Article contributed by Danielle Fantasia, Sales & Marketing for Motion Technology Inc.
When looking around at options for ventless deep fryers, you’ll find they come in many shapes and sizes, but one big differentiating factor between models is whether they operate a single basket or a double basket system.
The double basket system of some ventless deep fryers is a huge advantage for many customers, but how do you know if it’s the right fit for you?
Deep Fryer Capacity Matters: When you start exploring options for your deep fryer, one of the biggest questions you will have to ask yourself is how much food you realistically anticipate on preparing throughout your day. Deep fryers come in a wide range of capacities and configurations, so it’s important to know what your needs are before you determine a fryer for your business.
With ventless fryers, you’ll likely find four different sizes of fryers: Single basket fryers typically come in 2 gallon and 2.75 gallon capacities, double basket fryers come in 5.5 gallon and 6.08 gallon capacities. That roughly translates to:
Single Basket Fryer Models
- 2 Gallons / 16.7 lbs
- 20-40 lbs fries/hour
- 2.75 Gallons / 23 lbs
- 30-60 lbs fries/hour
Double Basket Fryer Models
- 5.5 Gallons / 46 lbs
- 50-100 lbs fries/hour
- 6.08 Gallons / 50.7 lbs
- 60-120 lbs fries/hour
This gives you a general idea of how much you can cook per hour for your business. Obviously the more you need to cook, the more likely it is that you’ll want to go with a double basket unit. If you’re doing minimal orders, you may want to consider a single basket option.
What Type of Food you Plan to Fry Matters: Another huge advantage to the double basket fryer system is that you have two fryer baskets to be cooking in. Each basket has its own oil pot, allowing you to keep frying foods separate from one another.
This is especially important if you’re frying items like seafood, which can have mild flavor transfer to the oil. If you only cook with one oil pot, there’s a good chance all your food will start to have a fishy flavor. Alternatively, with two oil pots, you can keep those items completely separate and eliminate any possible flavor transfer.
Additional Double Basket Advantages: One big advantage to double basket models is that each side operates independently from the other. This is especially important if you tend to have fluctuating daily capacities, meaning, you’re busier at certain times/days of the week than other times. Because each side of the fryer has its own control system, you can actually shut one side down and only operate on the opposite side. Allowing you to save on oil and electrical costs.
So when it’s time to take that leap and start shopping for ventless equipment, be sure to consider both food type and quantity when deciding on a single or double basket fryer! If you decide to go with a double system, AutoFry is the only fryer that offers three double basket options for operators.
