Whiz bang scalder

[meatbirdman]

Looking for information on building a whiz bang scalder.. I have a copy of the book....the plans say that you need a hot water heater that is 20 inches or more in diameter, to have enough room for the birds to fit around the chimney. I am having no luck finding a gas one that is that fat.. I find lots of them that are 18 inches in diameter. Has anyone built one using an 18 inch one? I need the higher volume of 3 birds at a time to keep up.. any info is appreciated...thanks...
Meatbirdman

 

[PotterWatch]

We just bought a used one that is 50gal because we ran into the same problem of the recommended 40gal ones being too skinny.

 

[PotterWatch]

We used our scalder for the first time today and it worked great! My husband still needs to build the automated dunker part but it was nice just to have the water always at the right temp. He said that the tank on ours is only 18in across but it worked just fine even with some pretty hefty chickens.

 

[meatbirdman]

Quote:
Thanks for the response.. Now I have more questions. Is the 18 inch measurement on the tank from outside to outside, or an inside measurement? Also what is the measurement between the chimney and the inside of the tank? And what was the dressed weight of you largest bird? And finally, were they cornish X birds? Thanks for all of your help.
Meatbirdman

 

[PotterWatch]

18in is the measurement of the inside tank. The outside measurement is more like 23 or 24. There is 7in of space between the tank wall and the chimney and it was plenty of space for the birds we did, we could have done larger birds if we needed to. We were doing cornish and the largest one had a live weight of near 9lbs, dressed weight of 7lbs.