Emeril By T Fal Fr7015001 2 65 Pound 3 3 Liter Stainless Steel Digital Immersion Deep Fryer With Easy Clean System Silver - Review

Emeril by T-fal FR7015001 2.65-Pound / 3.3-Liter Stainless Steel Digital Immersion Deep Fryer with Easy Clean System, Silver - My Personal Recommendation

T-fal Emeril FR7015001 Silver Stainless Steel Digital Immersion Deep Fryer, 2.65-Pound, 3.3-Liter

Reviews of Emeril By T Fal Fr7015001 2 65 Pound 3 3 Liter Stainless Steel Digital Immersion Deep Fryer With Easy Clean System Silver

The last deep fryer you will ever buy
Rating by : James R Cantrell "JR Cantrell",

Over the years, I have owned 3 other deep fryers ranging in price. I have never used a fryer as good as this one. I've had it for a bout a week and I have used it nearly every day making anything I can think of.

The fryer's temperature rebound is the best I have experienced in a home fryer. The fryer can return to temperature in less than a minute after making a batch of food. The digital display makes sure that you have it set to the correct temperature. The basket is "family sized" and you can legit make 2 large russet potatoes into fries in just one batch. I put 16 cheese sticks in at one time too and they came out perfect.

The best feature here is the automatic oil filtration and storage system. There is nothing like this in any other residential appliance. You literally flip a switch and once the oil cools down, it drains the oil (while filtering) into a storage reservoir built into the machine. The filtered oil is free of any debris. Also, all the parts (except the element) is dishwasher safe.

GET THIS FOR GAME DAY!!!!

Great Features
Rating by : phil,

Bought this fryer to replace another brand fryer that did not have the features of this one. The old one I had to drain oil through hose and then filter by hand and take the whole fryer to the sink and scrub, leaving dried grease. This T-fal is so much easier to clean with its removable stainless steel tub insert which I just clean at the sink in a couple of minutes and while cleaning the tub i put the basket inside and wash at same time. There is no need to put in the dishwasher. After frying I just set the oil drain filter lever, turn off the fryer and it automatically drains the oil while filtering it into the plastic oil tray. Works like a charm. The digital display and setting is great and timer is nice. The oil tray I put in my refrigerator to keep it fresh until next time. I have drained it once so far with no problems as long as you do not go past the max amount while filling. I use peanut oil and fried 8 batter fried chicken wings for 20 minutes at 356o with no noticeable odor and they came out very crispy, no grease, and tender and moist inside. Love it.

Filtration interesting, temp too cold
Rating by : Mark,

Overview:
- Doesn't heat the oil more than about 40� below indicated temperature
- Design concept is acceptable, design quality is poor with too many cost cutting steps
- Overall quality is cheap, typical of budget products from China
- Filtration system works well but needs careful attention and monitoring
- Daily cleanup is quick but thorough cleaning (in case of spills or splashes) requires more effort than simple fryers of the same style
- Capacity is not nearly as much as it sounds

Got it this morning, unpacked, set it up and went frying.

Initial impression is that the sheet metal is fairly thin and most of the hardware has fairly poor tolerances. This is obviously not a professional unit and would probably not hold up to restaurant use very long but for intermittent household use it is probably acceptable.

I had seen in some of the negative reviews that the filter system sometimes leaks so my first test was to put it on a deep cookie sheet and filled it in steps up to the min line. At each step I opened the valve to let the oil drain into the bottom but nothing seemed to be happening. I finally lifted out the oil pan and found that some oil had drained into the container but not much. The oil was too cold (room temperature) to flow properly but at least there were no leaks.

Next test: others have reported that the fryer doesn't maintain a high enough temperature so I turned on the unit and set it to the highest setting, 374�F.
It never got there, remaining instead consistently around 320-340�F as measured with a secondary digital thermometer, even well after the heating had reached set point.
I'm not very experienced in oil frying but when I put three plain (no breading or spice) chicken drumsticks in the oil I was sure it was not bubbling as much as it should and they took a fairly long time to cook; pan frying seemed faster.

I ate the drumsticks (tasted great, breakfast of champions) and let the unit cool for a few hours before I opened the drain valve. As others have mentioned, the instructions indicate that the drain valve can be opened at any time and no oil will drain for about 3 hours, at which time it will drain automatically. (I don't trust those instructions after reading these reviews but read the update below.) With the oil warm, draining and filtering went well; the oil drained within a few minutes and I had no leaks. Overall it seems like a usable design and would probably be more reliable with thicker sheet metal and tighter tolerances of those parts in production.
When the oil had finished draining I was left with a lot of "particle fallout" remaining in the oil pan and on the heating unit with clean oil in the reservoir. This helped keep the oil in the reservoir clean and left the particles where they could easily be cleaned.
The filter itself is a fairly small wire mesh strainer and cannot be replaced or disassembled for cleaning. I would have preferred to see a filter with a larger area and a cleanable or replaceable part but I have no complaints about the results as the unit was designed. I was able to clean all the important parts with hot water and dish soap in about 15-20 minutes. (Wasn't really needed at this point, just wanted to see how it would go).

Later in the day my wife and I decided to have a fried dinner; chicken thighs & drumsticks, French fries and fried banana for desert.
We found that 4 thighs and 3 drumsticks would have been an overload, especially considering the temperature control problems so we cooked everything in four batches.
That went was as well as could be expected but the oil temperature was clearly keeping the cooking slow and the fries were not as crispy as they should have been.
After the meal we waited several hours for the oil to cool down to just below 200�F and opened the drain. Everything seemed to go well for the 4-5 minutes it took to drain until we realized that the reservoir was becoming too full. Apparently I had overfilled it by just a few ounces and it made a mess. While it overflowed just slightly - not enough to overflow the lip of the reservoir cover but enough to push out the top of the lid - it was still enough that it required breaking down and washing everything. After nearly a quarter bottle of Dawn Heavy Duty Concentrated I almost felt like I was cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico.
Lesson learned here: when the reservoir gets close to full, empty the rest into another container.

I would be willing to pay more, maybe a lot more, if they would make the following changes:
- Accurate temperature control
- 10% larger reservoir
- Reservoir that seals better
- Add max and min markings to all four sides of the oil pan to compensate for level
- thicker sheet metal
- resize the heating elements to consume less space in the oil

Summary
As it is I am still undecided if I will keep or return. While a product of this quality is not something I would usually keep, unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much on the market that is better.
I generally like the filter system and if I keep it I will do some hardware hacking to make the temperature accurate. The final decision is probably user dependent:
- If you don't mind fiddling and you have enough technical talent to get the temperature up to where it needs to be, you will probably do ok with this fryer.
- If you want a fryer that just works without fuss you'll probably want to go to your nearest fast food restaurant.

<=== UPDATE, 2 days day later: ===>

I focused this morning on trying to improve the temperature accuracy and after several hours of fiddling (those basic electronics classes were a long time ago), I was finally successful. After the modification the initial heating went up to �374�F. Not perfect but much better.
I have also been experimenting with different oils over the course of the past week or two, even before I bought the fryer. First I tried Canola, then cottonseed, and today tried peanut oil.
By the time I completed the modifications it was near dinner so as a comparison we had pretty much the same thing as the previous meal, chicken legs and thighs and fries (no bananas this time) fried in fresh peanut oil.
I'd used the previous cottonseed oil to test the modifications so I also tested the manual instruction to open the valve while the oil was still hot. It worked. Nothing came out even with the drain valve open as long as the oil was still hot.
I closed it again and tried cooling the oil down and at some point around 200�F it opened. That works as advised in the manual so there must be a temperature sensitive valve on the drain but I don't think I will rely on it if I can avoid it. Still, it is important to drain the oil as soon as it is cool enough to do so as I have found that cold oil will take much longer, if ever, to drain.
Before putting in the peanut oil for todays meal I needed to remove the cottonseed oil. This allowed me to test the minimum cleanup process and it went pretty well with a few minor exceptions.
Turns out that with the proper amount in the oil pan, the drain and catch was easy and much less messy than yesterday. One irritation is that the snap-on oil reservoir lid does not seal very tightly (a well-known plastic household goods manufacturer could have done much better) and worse, the drain valve for the pan is very leaky. This wouldn't be so bad except that the container is long and flat, and any transportation sloshes the oil around inside, and a little will always push out through that valve. Still, with a little care, cleanup was not difficult.

In the process of the oil exchange I discovered that I had used too much oil previously because I filled it on an outdoor table that was slightly out of level, sloping down towards the side opposite from where the oil level markings are stamped. Today I measured the oil that I poured in and it came up to the exact level as indicated by the manual.

This meal turned out much better. The bubbling was more like I felt like it should be, and the food came out much better than the last time. The chicken cooked faster and was crispy on the outside while the fries turned a nice golden brown within about 7-8 minutes without being excessively oily.

As it stands now I will probably (just barely) keep the fryer because it is one of the few like it available on the market.
The poor score remains because the quality control is obviously lacking in the electronics, and too many cost cutting steps destroyed the otherwise decent design.
The summary above still applies.

Find great deals on Emeril tfal Deep Fryers, including discounts on the Emeril by T-fal, FR702D001 1.8 Liter Deep Fryer with Integrated Oil Filtration System, Silver.

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