F-001 Fantastic Fish Fryer

My fryer arrived today and I used it tonight for the first time and can say that I'm very happy with this unit. I've been using the low level 10 quart fryers for years, they work great if your feeding 10-12 people, however cleanup was always a mess, the thermometer would never stay upright, and the recovery time between loads of food made it difficult to cook for larger groups. With this Laguna fryer, I've solved all these problems, plus it comes with two side shelves which is a big plus when turning out a lot of food. I was torn between this unit and the Bayou Classic, I went with this one due to the volume as well as the shelves included with the fryer. Because there's limited info about this fryer anywhere on the internet, I'll list some important things to help out:First, the baskets are 12.5"x5.5", and they stand 5.25" tall. They are blue handled commercial grade baskets with a nickle finish. Two of these baskets combined are slightly larger than a single basket found in a 10 quart propane fryer, mainly due to their depth.It's made in Mexico. At least it's made in the Americas. Info is hard to find on this fryer, however Laguna has a Facebook page that they've done a good job of posting pictures of their products.Side shelves are very sturdy and rigid.Temp gauge is very large and easy to read and I found it to be accurate.Unit looks like it could tip easily, but it's very stable. Overall, the fryer is very well made and solidly built.Oil capacity: 4.90 gallons. I loaded it with 5 full gallons of canoa/vegetable oil mix (half and half). Once I started frying, some oil boiled out of the front where the cuts are made to accommodate the basket handles, which means either the oil I was using expanded more than say peanut oil, or the advertised capacity is embellished. Either way, 4.90 gallons is more than what other fryers in the same price range can handle.Cook/recovery times: It took this fryer 21 minutes to reach 350 degrees, not bad considering you're heating 5 gallons of oil. My first load was 1.50 pounds of frozen fries, and 2 pounds of frozen cheese sticks/frozen clam strips. Oil temp at time the fries dropped in was 350, temp dropped to 320. Within 30 seconds I dropped the second basket which caused the oil temp to drop to 300. Fryer recovered to 325 within about 2 minutes, and 345 within 7 minutes. The oil never dropped below 300. Keep in mind, I was frying frozen food. I'd have to say that the recovery time was very impressive. Using a propane 10qt fryer, I've never been able to maintain 300+ with frozen foods before. Once the frozen fries/clams/cheese sticks were done, I fried breaded haddock and breaded pork strips. These were thawed and cooked perfectly, temp drop was negligible.The fryer weighs around 50 lbs empty, not including the baskets and the shelves. It would not be a problem taking this camping (which I plan to do) however the unit is one piece and does not break down, so factor that in to your travel plans.Prior to using it for the first time, you'll want to clean it with hot soapy water, and make sure you get all the pieces of fine metal from the manufacturing process out of it.The first time you use this unit, smoke will appear at the exhaust, it goes away after about 20 minutes.Cleanup was so much easier than my 10 quart fryer, the valve on the rear of the fryer makes removing the oil very easy, however you will want to add a threaded brass elbow and a threaded brass union to the valve.I hope my review helps in your buying decision. If you fry a lot of food like I do, you'll be happy with this fryer.

I’ve used this fryer several times now and the functionality is great. It is constructed well and holds heat well. The two issues that prevented me from giving it 5 stars were:1. The fill line is too high. I filled the fryer to the fill line and heated the oil. Lowered the food I was frying into the fryer and about 1 gallon of oil boiled over onto the ground. This could have led to a much more serious issue had the oil contacted the flame.2. During shipping one of the legs were twisted/damaged. This caused an uneven stance to the fryer. I was able to straighten out the leg to level it out. However there is still a crease in the leg.

I just got this in the mail today. I ordered it for my boyfriend for father’s day. Very well built, can’t wait to try it out!

This grill was awesome. Had a big family and friends fish fry and it did the job. Didn't know if we would receive it by our fish fry date but a BIG THANK YOU to AMAZON and LAGUNA we received it on time.

Love it keep the temp better then others I used

I will NEVER fry fish any other way...!! Awesome Fryer...!!

Best non-commercial fryer!Great quality!

Having never owned a V bottom style fryer, I really didn't know what to expect. It's a long story as to how it happened, but I ended up with this Laguna Grills fryer and an R&V Works 4 Gallon Cajun Fryer (the economy model). Looking at the two side by side, the main differences in the two is that the Laguna fryer uses slightly taller, but narrower baskets. This has some good and bad points that I'll touch on below. Also, the Laguna has two very handy shelves that attach to both sides of the fryer, which were quite solid. The Laguna uses a thin walled pipe for heating the oil while the Cajun fryer uses a heavier gauge square tubing. The Laguna fryer also has a 90 degree pipe at the top of the exhaust which directs the heat behind the fryer, vs the Cajun Fryer exhaust is directly vertical into the open lid and up into the sky. Make sure and consider where you'll be placing the fryer because the high heat exhaust should be a major consideration. They both have a 3/4" drain valve in the back for draining the oil and the jet burner functionality is nearly identical in how they operate.I had a big fry last week where I fried fish, shrimp, oysters, hush puppies, fries, deer sausage and onions where I only used the Laguna fryer. I do large cookouts like this a couple of times per year and man do I regret not getting one of these fryers sooner. They are quite pricey, but definitely worth the investment for big cookouts like this. It was very easy to operate and keep at 350 deg F with minimal adjustment. I would estimate that I only spent ~1 hour of time actually cooking, which gave me more time to partake in adult beverages and visiting with friends. It was actually a 2 person job to keep the uncooked food arriving and hauling off the cooked trays. The fryer truly made this laborious job, quick and painless (even quite enjoyable). Cleanup was relatively quick and easy, but I do need to find a better way to strain/filter the oil going back into the jug. I'm sure a stainless strainer would be just fine for removing the the large stuff.Here are the only negatives that I have to say about this fryer:1) The pre-marked oil level lines are much too high. I filled to the line with peanut oil, heated the fryer and added 2 potatoes worth of fries. Hot oil poured out of the front of the fryer in the cutouts where the baskets sit. Obviously this causes safety concerns for burns and fires. I would recommend placing the baskets in the cook position within the fryer while filling the oil and only filling within ~1 1/2' from the top of the baskets. This should give you enough room for when the oil expands during heating and start adding foods.2) As stated above, the baskets are narrow compared to the total width of the fryer, which means there is a relatively large gap between them for food to fall between them. I did have some fries fall down between them during the cooking process which I couldn't get until after the cook was completed. Fries aren't a big deal, but it would have been unpleasant had it been any of the seafood that had fallen in there. One interesting thing to note was that the fries that fell to the bottom of the V were still pretty much raw after cooking all of the food mentioned above. This proved to me the concept of how cool the oil stays below where the heat was being applied.Good luck with your decision on which fryer to go with, because they are a significant investment for a fryer in my opinion. Hopefully some of this review will be helpful for you in making a decision.