaning either the Cosori style air fryer or an air fryer like the Ninja Dual two drawer and you can adapt to your type of air fryer.
Clean Air Fryer
I have previously shared our A to Z of cleaning the air fryer. From what air fryer accessories to use to avoid cleaning, to how to do a quick clean after each use.
But in this guide today we are talking all about what we call the upside-down air fryer cleaning method, and the best hack for getting the air fryer heating element perfectly clean.
Its one thing cleaning the air fryer basket or the drawer if you have a dual, but its another to get around the heating element that can get really dirty over time.
We recommend that you clean your main air fryer bits every day, whilst the heating element is perfect as a monthly cleaning job.
Can I Clean My Air Fryer By Putting Water In It & Turning It On?
We don’t recommend putting water in the air fryer and then turning it on. Many air fryers leak a little when you add water, even when leaving them on the side to soak, so imagine if you are plugged into electric when this is happening.
You should be removing parts of the air fryer that are not connected to the plugs and individually soaking these and you will find most of these air fryer parts are dishwasher safe if you want to prevent always cleaning them.
How Often To Clean Air Fryer?
We recommend you treat your air fryer like you would treat your pots and pans and oven trays in traditional oven style cooking. Think of how you clean them after each use, and which need a soak and which are very quick to clean.
If you are using your frying pan for pancakes for example, you are likely to wipe clean the pan, the same with the skillet. The same applies to air frying. So, imagine you cooked something in the air fryer that just left a couple of crumbs. Pour the crumbs into your bin, give it a quick wipe and its ready for next time.
Whilst, if you are doing a roast in the air fryer, you’re likely to need to soak the basket for a bit, to get rid of the grease and anything stuck on.
We also don’t want to end up with lots of pots and pans to clean and having a sink full of pots. So we recommend keeping on top of it and cleaning them after each use.
Easiest To Clean Air Fryer
I often get asked, which is the easiest to clean air fryer? And I find myself leaning in the direction of my Cosori Air Fryer and our Philips Air Fryer. This is because they are single basket, less of an air fryer to clean and less likely to be making soups in it!
Whilst with the dual air fryer (this is the one we use the most) because you can cook directly in the bottom and remove the crisp plate, it means that you are likely to have ground-on food in there that needs an extra soak.
How To Get Baked On Grease Out Of An Air Fryer?
To clean the baked-on grease out of an air fryer is just the same as getting baked on grease off your oven tray or when cleaning your deep fat fryer.
Start by giving it a really good soak and use a silicone spatula to try and scrape any big bits as its soaking. Its important that you use silicone as you don’t want to scratch or damage the enamel of your air fryer.
Then rinse and scrub with an air fryer-safe scrubber, then soak again and repeat the process.
We had borrowed out one of our air fryers, got it back and it was so bad that it took us two days to get it clean. And all we did was elbow grease, soaking and then repeating the process.
What Is The Air Fryer Cleaning Hack?
The air fryer cleaning hack is turning the air fryer upside down. I know it sounds totally crazy, but the heating element is the hardest part to clean and by turning it upside down you can very easily get to the top part of the air fryer.
Check out my amazing food stylist and photographer Daisy, she has the Cosori Air Fryer upside down and she is now cleaning it from the bottom, rather than trying to stretch to the top of the air fryer and can then see exactly what needs cleaning.
She can then get between the heating elements and use a cloth and some air fryer friendly spray.
How To Clean Air Fryer Heating Element?
In this guide we have covered some more of the how to clean the air fryer basics as our part two to our main air fryer cleaning guide. We have covered why not to put the air fryer on with water for cleaning, how to get rid of the grease and of course our upside down method for cleaning the heating element.

Once you follow the air fryer heating element hack its so much easier and it will be like when you are cleaning the hob/stove top of your cooker. Simply use your preferred cleaning spray, have a damp cloth and just spend some time getting in the gaps of the heating element and before you know it, it will come out like new.
If you want to see the results, then here is our air fryer heating element before it has been cleaned.

Then this is the heating element afterwards, and all ready for more air frying.

Can’t clean it now? Then save it for later!

