Do Air Fryers Smell? (And How To Handle Plastic Smell)

One of the great things about replacing your deep fryer with an air fryer is the smell. When deep-frying food, a certain odor will spread throughout your home.

I never used to complain about the greasy smell when I stood in line at chick-fil-a (way before I owned an air fryer), that’s because I love fried food, however, I would never want to have the smell of fried food lingering in my house.

I decided to do some research on air fryers and how much they smell in comparison to other appliances. This is what I came up with.

Do air fryers smell?

Air fryers do smell a little when running a cooking cycle but opening a window will be enough to neutralize the smell. The smell emitted from an air fryer is much more like that of a conventional oven than the greasy odor that a deep fryer emits.

Why do some air fryers smell like burnt plastic?

Some air fryers emit a smell of burnt plastic the first couple of times. This plastic smell comes from burning the protective coating that’s applied to the components during manufacturing. The coating should burn off quite easily, causing the smell to disappear. Cleaning the components with a soft sponge, water, and soap can neutralize the smell.

If that doesn’t work either, use the method described in the article.

The smell that an air fryer may produce can easily be neutralized with the help of an open window or a kitchen fan.

In comparison to the greasy smell coming out of a deep fryers oil bath, the air fryer’s odor doesn’t come close. Unless you’re handling a new air fryer. Some models tend to have an intolerable smell until you’ve used them a couple of times.

Trying to make the most of your air frying experience? I’ve been through it and I came out victorious with a list of 28 nifty tips and tricks for the air fryer – I’m sure a couple of these will come in handy no matter how experienced you are.

Why Does My New Air Fryer Smell Like Plastic?

New appliances of this kind have a bad habit of smelling pretty horribly. While the bad smell doesn’t come with every air fryer, some specimen do have that rancid odor when first used. And in all honesty, it’s the last thing you want to smell coming out of the machine that you use to cook food in.

As I said, every air fryer doesn’t smell. Why that is, I don’t know. But it seems like the components have some kind of protective coat that’s supposed to burn off when you first use the air fryer, according to some manufacturers.

When the protective coat is exposed to high temperatures, it starts to burn off, and that might be the reason for that horrible smell.

For some, the smell started to fade after the first or second time using the air fryer, for others, it didn’t go away entirely until they had used the air fryer 10 times.

In some cases, people have experienced that the smell doesn’t go away, instead, it starts to flavor the food coming out of the air fryer, giving it a strange plastic taste. While these are rare cases they still need to be prevented.

One may have to apply remedies to remove the plastic smell as quickly as possible in order to make the air frying experience as pleasant as possible.

How To Remove Plastic Smell From Air Fryer

Of course, you want to remove that horrible smell as rapidly as possible so you can get to cooking in your new air fryer, I understand. Except for the smell that some have to withstand, an air fryer is an awesome kitchen appliance that provides many different ways of cooking.

Anyhow, let’s get to it as quickly as possible then. Here’s what I recommend you do.

First, clean the air fryer thoroughly.

Remove the air fryer’s components (basket, pan, grill rack)
Fill the kitchen sink with warm water and soap
Bathe the components in the mixture for 10-15 minutes
Using a soft sponge dipped in the sink, clean the components, the drawer, and the inside of the air fryer.
Wipe with paper towels
Your air fryer should now be clean. Try running it at 400F for a couple of minutes to see if the smell has disappeared, if it hasn’t, proceed with the next method down below.

Secondly, if the air fryer still smells, try this.

Place a small dish in the air fryer
Add 1 tablespoon of distilled vinegar and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
Place in the air fryer
Run the air fryer on default heat (370-400) but lower the time to approximately 2 minutes
Let the dish sit there for a while (10 minutes)
To get rid of the vinegar and lemon smell, place a dish containing water in the air fryer, preferably in an oven proof pot.
This technique worked for me, while the smell isn’t entirely gone, it drastically reduced it. In combination with a good clean-up, you may be able to get rid of the smell.

The vinegar and lemon juice-technique is effective, but you may have to do it more than one time before the smell goes away. If the first run doesn’t get you anywhere, try increasing the cooking time by 4-5 minutes and give it another go.

Hopefully, this should remove the plastic smell from your air fryer altogether.

Do Air Fryers Stink Up the House?

I spent a long time in an apartment where the bedroom and the kitchen were the same room, basically. Jokingly, I would say that I could cook food in bed, and it was partly true. With so little space, I was worried that it would be impossible for me to escape or isolate the smell of grease or cooked food.

In a not-so-spacious apartment that air fryer didn’t stink up the place. The longer into the cooking cycle that the air fryer got, the more the apartment would smell. It didn’t stink, it was a marvelous mixture of the ingredients and spices that I was cooking.

The smell wasn’t uncomfortable and it would go away by simply opening a window or lighting a scented candle. This is a huge difference when comparing the air fryer to the deep fryer, which really leaves the entire house smelling of grease.

You can expect the air fryer to produce smells, but they’re not much worse than the smells coming from a conventional oven and they can be removed quite easily if you find them unpleasant.

With the exception of burnt plastic in the air fryer. That smell is horrible and it’s quite hard to get rid off. It’s a rancid smell that simply lingers in the air for a bit too long.

The smell of burnt plastic is in no way unique for the air fryer. The same protective coating can be found on other kitchen appliances, such as ovens, as well. When these appliances are burned-in they will produce the same rancid smell.

Why Does My Air Fryer Make My Food Taste Like Plastic?

We’ve talked about the air fryer having a small break-in period where the protective coating around the components emits a certain smell when it’s being burned off. It takes a couple of cycles before the air fryer has settled and the protective coating is completely gone.

During this time, the air fryer will smell strange every single time that it’s heated up. The smell that’s lingering in the air fryer will transition to the food that’s being cooked in the air fryer. This can give the food a strange plastic smell that’s far from pleasant.

Enjoying a newly-cooked meal can be quite difficult when the entire house smells like burnt plastic. But trust me, it’s even harder when the food also tastes like burnt plastic. It’s not something that you want to experience.

One way to prevent this from happening is to run the air fryer without ingredients placed inside the first couple of times. This doesn’t happen to everyone but if you experience strong plastic taste or smell, then I would definitely run the air fryer without food until the smell starts to settle.

I don’t know if it’s safe or not the eat air-fried food that tastes like plastic but I wouldn’t recommend doing it.

Air Fryers Are Like Small Convection Ovens

When comparing an air fryer to other appliances, they are more like a small convection oven than a deep fryer. Thankfully, the convection oven doesn’t smell nearly as much as the deep fryer does.

And the same goes for an air fryer, after a cooking session, with or without oil, the air fryer won’t have your entire house smelling like grease. This makes the air fryer a very good option for smaller apartments, dorm rooms, and even RVs.

If an air fryer does smell a lot, there may be something wrong. And I’m not talking about the plastic or chemical smell you sometimes face when using new air fryers. If the air fryer emits a smell of burnt food every single time you cook, then your cleaning routine has to be re-evaluated.

Grease residue and other stains can lead to the formation of smoke and produce a burnt smell when overheated. By frequently cleaning your air fryer, you won’t have to worry about that happening.

Take this into consideration when cleaning your air fryer.

Is the outside of the air fryer clean? You would be surprised by how much the exterior of an air fryer can impact the smell. Scrub the air fryers exterior using a moist cloth.
Is the coil clean? Inside the air fryer, often located on top, there’s a heating coil which produces the heat in the air fryer. Anything that ends up in the heating coil will burn. Light ingredients and breading might easily end up in the coil, this can result in a burnt smell, and in some cases, smoke coming out of the air fryer. For your own safety, never ever clean the coil when it’s hot. Give it some time to cool down and then, using a tissue or a cloth, scrub the heating coil to remove any leftover pieces of burnt food and residue.
For the basket and other components, use the method we talked about earlier. Warm water, soap, and a soft sponge.

Air Fryer Malfunctions Can Also Emit Odors

If your air fryer starts to emit a chemical or plastic smell out of nowhere long after its first use, then the air fryer may be facing some electrical malfunctions. If that’s the case, unplug the air fryer and contact the manufacturers.

Oftentimes, if an electrical malfunction leads to the appliance catching fire, the burnt plastic forms blue smoke. So, if you ever see any blue smoke coming out of your appliances, beware.

If you just bought an air fryer and you’re experiencing a strange chemical or plastic smell, don’t worry about what you just read. Some air fryers can emit some pretty horrible odors at first. It doesn’t mean that they are malfunctioning.