Before You Buy the Best Deep Fryer Commercial: 7 Countertop Picks

A home deep fryer holds a few quarts of oil and is happy with a basket of wings on a Saturday. A countertop commercial fryer is a different tool. It holds 8 to 16 pounds of oil per well, is built from stainless steel with a tank you can pull out, and is designed to get its oil back up to heat between baskets, over and over, through a lunch rush. That is what a food truck, a concession stand, a small restaurant or a family that fries for forty at a time actually needs.

This guide covers seven countertop electric fryers from Waring Commercial, Vollrath, Winco and Adcraft, the foodservice makers whose fryers are in stock on Amazon right now. We say plainly what voltage and outlet each one needs, list NSF, UL or ETL marks only where the maker or a named retailer states them, and point to NFPA and USDA guidance on frying safely. If you want a fryer for a home kitchen, start with our main guide to the best deep fryer instead.

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Quick verdict: which commercial deep fryer to buy

Not sure you need commercial capacity? Our main deep fryer guide covers home fryers from T-fal, Hamilton Beach, Breville, Cuisinart and Presto, and none of them is repeated here. For lighter cooking with little or no oil, see the best air fryer.

Five commercial fryers at a glance

Our five standout picks, one for each kind of operation, with the capacity and electrical needs each maker or listing states. All seven fryers are reviewed in full below.

Product images from Amazon. Capacities, ratings and listings are as stated by each maker, the Amazon listing or the retailer named in the review; check the listing and your outlet before you buy.

The best deep fryer commercial kitchens can run on a countertop

The seven picks below are all electric countertop fryers with an open pot: a stainless tank, a heating element that lifts or tilts out of the oil, and wire baskets. Five run on ordinary 120-volt power, which is what most food trucks with a generator, concession trailers and home kitchens have. One runs on 208 volts and one is offered in both. Two of the seven are listed by their makers as discontinued but are still sold new on Amazon; we flag them so you can weigh parts and support.

How to choose a commercial countertop fryer

Voltage and outlet come first

Say it plainly: a 120-volt fryer with a NEMA 5-15 plug goes into an ordinary household outlet, but at 1,800 watts it uses most of a 15-amp circuit, so nothing else should share that circuit. A 208- or 240-volt fryer, such as the Waring WDF75B or Vollrath 40708, needs a dedicated receptacle that matches its plug, and that is a job for a licensed electrician. Dual-well 120-volt fryers have two plugs and need two circuits. On a food truck, add up every appliance against your generator’s rating before you buy.

Oil capacity and output

Commercial fryers are sized by pounds of oil. Ten pounds suits a small truck or a side menu of fries and chips; 15 pounds or two wells suit a stand where fried food is the main event. Waring gives an hourly output for its fryers (10 or 15 pounds of fries an hour), which is a more useful number than tank size alone.

One well or two

Fish, chicken and anything battered flavor the oil. If you fry churros or buñuelos as well as savory food, two wells keep them apart. Two smaller wells also let you shut one down on a slow day.

Draining and cleaning

Oil changes are where people get burned. A front drain spigot, as on the Waring WDF1300 and WDF1700, lets you empty cooled oil into a container. Without one, you lift the element and pull the tank. A fine-mesh strainer helps if you plan to filter and reuse oil.

Certification marks

NSF marks mean the equipment was certified to a food-equipment sanitation standard; UL and ETL marks cover electrical safety. Health departments set their own equipment rules for licensed kitchens, so check with yours before buying. We list a mark only where the maker or a named retailer states it.

Frying safely with a commercial fryer

The National Fire Protection Association’s cooking safety tip sheet says cooking fires are the number one cause of home fires and home injuries, and that the leading cause of kitchen fires is unattended cooking. Its advice applies to any fryer: stay in the kitchen while you are frying, keep anything that can catch fire away from the cooking surface, and keep a “kid-free zone” of at least 3 feet around areas where hot food is prepared. For a small grease fire on a stovetop, NFPA says to smother the flames by sliding a lid over the pan, turn off the heat and leave it covered until it is completely cool; if you have any doubt, get out and call 911.

In a licensed kitchen or a food truck, the fire rules go further. NFPA 96, the standard for ventilation control and fire protection of commercial cooking operations, covers the hoods and fire suppression over fryers, and your local fire marshal decides which rules apply to your setup. Ask before you install a fryer under an existing hood or in a trailer.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) notes in its deep-fat frying guidance that frying oil can reach temperatures over 400°F, and that every oil has a smoke point at which it starts to break down. FSIS says never to leave a fryer unattended, and to check the internal temperature of meat, poultry and seafood with a food thermometer after lifting it out of the oil: 165°F for poultry and 145°F for fish. A good meat thermometer does that job. FSIS also says oil you plan to reuse should be strained and stored covered, and thrown out if it turns cloudy, foams or smells off.

How we picked these seven fryers

We searched Amazon for countertop electric fryers from the established foodservice makers: Waring Commercial, Vollrath, Winco, Avantco, Nemco, Adcraft, Globe, Star and Eurodib, plus Hamilton Beach, Cuisinart and Presto’s larger models. We kept only fryers listed as in stock (not low in stock) and checked each against its maker’s spec sheet or product page for voltage, wattage, capacity and certification. Where Amazon and the maker disagreed, as on the WDF75B’s voltage, we follow the maker and say so.

Several good fryers were left out because they were low in stock or unavailable when we checked, including Vollrath’s current CF2-1800, Waring’s 8.5-pound WDF75RC, Winco’s single-well EFT-16, Globe’s PF-series electric fryers and Eurodib’s countertop fryers. Avantco and Nemco had no countertop fryers in stock on Amazon. We also skipped the many no-name commercial fryers on Amazon whose makers we could not identify, and gas fryers, which need a gas line and a hood. Home fryers from Hamilton Beach, Cuisinart and Presto are covered in our main deep fryer guide, so we did not repeat them.

We checked every maker against the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s recall database and found no recall for any of these fryers; the only Waring recall we found was for a toaster in 1994, and the Winco recalls we found are for an unrelated fireworks company of the same name. We have not used these fryers ourselves.

Commercial fryer questions, answered

What are the best commercial deep fryer brands?

For countertop electric fryers sold on Amazon, Waring Commercial, Vollrath, Winco and Adcraft are the established foodservice names with models in stock. Globe, Star and Eurodib also make countertop fryers, but their listings were low in stock or unavailable when we checked.

What is the best quality commercial deep fryer for a small kitchen?

The Waring WDF1300 combines a drain spigot, a 170°F to 390°F thermostat, a 60-minute timer and an overload shutoff on a standard plug. If maker-stated NSF and ETL marks matter most, the Vollrath Cayenne 40705 has them.

Can I plug a commercial fryer into a home outlet?

A 120-volt fryer with a NEMA 5-15 plug, like the Waring WDF1300 and WDF1700, the Adcraft DF-6L or the Vollrath 40705, fits a standard outlet; give it a circuit of its own. A 208-volt fryer with a NEMA 6-15P plug, like the Waring WDF75B, does not.

Is a commercial fryer worth it at home?

Only if you fry large batches often, for a big family, parties or a side business. For occasional frying, a home fryer from our deep fryer guide is smaller, needs less oil and is easier to store.

What should I fry at home in a commercial fryer?

Tortilla chips are the obvious start: our guide to tortilla chips covers frying cut corn tortillas at home. Keep a pair of long kitchen tongs nearby for lifting chips and checking pieces.

Our final pick for countertop frying

Buy the Waring WDF1300 if you want one fryer on a standard plug with an easy drain, or step up to the WDF1700 for 15 pounds an hour. Choose the Winco EFT-32 or Vollrath 40707 for two oils at once, the Waring WDF75B if your kitchen is wired for 208 volts, the Vollrath 40705 for a tight counter, and the Adcraft DF-6L when a small tank with a drain faucet is all you need.

For home fryers, see the best deep fryer. And when you would rather someone else did the frying, see our menu or call to order.