Fruit season is coming to an end and you’ve finished pressing apples (or other fruit) for the season, it’s time for a well earned rest for you and your belt press.
Whether you prefer to do your deep clean now or in the spring, the team at Juicing.Systems has put together a few important steps in addition to your regular cleaning to ensure your press gets as clean as possible.
Cleaning the press and soaking the belt:
- Soak the belt in a sodium hydroxide solution to remove any leftover particulate which may be caught up in it, then pressure wash it. It should look bright blue when you have finished. We use a 2% solution with 20 grams of sodium hydroxide added per liter of warm water and mixed thoroughly.
- Spray any white plastic with the sodium hydroxide solution (we recommend using a spray bottle.) Let this sit for 15 minutes then rinse clean
- Include the rollers and juice pans in the sodium hydroxide clean, make them bright again!
- High pressure wash the machine, being careful not to pressure wash bearings, bearing seals and electrical components
- Inspect and replace bearings as needed at this time – Need to order more? Email us at sales2@juicing.systems
- Any sensors that may need replacing – now is a good time to order
- After cleaning your press, lubricate all bearings with a food safe grease
Here are some less obvious places to clean that can accumulate debris over the season. We’ve included pictures below of some of those forgotten spots (click to expand).
Remove screws and clean behind all covers. Debris can get caught under these shields through the gaps pictured.
It is also important to ensure the guard surrounding the belt washer is cleaned once the belt and waste water pan have been removed. This is hard to access with the belt on.
Lastly give all juice pans, trays, and removable parts a spray with the sodium hydroxide solution and thorough cleaning before putting them away for the winter.
If you have any questions about the pictures, or best practices for cleaning your press please feel free to give us a call at 250-938-7020.
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