Customer Reviews

Brinkmann 815-4001-S Turkey Fryer

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I picked up one of these kits at Home Depot and used it yesterday to fry two 13-lb Thanksgiving turkeys and it worked great - no problems at all. I fried them one-at-a-time at about 40 minutes each and they were delicious. The wide three-legged base is very stable and the burner provides plenty of heat which brought the oil up to temperature fairly quickly both when initially heating the oil and after putting a bird in. The hottest the oil got was 375 and auto shutoff never engaged so there were no problems with that for me. Other reviewers had complained about that elsewhere and I was prepared to defeat it if necessary.

There is a max-fill line on the side of the pot which turned out to be exactly the amount of oil I needed and was about 3.5 gallons. Next time I'll just fill right to that line and skip the whole water-fill measurement step described in many places on the Web.

The only annoyance was that during assembly I missed installing the spring in step 2 because it is not shown in the assembly drawing. When I had the spring left over I read all the text and had to disassemble part of unit to install the spring. The purpose of the spring is to provide a little friction for the air mixing control.

I tested the thermometer provided with the kit by placing it in a pot of boiling water and it was fairly accurate but I plan to buy a better quality one before I use fryer again. There is too much riding on the temperature of the oil both from a safety standpoint and when trying to cook based on cooking times that assume a certain oil temperature. I plan to just use them both and as long as they agree with each other I should be good to go. I also need to buy a large metal funnel with a fine mesh screen and/or cheese cloth to filter the oil after use.

One thing I learned worth sharing is that you have to be careful where you buy the oil. Home Depot sells a 3-gallon jug for $30 which they call peanut oil but it is a blend that is mostly vegetable oil and soybean oil - peanut oil is listed last of the three ingredients. Costco sells a 35 pound (4.5 gallon) jug that is 100% peanut oil for $37. Thus Costco is selling the more expensive oil for less per gallon. Further, 3 gallons would not have been enough for my turkeys because I needed 3.5 gallons. I initially purchased the oil at Home Depot and returned it when I saw what Costco offered.

Happy frying.

Relatively easy to assemble. But you end up with a healthy sized spring in the parts bag with no explanation of what to do with it. It's not even on the parts list in the manual. The gas valve is reversed (i.e. you turn it clockwise to open up the flow of gas). It took me 10 minutes to figure out why the gas wasn't flowing. The overheat shutoff switch was either shutting off too early (350 degrees) and I had to rig a block underneath it, or the oil thermometer in the kit didn't work, and the oil was actually much hotter than indicated. Finally, most or all of the paint chipped off during the first use. Going to try to return it and get something well made.

My brother bought this + the brinkmann smoker at Home Depot for me for X-Mass.
I've only used it twice but it's served me well. Kind of a pain to get the flame started but it heats up quickly and feels fairly strong. Clearly if I thought a leg was going to give out I wouldn't risk using it.
So far I have made 2 turkeys, 3 chickens, and a ton of Asian style fried spare ribs.

good product. very sturdy. everything shipped as fortold. the kettle is more than big enough to hold a large turkey. very happy with the product.

I bought this turkey fryer after not having one for a while. This one has some good saftey features built in to it. I bought it at Home Depot for only $39.99 on sale right before Xmas. It is very worth the money. Only issue is that is does not break down well. You have to unscrew everything, but not a big deal. Well worth the money, but woudl nto pay much more for it.

excellent fryer works mint I would like a better air/fuel valve but it works you have to screw with it to get the oil hot enough after the bird cools it off some but over all no problems a quality piece would recommend. bought at home depot for $39.99