Can my Air Fryer Stop Screaming At Me?

Wednesday, December 4, 2024

So a ways back we got one of these Chefman 6.3 qt air fryers from my aunt. We love the thing, it’s great to use and does a great job cooking food, apart from one massive, massive flaw: this thing’s buzzer is LOUD. Like genuinely the loudest buzzer I have ever heard in a kitchen countertop appliance, to such a degree where it would actually hurt our ears to use the thing.

Now I’ve resolved a problem like this before, with our electric fireplace, which had a remote to turn things on and off, and also the same exact kind of buzzer (though honestly even that one wasn’t this fucking loud) but the point is: I knew what to look for. And finally it irritated me enough that the thing ended up on the Workbench of Doom™.

The Procedure

Worth noting up top: I took the bottom of the unit, the door, the fan, and a whole bunch of things off in the pursuit of doing this and I just didn’t need to do any of that, in fact the top comes off basically by itself. Learn from my mistakes.

First thing is to remove the top. This is held in with tension clips, so take a spudger (or if you don’t have one and don’t mind potentially damaging the finish, a screwdriver will work fine) and lever the top of it up. The tabs are at roughly 1/4 in from each corner, as you can see in the photo. Also be aware that the top dial/button combo may fly off, which mine did but I found it so all was well.

Shockingly, none of these broke.

Once you have that little board unplugged and the top removed, turn the unit round to the back and gently lever up on the little air exhaust that’s back there. It too is just held in with a couple clips, and it pops out pretty easily.

You’ll then need to use your spudger and lever up on the piece of trim that goes around the top edge, and pop that loose too. I actually forgot to get a picture of it but you get the idea from here I suspect. Then, lastly, use the same procedure to gently pry out the front LED display. This is also the brain-box for the unit, and nothing will work without it, so keep it handy for testing later on.

Now, this part is terrible and shut me down for about 20 minutes, until I had disassembled the entire bottom half of the case (don’t do this, you don’t need to at all) looking for screws on the underside that were holding the top on. There are none. In fact, there are four screws holding the top of the case on, one in each of those incredibly deep holes. I had to find my tiny phillips with a notably long shank that could reach the things to get these out, and honestly, don’t even try and get the screws out when you’re done. Just lift off and continue.

At last we arrive at the power distributon board. You don’t need to be too gentle here, as these are large through-hole components, most of which are relays switching mains current to make the fan, heating element, etc. work. There aren’t any massive capacitors here like you might get in a larger piece of equipment, but as always, short them out with a screwdriver before you go digging around. I gingerly unscrewed the two screws that held it to the case, then tapped each cap with a screwdriver. Didn’t even get a spark but you know, no such thing as too careful, a sizable capacitor can give you a nice zing.

Ask me how I know.

Anyway within that red circle is the little screamy bastard. Bit of desoldering wick to take up the solder holding it on and you have it out, and in your little hand. Now, my previous projects with these were strictly removals: I desoldered it and threw it in the trash. However given that this is an appliance, I did want some audio feedback to actions, I just didn’t want it to deafen me, so I had to figure out how to calm it down.

Now, I assumed that a resistor would be the way to go here, but obviously to figure what size, I needed to know what voltage this was running at. I used my bench power supply to hit it with a variety of voltages, starting at 5 volts and ending at 24. However, all it would do is crackle… at which point I realized, oh alright, so this isn’t being turned on and off, this is being pulsed, probably with a triac or similar device. That might be trickier.

However, I realized through testing it afterwards (thinking I’d grilled it to death already) that in fact, applying 24 volts DC had… well, probably damaged it, hopefully not completely? So I re-attached and… it was much, much quieter. Again I fully acknowledge this is likely due to damage, but look, a fix is a fix.

The wife wanted it a little quieter though, so I desoldered it once more, and again gave it 24 volts DC. This is more an art than a science at this point, but I think I gave it another 7 seconds or so before soldering it back to the power supply board. It was now not only not grating, but quite pleasant, in fact. The beep was clearer, even, and no longer so shrill.

So, great sucksess. Would do again, wish I would’ve done it sooner to be honest. Got the entire unit back together with only 3 leftover screws, and it works perfectly.

- Madison