Air Fryer

Overview

The air fryer is a compact convection oven that crisps food in a perforated basket using rapidly circulated hot air, requiring little or no cooking oil. A sheathed heating element and a high-speed fan sit in the top of the cabinet, driving heated air down and around food held in the Cooking Chamber. The whole appliance is enclosed in the moulded Outer Housing, which carries the vents, base plate and slot for the pull-out drawer.

How it works

When a program is started from the Control Board, its microcontroller closes a relay that energises the Heating & Convection block. Inside it the heating element warms to several hundred degrees while the convection fan, spun by its own small AC motor, forces that hot air through a shroud and down past the food. The perforated basket and crisper plate let the airflow reach every surface, browning the exterior through the Maillard reaction much as deep frying would.

Cooking temperature is held by the Sensor Set. An NTC thermistor reports chamber temperature back to the control board, which cycles the heater to maintain the setpoint; a basket-detect switch prevents heating when the drawer is removed, and a thermal cutoff fuse opens permanently on a runaway fault. The touchscreen display, a layered LCD and digitiser, presents presets and a countdown timer.

Mains power enters through the Power Cord, whose strain-relief grommet protects the cable at the cabinet wall. Hot air and combustion-free exhaust leave through grilles in the housing, and four rubber feet damp vibration from the fan. Because the cooking chamber slides out as one drawer, the non-stick pot and crisper plate lift free for washing while the electronics stay sealed in the dry upper cabinet.