Fancy deep-frying meat in good company, gently melting cheese or chocolate? Works very easily with a fondue set. Warentest has made itself comfortable with ten of them.
A fondue promises conviviality - not only at Christmas or New Year's Eve. Warentest tested ten fondue sets, six of them with an electric heating plate and four with a classic burner. At prices between 50 and 250 euros. Overall, the grades are pleasingly good. However, some devices also showed clear weaknesses, such as taking a long time to heat up or getting so hot on the controls that you burn your fingers.
And not all models are equally suitable for oil, broth, cheese and/or chocolate - so before you buy it, you should be clear about what the fondue is going to be used for. Important criteria in the test were, among other things, whether the device manages to heat oil to around 180 degrees - the recommended temperature for meat and vegetable fondue for the typical roasted aromas - and how long it takes to do this. Here it turned out that the burner models cannot keep up with the electric ones: they often cannot maintain the temperature, which is why the meat can turn pale and become saturated with fat.
If the fondue set is suitable for cheese and chocolate, it was checked whether both can be heated evenly without sticking and burning. Of course, safety and handling were also important: setting up and adjusting, temperature control, splash protection, cleaning and more.
The test winner is the "Lono Fondue Set by WMF" for around 89 euros (grade 1.7). It is very suitable for meat and vegetables and is easy to clean. You can also place the pot on the induction cooker so that it heats up faster. However, the model is not suitable for cheese or chocolate.
The price-performance winner is the "FO 2470 from Severin" (grade 1.8) with a price of 48 euros, the cheapest set in the test. Meat and cheese fondue work very well with it, chocolate should not be in it. Anyone who wants to keep all their options open is well advised with the "Unold Elegance": All fondue variants are possible with the device, which makes it the cheapest all-rounder in the test (approx. 66 euros, rating 2.3). The best burner fondue is the "Kela Lancy" for around 79 euros (grade 2.2) - but it only works with cheese.
