Buying Guide for Avantco, Mainstreet, and CPG Floor Fryers

Buying Guide Overview

This guide provides an overview of different types of commercial floor fryers to help you select the right equipment for your kitchen. It covers four main categories: Tube Floor Fryers, Open Pot Fryers, Flat Bottom Fryers, and Electric Floor Fryers.

Tube Floor Fryers

Tube fryers feature a series of tubes running through the oil near the bottom of the vat, which house gas-fired burners. These are submerged in the oil to provide even heating and high energy efficiency.

• Best for: High-sediment foods like fish, chicken wings, mozzarella sticks, French fries, and onion rings.
• Advantages: Large cold zones extend oil life, versatile, energy-efficient, great for high-sediment foods.
• Disadvantages: Tubes make the unit harder to clean; requires a higher percentage of oil.
• Oil Capacity: 40 lb., 50 lb., 100 lb.

Open Pot Fryers

Open pot fryers do not have tubes or burners inside the frypot. Instead, they use a heating element on the outside, which allows for 15% more frying capacity and easier cleaning.

• Best for: Low-sediment foods like French fries and frozen items.
• Advantages: Extremely easy to clean (30% faster), 15% more frying capacity, less oil used in the cold zone, reliable burners.
• Disadvantages: Best used only for low-sediment foods; less energy-efficient.
• Oil Capacity: 40 lb., 50 lb.

Flat Bottom Fryers

These fryers feature a wide flat bottom design that reduces the cold zone, maximizing frying capacity for high-output operations.

• Best for: Foods made of wet batter or dough, such as donuts, funnel cakes, tempura, and battered chicken.
• Advantages: Food does not stick and floats freely, maximizes frying capacity, includes a stainless steel drip tray that doubles as a lid.
• Disadvantages: Reduced cold zone; requires frequent filtering as sediment can burn easily.
• Oil Capacity: 125 lb., 170 lb.

Electric Floor Fryers

Electric fryers feature heating elements submerged directly in the oil, providing high heat efficiency and fast recovery times.

• Best for: Fish, chicken wings, mozzarella sticks, French fries, onion rings, and other frozen products.
• Advantages: Quick recovery, energy-efficient, extra-wide cold zones, affordable 14kW heating elements.
• Disadvantages: Hard to clean.
• Oil Capacity: 40 lb.