I would pass on it if knew then what I know now....
Pros:
Looks nice, Easy to clean, Easy to put together
Cons:
Cant stay hot enough, Temp and Time increments insufficient, folding handle is potentially dangerous
The Bottom Line:
I would seek a better product for your money, because the cons far outweigh the pros.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
I was having the hankering for some ChickenWings. So I've been looking for a decent Deep Fryer. I have read good things about DeLonghi here on Epinions, but none specifically about this fryer. So I thought if its up to par with the others, it should treat me well. I really should have stuck with one that was rated well.
Taking the fryer out of the box, and set up was very easy. It was obvious where everything should go, and I put it together. I cleaned the parts with a damp cloth first. Then I filled the oil reservoir with oil. It took 112 oz to get to the minimum level, which was all the oil I had in the house.
Something that I found kinda weird, but not a big deal is that the temp settings only go in 9 degree increments. Seems kinda cheap for a fryer that costs a bit more than similar models. Also, the time setting is only in 1 minute intervals. It should be 1 or 5 or 10 second intervals at the minimum.
The directions on the ChickenWing bag said 350F for 4:00 minutes. So I set the fryer to preheat at 356F. It took about 15 minutes or so. In hind-sight, I should have pre-heated to a higher setting. After the 4 minutes, they were obviously not done. I checked the temp, and it was down to 250 /-F. So I found out the fryer had difficulty maintaining its temp when frying frozen foods. I set the fryer to preheat again, and it took a long time to get back to the 356F.
I continued to fry the wings until they finally made it to a decent color. They ended up a little greasy, but not too bad. But by this time, they had become stuck in the fry basket, which is itself a good reason to pass on this fryer. The basket is designed with a foldable handle for storage. It kinda locks into place with bent areas on the handle. This is not enough to hold it. As I was dumping the wings on the plate, the handle decided to fold up, and ended up dumping the wings all over the counter. I can see this being dangerous, causing the basket to dump hot food on your hands.
Clean up is easy enough, since everything but the heating module is dishwasher safe.
I also liked the way this unit looked, being stainless steel, but it is quite long. It takes up a little to much real estate on the counter top to leave it sitting out.
After my first use with this fryer, I would have to rate it pretty low, and advise against purchase. I could have done just as well (or bad) with a unit half the price. I paid $99 at Lowes.
LivingDirect
