Rival Stainless Steel Digital Deep Fryer - CZF610

Comment: No good if it doesn't work & mine does not. I bought this becuase it looked like the best made / most industrial one in the store. I like the simple control, but agree with the other review; too few temps. My real gripe is that I can only fry one basket (avg 3 min) before the thing overheats and has to be shut off and cooled down before use. Worthless when trying to cook more than 1-2 servings. Also returning and will try the Oster if the store has it.

Comment: This seems like a decent little deep fryer. It heats up quickly, seems to maintain its temperature well, and does a good job frying whatever you put in it. The top temperature is 375 degrees F, which isn't ideal for me - sometimes I deep-fry at 400 degrees. This seems like the common upper limit for home deep-fryers, though, not just this model.

What made this fryer useless, from my point of view, was that the temperature controls are absurdly simplistic - despite the fancy-sounding (and looking) "digital temperature control" and timing aparatus, there are only four temperature presets available, and these can't be changed. They didn't even seem like temperatures that I, at least, would ever want to use. Add to this the fact that you have to use the timer, whether you want to or not (you can't just turn it on and leave it on, not without setting the timer, which I find irritating), and I decided that this is not worth the money I paid for it - for what I paid, I should be able to pick whatever temperature I want. Therefore, I returned this and bought an Oster - same features, same price, except the Oster has a temperature dial (letting you pick whatever temperature you want) and a simple on/off switch - no timer.

The fryer worked fine, and some people might be ok with the limited temperature controls - for me, though, it was a deal-breaker.