If you’re the type of person that doesn’t feel like spending hours in front of a stove, an air fryer might be for you. All you have to do is toss seasoned food into the food basket, set the cooking time and temperature, and wait for the ding. However, apart from the dinging noise, are air fryers noisy?
Air fryers tend to make whirring and buzzing noises when they’re on. The typical air fryer will generate a 65-decibel buzz, which is about as loud as background office noises. However, the older your air fryer is, the louder it will become.
In this guide, I’ll explain how much noise air fryers make, why it will grow louder with age, and what you can do to reduce the device’s sound output.
Air Fryer Basics
Before doing anything else, we first have to understand what an air fryer is and how it works.
An air fryer is a tabletop cooker. The largest part of the air fryer is the base, which houses the motor, the food basket, the heating element, and the fan. You’ll also find the control board and/or buttons on the base.
If you understand how a convection oven works, you should have a good idea of how an air fryer operates. Basically, the heating element heats up the air inside the food basket while a fan at the base circulates the heated air. At the bottom of the food pan is a perforated floor to allow air to penetrate your food from all directions, including from below. The result is perfectly crisp food with little to no added oils and fats.
Do Air Fryers Make Noise?
All kitchen appliances generate some level of noise, and air fryers are no exception. Some air fryers will make beeping sounds whenever you scroll through and select a cooking mode. Most air fryers will make a dinging or beeping noise when the cooking timer has expired, letting users know that their food is fully cooked.
However, all air fryers will generate an audible whirring noise, even from several feet away. That noise mainly comes from the fan as it rotates at a high speed to recirculate heated air to cook your food from all directions.
That said, you should know that you won’t hear a consistent whirring noise from your air fryer. The fan will spin at different speeds throughout the cooking process, so its noise output will dip and rise.
How Much Noise Do Air Fryers Make?
The precise volume levels of an air fryer’s fan vary between models and brands. Some notable whisper-quiet (not really) air fryer models include the Aria Premium Air Fryer and the Black+Decker HF100WD.
However, the typical noise output you should expect from any random air fryer is around 65 decibels, which is about the same noise level as background noises at an office building. This isn’t deafening loud, but the constant whirring sounds can be incredibly annoying.
Another thing worth noting is that air fryers tend to grow louder with age. The longer you’ve owned one, and the more frequently you use it, the more audible the fan’s whirring becomes. But if your air fryer doesn’t make any noises at all, there’s a good chance that the fan needs to be fixed.
How to Reduce an Air Fryer’s Noise Output
First and foremost, I should warn you that there is no way to shut off the fan—the main source of an air fryer’s noise. However, in specific air fryer models (technically, air toasters), the “warm” preset may not activate the fan, but your food will only be cooked at around 175°F. If you attempt to cook food at such a low temperature, it will end up dry and unpalatable.
Luckily, there are other ways you can silence your air fryer, which I’ll cover below:
Muting control board sounds
If you can’t stand the slight beeping noises your air fryer makes every time you hit a button, you should look in the instruction manual for a way to mute the control board. In some models, you can activate the mute function by pressing a sequence of buttons. Repeating the sequence will deactivate the mute function.
Stopping finishing beeping sounds
At the end of the cooking cycle, your air fryer will beep several times to tell you that dinner is ready. However, if you already have your eye on the air fryer and don’t need the reminder, you can deactivate the beeping sounds by pressing and holding the stop/cancel button. This is only available in select air fryer models, so consult the included paperwork to see how it’s done.
Placing the air fryer in the far corner of your kitchen
Sometimes, the simplest solutions are the best. If you don’t want to hear the constant whirring of your air fryer, try placing it somewhere in your kitchen (or another room) where you don’t frequent too often. The farther away you are from the air fryer, the less annoying the beeping and whirring sounds will become.
Can You Put an Air Fryer in a Soundproof Box?
In case you’re wondering whether or not you should construct a soundproof box for your air fryer, I’ll tell you the answer right now: don’t do it!
Air fryers and other tabletop cooking appliances will generate heat. That heat needs to go somewhere to protect the device’s internal components from frying themselves. Luckily, most air fryers have an auto-shutoff feature to kill the motor before it succumbs to heat.
However, placing your air fryer in an enclosed environment, such as a soundproof box, will trigger the auto-shutoff feature more frequently, which may cause long-term or possibly irreparable damage to the motor.
Again, if you can’t stand the constant whirring sounds of the air fryer’s fan, move the device to another part of your kitchen or even to another room. Just make sure there’s enough space underneath the air fryer for the heated air to vent.
Is It Safe to Put an Air Fryer in a Cabinet?
Some people claimed that keeping an air fryer mutes the fan’s noise, making it bearable to continue working in the kitchen. While this may be true, I wouldn’t recommend that you do the same.
Your air fryer’s manual may instruct you to leave at least 5 inches of clearance in all directions of the air fryer, but that’s not the only thing you should consider. Encasing the air fryer in a shut-off space, such as a cabinet or soundproof box, can be dangerous. If anything goes awry, you want your nose or your smoke detector to let you know immediately.
Why Does My Air Fryer Continue to Make Noise When It’s Done Cooking?
Although the cooking time may have expired, the fan in your air fryer won’t automatically cease to a halt. Instead, it will continue to spin for a few minutes even after you’ve removed the food basket. So, why does it do this?
If the fan continues to spin for minutes after the heating coil has turned off, your air fryer is doing what it’s supposed to do. The fan doesn’t just circulate heated air to cook food, but it will also bring in fresh air to cool down the air fryer’s heating element after it’s done cooking.
Basically, air fryers are programmed to cool themselves down. If you interrupt this phase in any way, your air fryer may take longer to cool or even experience mechanical issues in the future.
My Air Fryer Makes Rattling Noises
Air fryers will make beeping, dinging, and whirring noises, but never should it make rattling sounds. If you hear a rattling noise from your air fryer, here’s what you need to do:
Place the air fryer on a flat, sturdy base
Similar to an oven, you want your air fryer to sit on a flat, sturdy base. Ideally, you’ll have enough space on your kitchen counter to accommodate the appliance, but placing it on a dining table or a kitchen island works, too. If it’s on an unstable surface, the fan may cause the air fryer to wiggle and rattle.
Check that the food basket is locked in place
Air fryers have a failsafe system in place to prevent the heating coils from activating if the food basket isn’t locked in place. However, the locking mechanism may fail as the air fryer grows older, and when this happens, the heating coil will still turn on. So, check the food basket and make sure that it’s secure in the base. Also, inspect the food pan and make certain that it doesn’t wiggle around in the basket.
Check the fan for looseness
Again, time is not an air fryer’s friend. As it grows older and wiser, its parts may become loose, including the fan. When the fan becomes loose, it doesn’t just prevent the air fryer from recirculating heated air efficiently, but it can also create an annoying rattling noise. You can take the unit apart to tighten the fan or bring it to a repair shop.
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