Went to a friend's place and their air fryer basket was basically glued shut

So I visited my buddy Mike last Tuesday and he offered to make wings. He pulls out his air fryer and the basket is stuck solid with old grease and food crud. He said he hasn't cleaned it since he got it in December, like 9 months now. We spent 20 minutes with hot water and a scraper just to get the thing open. I get not deep cleaning every week, but come on, how do you ignore it that long? It smelled like burnt oil every time it ran. Has anyone else seen a basket that bad, or am I the only one who rinses mine after each batch?

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stella_lee13d ago

Rinsing after every batch is more than most folks do, so you're ahead of the curve. But honestly, even a rinse won't stop that buildup if you're not giving it a real scrub every couple weeks. I've seen baskets where the crud is baked on so thick it actually changes the cooking time, like the air can't even get through. Nine months is gross, but people treat air fryers like they're self-cleaning magic boxes. They're not. It's just a tiny convection oven, and if you'd never scrape a regular oven for nine months, you'd think that was insane too.