Anyways, since half of the chains are bankrupt and slashing all costs, I thought we could discuss things like how to repair poppers or soda fountains and avoid costly repair charges.

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Sounds like the future of digital cinema.
(Sorry, I couldn't resist the opportunity )

POPCORN WARMERS:
All that seems to wrong with these are the blower motor and the heat elements. Warmers that have the ceramic "cone" screw in heat elements (similar to an ordinary light bulb) come in either 660 watt or 1000 watt versions (Johnstone # G22-354 or G22-355, respectively). The blower motor usually siezes up or gets REAL NOISY (available from W.W. Grainger Company).

ICE MACHINES:
Most problems are bad ice auger (flakers), water pump (cubers), ice bin switch, or water filter gets clogged. Johnstone Supply has complete new water pump assemblies or you can also get easy to install water pump rebuild kits and save money by doing it yourself.

POPCORN POPPERS:
Manley poppers (the worst piece of crap popper ever made) generally went thru pressure fingers, slip rings, and brass gears. You could just about count on a Manley to break down when you needed it the most!

Johnstone Supply and W.W. Grainger both have hundreds of branch locations nationwide.

One thing I hate to work on is gross, filthy, yuccy butter machines.

In contrast to those expensive systems, the DOS based system that I designed just keeps on chugging along - even on Windows ME. It uses standard off-the-shelf computers and either off-the-shelf printers or receipt printers that can be replaced for not much more than the cost of some printer repairs.

Since we switched from coconut to canola oil when we took over the theatre, the heating part of the pump isn't used, so we considered converting the popper from 50# cans of canola oil to bag in the box. Turns out converting isn't cheap - about $1,000 according to Proctor.

Long story short, the problem turned out to be the timer relay which was a $60 part we could replace ourselves - very easy, quick and relatively cheap, considering the aforementioned bag in a box conversion or a new can pump is $400.

This does lead me to a question though, what regular maintenance do you do on your popper? How often should the hoses for the oil be replaced? And what do you use to clean your kettle - we use a standard foodservice degreaser and occasionally soft scrub.

The stainless steel exterior can be cleaned with spray-on oven cleaner, just keep it off any aluminum.

The most trouble we have had with the popper is the thermostat, the current one has been going about 3 years but at times I have had to change them every couple of months.

Here's the answer to a very perplexing problem I had a few years ago, occasionally when you tipped the kettle over to dump all of the corn, it would short out and blow the fuse on the main circuit board, all the wiring was tested and was OK, it never did it when you were standing there with a multimeter. Anyway it was eventually tracked down to a small ball of round metal which had once been part of the thermostat element, it had melted and fallen off, sometimes when the kettle was moved it would roll around in the thermostat and create a short circuit.

Cheers and happy popping.

The main problem we see with POS equipment at theatres using our software are dirty optical sensors on the Boca or Practical Automation ticket printers. I know that routine cleaning of the sensors is a pain, but will eliminate alot of frustration in the long run.

Greg Borr
Ready Theatre Systems

First, I am strongly opposed to the use of canola oil in popping corn. Canola does not hold up to heat well, and any healthful properties are destroyed upon overheating. Canola that doesn't go rancid on you may have added chemical stabilization or have been slightly hydrogenated, thus destroying the omega fatty acids in it. Canola oil was not developed because of healthful properties, it was developed because it is cheaper to produce and gives a larger profit to growers of the rapeseed, and to the processors. To get the health benefits claimed for canola, one has to have a diet with a more balanced mix of omega six and omega three oils than canola oil alone contains.

Corn oil, peanut oil, and coconut oil are all far superior oils for use in french frying corn. Of all the oils available, peanut is probably the most healthful because it is monosaturated, won't go rancid quickly, and tolerates the heat of popping well.

Anyway, now that I've had my rant on oil, try an experiment. Use a fixed quantity of corn and measure the popped output after varying the amount of oil you use. You'll discover that too much oil will cause the pop-out to be much smaller and more chewy, while a ratio of more corn and less oil will make a light corn that is crisp and more flavorful. FWIW, popcorn is not developed as much for flavor anymore as it is for expansion ratio. A high popout corn that tastes like cardboard would demand a higher price than a flavorful smaller popout seed.