Deep fried food - love and hate

Most of you who follow my blog should have noticed that I seldom cook deep-fried dishes. Simply, I hate the aftermath. It's such a chore to wash up the greasy wok and clean up all the oil splatters around the stove top and on the kitchen floor. A deep fryer could have solved all the problems. I could have fried chicken, french fries, deep fried croquettes, cheese balls with the press of one (or a few?) button. A deep fryer is something that we would not use everyday (can't have deep-fried food everyday!) but definitely a nice-to-have. Yes ?

I was once, almost on the "cheapo" verge of getting myself a USD9.90 deep fryer. And for once, procrastination done me good. The "science" in me was telling me then, that I won't get a good quality deep fryer with just 10bucks. For example, the liner wall of the frying unit may be made of inferior material that may morph into some other harmful compounds if under high temperature (just like how Teflon coating degrades under high temperature - never use a non-stick pan for high temperature cooking!), a temperture control/thermostat that may fail in just 10 days, etc. At least, these deep fryer reviews are telling me no one uses a cheapo deep fryer for less than 10 bucks.

Do you own a deep-fryer ? How much did you pay for it?