A Very Decent Product for Home Use

I learned to cook in a restaurant years ago and have used commercial french-fryers. I have also used the home method of hot oil in a large pot; this machine beats that easily.

The Presto 05464 comes with two baskets of modest capacity and holds a little over a gallon of oil. The one-plus gallon capacity is quite a bonus, too, even for a household.

The temperature dial's calibration was very close to a digital thermometer that I used for testing and the heating element provided reasonably fast warm-up, especially considering the capacity.

Cooking capacity for a dual-basket load is adequate, but not large and it is just right for this unit. When frying, one needs to not overload the baskets for safety reasons and not overload them so that the temperature of the oil is pulled down too far; that would affect cooking. A small unit that operates on 115 volt household outlets can only heat the oil so fast.

It has a safety disconnect on the electrical cord and has a vented safety cover that covers the whole cooking surface, if one chooses to use it. I did not use the cover, but it would protect one from hot oil that occasionally spatters from these machines; it also would obscure judging cooking progress. The area covered by the base is adequate for stable operation and it should not offer a tip-over danger if properly set on a counter at waist height, or lower.

The instructions are adequate, but I knew from experience what was up. A beginner will do well to thoroughly familiarize him or herself with the manual before operating a machine that could.