First the food looks great! You will really like using this thing. But lets address the most common issue with these devices.
- the "sticky basket" can be cured usually in a couple of ways that may save you the time and hassle of the return/replace:
1. Check the "rails" on the basket and the fryer for any sharp edges left over from the injection molding process of the manufacture of this item. remove any protrusions of "over-mold" materials. This can be done often with a butter or steak knife. Careful, and don't do more harm than good.
2. Apply tiny amount of a very high temp. cooking grade oil such as coconut oil to the contact points of the rails with a q-tip or similar.
3. Pay close attention to the actual angle that you use to insert and extract the basket. YES..it makes a huge difference in how easily - or difficult this otherwise "no-thought should be required" step is. It is a weakness in most of the brands that I have looked at - and tells me the same set of dummies designed most of them on the market
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I think much of this comes from the extreme heat then fairly fast cool down of these areas of the cooker. Some materials (plastics and metals in this case) can have dramatically differing co-efficients of expansion and contraction. So the design and manufacturing engineers should have consulted with e material suppliers engineers - and planned in more appropriate tolerances for the different materials - in the knowing that they will react to the expansion and contraction caused by large temperature swings.
Let me know if those help you.
T