Home made scalder

[blucoondawg]

Those of you who have built or used electric or gas scalders with temperature control, do you find the propane vastly superior to the electric? I know propane can recover temperature faster than electric I'm just wondering if electric with 1500v heating element will keep up to the heat loss experienced when dunking birds. I want to build one but I process a fair amount of birds and want something I don't have to wait around forever to heat up between scalds

 

[sonofabish1]

I have no experience with scalding but I do have some electric beer brewing experience. I built a 10 gallon boil kettle using a 4500W electric element at 240VAC. It takes about 30-45min to get 10gal of water to around 180 degrees and a good hour to get it to boil. Once it boils it takes very little to keep it boiling. That being said, I don't think it would recover very well at all. Once up to temp, I would foresee waiting 15-20 minutes between chickens to let the temp recover...maybe longer? A 1500W element at 120VAC would definitely NOT hold up...

 

[shortgrass]

We use an old turkey fryer, propane, works awesome. Never tried electric for scalding chickens, but the comparison between electric vs gas when needing to maintain a constant temp us a must. Electric tend to cycle on and off, causing a fluctuation in temperature. Propane doesn't, so the temp stays constant without having to fiddle with the knob.

Reminds me. I need a new turkey fryer lol

 

[blucoondawg]

I use a turkey fryer to, I'm talking about an actual scalders with temp controls, they can be either electric or gas, just like a water heater for your house. I'm just wondering if a 110v electric will maintain temp since it takes longer to recover than gas, gas just heats faster. The electric one is simple to build but I don't want to waste my time if it won't be able to keep up. I've been looking for an old gas water heater to cut apart and build but no luck so far, I've got barrels that I could use to build an electric.

 

[ldneel2007]

We have a 20 x 20 x 20 stainless steel sink with 2 - 1500 watt electric heating elements. Depending on the outside temperature, we sometimes put a lid over it to contain the heat and keep it at the correct temperature. I like the control of the electric better.

 

[blucoondawg]

We have a 20 x 20 x 20 stainless steel sink with 2 - 1500 watt electric heating elements. Depending on the outside temperature, we sometimes put a lid over it to contain the heat and keep it at the correct temperature. I like the control of the electric better. 

I thought of that too and maybe that would be the way to go but it would double the cost of the controller unless I can find one that's high enough wattage to run 2. Insulating the tub and making a floating foam cover to set on the water would help to