I change oil - but never clean my deep fryer. Screw that nasty coagulated epoxy gunk. Buy a new one every five years or so. Sits in the porch 365 days/year ready to go.
by the way I never filter the oil or store it other than let it sit there in the fryer with the lid on. I top it off with new when it drops below the full line. To my surprise flies don't have any attraction to it. I also drain my frying pan grease into it (from indoor frying of chicken, etc.)
About four times a year I heat it up, stir the black gunk up off the bottom, dump the oil in a hole in the ground (in a shady place), wipe it out quick with a paper towel, and then refill with new vegetable oil (cheapest I can find)
I was leery about this model but now I love it
the heater element drops into the grease for direct heating of grease, along with the basket.
When it comes time to deal with old grease I heat it up, remove basket and heating element (you can just see it dropping into oil at bottom of controls), then all you have left is a pan with grease.
I stir that up and then just carry that outside wearing gloves to deal with it (after it's cooled to non-lethal temps) - everything else involved with the unit just stays in the porch on newspaper or whatever. Later I bring the "cleaned" pan back in, drop it into cooker body, then drop the basket and heater element back in, fill er up with oil - done
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this pic is not the actual model but it does show the exploded view
