Customer Reviews

Masterbuilt 20010406 Electric Digital Turkey Fryer

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This does a great job at what it's name says: Electric Turkey Fryer.

I have used propane fryer's in the past, and the oil can take just as long (30-45 mins) to heat up. But with this, there is NO open flame. You can select the temperature of the oil on the dial.

I have used this fryer very successfully for the last three Thanksgiving meals. No muss, no fuss. Pour the peanut oil in, heat 30-45 mins, put the dry (NOT FROZEN!!) turkey in and cook 2-3 mins a pound and wait for some of the best turkey you have ever tasted.

Clean up is a breeze thanks to the bottom spout. I wait for the oil to cool and the put back in the jug it came from. I usually re-use the oil two times before I buy more.

We had our annual Memorial Day Crawfish Boil and as usual it rained. But this year I was ready. With the Masterbuilt Electric Fryer I simply moved inside tot he sun room and every one had a great time eating crawfish and shrimp cooked to perfection.

i've had this fryer for 3 years. it's foolproof; components disassemble for easy cleaning; instructions are clear; it's all automated - punch in the weight of the turkey, masterbuilt does the rest. got it for thanksgiving a couple of years back. hardest part of frying the turkey was finding peanut oil the day before thanksgiving.

a turkey is the only thing i've cooked in the fryer but 3 years running no problems

After reading the reviews, I was extremely excited to receive and start using the Masterbuilt turkey fryer. I even planned a whole dinner party around it. Well, the day before the party, I opened up the box to do a test run of the fryer.

Assembly was easy, but when I went to set the timer, the button fell inside the unit. Now, I didn't mash the button in or use force, the lightest touch caused the button to fall in. I touched the other buttons to see if there was an issue with them, and yes, they all fell in as well.

Being an engineer, this isn't too much of an issue to me. Things may have rattled around in shipping. It's a quick fix and I'm really excited about using the turkey fryer. I bring out my tool set and disassemble the control unit to properly install the buttons.

Once the control unit area is opened, I am totally shocked at how cheap the quality of parts and workmanship are inside. The exterior parts looked solid and well made, but Whoa, inside the control unit is an electronic nightmare! This thing is junk! Indoor fryers are dangerous enough as it is, the last thing anyone needs is cheap, shoddy wiring to short and cause this vat of oil to go up in flames.

Needless to say, I closed it back up and sent it back to Amazon-unused. Indoor fryers are dangerous. Less dangerous if proper precautions and handling are instituted, more dangerous if your tools are constructed of shoddy workmanship. My advice is to find another turkey fryer of higher workmanship and pass on the Masterbuilt.

Boyfriend wanted to do the fried turkey thing this year for Thanksgiving. Trouble is, we live in an apartment. An open flame on the patio with the traditional turkey fryer setup is a deal breaker. So we looked at electric fryers and decided on this one based on capacity and reviews.

We've used it once for turkey - which turned out just fine, though I did miss the traditional aroma of turkey and root veggies roasting in the oven. But it sure was nice having the oven free to use for other things like a big pan of stuffing, green beans, crescent rolls, sweet potatoes, and dishes that guests brought.

Apart from turkey we've used it for making big batches of chicken wings, fish and chips, sweet potato fries, and random things beer battered and served on a stick like cheesecake, twinkies (yeah really), big shrimp, etc, which is great. If you're having a super bowl party or just like having people over and eating bar food this is your appliance. And people get a kick out of frying random things.

Be careful - you can't fool around when there is hot oil so keep the kids and drunk buddies away from this when it's hot. If you're going to fry a bunch of stuff make sure you have a frymaster in charge, armed with an apron, really long tongs, and a rack or lots of paper towels for hot oily foods. Another useful thing is a second thermometer. We used a clip-on candy thermometer on the basket. The digital display is hard to read in low light.

Overall I have no complaints. It heats oil and it's easy to drain and clean which is all I really care about. I did take a star off because the washer in the drain spigot got dislodged so we had some leaking during a fried chicken session. It wasn't major and once we realized what happened we were more careful when reassembling after cleaning.

Finally if you want to avoid making a mess out of your kitchen, patio, garage, or driveway make sure to put down some cardboard in the vicinity of the fryer to avoid stains. Oh and don't drain the fryer until the oil is cool, but you probably know that already.

Peanut oil has worked out the best for us in terms of smoke point and yummy flavor, but it is prohibitively expensive. We have used canola oil with satisfactory results and will probably continue with that.

It is very easy and safe to use. I don't have a problem using it inside the house. The turkey came out very good. I would recommend this product to anybody.

I had to convince my dad (who hates ANY kind of change or new idea) to try this since he kept insisting he would rather go out to eat than have a home turkey meal. Although he wouldn't go into details, he apparently had one too many Thanksgiving mishaps or bad meals in the past, and he was just cetain that this would be a disaster. Well, he had to eat his words along with the best turkey he ever had--and he said over and over how shocked he was that a deep fried turkey that sounded so bad could taste so good. My sister had different issues, but just as anxiety-ridden: namely, how do we make gravy and stuffing for a frying bird? Well, a little web surfing connected me with a great simple gravy recipe using store bought chicken stock, flour and spices and I added my own touches (inc. Campbell's Cream of Celery to thicken and balance out the over salting that occurs easily with gravies--not that I'm a veteran here. I had my sister make the stuffing in the oven and it was slightly drier, but I like the crunchy top that goes with oven stuffing anyway. This was all very easy, and you gotta love 45 minutes for a 12-lb. bird that you just put into the fryer then focus on the rest of the meal. The valve to remove the oil later is brilliant, and like another poster, we just put the oil back into the 5-gallon jug to wait for the next fry. BTW, I used rice bran oil. It's not the cheapest and you pretty much have to get it online at larger quantities like the 3-5 gallons needed for turkey frying, but it has one of the highest smoke points (especially for unrefined oils) of 490 degrees, so it is healthier than other oils that break down and get dangerous to ingest. That was worth it for me to track it down and have it shipped to my family's home in PA so I could fly from Dallas and have everything there for this recent past Thanksgiving. I am a TOTAL fan of the Master Built--the turkey was SO tender and delicious (brine it the day before like I did if you want over the top juicy & flavorful results)--and I look forward to the next time. YUM!!!

I had great success one time with this. Turkey was juicy, skin was golden brown. The next time I went to use it, it simply did not hold the heat and now Masterbuilt wants me to pay $39 to replace the heating element. I don't think I want another Masterbuilt product. It's got to work more than one time.

I used this about 20 times to steam crabs over the past year. It was fairly flimsy but worked. A notable downside was that, with the basket in place, it would only hold about an inch of water, which would boil away quickly. If you don't catch it in time, the heating element gets exposed to the air, which is bad.

After less than a year the unit stopped functioning entirely. I could turn it on and it would display numbers but when I selected a temperature it said error and failed to heat. I threw it away and do not recommend it at all.

I bought this fryer in a pinch because my oven went out just before Xmas. The fryer was everything that the maker said it was and more. The turkey came out perfect, the appliance is easy to use and the clean up was very easy. I have since used it for other types of frying, from chicken to pork and fish. This is a great item to have in the kitchen, I can't wait to try the steamer part of the appliance in the summer.