For experienced air fryer chefs it might be straightforward how to preheat air fryers, but if you are a beginner it can be a bit confusing. Especially if the user manual doesn’t say anything about how to preheat that specific air fryer. And many of us know that can happen.
Although most of the times it is easy to preheat an air fryer, but there are a few things to keep in mind.
Also there is the age old question when should you preheat air fryers at all. Or if it makes a huge difference if you preheat or don’t preheat.
We are going to answer all of these questions in this article.
You’ll also find instructions to different well known air fryers so you can see how varying it can be to preheat air fryers based on its brand.
How to preheat air fryers?
The short answer: Set the timer and temperature and start your air fryer. For smaller models wait 3 minutes and for bigger ones wait 5 minutes. After that your air fryer is preheated and you can fill it with food.
Now let’s take a detailed look on how the preheating works for air fryers.
Depending on your air fryer there are 3 possibilities how you can preheat your air fryer. It can have a preheat setting, automatic or manual preheat.
Preheat setting
If your air fryer has a preheat preset on your air fryer you usually select the preset and let the air fryer do its thing while leaving it empty.
If you don’t have one no worries. It doesn’t really do anything just sets your air fryer to a high temperature for 3 minutes, then it turns of (or at least mine does that). So if you don’t have such a preset you just need to set you do it manually, like how I describe below.
Automatic:
If it is automatic you just set the timer and temperature and your air fryer will automatically preheat. After it is preheated it will blink or give some sounds so you’ll know it is preheated
Manual:
If it doesn’t have any preheat function you just set the temperature and timer and add 3-5 minutes to the total cooking time. You start your cooking sequence and after the 3-5 minutes have passed your air fryer is preheated and you can add you foods to it.
Important precautionary steps on how to preheat air fryer
Be a conscious consumer and read the manual first:
Every gadget that has been manufactured in the history of humankind has a manual that has all the details listed for the consumer. But let’s be honest, most of us just toss it in the drawer (or worse, in the bin).
Well usually it saves us time and a few headaches if we go through the manual in the beginning. Since you made the choice to invest in an air fryer then it is best to be sure not to let that money go to waste. If you haven’t made the decision yet check out our article on why air fryers even worth the money.
Air fryers come from different brands. And different sorts of air fryer of different brands will have different methods of preheating and running the air fryer. To bring out the best from your air fryer it is better that you preheat your air fryer according to the instructions listed in the manual. It saves you from voiding the warranty by damaging your air fryer.
Keep your air fryer clean always:
After accomplishing the first step, it is best if you clean your air fryer basket before the first use. You should clean your basket even if the manufacturer in the manual does not mention it.
Why is this important? You can never know what chemicals or glues or any other materials have been used or how the seller have stored your air fryer. Also after several use it is crucial to preheat a clean air fryer since food particles from a previous cooking can stick to the air fryer and these will get burned much easier, thus ruining your whole food.
Make sure that you check all the nooks and crannies of the cooking basket so that there is nothing stuck there that can ruin the taste and hygiene of the food that will be cooked inside it.
Check the voltage and plug-in:
Before you plug in the air fryer for using it, make sure that you know regarding the kind of voltage power supply it has. As not all air fryer has been manufactured to run with dual voltage power supply. Know that the voltage unit of the air fryer is 120V or 220V.
Also, be careful about the voltage supply of your house. It is a common knowledge that an air fryer that runs at 120V units will get destroyed if it is plugged in the socket that has a supply of 220V. This is very important since it can burn down your air fryer that could potentially harm your entire kitchen.
How to preheat Ultrean air fryers
According to the manuals its rather easy to preheat an ultrean air fryer.
Here are the steps:
- Place the appliance on a stable, horizontal and even surface
- Do not place the appliance on non heat resistant surface
- Put the basket in the pan
- Do not fill the pan with oil or any other liquid
- Press the power on/off icon first, and adjust the time to 3 minutes and set the temperature to 400 degrees
- Press the power on/off icon again to start to warm it up.
- It takes 3 minutes to preheat all the Ultrean air fryers according to their manuals
- Once the air fryer finished preheating it will give a beeping sound.
In the table below we gathered all the user manuals and will point you to where you can find info on how to preheat Ultrean air fryers. Unfortunately not all of the user manuals describe the exact process of pre heating but most ultrean air fryers are similar to each others so if you don’t find the exact information on how to preheat ultrean air fryers be sure to check the other user manuals as well.
| Type | Preheat time | How to preheat an Ultrean Air Fryer |
|---|---|---|
| ULTREAN 5.8 Quart | 3 minutes preheat | User manual - Preheat instructions on page 5 |
| Ultrean 8 Quart Air Fryer | 3 minutes preheat | User manual - Preheat instructions on page 8 |
| Ultrean 6 quart air fryer | 3 minutes preheat | User manual - Preheat instructions on page 3 |
| Ultrean AF104 6 quart air fryer | 3 minutes preheat | User manual - Preheat instructions on page 3 |
| Ultrean 4.2 quart compact Air Fryer | 3 minutes preheat | User manual - Complete preheat section on page 8 |
| Ultrean AF102 4.5 Quart | 2 minutes preheat | User manual - Complete preheat section on page 8 |
Related: How To Use Ultrean Air Fryer
How to preheat Crux air fryers
Unfortunately Crux doesn’t mention a lot about preheating their air fryers. So I made quite a big research to find out how to preheat crux air fryers.
How to preheat Crux Airpro XL
- The Crux Airpro Air Fryer Grill Combo doesn’t say how much time it needs to be preheated but reading the reviews and looking at its food timer chart it should be between 3-5 minutes.
- To preheat the Crux Airpro XL turn the power On/Off button and set the temperature.
- Wait 3-5 minutes and a light will turn on that says “Add food”. When this light shows up the Crux AirPro Air fryer is preheated.
How to preheat the Crux 6 QT Air Fryer
- Press the START/STOP button
- Select the timer for 3:00 and the temperature for 400 degrees
- Press the START/STOP button again to start preheating
- After 3 minutes the machine should give 5 beeps to indicate that the air fryer is preheated
| Type | Preheat time | How to preheat Crux air fryers |
|---|---|---|
| Crux AirPro XL Air Fryer Grill Combo | 3-5 minutes preheating | User manual - Preheat instructions on page 5 |
| Crux 5.3 QT Air Fryer | 3 minutes preheating | User manual - Complete Preheat section on page 9 |
| Crux 3.7 QT Air Fryer | 3-5 minutes preheating | No user manual found |
How to preheat Kalorik air fryers
How to preheat Kalorik MAXX air fryer ovens
- Press Start/Stop to select Standby mode.
- Press “Air Fry” to directly select air frying mode. Use the selector dial to choose between 14 air frying presets or select “Air Fry” to choose the time and temperature of your choice.
- Press Start/Stop to begin the cooking process.
- The selected program will blink to indicate the unit is preheating under the chosen programming. The preset light will blink until the chosen temperature has been reached, and then remain steady to indicate the unit is ready.
- The fan icon will turn on as well if the program you have selected uses a fan for its cooking process.
How to preheat Kalorik 5.3 quart air fryer
- Press Start/Stop to begin the cooking process.
- The selected program will blink to indicate the unit is preheating under the chosen programming. The preset light will blink until the chosen temperature has been reached, and then remain steady to indicate the unit is ready.
- The fan icon will turn on as well if the program you have selected uses a fan for its cooking process.
- As you can see its pretty similar to the Kalorik MAXX. All Kalorik models have the same logic for preheating: Their selected preset will blink after the chosen temperature has been reached.
| Type | Preheat time | How to preheat Kalorik air fryers |
|---|---|---|
| Kalorik MAXX Air Fryer Oven | 5 minutes preheating (air fry mode only) | User manual - Preheat instructions on page 9-10 |
| Kalorik Pro XL 5.3QT Air fryer | 3-5 minutes preheating | User manual - Preheating information on page 9 |
| Kalorik Pro 3.5 QT Air Fryer | 3-5 minutes preheating | User manual - Preheating information on page 9 |
How to preheat Gourmia Air fryers
How to preheat Gourmia GAF318 4 Qt Digital Air Fryer
- Tap the power icon to turn the appliance on
- To select a preset tap the “M” button until the desired food icon appears
- The temperature and timer should appear on the screen
- For preheating add 3 minutes to the total time required
- Select the required temperature and time by pressing the 2 arrow icons on the 2 sides of the air fryer
- Press the power on icon again and a blue fan icon will appear that indicates that the air frying process has begun
How to preheat Gourmia GAF218 Air Fryer
- Turn the temperature control to desired temperature to start air frying.
- To turn on the appliance, turn the timer control clockwise. Green and red lights will appear.
- Add 3 minutes to the preparation time to preheat the air fryer
- When the desired temperature is met, the red light will go off.
- Once the timer has elapsed the appliance will turn off.
| Type | Preheat time | How to preheat Gourmia air fryers |
|---|---|---|
| Gourmia GAF-570 Air Fryer | 5 minutes preheating | User manual - Preheat instructions on page 8 |
| Gourmia GAF-400 Air Fryer | 3-5 minutes preheating | User manual - Preheating information on page 15 |
| Gourmia GAF-575 Air Fryer | 3-5 minutes preheating | User manual - Preheating information on page 7 |
| Gourmia GAF-560 Air Fryer | 3 minutes preheating | User manual - Preheating information on page 8 |
| Gourmia GAF-328 Air Fryer | 3 minutes preheating | User manual - Preheating information on page 8 |
| Gourmia GAF-678 Air Fryer | 3 minutes preheating | User manual - Preheating information on page 9 |
| Gourmia GAF-218 Air Fryer | 3 minutes preheating | User manual - Preheating information on page 9 |
| Gourmia GAF-318 Air Fryer | 3 minutes preheating | User manual - Preheating information on page 8 |
How to preheat Philips Air Fryers
Philips has a rather strange user instructions on how to preheat air fryers to say the least. First of all they don’t use any text in their user manual just pictures that is a bit hard to grasp. But we gathered information from various sources and most Philips have the same mechanism on how to preheat their air fryers. So usually these are the steps:
How to preheat Philips Air Fryers – Step by Step:
-
Press the ‘Power’ button
-
Select the desired temperature
-
Press the ‘Play’ button
-
Wait 3 minutes
-
The air fryer will give a beeping sound when its preheated
-
After you put your food in it press the temp./timer button
-
Set the timer
-
Press the ‘Play’ button again to start air frying
| Type | Preheat time | How to preheat Kalorik air fryers |
|---|---|---|
| Philips Viva Digital Air Fryer | 3 minutes preheating | User manual - Preheat instructions on page 3 |
| Philips HD9641 | 3-5 minutes preheating | User manual - Preheating information on page 12 |
| PhilipsTurbostar | 3-5 minutes | User manual - Preheating information on page 12 |
Frequently Asked Questions About Preheating Air Fryers
Do you have to preheat an air fryer?
There are different opinion on this issue. Some people say that air fryers always have to be preheated and others says it just saves you time if you just go ahead and pour everything in it because the end result will be the same. The answer is a little bit more complicated than that.
A good rule of thumb is that if you want to have an even distribution of baking or frying regarding your food then it is best not to preheat it. On the other hand if you want a crispier and crunchier result, then preheating is a good idea.
Don’t forget that air fryers are working on very high temperature so taking this question into consideration is quite important.
So let’s go through in which cases it is a good idea to pre heat and when it is not.
When to preheat an air fryer?
Steaks – Depending on your preference but most people like a raw or medium finish on their steaks. This means it shouldn’t be cooked on the inside. Therefore we need a very high temperature preheated air fryer. This will cook the outer parts of the steak fast while the inside stays uncooked.
Re-heating – If you have some leftovers from yesterday than a preheated air fryer might get you a better texture
Frozen foods that need a good crust – E.g. French fries or chicken wings need a good crust on the outside and in a preheated air fryer you can reach a crunchier
When not to preheat an air fryer?
Vegetables that can burn easily – Delicate veggies (e. g. leafy greens, brussel sprouts, or cauliflower) can burn easily therefore it is best not to put in a preheated air fryer.
Raw frozen meat – When you fry your frozen meat it is very important that you cook the inside of the meat as well. If you put it in to a high temperature preheated air fryer chances are that the you will cook the meat unevenly and might stay raw on the inside.
Bread and pastries – When you are baking bread inside your air fryer it is important that the outer shell becomes crispy right when the inside of the dough is soft and baked. Again, an even distribution of temperature is required for this and that is why you shouldn’t preheat the air fryer for breads
Paper – This one is very important so please read carefully! If you are using a parchment paper or aluminium foil don’t put it in when preheating your air fryer because the paper will move inside the machine and might burn the paper and it can burn down the entire appliance too!
How long it takes to preheat an air fryer to 400 degrees?
Usually it takes 3-5 minutes to preheat an air fryer to 400 degrees but it depends on 2 factors.
First it depends on the size of the air fryer (how many quarts). If your air fryer is bigger than it might take more time for it to preheat but it shouldn’t be more than 6-7 minutes with the biggest ones as well. Still much better than a conventional oven.
Second it depends on the wattage. The higher the wattage the faster the air fryer will preheat. Most air fryers use between 1200W-1700W.
I have read many instruction manuals and most standard air fryers (between 4QT-6QT) preheat under 5 minutes. Let’s see an exampe: The Tristar PowerXL Classic is a 4QT air fryer and its instructions manual claim it preheats in 3 minutes (we also wrote a review about the PowerXL classic).
Conclusion:
To sum up on how to preheat air fryers you should always follow these simple steps. First, you should always start by reading the manual. Second, be sure to check the voltage of the machine and also clean the inside before using it. These are the most important steps. Moreover depending on what you cook it is not straightforward whether to preheat it or not. For some dishes its better and for some its not. Usually the ones that needs to be crispier is better to preheat. For foods that needs an even distribution of temperature it is better to not.
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