Gas vs Electric Deep Fryer: Which Is Better for Your Business?

Ever thought about how your favorite restaurant creates these perfect fries? Well, they must have chosen the right deep fryer for their business. 

It doesn’t have to be tough to get the right industrial kitchen fryer for your foodservice enterprise.

Fryers in the foodservice sector come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, making it easy to choose the right one for your operation. But, there’s the dilemma of gas vs electric deep fryers, and which one to choose.

You’ll want to start by making sure your requirements, budget, and available space are all crystal apparent before you begin your search. And, we’ve got your back from here. Keep on reading for our full breakdown of how to pick the perfect gas or electric fryer for your place. 

Picking the Right Restaurant Equipment: What’s Cooking in Your Oven?

For a commercial fryer, the first thing you need to know is what you want to cook.

Most commercial fryers come into one of the following categories: deep, medium, or shallow. Additional specialty fryers may also be found on the market.

Open-Vat Fryers

Unbreaded or barely breaded items like French fries are best served in open-vat fryers, which are versatile and well-suited for most types of frying.

The phrase “open-vat” refers to the space within the fryer pot that is unencumbered. In addition to being simple to keep clean, they’re frequently reasonably priced.

Sediment and food particles may settle out at the bottom of the fryer pot in a “cold zone,” however in open-vat fryers, the “cold zone” tends to be rather small. If the meal is extensively covered in batter or bread crumbs, it will soon overfill.

Tube-Type Fryers

It’s a better idea to use tube fryers, which have a larger cold zone and can hold more sediment and food particles when frying products like breaded chicken, fish, or onion rings.

However, tube fryers are significantly more difficult to clean than open-vat fryers. Tube-shaped heaters are permanently mounted to the bottom of the fryer pot and special brushes may be needed to clean around and under them.

Flat-Bottomed Fryers

Temperature-sensitive foods, such as tempura, taco shells, and funnel cakes, should be cooked in this method.

Fryers with a flat bottom have a shallow, open, flat bottom. This makes them unsuitable for high-volume operations since there is no sediment zone to filter out the waste

Choosing Gas vs Electric Fryer?

There are gas and electric open-vat fryers as well as tubular and flat-bottom fryers. The decision boils down to electricity prices and availability.

Basically, regardless of your preferred type of commercial deep fryer, you can get it in either the gas-powered form or the electric one. 

Gas Fryers

Gas fryers heat considerably faster than electric fryers. They may also cost cheaper to run than electric fryers depending on the price and availability of natural gas in your region.

Outside and below-surface burners heat the frying pot in an open-vat gas fryer. The bottom of the fryer pot is filled with gas burners that are located in the tubes.

Electric Fryers

Electric fryers tend to maintain their frying temperature better than gas fryers after they’ve reached it.

Because electric fryers aren’t tied to a utility gas line, they’re more efficient and simpler to transport. Open-vat electric fryers often have an electric heating element that can be pulled out of the fryer pot for cleaning. 

Buying a Fryer: Things to Keep in Mind

Now, you’re ready to compare and contrast when it comes to the essential factors you need for your deep fryer. 

Let’s take them one element at a time, with a focus on performance ratings. 

The Source of Energy

Depending on your kitchen’s energy needs, you might either go for electric or gas fryers. Faster heat recovery and effective heating are two advantages of electric fryers over gas fryers.

Also, you won’t have to rely on gas lines to move them. However, the maximum oil temperature is lower and the heat-up time is greater with these fryers.

Gas fryers are a more cost-effective and efficient solution. High oil temperatures and quicker heat-up times are achieved by using either liquid propane tanks or natural gas lines to power these fryers. It’s best to use an air fryer for the best results.

Healthy food options can be made while using very little oil with the use of these fryers.

What about Energy Efficiency?

To make industrial deep fat fryers as energy efficient as they may possibly be, infrared technology, insulated pots, heat reclamation, and sophisticated burner design all play a role.

Energy Star-certified models are now available for both gas and electric vehicles. Some jurisdictions provide subsidies for buying Energy Star-qualified deep fryers, which may reduce the lifetime cost of a commercial deep fryer dramatically.

Size

Fryers are also determined by your company’s volume needs. Fryers come in a wide range of sizes, from the smallest to the heaviest.

Tank capacity is typically measured in maximum oil volume or pounds, with tank capacities ranging from 500lb. to 2,000lb. You may utilize a number of large units to control production rates at the same time.

Durability and Performance

Different fryers are better suited to different rates of consumption. Small enterprises that specialize in frying might benefit from light-duty fryers. For low-volume usage, they are ideal.

Medium-duty fryers are best suited for more frequent servicing while maintaining constant efficiency. Heavy-duty fryers are ideal if you prepare fried dishes on a big scale in your foodservice enterprise.

Configuration of the Burner

On the outside of the tank is where the heating components are located in a fryer’s open pot burner. High-volume cooking might benefit from the big frying area of these burners.

Tube burners that transfer gas via pipes within the pot are an option for those who cook a lot of food with a lot of sand or grit. A foodservice operator may also use burners with a ribbon or flat bottom.

Equipping the Restaurant Kitchen of Your Dreams

Sometimes, you need to have the right equipment to serve the perfect product for your clients. We hope that our guide has shed some light on whether you’d be better off with a gas vs electric deep fryer. 

And, if you liked reading our article, you’ll find many other explainers like it. All of it is available to you in our business products section.