How to Light a Deep Fryer? A Handy Guide

Plenty of newbies to deep fryers are often rather intimidated when faced with such an unfamiliar device for the first time. If you’re one of these newbies, you don’t have to be afraid, though.

Plenty of restaurant cooks can do this in their sleep, and it won’t take time before you can do this without thought as well. Learning all about how to light a deep fryer isn’t really all that complicated.

It depends on what kind of deep fryer you have. Here are some guidelines you can follow depending on the deep fryer:

Lighting an Indoor (Commercial) Fryer Pilot:

Here are the steps you need to take:

1. Start by reading the manual. There may be some instructions that are specific to the model you have. The side of the deep fryer may also have some instructions. However, most deep fryers can be lit with the same basic steps.
2. Full up the deep fryer oil reservoir with enough oil. There should be a fill in on the oil reservoir inner wall you can refer to. It’s better to start with this rather than to pour oil when you have an open flame.
3. Switch the temperature gauge and the gas valve to the OFF position.
4. Connect the gas hose to the deep fryer. You may need an adjustable crescent wrench for this task. However, many indoor fryers already have a fixed gas connection.
5. Turn the gas valve to the PILOT position.
6. Press the electronic ignition or hold the control knob in the ignition position. Some deep fryers with manually kit pilots may need you to put in the tip of a long candle lighter into the hole near the base so you can extend a flame to the pilot light valve.
7. Let the pilot light burn for at least a couple of minutes.
8. Increase the deep fryer temperature to about 200° F to let the gas flow to the burner below the oil reservoir. The burning pilot light lights the burner.
9. Set the temperature to the level you want when the burners ignite to heat the oil.
10. This pilot light stays lit in between the times you use the deep fryer to light burners immediately when you turn on the deep fryer.

Lighting an Outdoor Deep Fryer:

The steps are similar to the other type of deep fryer, though there are a few changes:

1. Fill the oil reservoir.
2. Switch the temperature gauge and gas valve to OFF.
3. Check for leaks. You can use soapy water to soak the connections at the tank and regulator valve. Open the tank valve at about ¼ of a turn, and see if there are bubbles to indicate a leak. Tighten your connections if you see bubbles.
4. Once the leaks are fixed, turn in the gas at the source tank. Make sure the gas tank is always at least 3 feet away from the burner.
5. Set the burner control to high heat.
6. Spark the flame of a long butane candle lighter to light the burner. When the flames ignite, be sure to move the lighter and your hand back quickly. You probably should wear gloves when you do this.
7. Set the burner control to the temperature level you want so you can heat the oil.

If you have a large vat of oil and you want to reach a temperature level higher than 350 degrees F, you may have to wait for half an hour.