How long do air fryers last? The answer will surprise and shock you!
A lot of questions about cooking devices can have a number of different answers, but not all are accurate.
When it comes to air fryers, one of the most common questions a prospective buyer has is “How long does an air fryer last?” Now, we are a part of a large community of air fryer users and we’ve asked our community what their experiences with their first air fryers were and how long did it lasted.
This article has the answer!
How long do air fryers last?
From a poll of nearly 200 hardcore air fryer users, we’ve found that most air fryers last around 3-4 years before something happens and require a major repair or replacement. However, there are several factors that directly affect how long air fryers will last in your home. A smaller and equal percentage of the other participants found that there are fires either lasted more than 6 years or less than 6 months.
It all depends on how often you use it, how well you maintain it, where it came from, and more.
How long SHOULD an air fryer last?
Air fryers built in the US are normally expected to last at least 1.5 to 2 years.
This is because there are many things that can go wrong when using an air fryer. First of all, it uses a ton of heat. That alone can damage the wires, and the element itself. Not only that, the fan is a moving part that spins as it should. But the unavoidable problem of having a moving part in electronic devices is always attributed to the possibility that it could stop working.
Since we are all owners and users of an air fryer, we’d probably want our air fryers to last forever.
What do the manufacturers say?
We reached out to three of the major manufacturers in the industry including Ninja Foodi, Cosori, and GoWise.
It turned out to be a unanimous expectation between all three manufacturers. They claim to say that these devices were in ideal situations built to last at least 2 years as long as the proper maintenance and care was taken when using these products.
How to prolong the life of your air fryer
Here is an exhaustive list of what you should and shouldn’t do when it comes to using and maintaining your air fryer. This list is a compilation of all the responses we’ve gotten from our community.
1. Clean the fan if you can
The fan of an air fryer is usually located deep behind a cage, sometimes within the wall of the air fryer. One of our users mentioned that from time to time he would unscrew the cage to gain access to the fan. He would then wipe the fan down including any components around that fan.
The results would be surprising, as he would find a lot of sticky residue from the food covering all those components.
2. Clean after every use
This recommendation is so common within the air fryer community that it should be a written law. Always clean your air fryer after every time you’ve used it. Why? Because you don’t want a buildup of residue from your food.
The more the build-up happens, the better the chances your air fryer won’t last as long as you’d hope. This build-up of gunk is can damage the circuits and the wires in your air fryer. It can even cause smoke and damage your heating element.
Cleaning it every time you use it will help prevent any sudden damages that may occur and it will also make getting rid of the gunk a lot easier since you won’t have to scrub too hard against one-day-old sticky residue.
3. Buy a quality air fryer
Like all things we buy, there’s always the decision to buy the cheap version or the more expensive version. And as the saying goes, you get what you pay for.
If you buy a cheap product and compare it to a more expensive product sometimes just holding the two side by side or even just looking at them can already make you realize why one is more expensive than the other.
If you want one that will last for years, buy the more expensive one. If you shell out your cash for the least expensive air fryer, expect that no matter what you do it may not survive past a year or two.
4. Give the air fryer 5 inches of room from all 4 corners to vent
Air fryers cook food using a ton of heat. And this heat has to find a way to get out of the chamber. Make sure you don’t put your air fryer in a closed space.
If heat is gathered into one place and unable to leave through the vents oh, it could very well damage or overheat your air fryer. Heat is a form of energy that is always trying to dissipate, meaning that it likes to spread out.
If you’re somehow cooking with your air fryer in a small space and not giving it at least 5 in of room from all Corners, the buildup of heat will likely cause your air fryer to overheat and potentially burn the electrical components in your air fryer as well.
5. Don’t overseason your food
The reason for this is that inside the Chamber of the air fryer is a whirlwind of are circulating throughout. If you overseason your food, and all that seasoning ends up flying around in circles within the air fryer, it will end up creating a huge mess inside your machine.
This also means that the Seasoning might end up inside the walls of your air fryer where your fan component and the electrical board reside. Debris and dusk are some of the biggest major factors in hurting the longevity of electronic devices.
If you need to season your food, try adding some oil so that your seasoning will remain stuck to the food instead of loose and potentially airborne.
6. Dry your air fryer after cleaning it
There is a large area on the inside of your air fryer that contains metal. Now, all metals are capable of rusting. When water and oxygen are left to make contact with metal for a long. Over time, you can potentially find rust buildup in those areas.
7. Use extra accessories for your air fryer
Sometimes your air fryer will come with Mini accessories such as a liner that indirectly helps to protect your basket. Remember, your air fryer basket has a layer of non-stick coating on it in case you wanted to use it to cook food directly.
However, most air fryers come with accessories like a metal grill or tray. We recommend that you use these accessories as much as possible to avoid making any direct contact with the major components of the air fryer.
If an air fryer basket is not taken care of or maintained properly, its non-stick coating can potentially peel off. It definitely won’t be a pleasant cleaning experience if your food is stuck in this basket. And manufacturers normally don’t have replacements for air fryer baskets. You’ll likely end up having to pick it up as a loss and buying a new air fryer instead.
However, there is one way to protect or to make your air fryer basket non-stick again. We’ve created an article on how to season your air fryer basket here. Seasoning your air fryer basket adds an extra non-stick, protective coating on top of your basket’s manufacturers and non-stick coating.
8. Don’t use aerosol spray cans like Pam on your air fryer
Using an aerosol spray can directly on your air fryer basket has been known to cause the non-stick coating to peel off. The reason being is that aerosol cans come with agents that can degrade and break down the non-stick coating found on your air fryer basket.
Over time and frequent use of aerosol spray like Pam will start to cause your air fryer basket to flake off the coating. You’ll start to see little particles come off the basket and some of them might even get into the food.
9. Don’t overfill the basket
If you overfill your basket, then there is a chance that you will make your air fryer work harder than it should be.
With everything in life, and even in electronics, if you overstress a system, the likeliness of it failing will increase.
Make sure you keep the food under the line that designates when to stop adding food. This is here for a reason because you don’t want the food to be too close to the air fryer either. If your food gets burnt, it could cause smoke and even a fire that will ultimately destroy your air fryer.
Which air fryer lasts the longest?
There’s really no good answer to this question. The honest truth is that all of the major air fryer companies that are designed and sold in the US have a fair chance of giving you an air fryer that will last several years beyond your expectations.
The trick here is to educate yourself. Understand that properly cleaning and maintaining your air fryer can make a world of difference to its longevity. Unfortunately, everyone has a stroke of bad luck once in a while, and sometimes no matter how well you maintain, or what types of best practices you follow when using an air fryer, it still breaks down.
When it comes to the longest-lasting air fryers, the most popular brands that come to mind are Ninja Foodi, Cosori, and GoWise are just to name a few.
When is it time to consider buying a new air fryer?
- The heating element has stopped working
- The air fryer no longer turns on
- The non-stick coating is peeling off
- The fan no longer runs
- Smoke coming out of your air fryer when using it
Can I get my air fryer repaired?
Getting an air fryer repaired can seem like a hassle, but if the damage only requires a simple repair or replacement, and the cost is not too high, then we would recommend it.
When it comes to all the parts in an air fryer, it isn’t really that complicated to take out and replace parts. If you are the slightest bit a tinkerer, then this should be a breeze. If you are not, then getting it repaired at a local repair shop shouldn’t cost too much.
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