I bought this fryer thinking that at $90 it would be a good deal. After all, the only other decent fryer I could find at stores in my area was the Waring Pro fryer for $130.
Overall construction and appearance:
The fryer seems to be well constructed although somewhat light-weight. Everything fits together well and it seems to be constructed with safety in mind -- a very important point for a deep fryer. It is all stainless, aluminum and chrome and so makes for easy clean-up. The heating element is submerged in the oil -- the best type of design. The basket handle is black heat-resistant plastic, as are the two side handles. There is one glaring error in design though. The electrical plug is held on very loosely by a magnet. This is to prevent the fryer from tipping if the cord is pulled. In reality though, the cord wouldn't stay attached to the fryer and I ended up using a rubber band to fasten it more securely. (Also the cord is only 2.5 feet long, a real nuisance if you don't have a plug right under your range hood.)
Usage:
Once I used the rubber band to hold the plug onto the unit, the fryer heated up very quickly. The temperature controls are easy to use and convenient. Once cooking, I noticed some problems right off. First, the temperature that I set was not the temperature that it heated to. Using a known-good thermometer, I found the the temperature of the oil was about 20 degrees less than where I set the control. Well, not a big problem, I thought, I'll just turn the control up 20 degrees past my desired temperature. Oops - problem! The control only goes up to 385, which means 375 degree frying oil (the most commonly used temperature) is out of the question. Second, I found the the heater element in the oil is not powerful enough to maintain the temperature. I put only a few pieces of (non-frozen) food in the basket and found the temperature immediately sank. That's to be expected -- but the element could not raise the temperature back to the set point in the time required to cook the food. Not a good thing.
Conclusion:
After cleaning it up, (it DOES clean easily, most parts can go in the dishwasher) I returned this product. I ended up spending the extra $40 and got the Waring Pro.
Electronic Digital Temperature Control With Programmable Settings. Cool Zone Technology Prevents Food Particles From Burning. Removable Stainless Stee...More at Target
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