Deep Fryer Keeps Shutting Off? Here’s 6 Possible Causes

Does your deep fryer keep shutting off? Your power cord might be damaged. Here’s 6 possible causes.

What would be of the modern world without deep fryers? Granted, they’re not the healthiest thing on the planet, but they provide us with delicious treats to snack at home, or while hanging out with friends.

Be due to their versatility, practicality, or ease of use, it’s undeniable that, since their invention, they’ve become an essential part of our kitchen.

That being said, as incredible as they are, deep fryers are not immune to failure. While their internal components are built to last, it’s almost an unfortunate certainty, that they will eventually malfunction.

If you’re reading this, yours has already started to, hasn’t it? Don’t throw it away just yet.

Yes, you’re in a very inconvenient position right now, but that doesn’t mean that you’ve run out of options. There are several reasons why your deep fryer might keep shutting off. From a damaged power cord, to overheating.

And while pinpointing the culprit can be challenging, it’s nothing proper research, and dedication can’t solve.

Below you’ll find a list of the most common causes behind this occurrence, and the steps you can take to address them. I’m confident that, if you follow them to a tee, your appliance will be back to normal in no time.

Are you ready? Let’s dig in!

Fixing a Failing Deep Fryer

I’ve probably said this a million times before, but it’s just something I can’t stress enough. Although you might be tempted to open your appliance right away and try to find the culprit in one of its internal components. Don’t.

Doing this is a surefire way to waste precious time and money. Not to mention that you’ll be risking voiding your warranty, and tampering with your appliance unnecessarily.

#1 Check Your Outlet

Test your outlet for continuity

If your deep fryer keeps shutting off, chances are its power source is compromised, and supplying power intermittently.

I don’t want you to start worrying, though. Bad outlets are not always a sign of a greater electrical failure in your home. Sometimes, there’s just a loose wire behind the plastic panel.

Solution: Try a different outlet.

Carefully unplug your appliance, let it cool down, and remove any leftover oil from the basket.

Once you have done that, take your appliance to a different section of the house, preferably as far removed as possible from the outlet you normally use, and plug it back into a different one. Did that resolve the issue? Great!

As I said before, a faulty outlet is not always a sign of a greater malfunction in your home’s wiring, but, if you’re up for a challenge and want to be 100% certain that the issue is not of concern, you can use a multimeter to test it for continuity.

#2 Your Power Cord Is Damaged

Damaging your power cord is easier than you think

While on the outside, these cords might look thick and sturdy, there are a lot of smaller cables inside them that can break quite easily.

In fact, seemingly unimportant bad habits, such as storing them improperly, keeping them tangled, or pressed against a wall in a weird angle, are more than enough to cause permanent damage.

If your deep fryer keeps shutting off, the damage is probably not general, which means that some small cables are still intact, while others have broken completely.

The best way to prove this theory is to carefully move the cable a little while the unit is operating. If it shuts off, there’s your answer.

Solution: If by any chance you have a spare cable that you can use for testing, go ahead. Provided that you don’t, that’s fine too. You can do a quick Google search on your deep fryer’s make and model to find a replacement at any online marketplace for cheap.

#3 Overheating

Beware of overheating in your deep fryer

This can be caused by a number of factors, usually related to your internal components.

You’d think that, being an air fryer an appliance that handles scorching-hot oil, overheating would not be a problem, but it is. And it makes sense.

It’s one thing to have hot oil in your basket, and another entirely different one, to have extreme temperatures inside your appliance’s internal components. The former is specifically designed to withstand heat, but the latter are not and if they start burning you’ll likely smell it.

Some deep fryers have safety mechanisms built into them, designed to protect both the appliance, and you, the user. So, if your unit keeps shutting off, it’s probably just trying to keep you safe from overheating.

It’s of the utmost importance that you stop using your deep fryer right away, and refrain from operating it until you find the source of the issue, and address it.

#4 Your Heating Element Is Faulty

A faulty heating element can prove disastrous

A failure in this component could be responsible for the previous occurrence.

If you’re unfamiliar with what heating elements do, it’s quite simple. These are in charge of transforming the electrical energy drawn from your power outlet, into high temperatures to heat up your vegetable oil.

What makes a malfunction in these components dangerous, is the fact that the symptoms can manifest themselves in one of two ways. You might be stuck with a deep fryer that does not generate heat, or with one that generates too much.

It’s the latter that could be causing all your problems

Solution: To fix this, you will have to go inside your appliance. Please follow these steps:

1. Carefully unplug your deep fryer, let it cool down, and remove any leftover oil in the basket

• Turn the appliance upside down

• Locate the screws at the bottom

• Undo them with a screwdriver, and remove the outer panel to expose the unit’s guts

• Gain comfortable access to your heating element

• Test it for continuity

Now, I’d be remiss if I did not mention that you can have a faulty heating element that gives positive continuity readings. This means that it’s still somewhat operational, and could be contributing to your overheating issue.

#5 Blown Fuses

This might be a symptom of a larger problem

Provided that either one, or both of the components mentioned above showed signs of failure, you most definitely will have a blown fuse.

As you know, these components are responsible for “blowing” whenever they sense extreme temperatures, or large power spikes, interrupting the electrical continuity inside your deep fryer in order to protect it from further damage.

If your deep fryer keeps shutting off due to an overheating problem, your fuse might have already blown as a countermeasure.

Solution: Please follow the steps from the previous point to expose your fuse and check it for viability.

As opposed to the other components on this list, the naked eye can easily identify a blown fuse. All you have to look out for are signs of a small explosion, such as blackening, and a broken filament inside its glass body.

If you see any of these, getting a replacement should not be difficult. You’ll just have to make a trip to the nearest hardware store.

#6 Your Circuit Board Is Dead

Watch out for large power spikes that could fry your circuit board

In theory, if this is the source of your problem, your deep fryer shouldn’t even turn on. But there’s a big gap between theory, and the real world, isn’t there?

A fried circuit board can be the result of extreme overheating or large power spikes.

While, as you’ve learned above, there are several countermeasures and internal components built into your deep fryer to prevent this from happening, it will always be a possibility,

A circuit board that is only partially fried, but not entirely dead, could explain why your deep fryer keeps shutting off unexpectedly.

Solution: If you are no longer under warranty coverage, and your deep fryer was not very expensive, your best bet is to buy a new model. While the cost of a new circuit board for your appliance is not high, the cost of labor to have it repaired, can be.

Alternatively, provided that you are either still under coverage, or the proud owner of an expensive, professional-grade model, you can always send it in for repairs.

As a rule of thumb, spending half the cost, or more, of a new model in repairing your old deep fryer, is a bad investment.

Conclusion

To have your deep fryer keep shutting off can be a nightmare. Owning one that works perfectly, or one that doesn’t work at all, is one thing, but being stuck in a limbo, where the appliance works intermittently, is just a cruel joke of fate.

More often than not, fixing this problem is fairly simple. All you need to do is check your power sources, make sure that your internal components are working adequately, and replacing them otherwise.

While the whole purpose of this piece is to help you do your own repairs, if at any point during the process you feel unsafe or doubtful, please do not hesitate to call a professional. You can still learn by watching them work.

Thank you so much for reading. I hope I helped you resolve the issue. If you found this article valuable, why not keep learning with our other incredible resources below?

Happy frying!