Strange fowlers vacola stove top.

[Genilou]

Hi all,

Firstly my apologies for my first post being a question, I’ve been scouring the Internet, can’t find an answer & you guys look like the business.

I’ve got 10 kilos of tomatoes roasting away and an old (mrs. B. thrifty!) fowlers vacola stovetop version. It’s the old green one & in great nick, but the inside has obviously been used. The paint is pretty much perfect, but there’s a ring of scratches on the inside I think made by jars.

The bottom, however is very strange. It looks a lot like gal, and like it’s never been used except for a couple of strange marks on the bottom.

There’s also paint that matches the rest of the unit on it ( the green one).

SO thinks I’m mad & it isn’t meant to be put over heat because it’s gal, but it’s definitely a stovetop version, with the place for a thermometer.

Has anyone got any idea what could be happening? Does anyone have one of these old units and could let me know what the bottom looks like? Anything at all? I don’t want to throw out all those tomatoes!!!

Thanks for anything you can let me know!

[Lady Bee]

No problem with your first post being a question. Unfortunately I can’t answer it, but welcome to ALS.

Someone will be along soon and answer your question, I’m sure.

[Genilou]

Thanks Lady B!

I noticed the site went down just after I posted. I’m claiming full responsibility. i nearly burnt our house down with a towel in the oven (don’t ask) spent hours cleaning burnt tomato juice out of the oven & floor (oven leaked) cracked my baking dish, burnt the tomatoes,burnt myself & so on & on & on to end up with 7 jars of roast tomato passata, 3 of which are now half full due to my trying to process them quickly in a pressure cooker. It is the most expensive tomato sauce I’ve ever seen and took up two days of fairly hellish cleaning up to get them.

I’m not entirely sure why you all do it, but no doubt I’ll do it again. Very, very differently.

[Bobbee]

Hi there Genilou, :wave:

My old stove top fowlers vacola unit has what l can best describe as a bottom that looks like it is made of tin. I am sure it is not tin :shrug: surely that wouldn’t be strong enough. My unit is orange in colour.

Does it matter what the bottom is made of so long as it holds water and can take the heat :shrug:

Good luck with finding the answer, normally alsers can help with just about anything so someone will surely come on up with the ‘goods’.

🙂

[barefoot_misty]

I agree with Bobbee, I am guessing it is probably aluminium though. A big round plate with holes in it that has a hinge bit at one side? You put sealed jars in it, so I never worried about the aluminium. I can take a picture if you want to be sure yours is the same. I will check back in tomorrow.

[Genilou]

Thanks so much for replying to me 🙂 🙂 I’ve tried to include some images here so you can see what I’m talking about. I do have the inside hinged bit, but it’s the outside bottom that doesn’t look right to me. It looks like it’s galvanised (so not for heating). Sorry for the poor quality, I can’t seem to upload images from my ipad, so hopefully taking a pic with it will work better. See how the bottom looks different to the inside? weird, no?

[Fishfood]

Yep looks like thousands of others mind you that model was designed to go on the old wood stove no way i would use it on gas

[Genilou]

Thanks fish food. Looks like I’ll use it for cushion storage or something.

[barefoot_misty]

As far as I can tell, it looks the same as mine. I believe I used mine once or twice on the gas stove before I got wood.

[Judi B]

Hi and Welcome to the site…

I have one just the same I used it on a gas stove back in Brisbane but I put it on an old BBQ plate ¼ inch thick steel to even out the heat a bit.

[chookie2]

Yes that’s the standard stovetop unit, all you need to do is to get a metal plate or BBQ plate to go between the gas flame and the bottom, though to be honest I have used it as is on gas, electric and wood stoves with no harm at all.Lots of water in it so it only heats water temp.

[Author]

Posts