Oster 4L Large Immersion Deep Fryer
The Oster Large Immersion Deep Fryer is a 4 liter, 1500 watt deep fryer that easily holds about a gallon of oil for crispy deep fried foods at a great price.
Ease of Use/Performance: 18/25
Convenience/Storage 24/25
Appearance/Design 22/25
How much I enjoy 22/25
Total: 86/100
The Oster 4L large Immersion Deep Fryer costs about $100 and is available from local stores and many websites such as Amazon. The Immersion Deep Fryer holds up to 4 liters of oil and has two knobs on the heat element base for temperature control and a timer.
The Oster Deep Fryer comes with the base housing, inner removable oil reservoir, control panel with heating element, three baskets and handles, lid, power cord, French Fry cutter and instruction manuals. The French Fry Cutter has two blades and pushers for two different sized French fries ad is made of stainless steel and plastic.
The French Fry cutter is not the most high quality product and I will get to that in a bit but first the deep fryer which works well and more importantly is easy to clean. The Oster deep fryer is a 4 liter or about a gallon deep fryer that has separate parts for easy and simple cleanup.
The Oster deep fryer model number CKSTDFZM77 has a stainless steel base that fits the black enameled oil reservoir. The reservoir has a small dent on one corner to make pouring the oil out a bit easier when it has cooled down but this is where working with oil means safety.
I found it would take up to two or three hours to cool down from unplugging the fryer and it was still warm when I poured it back to the oil container. The other parts of the deep fryer nestle inside the oil reservoir nicely with three baskets, two half size and a large one.
The baskets are made of a mesh material, not sure if its aluminum or stainless, and has a removable handle to make clean up and storage easier. The three baskets give you two smaller half sized baskets that can be used at the same time or the large one that takes the whole oil reservoir.
The control panel and heating element are made of a heat resistant plastic and has a notch and tab system with a safety switch that slides onto the outer base housing. The elements set down in the reservoir while the control panel rests over the top rear of the reservoir and the housing.
The power cord has a safety feature that is ingenious, the contacts are flat and square and magnetic on one side so the cord connects and holds to the control unit with these magnetic contacts. The cord holds well and if you do bump the unit the cord will release easy enough for safety, this may seem a bit odd but it works very well.
The control panel puts the timer and heat control knob right at the back of the fryer and has a green light that comes on when the fryer has reached its temperature. The temperature knob has markings from zero with Min between the zero and the lowest setting about three quarters of the way around the knob.
From the 320 degree marking that is next on the knob setting there are 340, 355 and then 375 and just a touch more gives you maximum. I found using a thermometer that these temps are pretty close so using the knob will give you the right temperature when using canola oil.
The control panel is easy to access as long as you have the lid on which you should unless you're putting things in or out of the fryer. The lid fits securely and in only one direction with slots for the handles toward the front and the double slots for the heating element toward the rear.
The lid has a wire screened steam outlet that allows the steam to cool a little before it escapes out the top but more importantly it does not allow spattering oil to come out. The lid fits completely over the housing and inner oil reservoir to keep any oil spatter from going up or out toward anything on your counter.
The baskets can be used with the large basket for larger food or just for a single food you are cooking all at the same time. The two smaller baskets that fit with both in the oil reservoir at the same time so you can cook two foods in the separate baskets that cook at different rates.
The baskets are handy when cooking things like French fries so you can simply pick up the basket, use the handle to rest the basket on the side of the oil reservoir and let drip for a minute or two and remove. I found using the baskets to remove a whole series of frying foods at the same time for smaller things was the best way to cook foods like those French fries or cheese sticks.
If your cooking larger food like fish fillets or chicken removing and working with them individually to ensure proper and even cooking was the best. The basket can get filled with batter or coating when you place foods coated with a batter in a basket.
While using the Oster deep fryer I tried using a batter for coating fish and a good amount of the batter stuck to the baskets but after it cooked some I could knock off in the sink. The batter did come off after soaking the basket in the sink with soapy water but the fish did cook well even though some of the batter did stick to the basket.
Cooking other food was great with donuts using a recipe found on the internet a family favorite but other foods like French fries and homemade cheese sticks were also well liked. The deep fryer works well on all the foods I tried with things like chicken, fish and fries easily fried but food like donuts worked especially well.
The deep fryer worked just fine for all the fried foods I tried but the more important thing to me is cleanup and how easy it is to both clean and setup. The fryer has the separate parts that you can wash in a dishwasher but for me, no dishwasher, using the sink and cleaning by hand worked just fine.
Using nice hot soapy water the individual pieces, except the control panel, cleaned up well and it is nice having all the separate pieces. The baskets clean off easily with a little soaking and the mesh stands up to scrubbing with a bristle brush.
I had no problem using the Oster Deep Fryer and the markings on the side of the oil reservoir allow you to judge how much oil you need. The element sits very near the bottom but it still is a half inch up from the bottom so you need at least an inch and a half to have a good inch of usable oil for cooking.
The French Fry cutter has two sizes and is more of a cheaper cutter then a good quality kitchen tool as I found it did not cut potatoes very well. I have not used it very much for cutting my French fries as I like more the wedge type of potato than the square kind.
Take the French Fry cutter out of the equation and you still have a very good immersion deep fryer in the Oster product and I really enjoy using the larger fryer. I did find you should have some kind of heat proof base to set the fryer on like a tile counter or simply a large stone or ceramic tile.
I went to Menards and purchased a large 16 by 16 inch ceramic floor tile and put rubber feet on the bottom to use as a heat proof surface to set the fryer on. The Oster 4L Large Immersion Deep Fryer allows you to cook four to six pieces of chicken at the same time and about the same of fish fillets.
The Oster deep fryer is a good product and has a good price for the larger deep fryer, many fryers I could find for sale were smaller and at a lower cost. I highly recommend the Oster 4L Large Immersion Deep Fryer for a good fryer that cleans up well and does a great job of deep frying.