Customer Reviews

George Foreman GSF026B Deep Fryer with Smart Spin Technology

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

So, I my first fryer was the Emerilware Deep Fryer by T-Fal. I liked it. I liked it so much I bought two of them (one for my mom). Along comes the George Foreman Fryer and after taking it out of the box and getting it set up, I was prepared to give the Foreman 1 star. But it pleasantly surprised me.

1. It was HEAVY! The empty Foreman fryer possibly weighed twice as much as the empty Emerilware.

2. DESIGN: The Foreman fryer's parts were difficult to assemble and take apart. The plastic parts appeared flimsy. The door latch is only on one side and both the latch and the open button seemed to get stuck. The fry basket was difficult to get in and out of position. The oil well has to be perfectly slid into position, then snapped into place. There's a lock/unlock button to keep the well in position that also gets stuck (but this might actually slide more easily with use). And the heating element mechanism was difficult to remove with the *extremely* flimsy handle. What bothered me the most about all these parts is that, in my experience, the more complicated an appliance is (with all the buttons, levers, locks, etc), the more likely something is going to break.
Meanwhile, the Emerilware is so ingeniously simple in design, it is idiot-proof. It's basically a vat of hot oil which you dip your fry basket and food into. But with the George Foreman, I had to read the instruction manual just to figure out how to take all the plastic and cardboard out of it. It was really, really complicated.

3. The basket CAPACITY is small! The Foreman fryer can fit maybe 1/4 of a bag of frozen fries. I managed to fit 3/4 of a bag of frozen fries into the Emerilware fryer. I have no idea how you could cook fried chicken in the Foreman fryer, you'd be able to fit 2, maybe 3, drumsticks at most. I can fit 6 drumsticks in the Emerilware. And turning the food mid-way through cooking is much easier with the Emerilware, since the Foreman fryer's basket is so small and it's got a stick running right up the middle of the basket.

4. Both fryers cost about the same. Both fryers take about the same amount of time to heat up (approx 10 mins upon powering up to the hottest setting). Both have a max temp. of 375 degrees F, which is about typical for most deep fryers. Both fryers have a short, magnetic power cord which will disconnect if something trips over it.

5. The Foreman fryer has a really nice TIMER which dings like a bell when it's done. You may miss hearing it though if you walk away and your home is noisy. The Emerilware has a timer that beeps like an angry alarm clock when it goes off; it's loud and annoying.

6. MAINTENANCE -- Here's where the Emerilware really shines. When you're finished with your frying, you simply flip a lever and all the oil automatically filtrates into a storage compartment below the fryer, ready for re-use. Then, you take all the remaining parts (except for the heating element) and throw it into the dishwasher, as all parts are made of stainless steel or hard plastic.
But the Foreman, you have to wait for it to cool, then filter the used oil into your own containers using cheesecloth or some other filter. It is a mess! Then, the oil well must be washed by hand. Moreover, the grill basket purportedly can go into the dishwasher, but the handle does not come off the basket, which makes it take up a ton of bulky space. Plus, the handle is a really, really cheap plastic that looks like it could melt in the dishwasher, so I wouldn't run the heated dry cycle with it in there.

7. TASTE: Up to this point, I was prepared to give the Foreman fryer a big fat 1 star rating. My first batch of food was a handful of mozzarella sticks. (Note to buyers, do NOT use the spin cycle with mozzarella sticks.) The instruction manual has a chart with suggested frying and spinning times for different types of food. It didn't mention mozzarella sticks, so after frying according to the directions, I turned the nob to spin the food on high for 2 minutes. I opened the Foreman up to a HUGE mess. The cheese had spun seeped out of the sticks leaving me with these hollow breaded logs, plus melted cheese ALL OVER the basket. Yuck. But this was my bad. I tried another batch on low spin with similar results. Nevertheless, I tried one of the hollow cheese logs and was AMAZED!!! They were crunchy and crisp. I put them on a paper towel and plate and they left almost NO OIL on the paper!
I then cooked a batch of pierogies. 3 minutes fry, 2 minutes spin on low. They came out beautifully golden and tasted -- INCREDIBLE!!!!! They didn't feel greasy to the touch and, again, left almost no oil on the paper towels meant to blot them. I have never tasted anything so good! I went nuts at that point. I fried some frozen french fries -- CRISPY, TASTY, YUM! I fried some hash browns, those broke apart a bit during the spin cycle, but they didn't taste or feel greasy. They were DELICIOUS. I actually managed to eat all this food and only go through one napkin to wipe my fingers. The Emerilware food tastes good since it manages to do a good job getting consistently hot enough, but that fryer still has nothing on the food the Foreman produces.

8. SPIN CYCLE: I have to warn you that the spin cycle on the Foreman fryer is really loud. It's about as loud as a hair dryer on high or maybe your blender. Moreover, it tends to destroy the shape of some foods. Like I said earlier, all the cheese seeped out of my mozzarella sticks, whether on high or low. My hash browns got broken. You may get misshapen doughnuts. If food presentation (visually) is important, you might have to skip the spin cycle.

9. Weight Control: Look, you've got to be kidding yourself if you want to control you weight and, as a result, decide to buy the Foreman fryer. If you want to watch your fat intake, you should stay as far away from deep fryers as possible. And while it appears to be true that a lot of the oil in your fried food will be removed through the spinning process (as evidenced by the lack of oil coming off the blotting paper towels), and even if it's true that you'll remove an average of 33% more of the oil absorbed through frying than other machines, you're still going to end up eating a whole heck of a lot of grease. Just don't delude yourself. (Personally, I just make sure I always down some Alli pills, but you will probably pay for it the next day.)

10. Smell: The Foreman fryer has an excellent filter, plus a lid that locks shut. After grilling a huge dinner, the house does not reek of oil, the way it usually does with the Emerilware. The Emerilware has a really poor filter. If you use that fryer inside the house, your home will smell like a fast food joint for hours and hours unless you air it out.

CONCLUSION: If this were only about taste and quality of food, the George Foreman Deep Fryer would win by a Knock-Out, no questions asked. But judging both deep fryers overall, it's really hard to weigh the food quality against the machine maintenance issues. After much deliberation and soul searching, I think I favor the Emerilware's ease of cleaning and oil filtration. So, for me, I think that all the overall points hand the Emerilware the win. If the George Foreman fryer manufacturers can re-design some of these flaws, then it would hands-down be the fryer to beat. I certainly hope they're up to the challenge.

If you found this review helpful, please let me know!

I have various pros and cons of the George Foreman Deep Fryer with Smart Spin Technology. This review is based on making fresh french fries from 3 medium sized potatoes.

Pros:

1. It does what it says and passes the paper towel test with flying colors. Our fresh fries left very little residue on the paper towels and this was quite impressive.

2. Fried our french fries quickly.

3. Heats up quickly.

4. Modern look

5. Great and logical concept.

6. A covered deep fryer reduces the odor in the house.


Cons:

1. The unit is HUGE and the capacity for my trial was 3 medium sized potatoes. The basket is too small relative to the overall size.

2. It requires a large counter space footprint. 10"(W), 10"(H), 10" (depth).

3. The use (raising) of the basket did not work for me (there must have been a defect). It would not grab onto the grooves. This required me to hold the basket up by hand while spinning. This manual method worked.

4. The french fries were tasty but on the dry (to mildly crispy side). I would probably choose to oven bake given that the texture is not that different. The difference: fresh potatoes versus processed ones. A pro and a con I suppose ...

I think that this fryer should be purchased with some thought. Do you fry a lot? Do you need large capacity? Do you have the counter space? Given a lot of new construction, counter space is a premium. When I unpacked the behemoth, I was floored by the size and the lack of capacity. To provide the centrifuge-like action, the size is needed.

If you like to fry frequently and have the counter space, this may be a good option for you. Otherwise, I would really think about it.

Update: We definitely received a defective unit. I was not able to get the basket to lock in the top spinning position under any circumstances.

Fried foods with less fat? sounded too good to be true but my curiosity got the best of me and I tried it. WOW! I can finally TASTE the food again instead of the oil! I tried onion rings and I don't lie when I say my fingers had no oil when I was done (try this at any restaurant and you have to get up and wash your hands!). French fries were also good and crispy. I did these 2 in HIGH speed for the smart spin.

I also made empanadas and croquettes (both family favorites) but I did them in LOW spin speed. None of my foods were crushed so don't worry about that part! Even wontons made it perfect.

I thought it was easy to use - not too many controls and I got it all set in a few minutes. It heated the oil very fast (it also has a light to let you know it is ready) and it did not take long at all to be "ready" again between batches.

I put all the parts I could remove in the dishwasher -which is actually OK- and cleaned the others with a paper towel.

If you thought fried foods were out of your life... THINK AGAIN and try this! You'll taste the difference in the first bite.

Imagine what happens to your clothes in the washing machine in the spin cycle - this deep fryer has the same concept. After your foods are finished frying, you just lift the basket out of the oil (lid is closed the whole time) and set the spin cycle to low or medium for a specific time and your foods will be crunchier, crisper and more tasty. My family could definitely taste the difference. Before I got the George Foreman Deep Fryer with Smart Spin, my deep fried foods would come out soggy and oily. I decided to give the paper towel test after using the George Foreman deep fryer, and yes it was obvious there was less oil residue on the foods.

I give it three stars since it takes some getting use to the steps you have to do to fry and remove the foods, but with more use I believe it will be easier to operate. One bit of advice however. I learned the hard way that it would be best to leave the basket in the unit and use heat safe tongs to remove the foods from the basket. The first time I used it, I removed the basket completely and had a hard time getting the grooves to line up so the basket would fit back into fryer. Once I did line it up, it did not slide back down easily and I had to give it a little force and the oil splashed out. For on now I will leave the basket in the unit and just remove the foods directly out of the basket. The maximum temperature is only 375 degrees, I wished it was at least 400 degrees since many foods call for that temperature. I will continue to use this fryer since the concept of less oil in our foods is a wonderful idea and I don't have to waste so many paper towels anymore! Just in case you were curious, it is not loud at all when it is spinning. The noise can be compared to the average audible tones from a mixer or blender. I hope they will come out with a 3.7 liter capacity soon.

We excitedly anticipated the arrival of this lean deep frying machine and were 100 % delighted! The machine does as it claims and truly does knock out much of the fat/grease from whatever you are deep frying.

We haven't used it multiple times, just on Christmas Day repeatedly. We decided to attempt fried calamari. OH MY!!! It was to die for! Each batch cooked for 4 mins and were crispy as can be. The batches towards the end came out super crispy, so we would suggest lowering the cooking time as the oil gets hotter.

The spin function is great to have and I can't comprehend how we lived without it before this. The dial for spin function can be set for as little as 1 second to a maximum 2 minutes. The cooking dial has a maximum degree of 375. I can't wait to throw more things at this machine. After spinning for 30 seconds, we did do the towel test to see what the difference is compared to pan frying and there was a miniscule amount of oil drainage. Truly, sort of miraculous!! When we used to make fried calamari in a pan, we would use tons of paper towels and it would still soak through and coat the whole bowl.

Now onto the bad...
* The cooking temperature knob and the spinning knob should have been more clearly marked.

* You have to line up the basket so that it could slide back down. That is very difficult to do because the basket is HOT. If you don't it will not go back into place.

* On one cooking attempt, in order to use the spin function, you must snap the basket up into place. The snap function wouldn't happen. Without the basket snapping up into the lid, you will not be able to make use of the spinning function. Without spinning, this is just another deep fryer.

* Small basket size which would only make half a plate of food. Not enough for this family of 5. It does batches quickly though!

With the negatives, I hope I just received a glitchy machine and it doesn't happen to all.

So, you should go for this little unit because it truly seems to make a fried food taste just a little healthier and this machine looks great on my counter next to my stainless steel appliances. LOVE IT.

We just got this fryer and tried it for the first time tonight. We made deep fried zucchini and stuffed jalapeno poppers. The machine was easy to use, heated up quickly and the zucchini came out very crispy! And not greasy at all, which was very nice!

We made the mistake of spinning the poppers on high and they lost a lot of their cheese and got squashed (these were homemade, hollowed out peppers filled with cheese and battered, not the frozen kinds) but we know for next time to spin them on low. But they were still tasty and crispy!

Other than the fact we got cheese in the fryer basket, cleanup also was pretty easy.

I give it 5 stars since it worked really well! The only problem we had was our fault (not sure what made us think that the cheese would actually stay inside the pepper :)

I look forward to using this machine a lot!

Just so you aren't in the dark on this purchase. The fryer is easy to take apart and clean. It does spin the oil out as advertised. My complaints are: The frying basket is a bit small so your not going to get a lot in it. You don't want to stack items either because they won't be submerged in the oil. However it does fry fairly quickly. You can fit three chicken strips in it at a time. The other issue is that the basket has to fit perfectly on the center shaft in order for it to go back in the fryer. It has a tendency to stick and you have to sometimes turn the basket so it can go down. Burned the tip of my fingers trying to line it up with shaft. The basket stays pretty hot for a while so use caution when handling. All in all I still like the fryer. In order to increase the size of the basket this thing would have to be as big as a small microwave and if it were that big I wouldn't want it. Hope this aids in your decission.

I admit I'm not mechanically-inclined and user manuals often leave me shaking my head, but I've never had as much trouble as I did with the George Foreman deep fryer. Just getting to the bits of packing cardboard stuck here and there was hard enough, but understanding the directions was very frustrating. I was exhausted and not much in the mood for fried food by the time I got it cleaned and set up to cook. Even with illustrations, I felt the directions were lacking and the dials are hard to read. But on to the food...

So far, I've fried chicken, potatoes, and onions and they all turned out great. They don't look or taste greasy. I will say that the fryer gives off a lot of steam during use and shakes quite a bit during the knocking-out-the-fat!-cycle. The window quickly steams up so you can't see how the food is doing while it's cooking and to check, you have to open it up and risk burning yourself.

It's a sturdy machine and does what it's supposed to do - fry food and spin off excess oil. Too bad the manual contains only six recipes. I'm giving it 3.5 stars because the directions were really hard to follow, although I'm sure it'll get much easier with continued use.

I am a big fan of the George Foreman line of grills. Over the past 12 or so years I have owned at least 4 of his grills. Not because they didn't work well, but more so because I used them so much to the point I wore them out. So when I saw the infomercial for his new fryer I knew that I had to have it. And I am glad that I got this fryer. It does everything that it says it does. This fryer truly does knockout the fat thanks to the spin technology.

With most fryers once your food has finished cooking you just raise the basket, maybe let it drain for a few seconds and then you would dump your food onto some paper towels so you could drain the grease. And even then you could not get all the grease and your food would still feel somewhat greasy. Well with the Foreman fryer, once your food has finished cooking, you raise the basket, set the spin timer and turn on the spinner. When the timer stops so does the spinner. And then you just dump your food onto some paper towels just to remove any excess grease. And trust me the difference is amazing. I made a batch of french fries tonight and they were so light and crisp. When I bit into them all I was tasting was the french fry. There was no grease. I feel like I am safe to deep fry foods once again.

The only complaints I have are that the basket is a tad on the small side. Frying chicken will take a few batches of cooking 2 pieces at a time. And cooking bone in chicken breasts could present a problem since they may not fit in the basket. But the good thing is that the oil heats back up to the set temperature quickly between uses. My other problem is with the sound that the spinner makes. When on high it is quite loud. You get used to it but hopefully in the future they can improve on that feature. Other than that this fryer is a great addition to the George Foreman line of products and is an item that every household, that enjoys fried foods, should have. It is worth every penny.

I love this fryer! Not only did it work as expected, it is safe. The power cord is held in place by a magnet and, if tripped over, the plug will easily pull out instead of topple the fryer. The whole thing comes apart and can be submerged to wash. The oil well comes out and can be stored in the frig with the used oil if you wish.