Bayou Classic700-701 4-gal Stainless Bayou Fryer Includes 2 Stainless Mesh Baskets Fry Thermometer Drain Valve High Pressure Regulator w/ 48-in Stainless Braided LPG Hose

First off, I hardly write reviews, but I did feel the need to write one about the Bayou Classic 4 Gallon Fryer. My wife and I have been in charge of cooking food for an annual Friday night dinner for our church campout for over 5 years. We have used the standard fryer basket setup over a propane burner for the last 4 years. I'm a very good cook, and even so, it was difficult to keep the temp at 350 degrees, and toward the end of the night, the chicken was picking up all of the burn batter that had stayed in the fryer. We constantly had to skim the oil to pull off the dirty oil. The fry stations were hot and sweaty because of the burners, and it was an over all chore. We cook about 250 individual pieces of chicken consisting of legs and thighs.This year, we decided to make a change. We purchased two of the 4 gallon fryers this past Monday, they were delivered on Wednesday. We simply threw the boxes into our trailer and headed of to the campout on Thursday. Friday morning, we tossed the chicken into a sweet tea brine, and left them in the cooler with a bit of ice. We then proceeded to unpack and build the fryers. They give you most of .the tools you need (except for a adjustable wrench to screw in the burner and the temp gauge). Assembly took only about 15 minutes per fryer. We set everything up and sat around drinking a few ice cold beverages. The dinner started at 6:15PM. About 4:45, we filled the fryers with vegetable oil, fired them up on full high, and it took only about 10 minutes to bring up to 350. I have to say that it held that temp VERY VERY well. A few adjustments here and there on the gas output, and it stayed pretty rock solid. We simply removed the chicken from the brine, drained them on a rack, and dredged them in our flour and seasoning. We could fit 10 thighs in one fryer and bout 16 legs in the other fryer. we simply would keep the temp at about 350 degrees and once the chicken was golden brown, the internal temp had almost always hit 160/165 degrees. They chicken came out perfectly. Crispy, delicious and not oily. The inside was piping hot, and super juicy. Amazingly, the oil stayed super clean, and all of the excess flour fell to the bottom of the "V" in between the heating tube. No more needing to skim the oil. Also, the temp at the fry station was nice and cool. All of the heat is exhausted out of the back vent. Once we finished up, we let the oil cool, drained it into buckets, and sealed the buckets. We simply poured the used oil back into the fryer and pushed out all of the sediment down the 1" Drain tube. It worked perfectly. Cleanup was a breeze and we simply wiped down the inside with a cotton rag.If you are on the fence about buying one of these fryers, don't hesitate. They are well built, and perform flawlessly. I have been cooking for most of my life, and these guys are the real deal. ENJOY!!

I purchased this fryer for my Boy Scout troop who fries French fries twice a year at a local hill climb race. The race is a big event for our small town, and previously we were using two turkey fryers to do the job. Unfortunately, the turkey fryers were just not efficient enough to keep the oil at the proper temperature to ensure that we could fulfill demand. I did a lot of research on replacements, considering smaller 35-40lb commercial units, as well as units from other manufacturers that were this size or slightly larger. The only thing that concerned me about this fryer was the lack of specifications anywhere on the web, including the manufacturer's website, so I emailed their direct store to inquire about the specs. They promptly responded, saying that the BTU output of both this 4 gal model as well as the 9 gal model were about 50,000-60,000 BTU, and armed with this info, I purchased the 4 gal model. After using this fryer once at my house to fry 10 lbs of French fries and for two days straight at the race, I can definitely say that this unit is a terrific value. We fried about 175 lbs of potatoes the first day (about 6 hours) and just about 100 lbs the second day (about 5 hours), and the unit ran perfectly.Pros- very inexpensive- when baskets are not over-filled, oil temp doesn't drop much, if at all (stayed at least 350F)- drain valve makes for easy cleanup- relatively efficient, used most of a 30lb propane tank for about 11 hours of useCons- thermometer is somewhat delicate, so just handle with a bit of care- oil temp can be difficult to keep low during idle times, even on lowest valve settingNow let me just qualify those two cons - if you are rough with this unit, the thermometer will break, but with care, it should be absolutely fine. I can see people complaining that it is easily broken, but if you just finger tighten the nut and not bump it, you should be just fine. Also, on the first day, I had the oil temp reaching 390F, so I ended up shutting it off and relighting it several times. The second day I realized that if you just turn the flame down and throw a small batch of fries in, you can easily keep the temp at 350F.One last thing - I saw some other reviews state that the jet caused the propane hose to get hot and melt. I was really concerned about this, so I placed a large metal binder clip on the nut at the end of the hose for extra surface area and cooling, and there were no problems at all. In fact, it never got hotter than I could touch, so perhaps those units had a defect.Bottom line is that I would definitely purchase this fryer again.

Bought two of these to do a fish fry for a company gathering of about 70 people. Used one for fries and the other for fish. Both worked flawlessly. Solid build quality, heats great. About 15-20 minutes from room temp to fry temp. If you have room get the cart. Worth the extra money. If you are setting it and not moving it, no cart is perfect. Fryer gets 2 solid thumbs up. Rotten tomato would give it 100%!!!One downside though. The temp gauge has fogged over. Seems after a couple uses you can hardly see the needle.

The best fryer I have ever used, bar none! Gets to temp fast, and maintains temp through the cook with little to no touch at all.One item of notice. We placed our unit outside on the patio deck. The deck is not covered by a roof. The first morning after a cook I noticed that the temperature gauge had enough moisture in it to make reading the temp difficult.Have now had the fryer for about a month and my opinion is the same. This is a great fryer! If you can put up with the cloudy gauge. You may not get a gauge like this one, but as for frying, buy it now!This frier will change how often you fry and how well your food taste when you do. I say that because it is so easy to clean up, ease of use, and just how well your fried food will taste.Buy it and enjoy!