New Crawfish/Shrimp Cooker

bluebird66

That's a great looking cooker!

Theophan

I can't imagine knowing enough people, much less, I'm afraid, wanting to have that many people over to my house, to ever use such a gargantuan shrimp/crawdad cooker, but I'm amazed and IMPRESSED!  Wish I lived nearby and were on your guest list!

dmourati

I had no idea y'all got down like this and I'm impressed and inspired.

Foghorn

SGH said:

Foghorn said:

Tow that to ButtBlast and it will definitely get used as a urinal.

I actually bought it with the intent of bring it to Butt Blast. Going to get a small 8x6 trailer to mount it on with a 150 quart cooler. The cooler should be here either today or tomorrow. 

That’s great. A urinal and a hot tub. For the really white people who step out of the hot tub to pee. 

leemschu

Would love to have access and know how to cook crawfish. Looks awesome.

lousubcap

@leemschu - don't know your location but you are in the right place for the tutorial.  Also, you can get them over-night delivered for your own boil.  
A once a year delicacy and feeding frenzy for me.  I know @nolaegghead has some shipper recommendations.  FWIW-

dmourati

What's that about over night crawfish?!? I just saw they are in season now?

nolaegghead

Height of the season.  Price is going to bottom out soon.

nolan8v

@nolaegghead,

I'm seriously looking at getting one of these and have a question:

Can you fit one 40lb sack of crawfish and potatoes/corn/celery/sausage in at the same time?

if you can, your model is the one I'll get. If no, I'll get the larger one.

Thanks in advance.

nolaegghead

@nolan8v

You can cook 2 sacks with all the veggies or 3 sacks of just crawfish.  

I cooked two at once with veggies on Saturday and had room to spare.

nolan8v

@nolaegghead

Thanks for the reply. That is good to know. 

I will pull the trigger tomorrow.

nolaegghead

@nolan8v

No problem.  Guy's name is JD.  Super nice guy. He works out of the Gator Track (Trax?) boat shop, welds consoles together M-Th and builds these Fri/Sat.  He said he's made more than 100 of them.

Very simple design, light, saltwater resistant aluminum alloy 5052.

Only thing I would have had him done different is put in an NPT fitting for a thermometer and run a couple pipes through it where I could feed it cold water to help with the cool down.

And looking at the commercial choices, I couldn't find any 180 quart for under $1000, and this one is $600.  He also guarantees them for life - if anything breaks, he will fix.

bgebrent

nolaegghead said:

@nolan8v

No problem.  Guy's name is JD.  Super nice guy. He works out of the Gator Track (Trax?) boat shop, welds consoles together M-Th and builds these Fri/Sat.  He said he's made more than 100 of them.

Very simple design, light, saltwater resistant aluminum alloy 5052.

Only thing I would have had him done different is put in an NPT fitting for a thermometer and run a couple pipes through it where I could feed it cold water to help with the cool down.

And looking at the commercial choices, I couldn't find any 180 quart for under $1000, and this one is $600.  He also guarantees them for life - if anything breaks, he will fix.

You be cookin fo me bltch. . I’ll help stir again.  Promise.

SGH

Thank you all for all the welcome homes. I’m certainly thrilled to be back on dry land. And thanks for all the compliments on the new boiler. 
To me that’s part of what makes this forum special. Total strangers welcome you and give compliments like best friends. Again, thank you all for the very kind words. 

SGH

leemschu said:

Would love to have access and know how to cook crawfish. Looks awesome.

One day when you are free, give me a call and I will give gladly talk through how I do it and give you some pointers. They are actually very easy to cook my friend. The trick is finding the seasoning that you like best. 

SGH

nolaegghead said:

@nolan8v

No problem.  Guy's name is JD.  Super nice guy. He works out of the Gator Track (Trax?) boat shop, welds consoles together M-Th and builds these Fri/Sat.  He said he's made more than 100 of them.

Very simple design, light, saltwater resistant aluminum alloy 5052.

Only thing I would have had him done different is put in an NPT fitting for a thermometer and run a couple pipes through it where I could feed it cold water to help with the cool down.

And looking at the commercial choices, I couldn't find any 180 quart for under $1000, and this one is $600.  He also guarantees them for life - if anything breaks, he will fix.

Just curious, how quick did it come up to a boil? 

nolaegghead

Came back to a boil in about 5 minutes after dumping the crawfish.  Seemed faster than I'm used to.

nolaegghead

40 psi regulator included.

nolaegghead

Put wheels on tonight

nolaegghead

....this will be nice as i can wheel it to the storm drain and open the valve to drain.

SGH

nolaegghead said:

....this will be nice as i can wheel it to the storm drain and open the valve to drain.

Amen ^^^^^^

SGH

nolaegghead said:

40 psi regulator included.

The only thing that I don’t like about mine is it has 2 regulators. It has 4 burners and 1 regulator controls 2 burners. I would rather that all 4 burners ran off 1 regulator. I can see me repiping it in the near future and setting it up to run all 4 burners off of 1 regulator. 

nolaegghead

I noticed that Scottie.  Maybe that's a way to get higher pressures on 20 lb tanks, by using two?  I got the 100 pound tank because of the higher pressure under load more than the increased capacity....ok, well that too....but its a bear loading in the truck.

SGH

nolaegghead said:

I noticed that Scottie.  Maybe that's a way to get higher pressures on 20 lb tanks, by using two?  I got the 100 pound tank because of the higher pressure under load more than the increased capacity....ok, well that too....but its a bear loading in the truck.

Agreed. But it’s somewhat aggravating trying to deal with 2 tanks and 2 regulators. I’m going to get one of the big tanks and use a single 60 psi regulator. I think I will be much happier with that setup. 
For someone who wants to use 2 small tanks, the setup makes sense. However I want 1 regulator to run all 4 burners. Will post pics when I repipe it.  

nolaegghead

I hear ya. And agree.  I think it's somewhat of a bad design because you can always put a T on a hose and hook up another tank.  Seems like the dual feeds into the boiler are a little nuts.  Other than that, your boiler looks much fancier than mine.  I have a few upgrades planned, I'll have to run 'em by you.

SGH

@nolaegghead
I have 0 complaints with the function or performance of the unit so far. To clean it, I put 30 gallons of water in it and it brought it to a rolling boil in 14 minutes flat. No complaints there. I just don’t like dealing with 2 regulators. I guess I’m just getting grumpy and contrary in my older days. 

NPHuskerFL

Good stuff Scottie

nolaegghead

nolaegghead

4 sacks in 2 batches, today

SSQUAL612

nolaegghead said:

4 sacks in 2 batches, today

Over 100lbs in 2 batches makes quick work of the mudbugs.  We typically do about 5-6 batches from 4 sacks in a standard 80qt cooker.  We start off mild for the transplants and gradually increase the seasoning over the batches until the last 2 which are just right IMO.