Air fryer advice in plain English
Stainless Steel Air Fryers, Made Simple
Pick by what matters to you, not by how shiny it looks. Most stainless steel air fryers are only steel on the outside, so here's how to find the right one for your kitchen.
Image: AI-generated (OpenAI)
The short answer
Most stainless steel air fryers are only stainless on the outside, and many have a coating on the parts that touch your food. We couldn't find one that the company clearly says has a bare steel basket. For the least coating, start with the Our Place Wonder Oven. For a regular pull-out drawer, start with the Cosori Iconic.
Start here
Pick the question on your mind.
Pick by what matters to you
There's no perfect air fryer. There's one that fits your kitchen. Here are four good places to start.
I want as little coating as I can get
Our Place Wonder Oven
An oven-style air fryer. Our Place lists a stainless steel oven and a chromed-steel basket. Only the bake pan is coated, and you can leave it out.
View on Amazon(paid link to Amazon, opens in a new tab)Ad · paid link · check price & delivery on AmazonI want a regular pull-out drawer
Cosori Iconic
It has the stainless look and a familiar drawer. Cosori says the cooking surfaces have a ceramic coating.
View on Amazon(paid link to Amazon, opens in a new tab)Ad · paid link · check price & delivery on AmazonI want a big one for the family
Breville BOV900
A large countertop oven with a brushed stainless outside. Breville says the inside walls have a nonstick coating.
View on Amazon(paid link to Amazon, opens in a new tab)Ad · paid link · check price & delivery on AmazonI'd rather cook in glass
Ninja Crispi
You cook in a see-through glass bowl. We couldn't find out exactly what the plate inside is made of.
View on Amazon(paid link to Amazon, opens in a new tab)Ad · paid link · check price & delivery on Amazon
Want to see them all together? Here are our picks, side by side.
Not sure? Let us help
Answer a few quick questions and we'll point you to one.
Find yours in 3 quick questions
Question 1 of 3
What kind of air fryer do you want?
Tip: only ovens, not drawers, mention stainless inside walls.
Shiny on the outside. Check what's on the inside.
Good to know before you buy
Four things the Amazon listings won't tell you.
“Stainless steel” usually means the outside
On most models, the steel is the shell you can see. The basket inside is often a different story. So look at the part that touches your food, not the part that looks nice on the counter.
We couldn't find a bare-steel basket
We looked for a drawer or oven basket that the company clearly says is bare steel with no coating. We didn't find one. Some Amazon titles suggest it, but they don't back it up.
“Ceramic” is still a coating
A ceramic air fryer isn't bare metal. It has a different kind of nonstick layer. We found no study that compares ceramic with Teflon-style coatings in an air fryer.
“PFOA-free” doesn't mean no coating
PFOA is just one chemical in a big family called PFAS. A PFOA-free label doesn't tell you what the coating is. If it matters to you, ask the company what's on the basket.
Common questions
Is a stainless steel air fryer better than a regular one?
It depends on what you want. The word usually describes the outside, so it tells you little about the parts that touch your food. We don't rank materials on safety, because we found no study that compares them inside an air fryer.
Is there an air fryer with an uncoated stainless steel basket?
We couldn't find a drawer or oven basket that a company clearly says is uncoated. Fritaire says the accessories for its glass air fryer, including a tumbling basket, are “Non-Coated” stainless steel.
Does a PFOA-free label mean there is no PTFE?
No. PFOA is one chemical in a big family called PFAS. PTFE is the slick coating best known as Teflon. A PFOA-free label doesn't tell you whether a coating is PTFE, so ask the company.
Is the Our Place Wonder Oven basket stainless steel?
Our Place lists the basket and wire rack as “Chromed steel”, which is steel with a plated finish. It lists the oven as stainless steel and the bake pan as aluminum with a nonstick ceramic coating.
What does “non-toxic” on a listing tell me?
On its own, very little. The FTC, the US consumer protection regulator, expects real evidence behind that word. We only use it when quoting a company.
Where this comes from
- 1Breville, BOV900 instruction book
- 2GreenPan, BISTRO 9-in-1 user manual, p. 4 (copy on ManualsLib)
- 3Cosori, Iconic Single CAF-SE601S-CEU user manual, p. 14 (EU model, copy on ManualsLib)
- 4Our Place, Wonder Oven product page
- 5Cosori, TurboBlaze user manual
- 6Typhur, Dome 2 product page
- 7SharkNinja, glass air fryers category page
- 8FTC Green Guides, 16 CFR 260.10
- 9FDA, Questions and Answers on PFAS in Food (content current as of 18 June 2026)
- 10EPA, PFAS Explained (updated 9 September 2026)
- 11Instant, Vortex and Vortex Plus 6 quart user manual, p. 25 (copy on ManualsLib)
- 12Cuisinart, TOA-70 Series instruction and recipe booklet, p. 4 (copy on ManualsLib)
- 13Nuwave, Brio Plus 8 qt owner’s manual, models 37401 to 37405
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Stainless Steel Air Fryer Editorial Team
We are the team behind Stainless Steel Air Fryer. We read what the companies say and explain it in plain English. We don’t run lab tests, and we say so when we couldn’t find something out.