Should I Worry about my Air Fryer Emitting Carbon Monoxide? [FACTS]

There have been lots of interesting questions I have heard over the years related to air fryers. Anything from whether air fryers can cause harm to pet birds to worries about them causing cancer!! Today I am answering yet another question that I have heard recently about air fryers….can an air fryer give off or emit carbon monoxide? This is an interesting question that should be quick to answer but certainly deserves some playtime 🙂 Let’s look into it further 🙂

Why Do Some People Thinks Air Fryers Give off Carbon Monoxide?

This will usually happen when someone is running an air fryer and their carbon monoxide alarm (which you should totally get if you don’t have one!) goes off unexpectedly. If it is not obvious that this carbon monoxide has come from another source, people will start wondering whether it has come out of the air fryer.

What is Carbon Monoxide, How is it Formed and Why is it Dangerous?

Carbon monoxide is a byproduct of the burning of fossil fuels. It’s also created when organic compounds are burned for fuel, including wood, gasoline, and natural gas.
Carbon Monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas that cannot be seen with the naked eye or smelled in its gaseous state. Carbon monoxide can cause serious health problems to humans and animals who are exposed to it at high levels.
When you breathe in small amounts of carbon monoxide, it can cause flu-like symptoms such as headaches and fatigue. Higher exposures to the gas can lead to unconsciousness or even death.

A lot of people refer to carbon monoxide as the ‘silent killer’ as a lot of people get exposed to lethal amounts without even being aware of it. Anything harmful that is odorless and colorless is pretty scary frankly! As I said before, make sure to buy some carbon monoxide alarms to stay safe. They are pretty cheap these days 🙂

Can an Air Fryer Give Off Carbon Monoxide?

Under normal operation, it is very unlikely to almost impossible that an air fryer can give off carbon monoxide. Nothing inside the air fryer is being burned (as it is powered by electric), so this particular by-product of burned fuel won’t be produced. It really is as simple as that. And even if something accidentally burns inside your air fryer, you will turn it off way before it would have had a chance to produce more than trace amounts of carbon monoxide. So I wouldn’t worry about carbon monoxide when it comes to air fryers.

If your carbon monoxide alarm is going off whilst running an air fryer, there is probably a simple explanation. Think of any other nearby appliances that could involve burning fuel or organic material, and that would probably be your source. Otherwise, you probably have a combined smoke and carbon monoxide alarm. In that case, smoke from your air fryer could have set it off (nothing to do with carbon monoxide). Surprisingly, many people have installed their alarms years ago and simply forgotten they are of the combined smoke and carbon monoxide variety 🙂

If you want to be really sure, take your air fryer to a sealed location far, far away from anything that could possibly be burning fuel, and then set up your air fryer and carbon monoxide alarm there. If everything is set up right, it won’t go off 🙂

Some carbon monoxide alarms have been known to send false alarms (known as a false positive). It is always a good idea to have more than one carbon monoxide alarm in a given location, so that you know you have a true positive result when both alarms sound.

There you have it, the mystery is solved. No air fryers will not produce carbon monoxide unless you literally burn a whole one on a massive bonfire or firepit 🙂