keeping heat up in scalding tank

[bj taylor]

how are y'all heating your water for scalding & how are you keeping the heat up? especially when you're outside.

 

[krcote]

We use a large propane burner. If it's windy, we will put up a wind block. Temp stays up just fine.

 

[Kaitie09]

We put our biggest pot on the grill right in the middle. It worked really well.

 

[4-H chicken mom]

We have used a turkey fryer stand and pot, to heat water in. We have also used a colman stove. You just have to lay all the sides down.

 

[Sundown_Farmer]

We did the turkey fryer for a couple of years and I had a very hard time regulating the temperature to get a consistent scald. The chicken itself is probably equal to a gallon of water and a turkey fryer bucket is at best 6 gallons. That's just not enough thermal mass. The scald water temperature falls quickly as I scald 2 birds at a time, every other minute. To compensate for the loss in scald temp I carried hot water from the stove at regular intervals. After 1500-2000 birds we upgraded.

We picked up a scalder from Featherman. I'm going to suggest it holds 30-40 gallons of water. It takes a lot to chill that amount of mass. One could probably build something similar out of a clean 55-gallon drum and the burner out of a water heater.

 

[miken56]

I cut the top off of a electric water heater (80 gallon marathon) and just wired it for 110 volt, even though it was a 220volt with a 4500 watt element. It took about 7 hours to go from 52 degree water to 150 degree. The original thermostat kept it with in about 5 degrees and we did 76 birds in 1 hour 45 minutes. You can plug into ground fault line for protection. A 20 amp 110 volt circuit ran the heater, and a 1 horse power whizbang inspired plucker with out problems. Cost of heater about $10 for wiring. Heater free from landfill. I also made a lid of 2 inch dense styrofoam to hold heat in while heating, and between birds. I scald 2 at a time, then into the plucker. A 52 gallon heater will work also, just may be a little slower because of volume of water. Also if you have a plucker you already have the electricity there. I thought about propane for convenience but this works great for me.