Can you remove teflon coating from an air fryer? Or should we chuck our free one?

My parents recently bought a new airfryer, and asked if we wanted their old one. They told me it was all stainless steel, and not nonstick. So I gleefully said yes, as I knew there were some expensive airfryers that did NOT have non-stick coatings. I figured that's what they'd bought. The kids and I have been enjoying the quick baking that actually creates crunchy things in our moist climate, and that uses a fraction of the energy. Then I noticed the baking sheet was not acting like all my other stainless steel baking sheets were acting. So, I started researching...and it looks like this sucker is coated with teflon. The baking rack, frying basket, baking sheet, interior walls, EVERYTHING is coated with teflon.

*Insert string of very unhappy words and internal screaming* (the screaming is internal because my kids are sleeping. No way am I waking them!)

Here's a link to the cuisinart AirFryer Toaster Oven

it's such a deceptively cute little oven..

So, I guess my questions are two-fold:

(1) Is there anyway to get the gunk off? My husband is thinking we take the sucker outside and run it on high for an hour. I'm not sure if that'll do enough?

(2) Should we just toss it?

It's really nice having a small, fast little oven that doesn't require preheating, and that actually makes food crunchy, and uses less power. But, I do NOT want to compromise my family's health with teflon. Cancer runs in my family now (20 years sooner every generation: My great-grandma lived to 97 with no cancer. Her daughter got cancer in her early 80s. My mom got 4 kinds of cancer in 4 years after she turned 60. I'll be 40 in 5 years--I'd rather not have cancer then.)

I doubt it? but then I wouldn't know.  
I think trying to remove with heat might cause more toxins to release into the air?
I see old teflon at the thrift store all the time and it looks like it flakes off with use but never completely and who knows what metals they've used underneath.

Is this coating visible or have they found a way to apply a clear invisible layer?

It makes me want to check out our toaster oven...would not have thought that they would coat the walls and grate with the stuff.  

It's getting really hard to avoid those toxins in any appliance now I think...we just don't know what the manufacturing processes are and of course 'they' will always say things are safe

If the coating is teflon I would throw it into the recycling metal dumpster.  Maybe call the manufacturer to check on what they used first, though, as there are non teflon coatings now and some websites I checked say this one isn't teflon (if that is accurate I'd assume it's a ceramic coating, not certain what the new ceramics are chemically....appear to be a sol-gel applied silica coating which without specifics sounds like it could be ok).  It's just not worth using if a manufacturer uses this teflon garbage.  We did a purge years ago.  What makes me angry is I still see teflon coated cookware for sale in stores sometimes even though we know what it does and the chemical crisis it has created.  I'm wondering if the regulations to keep this known cancer causer off the market have been reversed.

If you cooked on a cast iron skillet or a sheet of iron or stainless, the food wouldn't touch the teflon. Does it outgas? (Within the temp range the appliance can reach.) Maybe you could take out the rack and replace with a rack or sheet of cast or stainless?

Nicole,

First, I'm in no way associated with the company Cuisinart.  In fact, you can see my entire lament with the very oven you are describing here:  https://permies.com/t/132456/ungarbage/Toaster-air-fryer-type-oven

But that said, with the currently.....ummmm....."repaired" version of that oven from that thread, we are still enjoying the heck out of that oven and as we are just two people in the house, we've largely replaced firing up the megawatt electric range/oven by using the air-fryer/oven.  [Note.....once you re-establish some proper cookware for it, I have a muffin recipe....vegan or not.... to DIE for! ;-)]

My recommendation as noted in the link above is to try to make use of functional appliances when possible instead of adding to the landfill.  As for the bakeware, I don't **think** the basket was teflon coated, but I might be terribly wrong there. (I did see one Q&A on Amazon.com that agrees with my observation of the frying basket being stainless steel mesh.) The other pieces were coated, from my observation....although Cuisart's website does not readily reveal this information.   What I've done instead where I have wanted to avoid non-stick is to simply purchase your preferred bakeware in a size that will sit on the rack that is provided.  In fact I went ahead and just purchased an additional rack for that purpose alone, since there are times when we want to use both rack slot in the oven at the same time.

Do not despair, Nicole.....I think a usable answer is within reach.  And I really have a mostly positive impression of the unit, despite some workmanship flaws endemic to our times.... :-/   Baking parts purchasable a la carte as shown below.

What did you decide or end up doing?

I bought stainless steel baking pans for my toaster oven but I didn’t think about what could be lurking on the inside of the toaster oven’s walls… would it be the same though, for standard sized ovens?

Yikes!