Fundamentally, when deciding to do it yourself with chocolate fountain hire, theres always one question that's never asked and never answered: "How to clean a chocolate fountain without creating a mess!" It is possible and quite easy.
First and foremost, the best tip for cleaning a chocolate fountain the easy way, is not to let the chocolate go hard! This is by far the most common mistake that people make when they diy chocolate fountain hire. It is so much easier to clean a fountain when the chocolate is still in a liquid state. It's that simple.
If your chocolate is still liquid, you can then pour the chocolate fountain into a container and scrape off as much excess chocolate as possible from the fountain bowl, tiers and centre column or tube using a spatula; the more chocolate that you scrape off, the easier it is to clean. Do not re-use the chocolate by placing the chocolate into a freezer, another common mistake people do and that's another story, as we are not pharmacological experts in this area!
Never pour the chocolate down the sink, as lquid chocolate solidifies rapidly when it comes into contact with a cold surface or air temperatures, so naturally it will block up your pipes very quickly and is really difficult to remove. Always pour the chocolate into a container for disposal.
Most chocolate fountains have dishwasher proof parts, so the easy way is to use a dishwasher. Please make time to read the chocolate fountain manufacturer's or suppliers instructions before using a dishwasher, as so many tend not to. Please, please what ever you do, never place the chocolate fountain base including the motor, augur or pump into a dishwasher, these have to be cleaned by hand. It is also recommended that you give the chocolate fountain a clean in soapy water before placing it in a dishwasher as lots of chocolate will eventually block the internal tubes of a dishwasher.
If the chocolate fountain reservoir and internal parts need to be hand cleaned, use fresh soapy water and the hotter the better. Hot water will turn the chocolate into a liquid state rapidly if it is not already like this. Really soapy water also helps to clean the chocolate from the parts. We would recommend that you wash all of the parts to get them reasonably clean in one lot of water and then change the water and re-wash the parts to ensure that they are thoroughly clean.
How do you get the chocolate out of the centre tube, we hear you ask!This is tricky, especially if the centre tube is quite small as is the case with a small 19" fountain. Again, use really hot soapy water but don't make it too hot for your to use without buring yourself. Take the centre tube out of the water and pull a dish cloth or cleaning cloth through the middle. Put the tube back in the water and holding both ends of the cloth, run the tube up and down. If the water is hot and soapy, this will generally remove all of the chocolate, if you have a brush that will fit down the tube, try using that!
And finally, always ensure that the chocolate fountain is completely dry before packing away and returning it to your supplier, for health reasons.
Tony Fox is an events organiser with Knights Templar Events:
http://www.knightstemplarevents.co.uk ,a UK event management company specializing chocolate fountains hire.
http://www.knightstemplarevents.co.uk/chocolate-fountain.php