Waring is known for the quality of their products and have a whole line of excellent kitchen tools, including a number of top rated deep fat fryers.
The DF55 Mini is on the smaller side, with a 2 quart (1 liter) oil capacity. Food capacity comes in at 1.3 pounds, so this is definitely tailored to a smaller fry, perhaps if it’s just you and one other person, or if you’re doing things in small batches over the course of a couple hours.
If you’re looking for some more solid stats, the dimensions on this fryer are 12 x 9 x 11 inches, so it won’t take up too much room on the counter. The 1500 Watt element is quite a good amount of power for this size of machine, so you’ll have no problems getting up to the right temperature, which is adjustable on the machine. It ships at 8 pounds, so it’s by no means a behemoth, either.
Happily, most of this (except the heating coil) you can take apart and throw in the dishwasher, which makes clean up so much easier. Many people who have used fryers that are not able to go in the dishwasher or be submerge din water loved switching over to this, and we keep hearing over and over that spending the few extra dollars was totally worth it. That’s not to say it’s very expensive – in fact, last we checked, Amazon.com had it for just over $40.
One of the things you’ll notice with a high quality model like this is that having the 1500 Watt submersible heating coil is a huge benefit. You may just think they’re a bunch of numbers, but that is a solid amount of power. The great benefit is that the oil heats up very fast. From room temperature to cooking temperature in mere minutes, plus quick recovery from having food added to the oil. This is so important when you’re looking at a deep fryer, because you want that immediate crisp to occur, but you then want to make sure your oil gets back up to temperature so the actual cooking can commence.
You’ll have no problems with the oil temperature in the DF55, we were very impressed with the quick timing. While it is a good idea to use a thermometer to check temperature if possible, you do get the indicator light on the control panel, so you will know when it’s ready to use. There’s also a power light along the control panel.
We like to take the ‘temperature’ so to speak of real user reviews for the products we look at. The company can claim what it wants, and a single test kitchen can only discover so much. There is a lot of value in seeing how every day users like a certain fryer.
We are pleased to report that on Amazon.com, this unit has a great 4.2 out of 5 rating, including 61% of people who thought it deserved to be rated perfectly. Most of the latest reviewers are thrilled with their purchase, so you know it’s being kept up by the company and continues to be a top-20 best seller in the deep fryer category.
If you want something fairly small but really powerful, this is definitely the right choice, we’d certainly recommend the DF55.
