Buying guide
Stainless steel air fryers: the stainless is usually the outside
An air fryer called “stainless steel” usually has a stainless housing. The basket your food sits in is a different part, and on most models we checked it is coated — sometimes stated, sometimes not mentioned at all.
It is a disclosure score out of 100, not a safety rating: what it is made of, who tested it, where it is made, whether the claim matches the evidence. A product can score 20 and be perfectly fine to cook in. What a low score means is that nobody outside the company can check. The rubric is here.
The short answer
We have not found an air fryer in our data that is sold as stainless steel and states a bare stainless cooking basket. The closest uncoated option we have scored is the Fritaire (81/100), which is a glass bowl with bare 304 stainless accessories — sold as a glass air fryer, not a stainless one.
The Cosori Iconic Stainless Steel names 304 and 430 stainless for the structure and exterior, and its own page says the basket is “ceramic-coated, nonstick”. The Chefman TurboFry Touch “Stainless-Steel” gives the basket only as “nonstick basket”. In Australia, Kogan’s 10L XXL lists “Polypropylene & Stainless Steel 304” as its material, which describes the exterior.
Read the line about the basket or crisper plate, not the product name. On every model sold as stainless that we checked, the basket is coated or not described.
The models, scored
United States
| Product | Score /100 | What touches the food | Our call |
|---|---|---|---|
| 81 | 60/60 | Best material | |
| 54 | 26/60 | Read the caveats | |
| 47 | 26/60 | Read the caveats | |
| 27 | 8/60 | They won't say | |
| 33 | 14/60 | Fine | |
| 17 | 0/60 | They won't say |
- 81/100
- 54/100
Nuwave Brio Plus 7 qt · US“PFAS-free ceramic basket” with a “100% non-toxic, all-metal interior” — substrate under the ceramic not named, chemistry not named
The full entry → - 47/100
- 27/100
Chefman TurboFry Touch “Stainless-Steel” 8 qt · USThe stainless steel is the housing finish. The basket is given only as “nonstick basket” — no substrate, no chemistry, no claim
The full entry → - 33/100
- No maker photo17/100Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer BOV860 · US
Nothing published. The full US instruction manual and the product page name no material for the air fry basket, baking pan, broiling rack or roasting pan. “Brushed Stainless Steel” describes the oven body.
The full entry →
Australia
| Product | Score /100 | What touches the food | Our call |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | 8/60 | Avoid | |
| 17 | 0/60 | Avoid |
- No maker photo21/100Breville the Smart Oven Air Fryer XL BOV905 · AU
Housing “Stainless steel and Plastic”
The full entry → - No maker photo17/100Kogan 10L XXL Digital Air Fryer · AU
“Polypropylene & Stainless Steel 304” — describes the exterior; basket not stated
The full entry →
What they publish, point by point
Cosori Iconic Stainless Steel 6.5qt — 47/100 · coated, or plastic in contact
- What touches the food — 26/60. 304 stainless structure · 430 stainless exterior · but the basket surface is ceramic-coated
- The rest of it — 21/25. Lids, seals, handles and the outside.
- Backed up — 0/15. Named testing, published reports, and whether the claim matches the evidence.
- Made in. UNVERIFIED
- They claim. "cooking surfaces free of PFAS and BPA"
- Warranty. 5 years limited
- Heat. 450°F
Sold as the stainless steel air fryer. The stainless is the housing. Cosori’s own page says the basket is “ceramic-coated, nonstick”.
If you were buying this to get away from coatings, read the product page twice — the answer is in there, just not in the name.
The full entry, with every source · The maker’s own page
Chefman TurboFry Touch “Stainless-Steel” 8 qt — 27/100 · coated, plastic, or unnamed
- What touches the food — 8/60. The stainless steel is the housing finish. The basket is given only as “nonstick basket” — no substrate, no chemistry, no claim
- The rest of it — 13/25. Lids, seals, handles and the outside.
- Backed up — 6/15. Named testing, published reports, and whether the claim matches the evidence.
- Made in. UNVERIFIED — not published
- They claim. None made — the page carries a Prop 65 cancer and reproductive harm warning
- Warranty. One year
- Heat. 400°F / 205°C; top-rack dishwasher safe basket
The textbook case of the trap. The model name says stainless steel; the surface your food touches is an unnamed nonstick coating.
A buyer scanning model names would get this wrong, and it is the same pattern we found on the Cosori Iconic Stainless Steel and the Instant Vortex Plus Stainless Steel.
The full entry, with every source · The maker’s own page
Nuwave Brio Plus 7 qt — 54/100 · coated, or plastic in contact
- What touches the food — 26/60. “PFAS-free ceramic basket” with a “100% non-toxic, all-metal interior” — substrate under the ceramic not named, chemistry not named
- The rest of it — 17/25. Lids, seals, handles and the outside.
- Backed up — 11/15. Named testing, published reports, and whether the claim matches the evidence.
- Made in. UNVERIFIED — not published
- They claim. "PFAS-free ceramic basket"; "100% non-toxic"
- Warranty. One year manufacturer’s warranty
- Heat. 50°F to 400°F; ceramic non-stick base tray dishwasher safe
Nuwave’s own AB 1200 page names PTFE and FEP in Brio air fryer baskets — annotated, in their words, “PTFE coating in tray and basket”.
This model is not on that list, so the PFAS-free claim is not directly contradicted. But the Brio line is split down the middle and the product pages do not tell you which half you are buying.
The full entry, with every source · The maker’s own page
Kogan 10L XXL Digital Air Fryer — 17/100 · coated, plastic, or unnamed
- What touches the food — 0/60. “Polypropylene & Stainless Steel 304” — describes the exterior; basket not stated
- The rest of it — 17/25. Lids, seals, handles and the outside.
- Backed up — 0/15. Named testing, published reports, and whether the claim matches the evidence.
- Made in. UNVERIFIED — not published
- They claim. No claim of any kind
- Warranty. 1 year
- Heat. Not published
This is the trap worth learning. The material field says “Polypropylene & Stainless Steel 304”, and a shopper reasonably reads that as the basket.
It is not. Read in context — “Premium stainless steel design. Durable stainless steel complements any kitchen” — the 304 is the outside of the box. The basket is never described at all.
The full entry, with every source · The maker’s own page
How to check a listing yourself
- Find the line about the basket or crisper plate, not the product name or the “material” spec row.
- “Nonstick” on a basket means a coating. If the chemistry is not named, you cannot tell which kind. What “PTFE-free” doesn’t tell you.
- A PFAS-free claim on the basket is worth more than one on “the product”, and an unqualified claim is worth more than “no intentionally added”.
Our verdict
Treat “stainless steel” in an air fryer’s name as a description of the outside. If an uncoated cooking surface is what you are after, the strongest written answer in our data is a glass model. Glass air fryers, compared.
Questions people ask
Is there a fully stainless steel air fryer with no coating?
Not in the products we have scored so far. Every model sold as stainless that we checked either coats the basket or does not say what the basket is. We will add one if a maker puts a bare stainless basket in writing.
Is the Cosori stainless steel air fryer non-toxic?
Cosori says its “cooking surfaces [are] free of PFAS and BPA”, and its page also says the basket is ceramic-coated. The ceramic’s chemistry is not published. It scores 47/100.
Are stainless steel air fryers safer than non-stick ones?
The stainless parts usually do not touch food, so the name alone tells you little. What matters is the basket and plate, which is what our “what touches the food” score covers. Our score measures disclosure, not safety.
Related
Sources
- Fritaire Glass Air Fryer 5qt — maker or retailer page. fritaire.com
- Nuwave Brio Plus 7 qt — maker or retailer page. www.nuwavenow.com
- Cosori Iconic Stainless Steel 6.5qt — maker or retailer page. cosori.com
- Chefman TurboFry Touch “Stainless-Steel” 8 qt — maker or retailer page. chefman.com
- Instant Vortex Plus 6qt — maker or retailer page. instantpot.com
- Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer BOV860 — maker or retailer page. www.breville.com
- Breville the Smart Oven Air Fryer XL BOV905 — maker or retailer page. www.breville.com
- Kogan 10L XXL Digital Air Fryer — maker or retailer page. www.kogan.com
- MessyPig materials rubric. MessyPig materials rubric
Related pages
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