Homemaker TD-0705B2

Disappointing – I bought it last week and it was perfect the first time. I am trying to use it again tonight and it will not heat, it will for a minute then the power light goes off and it stops heating. Have been fiddling with it for an hour. Thought I was getting such a bargain after first use as it worked well and made the chips crunchy, such a pity. Show details

So far so good! – I was very doubtful such a cheap fryer would work for us. But we are pleasantly surprised. It heats up quick and cooks faster than our previous fryer. The only thing I would say is i wish the handle was easily detached for ease of storage, it's a bit tricky finding a good spot to store it with the handle sticking out. Show details

I didn't work for long – I brought one of these a few years back I had I for a few weeks then it stopped working on me.maybe it was a one off my one off but I was spewing.if they last for a year or two it would of been perfect coz there so cheep.I couldn't bring my self to buy another one I ended up just get one of the the smaller ones and that's been great for $20 it's not bad at all.  Show details

Well designed easy to use – This fryer is well designed and for the money Ideal for anyone who only wants to fry occasionally, the controls are easy to use just press the appropriate food button and cook. Only small complaint is that the beeper sound is very soft and you have to be right next to the fryer to hear it.  Show details

A great deep fryer – I purchased this deep fryer about 6 months ago, and its amazing, it cooks great dim sims, chico rolls and my favourite hot dogs in batter, Ive even tried cooking potato cakes and they tasted fantastic, it heats up the oil really quickly and you can actually see the food being cooked, so nothing is over cooked, I highly recommend this fryer.

Good item at a cheap price – Sceptical at first but have had the cooker for 3months now and everything working great. No problems with the dials and cooks chips quick and tasty. Comes apart well for cleaning not much more to say, give one a try and see for yourself. Sometimes cheap is better than expected.

Good value, generally – We bought this $27 deep fryer because we don't deep-fry food all that often, and couldn't justify buying a big-name unit. It proved entirely satisfactory for purpose, maikng a good job of chips and crumbed seafood. It would be truly a bargain for $27, if the graduations on the dials were not oil-soluble, as noted by other reviewers. First wipe… Read more

over and all was lost. A disappointment, considering the good performance of the product otherwise. I note other reviewers electrical issues. We've probably only used ours a dozen or so times, so we've been lucky so far. Inexpensive, but does the job well. Dial notation washes off in oil spatter.

cheap and effective but a few tips – i bought this fryer about 5 weeks ago and ive used it everyday. cooks chips great and works well. i only use it with fresh potatoes cut into chunks or chips. dont make them to thin or small. they can over cook easily. tips; watch the min max mark on the side of the oil basin. dont fill past max. it will seem too shallow dont be fooled it bubbles… Read more

up.

i havent changed the oil once yet and the chips are tasting better each time.

when heating the fryer up place the basket on its hook above the oil. fill to only 60% max. REMEMBER set the timer and temperature before lowering in food. the steam makes it dangerous to touch them while cooking.

the white temperature markings ect, are not good with heat or steam. dont clean unless very necessary and it has completely cooled. ive still got 95% of it left.

the fryer will react quite energetically to damp foods like fresh cut potatoes. sponge them down with dry paper towels. never put frozen food into the fryer.

it needs liquid oil and dont use olive oil. sold fat or shortening will catch fire.

remember most of the people complaining on here didnt read the manual properly. make sure you do. cooks great and works good under instruction takes a long time to cool down, remember these tips and you wont have trouble

2 down not going to bother getting another – While cheap and does a good job frying, the first one I bought died within 2 months. It had an internal short and not just blew up internally, also took out a multi-plug board with a safety switch. I went back to Kmart without my receipt and they kindly replaced it. Not the plug board though. The second worked well for 6 months, but along with all… Read more

the other faults listed on this page, died a quiet death. Just refused to work after a short hiatus in the cupboard. Im not going to bother taking it back. cheap and fried ok electrically dodgey if 2 die within 6 months.

Dirt Cheap but does the job nicely – I have now had one of these for a year and a half, and use it all the time, at least 2-3 times a week, sometimes every night, and the only real issue I have had is my belt appears to have shrunk, lol. I agree completely with jimmac542 in that the ink/paint used for the markings is the WRONG stuff for this purpose as it seems to be oil soluble,… Read more ·  1

and basically wipes of after the first or second use, so make sure you take a photo of the markings for future reference. I didn't, and that what landed me here on this site, a google search, trying to find a picture of one of these so I could see the temperature settings. I eventually found a clear pic that did the trick on Ebay.

Also the comments jimmac542 makes about the oil foaming up are correct BUT, this is not a fault of the fryer, or fryers in general, but the type of chips being used, and can be worked around. Commercial chips (like those used by KFC, Maccas, etc) are not coated with shortening/animal fat, while domestic chips (the packs you buy at the supermarket) are coated as they are mainly intended to cook in the oven (oven fries) etc, and would burn up if they didn't have the oil coating. Check the packets and you will see they have something like 6% beef tallow or something like that. When that mixes with the canola/sunflower/vegetable oil that you have filled the fryer with, it will change the surface tension of the oil. When you drop in your frozen chips, they contain moisture which will immediately boil because it is instantly raised past 100c. Normally, with pure oil, this would just make a lot of noise, bubble up a bit, dissipate quickly with no real problem. The combined oil will react in a 'foamier' way and the bubbles take longer to subside and so new bubbles form faster than they are popping, so the oil can 'bubble over if your not careful.

The boiling over issue is easy to avoid, in a couple of ways.

1/ different brand chips use different coatings, so some will be more of a problem than others, try different brands and see what happens, once the oil is effected, you are likely to be stuck with the problem till next time you change the oil, so try a different type after you change the oil. I have personally found that the 'home brand' cheapies are often the worst for this.

2/ If the oil is foaming up over the sides, lift the the basket up so that the contents are only partially submerged for a short time, before lowering it back in, and adjust the depth of the basket depending on how high the bubbles are coming. e.g. if the bubbles are right up to the top then lift the basket a little and you will notice the bubble level go down. The serious bubbling will only last a short time untill the majority of the moisture has boiled out, maybe a minute, then you can leave the basked submerged while the food cooks without any problem.

As for cooking, it works wonderfully, but don't be fooled by the "1kg cooking capacity" in the description. The BASKET may be able to take 1kg of weight, but that doesn't mean you can get 1kg of chips into it, you are lucky to get about half a kg of chips in. Also, with only a 3lt capacity, the oil cant "hold" a lot of heat, so dropping in more than about half a kg of chips will drop the oil temperature dramatically, meaning the chips take longer to cook, arent as crispy, and will absorb more oil.

I have used mine to cook fried chicken, chips, pluto pups, seafood sticks, fish, cabana, you name it, and it did the trick nicely. But I have had years of experience using deep fryers at Red Rooster etc, and have learned the tricks. I hope the pointers above can make your "frying experience" more enjoyable.

The main negative comments I have seen posted here have been due to lack of understanding and experience with deep fryers, not a fault of this particular make/model (other than the printing coming off ,which is certainly the fault of this manufacturer), and lets face it, at $27, even if it does only last a year, just go buy another one, it's still a lot cheaper than spending $200-$300 for a High End "Brand Name" unit. You can throw away 8-10 of these things before you are any worse off, and I doubt the expensive one would last 10 years anyway.

All in all I would give it an 10 out of 10 for "value for money". When this one dies, and I'm sure it will, I would not have a problem buying another one. Cheap, Works well The markings came off first use.

Bad deep fryer – Bought my 1st deep fryer from kmart 4 $27. Thought it was a bargain. I was very wrong! Placed shortening in it, turned it on and it suddenly caught on fire. I quickly blew the flame out on the element and turned it off immediately. Than I took it back because it wouldn't work. Replacement I thought. 2nd time round, I plugged it in, than the… Read more

element turned red 4 3 seconds and stopped working. Took it back for a refund. Not worth the money or safety of yourself.

Caught fire and faulty element

Be carefull! – This deep fryer is cheap to buy so dont be tempted, it has many faults, firstly when you turn it on it steams up, and the white temperature instructions ,ie chips...180 degrees melt away , also if you wipe them they dissapear, as do the temperature settings,and the timer settings,if required i can send you a photo of what happens.Not to say they… Read more

do cook chips well, however if you have used the same oil again after 2or 3 cooking sessions the oil boils over every where,and it is a big job to clean up. cheap it is a hazard!

Alright while it was alive – This deep fryer was not worth the money. Sure, the price was low and it looked attractive. It even did a reasonably good job at frying. However I don't believe a product to be worth parting your money with if it only lasts for a year and dies. I will be replacing this fryer with a more reputable brand. Quite decent at doing its job Did not do its job for more than 12months before dying just after warranty had ended