You've been told that fryer oil maintenance is critical to the quality of your food and the condition of your equipment, but you have no idea why or how often you should be changing fryer oil.  This week we’re taking a look at why fryer oil maintenance should be a top priority and how you can easily maintain your fryer oil in five easy steps.

The Importance of Oil Maintenance

Let’s travel back in time to the first car you ever owned.  Can you picture it?  It probably wasn’t your dream car, but it got you from A to Z and that was good enough.  Now, do you remember the first piece of advice you got as a new car owner?  Likely you were reminded that you need to maintain the car with yearly checkups and an oil change every 3,000 miles.  How good were you about following that rule?  I’ll admit, I was not the ideal car owner as it usually took me about 5,000 miles to realize I needed an oil change weeks ago – that is until my car overheated while on the highway and I was lambasted by my mechanic for bad oil maintenance…

Perhaps you haven’t had this sort of experience, but I would guess most people can relate and if you’re a fryer owner, now is the time to recognize that your fryer has a lot more in common with your car than you’d ever think.  Changing fryer oil is imperative to maintaining consistent, quality food and keeping your fryer in peak condition.  With the AutoFry, we recommend changing the oil once to twice a week or biweekly depending on the volume of food you’re cooking.  Fryer oil maintenance is so important that on average, 1 in 5 service calls could have been prevented if the user was practicing proper oil maintenance.

Daily Maintenance

Daily fryer oil maintenance includes filtering oil at the end of each day to remove crumbs that may have settled to the bottom of the oil pot while cooking.  Standby mode can also be used daily during non-peak hours to keep your oil at a lower temperature which slows oil oxidation and extends oil life.  You should also be cleaning the oil pots and inside of the machine with either a wet towel or a heavy duty grease remover.  Doing these three things each day can add days or even weeks to your oil’s life.

Weekly Maintenance & Spent Oil Warning Signs

Full oil changes need to happen less frequently.  If you’re doing a large amount of business you may need to change your oil twice a week, smaller volume locations may only need to change oil once every other week.  If you’re unsure of how often you should be changing oil you can watch for four signs that will tell you it’s time for a change

1 – SMELL – if your oil starts to smell burnt or your food is coming out with a burnt odor, it’s time to change your oil.

2 – TASTE – taste test your food frequently and if it has a burnt or stale flavor, it’s time to change your oil.

3 – FINISH – look for a darker finish on your foods or burnt spots, these indicate that it’s time to change your oil.

4 – SMOKE – should you see a smoky or slight blue haze in your kitchen, it’s time to change your oil.

By observing these four signs you can decipher how often you need to change the oil and come up with a schedule that best fits your need.  You can also call your AutoFry representative to discuss machine use and be given a recommended oil change frequency rate.

Oil Pot Cleaning

While changing your oil, it’s important to thoroughly clean out your oil pots, as your oil can only be as clean as the pot it is contained in.  For this, we recommend using Boil Out fryer pucks to remove heavy grease build up from your oil pots.  Once your oil pot is clean you can refill it with new oil.

Free Downloads

To make things easier we’re providing you with a free printable chart to help you consistently maintain oil in your fryer. For cleaning of your machine we recommend visiting the AutoFry Webstore for a full list of products that will help you clean your machine without breaking the bank. Plus check out our infographic for oil maintenance.