Nuwave Air Fryer Won’t Preheat? (Solutions Explained)

An air fryer is a type of cooking appliance that requires only 3 minutes to preheat. But it must be preheated after we set the timer. When the NuWave Air Fryer does not preheat it becomes necessary to investigate the root cause.

Sometimes we don’t need to preheat the appliance, but it becomes mandatory while cooking some kind of food.

A NuWave Air Fryer will not preheat when it has hardware problems, such as a faulty heating element, open thermal fuse, and faulty PCB. In addition, it should be checked whether the appliance is plugged in. If something is damaged, replacing it may solve the problem.

In this guide, we’ve described all information to fix a NuWave air fryer that won’t preheat.

NuWave Air Fryer Won't Preheat? (Solutions Explained)

Why is the NuWave Air Fryer Won’t Preheat?

The fact is that if your air fryer is not preheating, it fails to generate heat even if the preheat function is off. Furthermore, It makes the device useless until it gets fixed. 

You might know how this one issue prevents you from cooking food in the unit. Thus, first know what can cause this issue, then understand how you can fix the faulty component. Don’t worry, we’ve described everything.

The following are common causes why an air fryer won’t preheat:

  1. Unplugged Unit

Is your air fryer plugged in? We asked this question because an unplugged cord doesn’t provide electric power to appliances. 

If the power is not available to the unit, it would not work. Preheat is the first function we run when the device starts, if the power is not available, no function runs. 

Be sure the cord is plugged in before you think the device is not preheating.

  1. Open Thermal Fuse

Every air fryer has a thermostat fuse. It provides voltage to the fan motor and heating elements. If the fuse is opened, the heating elements will not get power. 

As the heating coil generates heat in the appliance, the device won’t preheat the unit, until the heating coil gets the power. The thermal fuse controls the voltage level for heating coils. 

If the thermal fuse deals with an electric short, this can open its connection and makes it faulty. 

Whether the appliance is showing a preheat symbol on the screen, the air fryer won’t preheat until the heating element starts generating heat. These elements require power to generate heat.

  1. Fault in Printed Circuit Board

Every input we made on the air fryer control panel goes to its printed circuit board. PCB has control over every output element, such as heating coils, fan, display, and thermal fuse. 

If the PCB has a fault or any of the components located on it are damaged, this will fail to work properly. 

Components connected to PCB will not run unless they don’t get a response from the circuit board.

  1. Damaged Heating Element

Have you checked the heating element? It is the element that produces heat inside the air fryer. 

It is located underneath the fan. Remove the food drawer to see the heating element. If there are holes, black marks, or cuts on the heating coil, it means the heating element is damaged. 

A faulty heating element cannot produce temperature and won’t preheat the NuWave air fryer.

How to Fix NuWave Air Fryer That Won’t Preheat?

It is a hardware-related problem when the NuWave air fryer won’t preheat, it requires investigating the root cause manually. We’ve to remove the covers of the air fryer to investigate the cause and fix it. A screwdriver is required to access internal components. If any component will be faulty, you also have to get a new one to replace it. Time required: 10 – 20 minutes.

Here’s How to Fix Air Fryer that won’t preheat:

  • First, check if the appliance is plugged in or not. If yes, unplug the cord.
  • Look at the heating coil located down to the fan. Remove the basket and take a closer look at the heating element. If it has black marks, holes, or cuts, this means it might damage. Replace the heating element if the current one is faulty.
  • Remove the upper cover of the air fryer. Take a screwdriver and open all the screws and remove the cover. Look at the thermal fuse located near the transformer. If it is open, remove it and replace it.
  • If the heating element and thermal fuse are fine, check the Circuit board. If any component is damaged, replace that component. If the entire circuit board is faulty. Get a new circuit board and replace it. Read the model number given on the backside of the appliance to check part numbers.

Note: Get help from a professional technician or manufacturer, if you don’t have experience in technician work and never fixed appliances before.

How to Know When NuWave Air Fryer is Preheated?

This is simple to preheat the NuWave air fryer. Users just have to press the preheat button and set the desired temperature. Then set the time. The unit will start to preheat.

Once the NuWave air fryer is preheated, it will beep one time and the LED display will say Ready. Now, users have to add food to the basket within five minutes. Put the basket back into the unit, the food begins cooking at a preheated temperature.

How Long Does it Take a NuWave Air Fryer to Preheat?

How much time a NuWave air fryer will take to preheat depends on the model number. However, it should take a minimum of three minutes to get preheated. 

Once the unit is preheated, it will automatically say you are READY, which means now you can add food to the cooking drawer. 

NuWave air fryers usually take a similar time to preheat in comparison to Ninja and Gourima Air fryers. Still cooking speed and results vary on the quality and usage of the appliance.

Conclusion

You must check if the unit is plugged in or not, then investigate further. Sometimes broken cord also results in unworking appliances. The heating coil, Circuit board, Thermal Fuse, and control panel should be responsive to preheat the NuWave air fryer.