After several uses, Actifry™ owners start facing the issue of how to keep the paddle clean.

The issue can be that food becomes baked onto the paddle during cooking.

Here are a few comments from Actifry owners about the topic, to let you know you are not alone in wondering about this:

I do find it hard to clean the paddle – does not wash clean using conventional products.”  ^[1] 16 Jan 2014. Amazon Review Comment. Retrieved August 2014.

“The paddle gets greasy and although I soak the parts of the appliance that are removable, it never really comes up clean. I don’t have a dishwasher but saying that, I would be reluctant to place the parts into a dishwasher are they are quite flimsy.”  ^[2] 18 Jul 2011. Amazon Review Comment. Retrieved August 2014.

“Only thing against is I can’t get the paddle really clean – tried soaking in soda crystal solution which loosened it a bit but it’s got quite a few crooks and crannies that I can’t reach, so still use it as it is!!!” ^[3] 16 Oct 2013. Amazon Review Comment. Retrieved August 2014.

Food can particularly become baked on when you are making dishes such as risottos and curries; crispy bits from potatoes can also get caked on when you are making fries and roast potatoes.

Some users suggest using oven cleaner:

“I cleaned my paddle with oven pride leave on for 20 min and rinse off great…” ^[4] 31 Oct 2013. Amazon Review Comment. Retrieved August 2014.

But I would be worried about the caustic chemicals of the oven cleaner, which are meant for metal, weakening the plastic of the paddle.

The best method of cleaning baked-on stuff away seems to be to simply soak the paddle in water for about half an hour or longer; most of the built up stuff should just fall off after that. The stuff that truly is baked on, in a layer, you can go at it with a scrub brush.

Some users suggest after a soak, scraping the paddle with a knife:

“I soak in hot soapy water to soften solid stuff ( long soak) then use a blunt table knife to scrape off.” ^[5] 10 Feb 2014. Amazon Review Comment. Retrieved August 2014.

But I’d be worried in general about scraping the surface of the paddle and making it even less non-stick than it has already become.

Another issue uses ask about is that the plastic of the paddle will discolour over time.

PLEASE – how do I clean the discoloured paddle??”

“Cannot think of anything. Because it is so fragile, if you put extra pressure. IT WILL BREAK. SORRY.”

“Robert, I think the short answer is that you can’t get the discolouration off the paddle – it goes discoloured and stays that way I am afraid. I know it does not look nice, but as long as it is clean it will be OK. As [noted], don’t put too much pressure on it. Sorry. ” ^[6] 4 May 2012. Amazon Review Comments. Retrieved August 2014.

Cleaning the inside of a paddle

While I am leery of using a knife to scrape the outside of a paddle, the tip of a knife is sometimes useful for digging out food (such as rice) that has got trapped in the hollow spaces inside the paddle. The inside of the family-sized Actifry can be particularly challenging to clean, because they made it like the inside of a nautilus shell, with lovely small compartments for food to get trapped in. I’m not sure what the purpose of this design is; it sure isn’t to make clean-up any easier.

By comparison, the inside of the regular-size Actifry is a breeze to clean, with fewer compartments inside.

My Advice about Cleaning an Actifry Paddle

My advice is to approach thinking about an Actifry paddle, the way you would think about a cast iron frying pan, a bread pan, or a wooden spoon.

If you want a paddle for display as a showpiece, then mount it unused on the wall and order a second paddle for actual use. Otherwise, know that in daily use, it is going to start to look seasoned and battleworn. It is, after all, a very hard-working tool.

Wooden spoons acquire a patina with use; so too does an Actifry paddle.

Cast iron frying pans acquire a certain amount of built-up, baked-on food on their surfaces over time. So too does your Actifry paddle. That being said, I’m not sure that the baked-on food layer necessarily helps to make the paddle non-stick, the way it does a cast iron frying pan….

I will clean an Actifry paddle with a plastic scrub brush or plastic scouring pad after soaking, but never with a metal Brillo / SOS pad. (Tip: If you use an Actifry for several sessions in a row without cleaning the paddle in between, it will be harder to clean and require a longer soak at the end.) And, I will use the tip of a knife to ensure all gunge is out of the interior of the paddle.

I would never bang a paddle or immerse a hot paddle into water. T-fal maintains that paddles normally only break if weakened outside of normal usage: “Jack Williams (Customer Relations Department Team Leader at Tefal), who stated that the paddles usually only break after impact damage or thermal shock.” ^[7] As per user review. 1 Jul 2013. Amazon Review Comment. Retrieved August 2014.

I also don’t worry about tossing the paddle in the dishwasher, if the dishwasher will be running before I need the paddle again. I’d say my paddles get cleaned in the dishwasher about 25% of the time.

But I’ve long since ceased to worry about returning a paddle to it’s brand-new pristine state and colouring. In fact, I’d be worried that too much heavy hacking away at a paddle would weaken it and shorten its life span. (I’ve never had one break on me yet, in 4 years, touch wood.)

And, personally, I would suspect that a pristine-looking paddle probably comes from a neglected and underused Actifry! Here’s a shot of one of my 4-year-old paddles!

* Actifry™ is a registered trademark of SEB, France.