Deep fat fryer heated fat supply reservoir and fat replenishment device

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An auxiliary fat reservoir is shown generally at 10 adjacent to a deep fat fryer 12.
The deep fat fryer 12 contains a deep frying vessel 14, not part of this invention.
The deep fat fryer 12 is heated by means well known.
A supply vessel 16, having enough capacity to contain an entire package of solidified replenishment fat 18 rests on support members 20.
The replenishment package of solidified fat 18 is conveniently 25 or 50 pounds or other quantity formed in a paralellipiped shape.
The supply vessel 16 is heated to approximately cooking temperature by a heater 22.
In the embodiment shown, the heater is an electric heating element controlled by a thermostat 24.
Other forms of heaters 22, such as fossil fuel, or heat exchange with the fat in the deep frying vessel 14, will occur to one skilled in the art and should be considered to be encompassed within this invention.
The supply vessel 16 can be raised or lowered by extension and contraction of the support members 20.
The extensible support members can be of any type including screw jacks or hydraulic pistons or can be a suspended type in which elevation and lowering of the supply vessel is accomplished by a hoist mechanism (not shown).
A control device 26 energize the support members 20 to control the elevation and lowering of the supply vessel 16.
Elevation and lowering according to automatic commands are also within the scope of this invention as will be explained.
A feed tube 28 provides fluid communication for liquified fat from the bottom of the supply vessel 16 to the deep frying vessel 14.
A level sensing device 30, shown here as a float-type device, senses when the level of fat in the deep frying vessel 14 has fallen below a predetermined level and thereupon enables the addition of replenishment fat from the supply vessel.
In addition to the float-type level-sensing device 30 shown in the figure, other types of devices such as solid state or metallic-junction thermal detectors may be used to generate an electrical signal which is useable to control the level of fat in the deep frying vessel 14