I got the Fry Daddy last year for about the same price from Amazon, and we love it. We use regular vegetable oil and have made fried chicken strips, cornish game hens (awesome!), funnel cakes, and doughnuts (you buy buttermilk biscuits, and poke a hole in the middle, drop the dough right into the deep fryer, and voila! a doughnut! Then put it in a bag with confectioners sugar and cinnamon and it's better than dunkin doughnuts). Very easy to clean up, and it comes with a plastic lid, so when it cools down enough you cover it and store the oil in the fridge right in the container. We strain it through cheesecloth and it's good for several uses.
We also got an outdoor 30 quart deep fryer for thanksgiving to deep fry a turkey. We bought a 4 gallon jug of peanut oil because of the high smoke/flash point. Made the most delicious turkey I've ever had in my life, in about 45 minutes for a 14 pound bird. Here's the safe way to deep fry a turkey:
Most of the fires occur when the bird is placed in or taken out of the fryer due to the splashing oil. The oil will splash when you put the turkey in the fryer because it's either too high and overflows, and because the bird is put in too fast, or it's still partially frozen or wet. The bird needs to be COMPLETELY defrosted, ice will explode on contact with boiling oil. It's has to be dry too so pat it down with towels first, inside and out. To ensure that the oil won't overflow, the night before put your turkey in the empty fryer, fill it with water until it's completely covered, take the turkey out and mark the water line. That's where the level of oil should be to cover the turkey without overflowing.
Here's the main trick to avoid a fire, even if it overflows or splashes when you put the bird in or take it out: TURN OFF THE BURNER ENTIRELY. That's it. Most people either just lower it, or don't do anything with it. Get the temperature to 375 or 380, then turn it off entirely, put the bird in, then turn it back on. If it bubbles over when you're putting it in, it'll just make a mess, but no fire because the burner is off. Same thing at the end, turn the burner off when it's done, and THEN take the turkey out.
Enjoy!
