R&V Works propane fired deep fryer

[Frozen Smoke]

Took the plunge on a new propane fired deep fryer. Not much out there other than the trkey pot deep fryers which I'm not a big fan of. Unless you want to spend a couple grand on a commercial one so the R&V Works units seem to have the market a bit cornered.
Ordered it from Webstaurant Store for $399 and free shipping. Cheapest price I could find.

It arrived yesterday UPS. Took me about 30 minutes to do the assembly. Seems to be well built. Looking forward to giving it a run. We have a big fish fry at the house on October 6th. We have over 100 jumbo perch from Devils Lake ice fishing trip last winter and we need to use them up before the next trip. Going to order a case of black and tan onion rings from the food service company I deal with today. I will probably fry some of them up this weekend.

Got to go buy 4 gallons of oil. Not going to be cheap.

[Steve B]

Congrats. You’re gonna love that beast. I got mine from Webresturant as well. Best prices and free shipping. If I recall it will hold 5 gallons of oil.
Here it is in action.

[Frozen Smoke]

Nice Steve B ! That's identical to mine. I'm going to pick up 5 gallons of canola oil from the food service company for $30 this afternoon. Decent price for 5 gallons. Also getting a case of onion rings and need a case of pork back loin ribs.

Do you find you need to switch oil after doing fish or seafood when you want to do french fries or onion rings so those items don't take on a fishy taste or does the design of this keep the oil clean enough?

[Steve B]

Sorry. I can’t answer that question as I have not cooked any seafood in mine. What I can say is I’ve used my fryer 25-30 times and have not changed the oil. Still makes fresh tasting wings.

[Cheef]

I will answer this one as I've had an R&V for 10 years. NO you do not have to change out the oil. What they say about the design is true. In the past I've fried fish and Rings for groups of 100 and never had a problem with taste. That thing is a cooking machine!!!

[Troutman]

Nice looking unit. I don't fry a lot of food but would love to own one of those rigs anyway !!!

[Frozen Smoke]

If you had one you might fry a little more! I think this might be like when I first bought my flat top adding another dimension to cooking!

[RonB]

I'd also love to have something like that, but according to my wife, fried food is evil...

[ssandy_561]

You need to sit your wife down and watch Good Eats episode "Fry Hard" together. Alton Brown shows how after properly frying 4 servings of Fish and Chips hardly any oil is missing from the frying vessel.

[HouseHomey]

It's actually considered a dry heat method of cooking. Proper temps apply.

[Frozen Smoke]

Picked up my oil and some black and tans at the food service company today. Chicken wings and black and tans are on tap for tomorrow or Friday! I got 6 2lb bags of these babies they are awesome!

[ribeyeguy]

Forgive me for asking this as I don't mean to offend but what's the difference between your unit and say a $70.00 Cusinart household unit? Is it strictly a matter of volume or does the more expensive unit somehow fry better? Maybe easier to clean?

You know, inquiring minds.

[Cheef]

The 4.5 gallons of oil will barely drop in temp when you lower the baskets. These things literally sound like a jet engine when they get fired up.

[Steve B]

Like what Cheef said. The temps don’t drop at all. In fact if the burner is cranked up enough the temps will actually continue to rise.
Not that I care but I do wonder what my neighbors think when I fire that puppy up. 🚀

[JimLinebarger]

They are great looking rigs. They also have gas and charcoal grills.

[Frozen Smoke]

Forgive me for asking this as I don't mean to offend but what's the difference between your unit and say a $70.00 Cusinart household unit? Is it strictly a matter of volume or does the more expensive unit somehow fry better? Maybe easier to clean?

You know, inquiring minds.

No offense at all good question. Number one is volume of course. According to the manufacturer you can feed 20 to 30 people per hour with this unit. Also it's designed with a baffle in the bottom so that as batter or food pieces fall off as your cooking it hits the baffles and then falls to the bottom of the unit below the heat source where the oil is at around 120 degrees. Not hot enough to burn or scorch the food pieces and keeps your oil much cleaner and fresher tasting for a longer period of time. They also claim you will use 70% less oil than the conventional fryers. There is a video on R&V works that explains how this unit works if you care to look at it.

[HouseHomey]

Great comments! Les oil because the heat stays consistent and the product does not get saturated in a shorter fry period.

[Steve B]

Frozen Smoke if you haven’t put the oil in yet, do a boil test on the thermometer. Mine is 25* off on the low side.
Also when doing wings I like cooking them @325-350 for about 10min hanging the basket for 5min and crank up the heat to around 400* drop the basket back in for 3-4min. This gives them a really nice crispy skin.
Take some pics for us.

[Frozen Smoke]

Thanks for the advice Steve B I have not put any oil in yet. I was thinking about running it with water first to get it cleaned out before adding food so I can do a temp check then. Might not be able to get to it until Sunday. Got some wings thawed out. Planned on brineing them and then in the smoker for a hour or so to about 140 internal. Pull them and into the oil for about 10 minutes to finish

[Steve B]

Frozen Smoke I think they recommend washing it out with dish soap and water and than rinsing.
Just make sure you install the thermometer before filling it with the oil. I didn’t and wound up with about a half gallon of oil on my driveway while yelling to my wife to run into the garage to "get the damn thermometer". Big mistake. 🤬

[Cheef]

DO NOT forget the humble hush Puppy when you fire it up. It is a magical machine for making hush puppies and corn fritters. I love the fritters. Creamy creamed corn on the inside and crunchy on the outside.

[Attjack]

Wow that thing is dangerous!

[Dadof3Illinois]

These are frying machines!! I’ve used my friends a few times and it makes great tasting fish and chicken wings!!

[JGo37]

Perch? PERCH? You pay for shipping and dry ice and I'll send you some fish meat for that thing. I'd love to find out what you think.

That's more beast than I can ever think about justifying for a fish fry - empty nesters. Just read JEALOUS.



I look better when I haven't been up 16 hours fighting 80 pound fish. I really (would like to think) I do...