Okie Dokie, Rick. You've kickstarted me. I am the food evangelist. I am a former chef turned stay-at-home Mom and I welcome the opportunity to opine, at length, about food. For deep frying? Go to Walmart and get a Fry Daddy or Fry Baby. Anything more expensive is unnecessary unless you have a REAL affinity for frequent fried food.
For deep frying? Go with peanut oil. It has a VERY high smoke point. Why is that important? Cause you want your oil to be reusable.

How do you reuse stanked up oil? Someone touched on it earlier. Potatoes have a wonderful capacity for filtering oil... Fry your fish first, then do the potatoes. Here's the key, though. You need to start your potatoes BEFORE you do the fish. The traditional fish and chips have the potatoes dunked in a lower temp oil until they're limp, removed and drained. Then you crank the heat up on the oil and add the fish. You then add the potatoes IN WITH the fish until the chips are golden and crispy.

Why go to the trouble? When you cook the potatoes at a lower temperature, it allows the chip to cook all the way through. Thence, you avoid the icky problem of a crispy on the outside and crispy/starchy raw on the inside chip. When you drop it in the ultra hot oil to finish it up, it gets that lovely crispy exterior.

I've included a traditional, delicious beer batter fish and chips recipe. This is VERY simple to prepare and it tastes like a good pub fry.

My best,
Beccy

For the chips:
3 3/4 pints (2 liters) peanut oil (or vegetable oil)
2 pounds (950 grams) floury potatoes, like russets, peeled and cut into large chips

For the batter:
1 cup plain flour
1 cup beer
2 egg whites, whipped to soft peaks
Salt

4 (9 ounce/250 gram) fillets haddock or cod, skin on, and pin boned
Pour all the vegetable oil into a deep pan or deep fat fryer, and heat to 300 degrees F (160 degrees C.) Blanch the cut potatoes in the oil until soft, but not colored, about 4 minutes. Remove and drain.

Mix together the flour and the beer, then fold in the egg whites. Turn up the heat of the oil to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Dip the fish in the batter and fry for a few minutes with the chips until golden brown.

Drain on newspaper (Yes- I know it's been banned- BOO)and serve with bread and butter, wallys (battered, deep fried pickles served with ranch dressing), and pickled eggs.