The CoolDaddy by Presto is something of a classic. It’s been popular for years now, thanks to it’s quality construction and useful features that keep you safe from splatter and burning oil.

It uses 8 cups of oil (1.9 liters) and you should be able to fill the decent-sized basket 2/3 of the way full (or half of the way if you’re doing fries), so you get a decent amount of food, just not enough to feed a family gathering, so make sure you’re preparing for smaller batches at a time.

We really like the fact that it has a 1500 Watt heat source, because in a small-ish space like this fryer, that means it’ll heat up quickly. In fact, Presto claims you will see a room temperature to fully-heated time of 12 minutes (this is in the manual, which also gives you a few recipes to try out). It shouldn’t take long for the oil temperature to get hot enough again after you put food in, too, which is one of the most important things for a deep fryer to excel at.

The CoolDaddy has a lid that stays closed for a lot of the time, keeping you safe from spattering oil. The lid stays shut easily. It has a fairly large ‘viewing window’ so you can check to see how your food is cooking, and also comes with a charcoal vent filter, which absorbs much of the smell that would otherwise stink up your house.

In fact, one of the CoolDaddy’s features is this safety mechanism whereby it allows you to even go so far as lowing the basket of food in while the lid is closed. The handle of the basket fits in perfectly with the outside molding and will not even have a possibility of getting hot. It’s called Cool for a reason – Presto has done a lot to ensure you are kept safe from hot oil.

Easy to clean, adjustable temperature settings, and a temperature indicator light help push this above most of the competitors when you add those things to the quality and amount of time this has been a winner. In fact, this is one of the top selling deep fryers on Amazon, where it has over 400 ratings, most of which are very high – nearly 80% of people gave it either a 4 star or perfect 5 star rating. It’s great to see actual users approving of this product year in and year out, as we can be sure that it passes every day tests, rather than just lab kitchen tests.

You’ll also find that nearly 90% of people over at the WalMart website would recommend this product to a friend – massive support for this Presto!

If you’re looking for a small-ish, powerful, quality, and very safe fryer, this is an excellent choice. Certainly have a look at this before deciding on something else.