System for recovery and refilling of cooking oil

#The invention relates to systems for filling and refilling liquids in cooking apparatus and more particularly to systems for recovery of used cooking oil and refilling of fresh cooking oil in a cooking apparatus.

#A large amount of cooking oil is used in the restaurant business. For example, food fryers use a bath of hot oil for deep frying various foods, such as french fries, chicken, and other foods. It is desirable to reuse such cooking oil for only a predetermined amount of time and to change the cooking oil periodically. The cooking oil used in the deep fryers is hot and remains hot for some period of time so that removal of the used cooking oil can be dangerous.

#In one known system, the cooking oil is drained into a portable vat and stored until removed by a oil handling service. In the use of the portable vat, the cooking oil may be spilled, and restaurant personnel may be injured by the hot oil or by slipping on the spilled cooking oil. Restaurant personnel handling the vat must be strong enough to carry or roll the vat and may become injured in doing so.

#These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with regard to the following detailed description, appended claims, and accompanying drawings in which:

#FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of a system for recovering and refilling liquid in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

#FIG. 2 is a plan view of a nozzle in accordance with the embodiment of FIG. 1;

#A system for recovering and refilling liquids in accordance with an embodiment of the invention is shown in FIGS. 1-8.

#A restaurant includes various cooking apparatus utilizing liquids that should be removed and replaced. One such cooking apparatus 10, as shown schematically in FIG. 1, comprises a food fryer 12, such as the well known deep fryer used in fast food restaurants. The system includes a fresh oil tank 14 and a used oil tank 16, located on the premises for the restaurant. The fresh oil tank 14 has a low level sensor and a high level sensor. The used oil tank 16 has a high level sensor. The used oil tank 16 and/or fresh oil tank 14 may be located within the restaurant building, or outside the building. The fresh oil tank 14 is preferably located within the restaurant building. In the embodiment shown, each tank located within the building is connected to a fill box 18 mounted in an exterior wall of the building, for convenient filling or draining of the tanks. However, the fill box is not essential.

#The fill box, best seen in FIG. 5, comprises a first port 20 connected to the used oil tank 16 and a second port 22 connected to the fresh oil tank 14 for providing access to the fresh oil tank 14 and used oil tank 16 from outside the building. The ports communicate from outside the building to the fresh oil tank 14 and used oil tank 16 within the building so that a truck parked outside the restaurant may be used in filling and/or draining the tanks. The fill box 18 comprises a housing 24 having the first port 20 and second port 22 formed therein. The housing 24 carries a first coupling 26 and a second coupling 28 for connecting to the first port 20 and second port 22, respectively. The first coupling 26 and second coupling 28 may comprise stainless steel threaded couplings. The housing 24 also carries an indicator 30 for indicating a condition of the system. The indicator 30 may comprise a display panel, such as an LCD panel, or one or more indicator lights. Preferably, the indicator 30 responds to a condition of the low level sensor and high level sensors for the tanks. For example, the indicator 30 may include a light that is turned on when the low level sensor for the fresh oil tank 14 is tripped, to confirm that the tank 14 needs to be filled. Likewise, a light for the high level sensor on the tank 14 can be used to indicate that the tank 14 is full and a light for the high level sensor for the used oil tank 16 can indicate that the tank 16 should be drained.