16 Steps for How to Clean a Home Deep Fryer? The Newbie’s Guide

It’s fun to have a deep fryer at home, isn’t it? Now you can deep fry chicken, and French fries can be a very popular snack.

But it doesn’t take long for you to realize that you also need to know how to clean your home deep fryer easily. It seems like a rather unpleasant task, to tell the truth, especially if the deep fryer is really greasy and you’ve also got food particles to deal with.

It’s true that this process can take a bit of time. It’s not like you’re just scrubbing a dew dishes. But you’ll want to do this regularly, because you don’t want the grime to accumulate.

Sooner or later you will need to clean the deep fryer and opting for “later” just makes your task more difficult when you need to deal with a serious grime buildup.

Here are some tips that can help and the steps you need to take:

Clean the deep fryer regularly. If you use it only once every 2 weeks or so (or even less frequently), then clean it after every time you use it. If you use the deep fryer every day, then at least clean it every few days or so. This keeps the grime from building up that may become even more difficult to remove in the future.
Avoid putting the deep fryer in the dishwasher or the kitchen sink. The water will cause an electrical short, and you’ll end up with a broken deep fryer instead.
Don’t clean the deep fryer while it’s still plugged either. Unplug it first, and then let the fryer cool down totally. This helps you to avoid burns.
Don’t add water to your container of hot oil either. This can result in an explosive mixture that can cause burns as well.
Drain the oil. Get rid of it properly if you’re not going to use the oil anymore. Never pour the oil down the sink, since that can lead to environmental issues along with clogged pipes.
Get the fryer basket out, and then place it in the sink. Put in a few drops of washing detergent on the basket, and then you can clean it later.
Use a damp (but not dripping) sponge or paper towels to wipe off the oil residue and the food particles from the pot and the lid.
If you have caked oil on the fryer, use a spatula or a pan scraper to scrape off the oil. Be careful so you don’t damage the finish. You may want to use stiff plastic utensils instead so the deep fryer finish won’t get damaged.
Use paper towels to remove the oil residue from the heating element. Be careful so you don’t damage any of the heating element parts. Some deep fryers even have a removable heating element so you can clean it more easily.
Scrub the sides of the fryer with a sponge and 4 drops of dishwashing liquid.
Put in some hot water into the fryer, and let it sit for half an hour.
While you’re waiting for the hot water to clean the fryer, run warm water over the fryer basket. Use an old toothbrush to remove any food particles. After that, rinse the soap off the basket. Blot off any remaining water with a paper towel. Leave it to dry on your dish rack.
Replace or clean your dirty filters on the fryer lid. If you have charcoal odor-filters, you need to replace them. If you have removable filters, you can wash them in soapy water and then let them dry. If the filters aren’t removable, use a damp cloth with a bit of detergent to wipe the filters, and then you can remove the detergent and oil with a plain damp cloth.
Get back to the hot water in the deep fryer, and get rid of half the water. Use the remaining water and a sponge to clean the sides and the bottom. If the water contains a lot of oil, dispose of the water as you would the deep fryer oil. Don’t just pour the water down the drain!
If there’s any caked-on oil left, use warm water with a bit of baking soda along with a sponge to scrub off the oil.
Rinse the cooking pot with water to get rid of all the detergent. If there are still any greasy patches, use diluted vinegar (1 part vinegar to 10 parts water) to clean these patches.