Has anyone got a deep fat fryer?

I ahd my mum's old one but got rid of it because i'd fill it with 40 gallons fo oil then make prawn toast and have to throw the oil away ?

I have one but tbh it never gets used. In fact when we move house i think it'll be one of the 1st things that we get rid off. If you're local to stoke on trent your quite welcome to it.

Don't they have that new-fangled version now that only requires 1tspn of oil or something?

We had my mums old one when she moved to Spain, we finally chucked it last year. Then OHs gran gave us one, a very small one but enough for us. I don't notice the smell but we don't use it that often, mainly for chips. Much better than oven chips.

Same here, I have one but I hated cleaning it up after using it. If I really need to fry something I use an ordinary pan so I can drain off the used oil and wash the pan easily.

I really want one- we rarely have chips etc but when we do I'd like to have really good ones. I'm a bit scared of deep frying (all those 70s ads about chip pans catching light) so really want a proper one. TBH I don't think they're worse than shallow frying- they cook so hot that they really seal the food so it doesn't absorb that much fat (obv it's all relative- there's still quite a lot of fat ?)

I've asked my husband for one for my birthday about five times and he's never bought me one ?

I'm also put off getting one by the idea of the mess/wasted oil etc, plus the space it takes up when it would be so rarely used. I reckon if I really want to eat something deep-fried then I need to make the effort to do it in a pan on the stove.

Dad's wife uses one and it stinks. You feel like you need a good scrub after being in the same room as it. I also have the fear of them catching alight - those public safety adverts did the trick!

Anyway, isn't this what chip shops are for? <drooolllllll>

We've got one but we hardly use it. Its good for chips and h put breaded mozzarella sticks once and they were yummy BUT it stinks!! It takes a good day for the smell to go.

Pah, not near Stoke-thank you thoug.

Chip shop chips are lovely but different to home made.

I'm going to look for one with a removable inner bit for easy cleaning. I think I'd store it in the garage so size not too much of an issue. I did want the healthy one spoon of oil one but it's £130, that's about £100 more than I want to pay.

MMmmmmm chips.

I thought the whole point of DFFs was that they don't catch fire or smell because it's all contained inside.

I wish this thread hadn't started as I really want a chippy tea now! Which would entail pie and gravy too as I'm a northern woman with PMT.

If you're near East London you could have mine. It comes apart and you can remove the inner bit too.

My parents have one that gets uses and they set it beside the cooker and turn on the extracter fan so no smell. It also gets cleaned pretty regularly, I think they bung all the bits in a dishwasher.

We got one as a wedding present and its never been used: prawn toast and the like I just do in a wok because you have to change the oil anyway and I never make chips at home. But that was in an open plan flat, so I might when we finally move into our wee house.

I don't have one but I used to. If you get one make sure you can easily take out all the bits that need cleaning, and that (if you have a dishwasher) you can put the parts in the dishwasher. Mine had bits that you could take out, but they were badly designed, you couldn't put them in the dishwasher and was a nightmare to clean.

They're not supposed to smell but I found mine gave the entire house an all pervading atmosphere of grease?, even though I cleaned it frequently (more than was recommended). To be honest after I'd cleaned it a couple of times and seen the state of the fat you get rid of I really didn't want to eat much more deep fried food! I just do stuff like that in a pan now as you can better control how much fat you use as sometimes the fryers have a minimum level of fat that you have to put in.

If you do get one though, I think it can be worth paying a bit more to get a decent one as the cheaper ones have less features, like not being able to take the bits out to clean.

When we had one we used it outside.

I have a brand new one in my shed if anyone in N Herts area wants one!

Oh & the £130 ones are fab but they break down. Mum had one and the motor went which is apparently a common problem. It is not big enough for the whole family either.

No, I've been a bit scared of them since my mum was lifting a pan of chips out of their one and my dad accidentally bumped her arm and the hot chips went all over her face, she was quite badly burned.

We rarely have anything deep fried but as Sophie says if we do want something then we have to go to the effort of doing it on the stove.

I have one, but rarely use it. It lives in the garage and that's where I do my deep-frying so the house doesn't stink..