Salvaged evaporator

[TGrim]

Hi, folks. I am so excited to finally be postin here because that means I am that much closer to my first year tapping maples.

For starters, I have thought about this for years, but this is the first year I have started getting tools together. I have been lucky in that most of my stuff is salvaged. I did buy a hydrometer and cup, a bag of spiles and a brace and bit, however, I am salvaging many of my other stuff.

I started with five gallon frying oil jugs, but while picking the first one up, I noticed my local restaurant had a fryer in the back, ready to be hauled away. I may be in over my head, but I got it from the owner for free. My thought is that I can switch the oil out for sap and it could make a nice arch, but i have so many decisions to make.

First, the fryer actually works! It has a frying oil leak, but if I decide to continue using the current pan, which is temperature controlled, I could have the leak welded. Now, on to the questions. I would love feedback from you guys.

1. Should I clean/weld it and use it as is?
2. Should I cut the deep pan out and replace it with a shallower steam table pan?
3. Should I use it as an evaporator or a finishing pan?
4. Should I gut the propane burners and convert it for wood?
5. Am I nuts? Haha.

There are a billion others, but these are the main ones. Let me know your thoughts on these questions or anything else. In the meantime, I have a lot of cleaning to do. Photos to come.

[TGrim]

Just to be clear, this is a commercial Imperial fryer, not a round pot turkey fryer. I figured that it resembles a Leader half-pint arch. Needless to say, there is a lot of oil to remove.

[beaglebriar]

From what I understand the maple sap will pick up flavors very easily. If you boil in that old fryer I think your syrup will taste more like French fries than maple. If you're using the oil jugs for collection they will likely contaminate the sap as well.

[maple flats]

I agree, it will have baked on oil with all sorts of food residues baked in. You will likely never be able to completely remove that and the syrup you boil in it will be tainted. Maple syrup is very easily ruined by off flavors and this is a recipe for disaster.

[mellondome]

But on the plus side... you will never have a problem with it foaming...

[markct]

Stainless is not porus thus a good cleaning with a hot water pressure washer and elbow grease will have it as good as new stainless. You can bet when they stamp stainless pots and pans lube is used just like when stainless fittings are machined they are bathed in cutting oil then cleaned

[n8hutch]

Try to clean it up. When you are done boil some water in it. & see what it looks like. Would be kind of neat to see sap boiling in a old fryer.

[TGrim]

From what I understand the maple sap will pick up flavors very easily. If you boil in that old fryer I think your syrup will taste more like French fries than maple. If you're using the oil jugs for collection they will likely contaminate the sap as well.

You know, I am happy you brought that up, that is precisely one of the reasons I ask, though Part of me really hopes Maple Addict is correct. I plan to very thoroughly clean it, but failing that, my other option is to cut out the current pan and replace it with a fitting steam table pan, which would be shallower anyhow.

As far as the jugs, the idea actually came from other sap producers. I even see that some other forum members have tried this. I would be interested in how that worked for them.

Thanks for the feedback so far. Any other suggestions, ideas, or thoughts would be great.

I noticed that the pan has a thermometer linked to the burner regulator to control the flame by temp. Of the oil/liquid. What temp would you set this to?

[maple flats]

I can see another issue. The gas burners are under the pan, but are large enough that flame will be going up the sides. This will allow the sap to burn on the sides, especially at the top of the sap level. If you try this, can you alter the unit to keep the flame totally under the bottom and not touching the sides?

[markct]

I wondered that too Dave. Having went to trade school i didnt have to spend a couple years learning the fryalator so dont know much about em. If that is the case tho some ceramic blanket around the sides may help or open up the surrounding part and add a baffle near the bottom level of the outside of the pan

[optionguru]

The homemade oil tank arch I used the last couple of years had steam table pans set down in the fire. There was some burning of sap on the sides above sap level but it did not effect the flavor at all. Everyone I have given the syrup to has loved it. You will get darker syrup and have to be good with filtering but I think the more surface area getting heat the better. When using steam table pans like this I would boil with them close to full as opposed to a "real" pan where the shallower the better. Welcome and have fun, what a great hobby/addiction.

[TGrim]

I can see another issue. The gas burners are under the pan, but are large enough that flame will be going up the sides. This will allow the sap to burn on the sides, especially at the top of the sap level. If you try this, can you alter the unit to keep the flame totally under the bottom and not touching the sides?

You know, I am not sure. I used to work at that same restaurant, and use this exact fryer a little over 10 years ago. I don't remember the flames from the burners going around the sides of the pans, but, like I said, that was 10 years ago. For all I know, you own a restaurant and know for sure, haha.

This will be one of those things I will have to look out for. I have a few things to do that might help me learn what to expect, including taking it apart to clean it, and boiling out any mess inside. I'll be able to better analyze its working condition then. I would never have thought to look for where the flames go. Thank you for that.

Keep the thoughts coming. I'm very curious about the ceramic blanket idea. I'll have to look into all of that. (I knew I would eventually have to buy more stuff, haha).

Between cold weather and my night job, I haven't gotten around to doing much to it so far. Surprisingly, much of the pan came clean with an application of just hot water and laundry soap (I read that alkali laundry soap cuts caked grease, and I figured if it leaves a flavor, so would the grease) but there is lots to do yet. I'm actually thinking that a good sand blasting on the non vital parts, such as the outside, will do it some good, followed by a serious pressure washing to the inside and outside and ample rinsing and air drying. We will see.

As I am doing work on this, I will take some photos and videos for my work blog. Eventually I'll share the photos with you here, but I don't want to do so until I've removed much of the oil. Otherwise it just seems plain disgusting.

[TGrim]

So, it turns out the fryer comes apart even more than I thought. The drum will even come out if I am careful, but I realized this is a tube fryer, so the burners are inside three tubes that run through the fryer. I had forgotten about that. That means removal of the drum might be tricky, and reuse of the burners if I use a steam pan would be difficult, maybe still possible.

On that note, the drum is 14x14 and 17 inches deep in the main section. There are also 18 inches that would be opened up with the drum removed, making room for a full steam table pan and maybe a warming pan. This doesn't help me decide, haha.

[beaglebriar]

Just a suggestion for cleaning( not sure if its food safe). Get a jug of super clean(Walmart automotive section or auto parts store). Its in a purple jug and it will cut grease better than any cleaner I've found. It will probably take a few rinses to get it all out of your pan but it may be just the ticket.

[TGrim]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm in talks with the restaurant owner to possibly get some cleaner specifically made for fryers. After I price it out I might look at the price of this Super Clean for comparison.

[TGrim]

I got some fryer cleaner for $2.50, so that is going to work well.

I had an important question. This fryer is 105,000 btu. This is very new to me, how much propane should this use in an hour or the many hours needed to boil down? Does anyone know? This might determine my next steps.

[AngryGuy]

I clean my deep fryer with greased lightening. We don't have a lot of storage space so my fryer is on the counter. I use it almost weekly because my wife has a thing for mozzarella sticks. It makes me insane if it's grungy looking so I clean it a lot and over the years I have found greased lightening the best. I learned about it at work when I started there. We use a vegetable oil based cutting fluid on the milling machines and it gets gross. GL cuts it wonderfully.

[TGrim]

After some thought, I am thinkin that this fryer needs an overhaul. The burner would use too much fuel, and the tube design would not work for an evaporator since the tops of the tubes would eventually be out in the open.

It seems most of you prefer wood heat, but for a finishing pan, would you reccomend I stick with propane? And if so, how many btu should my new burner be?

Otherwise, what would be your reccomendations for building a fire box if I were to make a wood heated arc from it?

I am also still deciding about the boiling pan, but I am fairly sure I will convert to a full steam table pan and a 1/3 pan for a reservoir. The other option involves getting a welder to modify the oil pan. I still like that it has an empty valve, bu that might not be enough to justify the trouble.