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My wife and I bought the T-fal deepfryer and we love it. I read all the reviews and noted that one person had complained of finding that his T-fal deep fryer had leaked oil all over the counter. Finding few bad reviews, we decided to buy it. Sure enough, after the fryer cooled and the oil emptied into the reservoir there was oil all over the counter. It did not take a rocket scientist to figure out the reason. When we filled it prior to turning it on, we had a gallon jug of cooking oil which we emptied into fryer. A gallon is 3.78 liters (16 cups) and the capacity of the reservoir is 3.3 liters (14 cups). We noticed when we filled it that it was slightly over the max line but did not give it a second thought. Unfortunately, when the machine cooled and the oil drained into the reservoir, the extra two cups of oil had no where to go but onto the counter. THERE IS NO FUDGE FACTOR ON THE MAX LINE, DO NOT OVERFILL IT. Any oil that is over the Max line will end up all over your counter. We learned our lesson and have not overfilled it since. After that fist incident we have used our T-fal deep fryer several times and it works perfectly. The food comes out perfect, clean up is a snap and we would never trade it for anything else.
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This is my first home deep fryer. My only other experience is with professional fryers in restaurant settings. Therefore, this review is more for those, like me, who haven't deep fried at home.I guess the main thing I learned so far is frying is not as simple as some other modes of cooking you're going to be using nearly a gallon of oil that has to heat before and cool after. Like another review pointed out, when the oil is at cooking temperature, it puts out a lot of oil vapor and odor in the air, so unless you use it in a very well ventilated area, your kitchen and house will reek. Bottom line: deep frying takes a bit of commitment.
So what about the fryer? Most of the reviews I read about this seemed to be pretty much on the mark. Here's my primary thoughts:
The unit has a decent sized capacity.
Most all if it can go in the dishwasher, but will take up half or more of the dishwasher space this thing is not tiny.
The heating element thermostat is a dial with numbers marked on it in other words, it is not digital, so I feel I should get a thermometer to confirm the oil temperature.
A selling point on this rig, at least for me, is the automatic filtering of the oil. (This amounts to a drain in the bottom of the fry chamber with a metal screen). I moved the fryer out to my garage after it had cooled for a couple hours, hoping reduce the smell of oil in my kitchen, in the morning I found it in a small pool of oil several ounces of oil either did not make it to the storage container. Either it leaked out of the top of the oil reservoir because its top didn't seal or it leaked as it was filtering from the fry chamber. Someone else's review claimed a much larger spill, making me think one must be very careful getting the reservoir properly sealed and positioned.
My plan is to put a large cooking sheet pan under the entire unit next time. Yes, there will be a next time, although my review may not sound glowingly positive, I think this is a good unit. I just wanted to provide a review that will help someone else make the right decision for themselves. For me, if I knew what an impact frying has on the overall environment of the kitchen, I made have gone a different route. I plan to install a vent in my kitchen this year, in the meant ime, I will likely use this like my gas grill outside.
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This machine is brilliantly simple, easy to use, easy to take apart and clean, and so well thought out it might not have another that can best it.Downside: the odor filter really doesn't filter that much, or that well. You still get huge plumes of vaporous oil rising up, and unless you use it under a hood your house will be a greasy mess. Luckily the design comes with two plastic side handles so you can easily move it on and off of the stove top where it can billow into your vent hood.
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I've been making fried chicken, french fries etc in a cast-iron skillet forever and I wondered why it is that I threaten to burn down the house every time I do that. I've had more than a few spillovers where I've been anxiously grabbing for the fire extinguisher. Nuts to that.I've had this fryer for a few weeks, used it six times, and I love it. The temperature gage is accurate enough, the drain/drawer thing is completely awesome and it seems to be solid in construction.
Addressing some things others have mildly complained about:
1. Oil drainage. I went for broke and just put this thing on the counter and let it drain. It hasn't spilled a drop. If you have drainage problems it's likely you're filled over the fill line, or (egads) you re-filled the fryer while the drawer was full. Or perhaps the valve is defective. The lever for drainage locks and should be foolproof. :)
2. Heating indicator light. I'm 6'2" and I can see the thing fine. :) If I were any shorter, though, yeah, bad positioning since to see it you'd have to lean over a hot device, or look at it from the side.
3. The fact that the light turns OFF when heating is complete. This is standard operating procedure for any device that heats up. The reason things work like this is so you know they are working. If it was the opposite way and, say, you forgot to plug the device in you might be sitting there forever waiting for it to heat up and thinking it's broken. The light coming on immediately when flipping the switch on indicates 'all systems go'. Plus, the amount of time to preheat vs the amount of time you will likely be cooking is a lot less. This will help the little bulb last longer as it will not be in use as often.
Anyway, big thumbs up for this device. The lack of timer does not bother me. My regular oven/stove has a timer (as does everyone's) but nobody uses them. I wouldn't likely use one on a deep fryer, either, just one more thing to have to reach over a hot device to use/touch.
If I had to nit-pick one tiny thing it's that the basket/fryer isn't quite deep enough to fry whole chicken pieces in one shot. You'll find yourself flipping breasts and thighs. Not a huge deal but just another half inch of depth would be perfect.
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We bought this fryer for Christmas because we like fried foods on occasion and do not like the hassle of dealing with oil or the frying smell. We also wanted a fryer that is large enough to fry more than a few pieces of food at one time. It appeared that this unit from T-Fal would meet all of our needs. Unfortunately, the actual "recommended" capacity for this fryer is one pound not the 2.65 that is in the advertisement. While this is a fairly large fryer the actual usable capacity is much different than what is indicated in the product description. The permanent "odor" filter is actually a very thin piece of aluminum that only blocks some of the splatter from the fryer, it blocks no odor, none, zero. This fryer will make your entire house smell like fried food. We tried a small batch of cheese sticks (they turned out great) the whole house reeks of oil.On a positive note, the auto drain function is terrific; the fryer is easy to use and fried up what we have tried very nicely. I will being trying to reach T-Fal to see if they have a charcoal filter available for this unit, if not it will be sent back. For $120 it should at least contain the "odor" filter they advertise and they should be more reasonable with the estimates of capacity.
