Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought a T-fal FR800050 Ultimate EZ Clean Fryer and when I was unpacking it I found a piece of metal in the fryer bowl. At first I thought it was a piece of scrap metal from the manufacturing process but oil filter was loose and found 2 more pieces of the metal ring that holds down the oil filter to the rubber gasket on the fryer bowl. I called T-fal and was asked to email a photo of the parts(first photo). I was told to return everything to Amazon because the filter wasn't a user replaceable part. I got a replacement fryer from Amazon a few days later. This time there wasn't any loose parts in the fryer bowl and the filter seemed to be attached tightly so I thought everything was okay. The second photo shows how the card board is packed around the bottom of the filter. As I was removing the card board 2 pieces of the metal filter retention ring fell out. The remaining larger piece of the clip was still holding the filter to the fryer bowl but obviously it was unusable and would cause oil to leak. I again called T-fal and was told if I had a copy of my receipt they would arrange for me to drop of my whole unit to UPS at their cost and once they got notice of shipment they would send out a replacement fryer. It was late Friday and I don't live close to a UPS drop off center so I figured it would probably take a week to 10 days for me to get a replacement depending on how quickly T-fal shipped my replacement. The other option and the one I wanted was for them to ship me a replacement fryer bowl but I was told it would take 3 or 4 weeks because it would have to be shipped from France. I ended up returning it to Amazon, but this time I didn't get an option to get a replacement. Only a refund. The second time I called T-fal they didn't seem surprised I had this filter retention ring problem. I'm guessing there are some quality control issues with a certain production run of these fryers as another person who purchased one around the same time from Amazon also had the same problem. Both my units were shipped from the San Bernardino facility. I think I might wait a few weeks or months then try again and order another one... ****EDITED**** So Amazon dropped to price to $79.99 so I bit the bullet and bought another one. The retention ring was okay on this one. We'll see how long it lasts. It's still not clear why these retention rings are breaking in the box or after a few uses. Could be they were installed with too much pressure at the factory or the rings themselves were made of poor quality metal. First impressions: 1) It's huge. No way do you leave this on your counter top unless you have a massive kitchen with acres of countertop. You'll probably have a hard time finding space in a lower cabinet or pantry shelf for this fryer. I store it in my basement. The main reason for the big size is the oil storage unit under the fryer. It has to be large enough to hold 3.5L of oil. YES it uses a lot of oil and you don't realize how much until you empty a whole 2.84L bottle of canola oil and have to go back for a second bottle. 2) This really isn't a "deep" fryer. The min oil level is @ 2" and the max level is @ 2.5". The fryer bowl is about 6.25" deep. If you fill above the max oil level the oil storage unit will overflow when you drain the oil. The heating element rests on the bottom of the fryer bowl so you lose maybe 0.5" of frying depth. 3) If you fry battered foods it's possible they might get "caught up" in the heating element and temperature sensor. I've fried party wings twice now and both times I've had one or two per batch get stuck. You just have to be careful and patient while extracting the food item with tongs to avoid splashing hot oil all over yourself. 4) Although the manual doesn't say anything about removing the black oil box cap(back left corner) before draining the oil. Several people in reviews have recommended doing that. It makes sense because as the oil drains into the oil storage unit the air inside has to go somewhere. So removing the cap should allow faster drainage. If you remove the cap before drainage just remember that you can't move the fryer after the oil has been drained into the storage container until you replace the cap. Otherwise oil will spill. Just wait till the fryer bowl has cooled. Lift the bowl out and reach in and screw the cap back on to the oil storage unit. 5) Frying with the fryer basket will cause the oil to take longer to recover to the proper frying temperature than without the basket. I think the fine mesh on the basket is probably absorbing some of the heat. Although the 3rd fryer I got didn't have a broken filter retention ring and the fryer seems to be working as expected. I will leave my review at 1 star. It's inexcusable to have 2 fryers that are defective right out of the box with broken filter retention rings. Much more importantly the failure of such an important part is very concerning. If a batch of rings were manufactured from poor quality metal then it might be a ticking time bomb that could fail at any moment and cause hot oil to leak all over your kitchen. Make sure to inspect the filter retention ring before and after every use so you can easily spot any changes or new defects.