5 Disadvantages Of Using A Basket-Style Air Fryer

Air fryers exploded in popularity a few years ago and with good reason. A countertop convection oven that lets you cook countless dishes with little to no oil, often faster than you could in a conventional oven, seems like the perfect gadget. Depending on what you're looking for, you can buy higher-end models with numerous helpful features or more affordable models that can get the basic job done without breaking the bank. But no kitchen gadget is perfect, and basket-style air fryers especially have a few well-known disadvantages.

We researched forums and articles to find the complaints that came up most often among air fryer users, focusing on basket-style models rather than larger toaster oven-style air fryers. There were five complaints that really stood out from the crowd because they were repeated so often.

These disadvantages don't mean that a basket-style air fryer is a bad investment or poorly suited for cooking your food. They're just things to consider if you are in the market to buy one, or if you already have one and are wondering if it's working the way it's supposed to. It can be hard to tell if the problems you have with an appliance are unique to your specific one, if you did something wrong, or if it's just how these things work for everyone. With that in mind, not every air fryer owner will experience these issues, but if they've troubled you before, you're not alone.

In a basket-style air fryer, food is held and cooked in a removable nonstick-coated basket. Many also have a small, nonstick tray that allows air to circulate. Ninja's crisper plates are ceramic-coated, while the baskets in some models are aluminum coated with PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene). That's the same chemical in Teflon. PTFE is from a family of chemicals called PFAS, which are potentially dangerous forever chemicals you might want to avoid. Air fryer baskets and baking racks from Philips also contain PTFE. Cuisinart uses ceramic for some of its nonstick coatings. It's best to research your specific model to find out what type of nonstick coating it uses. Owners of several different air fryers have reported problems with coatings flaking off.

Though an air fryer's coating can be damaged by scratching, some owners said theirs began flaking after very little use. You'd expect an air fryer to endure everyday use for at least a short while, but one user on Reddit complained that the coating came off within a month of purchase, and some commenters had the same issue. In another thread, a commenter noticed pitting in just three weeks. Another Redditor posted about how the coating in their Ninja air fryer started flaking after minimal use and gentle cleaning.

Redditors have called out Power Air Fryer XL, Philips, Cosori, and Gourmia air fryers. We know nonstick will start to come off eventually no matter what, so it's a concern nearly all air fryer owners are going to face at some point.

You may think cleaning a basket-style air fryer can't be that difficult. After all, you pull out the basket, remove the crisper tray, and then wash them. How hard is that? But Consumer Reports' 2023 testing showed that only five out of 64 tested models earned top marks for ease of cleaning. It called out models like the Instant Vortex 4-in-1 Air Fryer for having many tiny holes in the tray that may need to be cleaned with a wooden skewer when they get gummed up.

The owner of a Gourmia air fryer posted on Reddit about the trouble they had cleaning the tray. "I let it soak overnight in Dawn and hot water and the grease is still so hard to get off unless I scrub and scrub a million times," they said. Another Redditor said, "I clean my air fryer after every use but the grease on the upper edge of the basket just doesn't go away."

In a Reddit thread where users share tips for cleaning air fryer baskets, one Redditor said, "I pop a dishwasher tab in there and fill it with hot water and leave overnight or at least 1-2 hours and then rinse." While that may work, using a dishwasher tab and soaking a basket overnight is a pretty involved cleaning process, and it may harm the non-stick coating, too. We have tips for deep cleaning an air fryer, but unless done regularly, the mess can get out of hand.

Basket-style air fryers have limited space, and depending on the model, the difference can be significant. RTINGS compared the cooking surface area of several popular air fryer models and found that the Cosori TurboBlaze had 16.2% more surface area than the Ninja Pro AF141, even though the two had nearly the same countertop footprint. That said, the surface area of Cuisinart's TOA-70 toaster oven-style model was almost twice that of the Ninja.

The compact size of many basket-style air fryers is a selling point for some as they take up minimal counter space. But if you are cooking for several people or preparing more than one dish, you may have to cook in batches. That means one dish might have to sit and get a little colder as you cook the second one.

Air fryers are often advertised by listing how large they are in quarts, but that can be misleading. "I have a 4.5 and would prefer just a bit more room," said one Redditor. "Despite them sounding big they really are not since you don't fill the baskets up, it really is bottom surface space you are talking about." This limited cooking space could encourage you to overfill your air fryer basket. When we covered what happens if you put too much food in your air fryer, we pointed out how that can backfire and lead to undercooked or soggy food.

If you open an oven door for just 30 seconds, it can lower the temperature inside by 150 degrees Fahrenheit or more, and getting it back up to temperature can take several minutes. The same thing happens in an air fryer, but how much varies between models. RTINGS reviewed the Ninja AF101 and found that it takes 4 minutes 26 seconds to get back up to temperature after the drawer was opened. The Philips 2000 Series NA220/00 only takes a second over 2 minutes. Removing the basket could slow the cooking process and cause food to cook at a lower temperature for longer, which can affect crispiness. But checking the basket is also an integral part of cooking with a basket-style air fryer.

Some air frying guides recommend opening your air fryer whenever you like and support it by saying the chamber reheats in seconds, but RTINGS research demonstrates that's not accurate. This puts you in a position where you either have to risk lowering temperature and potentially uneven cooking to check progress, or let the food go unchecked and hope it doesn't overcook. If you are familiar with your machine, this may work out fine, but if it's a new unit or a new food you're trying to cook, you may have a harder time judging when it's done.

For some air fryer owners, an advantage of a toaster oven-style unit is the window. "I like having the window," said one Redditor. "I can watch for doneness without opening the door."

One of the first things you'll notice about a basket-style air fryer when you get a new one is the smell. Some units will give off a pronounced plastic or chemical smell during the first couple of uses. Philips even has a support page explaining why it happens. "The housing and inner drawer of the airfryer are made of plastic, the pan and basket are PTFE coated," according to Philips. "These parts might release some smell during the first uses of the appliance, as the airfryer reaches very high temperatures."

The smell is usually not an ongoing issue for most customers, but it is for some. "Washed and rinsed the basket a couple times as well but the smell just comes back when I run it again," said one Redditor who couldn't get rid of the odor. "The smell definitely seems to be coming from the basket/crisper plate and not the inside of the unit," they added. "I've probably used it about 20 times now and I still have it," said another Redditor.

Philips has directions for reducing the plastic smell that involve waiting for the unit to cool, cleaning it, and then running it at a high temperature with no food inside. Tasting Table has also written about what to do if your air fryer has a chemical smell.