COSORI internal basket for frying

Preheating an air fryer

Do I need to preheat my air fryer?

In a word, yes. Think of your air fryer as a small oven, indeed that’s what it is after all. If you were to bake or roast something in the oven, you’d get the oven to temperature before putting your food in to cook right? The same applies to your air fryer, you need to bring the unit up to temperature before you begin cooking your food.

If you follow the recipes on this website, it’s assumed you have a preheated unit. If you don’t preheat your air fryer you will need to increase your cooking time accordingly – to allow for the extra time your unit takes to get to temperature. Every air fryer is different in this regards.

You might see websites that state you do not need to preheat your fryer. This is of course technically true, but ultimately poor advice. The point of this website is to offer consistent and easily replicable air fryer cooking advice – that in turn relies on starting from a standardized set point – a preheated cooking environment.

How do I pre heat an air fryer?

Some models have a built in preheat option. You simply turn your air fryer on and activate the pre heat mode. It usually takes no more than five minutes to pre heat the fryer.

Some models might not have this option as standard, but can usually be preheated in some fashion. Some users recommend simply heating the unit upto 400F first, before getting cooking. We’d recommend referring to the instructions that come with your air fryer – it’s important to always keep safety in mind.

If your air fryer instructions don’t come with information on how to safely pre-heat, we recommend calling the manufacturers helpline which should be included with the printed materials of your fryer; all reputable brands will offer this service. Again, it’s important to use your air fryer safely and operate within the guidelines of the specific unit.

What air fryers come with a pre heat mode?

The following models come with a pre heat mode: