Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've only had this a short time and only used it a few times, but here are my impressions thus far. PROS: Attractive, durable construction. Wire basket is excellent; handle folds inside basket for compast storage inside the unit. Lid is well thought-out, with silicone lined notches on the handle end so it fits snuggly and you don't have to lift it to raise or lower the basket. Cleanup is fairly easy. Toss lid and basket in the dishwasher, drain the oil reservoir using the convenient corner pour spout (use a large funnel if straining, because one gallon gets heavy after awhile) and put the reservoir into the dishwasher. Everything except the heating element is immersible. I put the element on a plate to let it drain and then wipe it clean. Oil heats up rapidly. The deep reservoir keeps splattering to a minimum. Food cooks fairly close to times indicated in recipes or on boxes, so I assume temperature is accurate. Fries came out crisp, mozarella sticks were done perfectly. Number one advantage: because this has an immersible heating element (it's big, not like one you'd attach to an electric skillet), the oil temp below the element is cooler; thus all the burned bits fall down there, so you can cook batches of fries without getting floating debris stuck to them. Maximum temperature is 375, but the manual says it has a safety feature whereby it automatically turns off if the oil exceeds 525. The safety features are great, like the short magnetically attached cord. It's secure enough so that it doesn't come loose when you move the unit but if someone were to pull the cord, it would break away from the unit. The basket hanger inside the unit is handy for draining. Lid seems to catch the condensation. CONS: My cons are pretty insignficant. My main one would be that the oil cools significantly when you add significant quantities of food (even unfrozen food) and takes too long to heat up. For example, I did a batch of fresh fries, and the oil cooled but didn't heat up to the correct temperature in the four minutes it took to cook them. When I did a very small batch of fries, the oil temp. never dropped. When I set the timer for under three minutes, it never went off. Everything over that was fine, however. If you make something like corndogs, lower basket first and drop directly into oil or it will definitely stick to basket. Sometimes it sticks to basket anyway. Then the basket is a little harder to clean. I had to use a fork to poke the crust out of some of the holes. Biggest drawback: Filter in lid cannot be removed and replaced. The fliter in the lid isn't the greatest. It's not a charcoal one, for example, that would readily absorb all the cooking odors. It seems to be a steel mesh thing. It's welded in and although you can clean it through the "gills" on the lid, you cannot replace it. Being able to remove and clean/replace the filter would be better. This one doesn't seem to trap odors well. But these are small issues. I really like the deep fryer and it's a million times better than the old "Fry Daddy" my parents had growing up. It never splatters outside the deep fryer, it's easy to clean, and the food comes out far superior to any deep fryer I've ever used, which I believe is because the crumbs fall to the bottom of the unit. Definitely worth the price--it costs my family $20 each time we go to McDonald's, so this will pay for itself easily. Last night my kids said "Mom, we don't ever have to go out to eat again because you can make all our favorite foods now."