Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Popcorn poppa

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Posted by Tim Massett (Member # 3512) on 05-24-2009, 09:42 AM:

hiya!
opening this new theater in duluth,mn and curious about popcorn poppas. looking at the cretor's 12 ounce popper and i am curious if this could handle the volume needed. the theatre will only have two screens, one seating 98 and the other 63. there is some resistance going with the 16 ounce because it requires a larger power source.

thoughts?
tim

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 05-24-2009, 09:54 AM:

Should work OK, but you will require additional people to pop continuously. Louis

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-24-2009, 08:55 PM:

We only have one screen (194 seats) but we have a 32 ounce Cretors popper and if we're really busy, it goes nonstop until the rush is over. Believe me it's worth the extra voltage required. You would drive yourself insane with a 12-ounce or even a 16 ounce machine. Even with your small seating capacity I would go 24 ounces. 16 oz would work maybe.

Too much popcorn is always better than not enough.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 05-25-2009, 12:35 AM:

Ya, look into the Cretor's 32oz Diplomat, or even the 20oz Merchant.

I also used to work in a twin, a large twin with 700 seats combined, and we had a Cretor's 16oz, 120V unit, but we also had two Server Products popcorn warmers that we kept decently filled.

Posted by Tim Massett (Member # 3512) on 05-25-2009, 09:30 AM:

Thanks fellas fer the input. Will discuss with the electrical contractor tomorrow.

Tim!

Posted by Steven J Hart (Member # 2340) on 05-25-2009, 07:12 PM:

We've got a Gold Medal 16 oz unit in our 280 seat single screen. Its way too small on the busy nights. Go with a 32 oz for sure.
Steve

Posted by Adam Fraser (Member # 1074) on 05-30-2009, 08:54 AM:

We have a 24oz Cretors and a 450 seat single. It is too small, and I have to start popping over 1 hr before show time to keep up with busy nights, and occasionally still run behind. With only about 150 seats a 24oz should be fine.

Posted by Tim Massett (Member # 3512) on 06-01-2009, 11:01 AM:

We ended up with a 32oz Gold Medal flex pop. I would also like to find out if anyone uses organic popcorn kernels, if so, who do you purchase them from?
Thanks!

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 06-01-2009, 01:20 PM:

[Confused]

isn't all seed organic?

Check with Vistar

-Monte

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 06-01-2009, 03:33 PM:

Our 325 seat twin tends to run really tight on our 16 oz. popper.
I always say start with 32 oz. and go up from there.

You never want to run out of corn.

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 06-02-2009, 08:01 AM:

quote: Tim Massett
I would also like to find out if anyone uses organic popcorn kernels, if so, who do you purchase them from?

I've never heard of anyone using organic popcorn in a theatre. I'm sure someone does. But here's some food for thought. Popcorn is supposed to be the main profit item in your snack bar. Just doing a quick search, it looks like you can expect to pay 3-5 times as much for organic corn as you would for Orville Redenbacher's. And if you are going to use organic corn, you really have to use organic oil and butter topping. By the time you've purchased all the organic ingredients, you've taken a low cost/high profit item and turned it into an extremely high cost item. And I assure you, you're not going to get $10 for a large bag of popcorn, even if it is organic.

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 06-02-2009, 09:41 AM:

I've always been partial to Gold Medal poppers.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 06-02-2009, 11:26 AM:

<sigh> ..but, I'm an old MANLEY fan... Now stuck with Cretor units...

Posted by Ed Alvarado (Member # 2760) on 06-25-2009, 12:06 AM:

I AGREE

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 06-25-2009, 10:27 AM:

quote: Monte L Fullmer
isn't all seed organic?

No, that's not the case. If I have some corn plants that I've doused in pesticides, the seeds derived from that would definitely not be able to be certified as organic.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-25-2009, 11:07 AM:

quote: Monte L Fullmer
I'm an old MANLEY fan... Now stuck with Cretor units...

We had 2 Manleys in a row (one from 1940, one from 1979) before getting our Cretors Diplomat about 15 years ago or so. What don't you like about the Cretors?

For a while during the last gasps of our last Manley we had a small Gold Medal machine that we used for an emergency backup. I finally sold that to a friend a while ago. I liked it and it was a good robust machine, but it wasn't really suited for theatre use -- too small, plus it doesn't have the flow-thru hot-air blowers like the big machine does.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 06-25-2009, 02:24 PM:

Course, with me working on poppers: Have you ever seen the guts of a Manley kettle? They used a very thick plate aluminum which distributed the heat over the entire kettle, whereas Cretors with their three element setup on a Diplomat is more localized - like a burner on a stove - with the iron of the kettle only heating up where the elements are located.

You throw water in a Manley the whole thing would bubble when it was boiling, and you do that in a Cretors when you're doing your "Inside Kettle Cleaner". and you see where the elements are located with the "bubble rings" when it's boiling.

And even though the kettle pan is using nickle plated steel, the heat isn't being distributed evenly across the entire pan.

Manleys would actually turn the coconut oil clear and thin as water when full hot and would not even scorch the oil.

You knew you had a hot kettle then and the popcorn would be very fluffy being fully cooked.

..."Dang, I miss Manleys..."