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Best Deep Fryer For Home Use???

17K views 60 replies 17 participants last post by  nuthinfancy 
#1 ·
I am looking for the best Deep Fryer for Home use?

I don't know allot about Deep Fryers and was hoping that someone would lead me in the right direction on who makes the best one. 
 
#4 ·
I use a high side pot on the stovetop. In the past I used an electric skillet to be able to control the temp better. It also gives you multi purpose. I like that!
I like the electric skillet idea as I have a child a open pot for deep frying scares the sh#t out of me, is thought about the delongi coolzone easyclean it looks quite impressive or the magimix looks good as well
 
#7 ·
I have a Euro Pro, works OK for home use. It's cheap, about $100. There are more expensive ones I'm sure, probably better, too. But for my needs it's fine. 

Our first one, however, had a short in the chord and nearly caught fire. That sucked. I had it replaced with the same brand, better model. I HIGHLY recommend setting up a table outside when you use it. It will produce a layer of grease all over our kitchen and the smell nestles in for hours. Too, in the event of a spill, or a basket overload, you don't get a mess all over the kitchen. You know that when you fry, if there's any water or moisture, the oil will bubble violently. Even with years of experience, I sometimes forget this. Too, home cooking usually means there's a cocktail nearby, so shit happens.
 
#12 ·
The question is "what's the best deep fryer", not the most traditional method of frying. And with a small child in the home the wok isn't quite the right choice. And induction burner, while good for a lot of things, is very expensive and wouldn't work with a wok. It requires the surface of the pan to have contact with the surface of the burner to stay on. I've used those in professional kitchen and they're fussy.
 
#14 ·
A wok for woking?

    My friend the Chinese were  using the wok for frying before we even had deep fryers. A good heavy wok is far better then a fryer. It requires no wires that dry up and fray  it requires no baskets that restricts how large or how much you can fry. It's recoup temperature beats any fryer. It is easy to clean. It is one pan that can be used for many things  a fryer cant. All those toys they sell in the department stores are just that TOYS.
 
#16 ·
You seem to have digressed. Refer to the original post... It seems like you really love your wok. I can appreciate that. I like mine, too. I'll give you a million dollars if you can wok on an induction burner, though. Do you have any professional experience?
PM sent.
 
#18 ·
I wok on an induction burner routinely. I have a flat bottomed wok that works great on a standard flat induction hob, but also have a specialty dished induction hob for round bottom woks. Both work fabulously.
I have an electric stovetop. Would there be a suitable gas fired setup (solitary burner with tank) for using a round bottom wok properly?
 
#19 ·
Key word is properly. There are gas cartridge systems for in home use on countertops and such. Many Asian grocers sell them. But their BTUs are quite low. I think the heat from your electric cooktop is better than these. There are very good stand alone gas burners for outdoor use that excel with woks, 30K BTU on up to 150K.  But then you have the hassle of hauling everything outdoors and back in. As well as weather concerns.  

Where you already have a flat bottom wok, a stand alone induction plate burner is a good solution and can be had from $50 or so on up. Even with just wall voltage, these put out a surprising amount of heat. A few years back, Cooks Illustrated recommended the Max Burton 6000 model. These work well, but are a little fragile in shipping so buy from a vendor with a good return policy. There are similar units available now from a number of vendors. 
 
#20 ·
Key word is properly. There are gas cartridge systems for in home use on countertops and such. Many Asian grocers sell them. But their BTUs are quite low. I think the heat from your electric cooktop is better than these. There are very good stand alone gas burners for outdoor use that excel with woks, 30K BTU on up to 150K. But then you have the hassle of hauling everything outdoors and back in. As well as weather concerns.

Where you already have a flat bottom wok, a stand alone induction plate burner is a good solution and can be had from $50 or so on up. Even with just wall voltage, these put out a surprising amount of heat. A few years back, Cooks Illustrated recommended the Max Burton 6000 model. These work well, but are a little fragile in shipping so buy from a vendor with a good return policy. There are similar units available now from a number of vendors.
Does an induction burner put out more heat than a regular standard smallish gas stove?
 
#21 · (Edited)
Yes, the single burner induction hobs put more heat into the pan than the home gas stoves do. The key is efficiency. Gas stoves have more total BTUs than the wall unit induction. But the induction hobs surpass the gas via efficiency. Gas stoves are about 33% efficient, induction about 85%. 1800 W induction is 6141 BTU, home gas stoves 13000 BTU. But when you look at the heat that goes into the pan, gas is about 4300 BTU and induction about 5200 BTU. 
 
#23 · (Edited)
Depends how old it is. 5-7 years old, it will probably work. Older, probably not. Stick a magnet on the bottom. If it sticks, it will work. If it doesn't stick, it won't. 

There is technology in the pipeline that induces eddy currents in all metals so they work on induction, even if not ferrous. 
 
#25 ·
Wow, I realize this is an old thread, but how embarrassing. I came here after a search for "commercial deep fryer for home use" led me here. My first thought was, cool, a website for chefs, this should give me some good advice on a nice deep fryer for home use, since so far my search isn't providing a lot of good options. Then I get this....... So the best answers from the "chefs" are , a deep skillet and a wok. Then a long argument about induction cook tops, like as if most people have an induction cook top. First off, a wok is a horrible choice for the occasional deep fryer at home.

Yeah the Chinese were using woks long before we had deep fryers, but people were also using horses to get around long before we had automobiles. I mean technically I could go outside and deep fry over a camp fire in an empty paint can too, but I'm not gonna. People looking a deep fryer want to be able to control the temperature and ensure at least 350 degrees, since that is a key element in quality deep fried food, and want something that can quickly get back to at least that temp after food is introduced. That means they need to be able to determine the temp, and have something with enough power to get the oil to that temp without going way over and burning their house down.

Which brings us back to why a wok is a HORRIBLE choice for home use. You cant easily determine or control the temperature, and once you are done you have a giant bowl of oil to deal with. Ever notice an easy pour spout on a wok? No? So what kinds of fun do you think is going to happen trying to get all of that oil out of the wok after your one meal? Not to mention the fact that you had to deep fry in a giant open bowl to begin with. Oil will be getting EVERYWHERE, and you can only hope and pray you don't get the oil too hot, or have some kid or accident prone adult tip the thing over or catch it on fire when your phone rings and you don't understand how easily it is to catch oil on fire. With that said, I won't even bother mentioning the skillet method. Yes you can do shallow frying in a pan, and I've seen my mother fry chicken like that 100s of times, but its not deep frying, and it doesn't work well for things like fries, corn dogs, mozzarella, etc. Heck it doesn't even do chicken all that well. If I remember correctly my mothers fried chicken was never crispy. In short, if you are reading this and decide to use a wok, PLEASE be super super careful, and be prepared for a very messy kitchen afterward. DO NOT leave the Wok unattended and keep all children far away from the kitchen. It WILL splatter hot oil every where, so if you are using a gas stove with an open flame then be aware that if you have the oil too hot it will splatter heavily when you introduce food to it, or if you drip some of that oil down the sides and it rolls down to that flame, you are going to start a fire. I suggest reading up on how to put out an oil fire before trying this method. I have one horror story of my own that I got extremely lucky on. I was using a large pot to cook some fries. My phone rang and in a matter of a couple of minutes there was an open flame above the pot because the oil got too hot. I grabbed the first thing near me which was a pot in the sink with water. For those of you who know what water does to an oil fire, you can only imagine. The entire kitchen was singed in flame for a brief second, but for some strange reason it burned itself out almost immediately. I got lucky. It still destroyed the stove fan and overhang and most of the paint on the ceiling which was covered in black smoke. 

With all of that said, let me provide what I have found so far in my own research. In short, there aren't any really good options for deep fryers at home. I can only assume that companies are worried about liability if they sell something for home use that has the power to heat oil to the temps needed to fry well, because there are very limited options. So far as of this date the best thing I could find is the Waring Pro DF280, but as of 12/12/2016 it is discontinued and I'm not sure why. It has the highest wattage at 1800 watts and 3 different size baskets. It does have a LOT of bad reviews, but it also has a LOT of good ones. Several different sites list it as the No. 1 pick, but it sounds like you will have to get lucky to find a good one that will last more than a couple of months. Even the good ones claim varying success in getting the temp over 350 and staying there, but as of now its the best option as long as you can get one before the stock runs out. 

There are some other options for smaller commercial grade deep fryers out there, but smaller still means at least 2 feet of counter top space, and like 8 gallons of oil, but for those who have large kitchens it might be doable as they do have covers when not in use. Still, you are talking about a minimum of $250 dollars worth of investment. I suppose we are going to try and go with the Waring and hope for the best until we build our forever home and have the kitchen space for a real deep fryer. 
 
#26 · (Edited)
Wow!  That was a long irrelevant post on an old thread.  Did you ever take a chemistry class and have to control the temperature of a burner?  It's actually pretty easy.  Once you get your oil to the temp you want, you just turn your burner down a bit.

The problems you have as a home cook are 

1) deep frying uses a lot of oil

2) the oil gets dirty and smelly and you can't re-use it

Woks solve all of this.   Because of the shape, I can deep fry in 2 cups of oil.   I can give it a few seconds between batches and the temp comes right  back up.  The oil stays a lot cleaner and it is easier to strain.  The large surface area at the top is great for deep frying.  If you fry things in batter, they don't get stuck to a fry basket.  You're not filling oil to the top obviously.  There is a large amount of unused wok.  This will reduce splatter considerably.  Get a large metal ladle and a spider and you are good to go.  Oh and cleaning!  Cleaning a wok is a lot faster than cleaning one of those electric deep fryers.

So... what's your problem with woks again?
 
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