*RE-WRITTEN* OH My poor sagging basket has wilted!! (Kenwood Deep Fryer)

Member Name: chele2002

Product:	Kenwood Deep Fryer
Date:	22/03/01 (371 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: See op

Disadvantages: See op

Sick and tired of using a small capacity chip pan what with the mess and oil splashes, the need to cook the children chips separately, it just got a bit too much for me, so it was time to invest in something a little larger, that was more family sized and was splatter free. Being quite heavily pregnant at the time and having to rely on public transport, I decided to have a stroll up to our local electrical store, and have a look at what they had to offer. To be honest they didn't really have many to choose from, and out of what they did have only a couple were in our price range. After a long hard look and with our budget in mind I decided to go for the Kenwood DF220 Cool Wall, mainly for the price of just £39.99 but also because it stood out against the others, with the handy features it came with.


About the fryer
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The fryer its self is classed as a midi fryer, so size wise it is middle of the range, not a pokey diddy thing, and not a tank, just somewhere in between that is just ideal for our uses and needs. With an 800g food capacity and the fact that it holds up to 2 litres of oil, it is just ideal for a small family (Our family has grown a little, so there goes the small family); just like I thought it would be perfect for ours.


Features
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Here is a list of all the features that appealed to me before making my final purchase choice.

Viewing window
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On the lid, towards the front there is a large viewing window, the idea of the window, is to allow you to view the progress of the food cooking at any time.

Such an excellent idea, just one tiny problem that stops it short of what it's designed to do! Steam! And lots of it! You see, when we put our cold and wet spud into that hot, steamy and boiling oil that gets rather hot and steamy, so steamy that all you will see is the equivalent of the bathroom window, when you have been having a hot and
steamy bath, so it then becomes totally useless!! A Useless Invention!!


A rise and fall basket with lockable handle for drainage
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The idea of the rise and fall basket is to make life a little easier and frying food safer. The basket can be released down into the oil or raised whilst the lids is closed, so for a safety aspect it is a good idea. When the basket is in the raised position the handle locks so that your fried food remains in the fryer but is above the oil level ensuring better drainage.

I have to say that this one was of the factors that counted towards me buying this one, I have had so many near misses with hot oil spitting on me and with the little ones, I had to be sure that safety would not be compromised when it comes to my family or any family for that matter.

BUT ............... And there is always a but!! Our basket must have been a duff one, because no more than using our fryer for 3 months, our basket became a bit saggy, whilst the handle still locked, and it did not lock in the desired position, so part of the basket remained in the oil, making drainage an impossible task. All I can say is that the design was not up to the job in practice, while sounding good in theory, the design was completely a waste of time.

I was so disappointed with my fryer that I contacted Kenwood via email with in regards of my sagging basket. Unfortunately my local electrical store had gone; my receipt had gone a stray too, so my last resort was Kenwood direct. Eventually I did get a reply from Kenwood, but not the one that I wanted, more along the lines of how to get a replacement one and how much it would cost, no questions of where and when it was purchased, after all it could have been a flaw in the model, leaving possibly hundreds at boiling point, like me. Incidentally a replacement basket complete with lockable handle would cost £16.40 including VAT and de
livery from their mail order department. Personally I think they have over priced it somewhat when you think that all the fryer cost new is just slightly double the cost of a replacement basket.


Removable dishwasher safe lid and basket
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Both the lid with its permanently built in filter and the basket are safe to be washed in the dishwasher, but not many people have the space or the money to invest in a dish washer, so it is back to the traditional chained to the kitchen sink way. I have to say that I found it extremely difficult to clean in an averaged sized kitchen sick, but the most awkward had to be the basket, you see the handle on the basket when either in the raised position or removed from the fryer, it sticks outwards and there is no physical way that it can be any other way. Trying to immerse it in warm soaping water was hard, making clean longer and more irritating. As for the rest of the fryer, cleaning is even more difficult, I would have thought that the oil compartment would have released somehow, like the lid and the basket for ease of cleaning, but no, you have to try and clean it out with the power lead and plug still attached!


Temperature control
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The tempature control allows for the user to cook at variable heat settings allowing for different types of friable food products to be cooked accordingly. It also has a built in light indicator for a visable indication of whether the oil is at the disired temparature, when it has reached the appropiate heat, the light indicator will go out, so you will know at a quick glance if it is the right time to place your food in for cooking.


Safety
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In terms of safety this particular model did seem to offer a few that I felt very important when you have small children in the household.

Like the one touch release button, which was placed in a suitable area on t
he fryer away from any heat or steam, allowing the lid to ease up slowly so that trapped steam would get released slowly instead of a hot batch of steam coming out in one instant and possibly causing harm to the facial area.

The cord was short, positioned at the back so you could be sure that it would be out of the reach of young children, preventing them from yanking the whole fyryer of the work surface.

The outer casing was made to remain not to hot, known as a cool wall constuction, preventing any burns to the skin if it was to be touched.




My thoughts and experiences when using this product
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At first I must admit I was pleased with my fryer, it had everything that I thought it needed but after using it for a while my opinion clearly changed and for valid reasons too.

Cleaning was highly difficult due to the non-removable oil compartment and the bulkyness of the basket and handle. The basket had become useless in such a short space of time due to the dodgy handle that I am sure was badly designed.

But what really made me suggest that it is not such a good product is the fact that mine nearly caught on fire. There I was happily cooking dinner and getting on with a few things, I decide then to return to the kitchen when I noticed an orange flash coming from the rear of my fryer, then I noticed it again, taking a closer look I had found that it was coming from where the power cord enters the fryer. I switched off the fryer immidiately, raised the basket and then opened the lid, the chips still looked white, but when I took the basket out completely I noticed that all the chips that were in the botton of the basket were burnt! I can only assume that it somehow bypassed the temperature control, which incidentaly was on the minamal setting of 150 degrees and over heated the bottom of the fryer, making it a potential fire hazard!!


The
re is just no way that after what had happened to ours that I could recommend this fryer, it has caused nothing but extra work and above all could have had fatal consequences if I hadn't of checked the cooking when I did.

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