Many restaurants have a commercial fryer in their kitchen and one cannot sit around waiting for a slow fryer to properly cook food and when a commercial fryer breaks down, it can damage the efficiency of the restaurant’s operation. That’s why it’s important to perform regular maintenance on your fryers.
A good quality oil filter (/Fryers.FiltrationOilDisposal) is key to prolonging the life of your fryer. The oil is drained from the fryer and passed through the filtering unit, where it can be poured back into the fryer for additional frying use.
All fryers have a cold zone where the oil is not heated and the loose debris is allowed to settle. When the commercial fryer’s cold zone is filled with debris, the particles float up into the hot zone of the fryer and are re-fried, most of the time resulting in small burnt pieces. This causes your oil to become contaminated and it is also the reason that product taste transfer occurs.
Maintaining your oil properly requires diligence, but your efforts will be rewarded with reduced costs in replacing oil. When cleaned twice a day, oil will last approximately three weeks, while oil that is not filtered may only last three days three days.
A good filter is no substitute for regularly changing the oil in your fryer. The frequency of oil changes will depend on the amount of use a fryer gets in a day and the quality of the oil filter. Oil can be changed as frequently as once a day, but it is not necessary. In order to safely change the oil, an oil disposal unit (/Fryers.FiltrationOilDisposal) must be purchased.
These units are usually very easy to use and attach to the drain nozzle of the fryer. Simply put, they are a bucket to catch draining oil. Buckets, however, do not provide the level of safety or ease of transport that an oil filtration unit provides.
A clean heating element keeps your commercial fryer running smoothly and at the proper temperature. The correct operating temperature for a commercial fryer is between 325º and 350º. You can check the temperature of the oil by using a
thermometer. If the oil is not hot enough, then the fryer needs to be thoroughly cleaned. Check for a gummy substance in the kettle of the fryer. This is another indication that the unit needs to be cleaned. It can be cleaned using water and soap solution followed by a vinegar solution to remove any film that the soap might leave behind.
When working to keep your fryer in good working condition, the accessories you purchase play a large part in how well your commercial fryer functions in the future, but these are no exception for regular cleaning and changing your oil. Pay attention to the quality, cleanliness and consistency of your oil. When you see a marked change in any of these aspects, it is probably time to change your oil and clean your machine.
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