- Jan 6, 2002
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There are a lot of brainiacs on here, and also a lot of people who excel at rigging (ingenuity I say) This is going to be a really odd post, but maybe I can get some ideas if anyone is bored enough read this and reply.
Last month I started to make and deliver pizzas on Sundays. I ordered a heated delivery bag/backpack(Vollrath VTBW500) I suspected the heating part wouldn't be awesome but it turns out to be even more lacking than I imagined. The bag itself is awesome and I see the potential but can't quite figure out how to improve it. I haven't had a chance to test how good the insulation is, but I know the heating pad needs to go. My initial idea here was at best, a sorta iffy one. But I think it could work with some ideas. I am making money here, it's not a job for me, but if I apply myself I should be able to make some decent side cash.
Until I got this bag I had no delivery bag, so I'd make 1 pizza, deliver it then come back home and repeat until I was done. I did it like this because I wanted the pizzas to get to the people as hot and fresh as possible. This is stupidly inefficient and takes forever. So my bright idea was to get this delivery bag and use it to deliver 5 pizzas at once and also use it as a makeshift oven to keep the pizzas hot so I could make 5 in a row (6 minutes each) and then deliver them. I tested out the heating pad, it got to 190f, but it's so small and thin that the inside of the bag didn't go past 110f, which isn't gonna work. Now maybe the insulation is so good when I put a molten pizza or 2 in the temps will start rise and stay there for a while. But even if it shoots up a decent amount, I still want to have heat from a powered source so it can be consistent.
My idea is to get a 120v heating element for a grill, Amazon has a bunch that look the same and are probably just rebranded. And replace the heating pad with it, and figure out some way to secure it to the bottom, or top of the bag. I tested the heating pad with an IR gun and it hit 190f. But it's tiny and thin so it can't distribute the heat - The bag's around 18"x18'x22" so it's pretty big. I'm not sure if the dial part of the elements are temp safe, as they normally go on the outside of the grill and not directly in it. But the element will fully be in the bag here, they're only like $40 and I'm thinking it probably will hold up fine at 170f. This wasn't what I had in mind, but I haven't been able to find anything else that even looked like it could work here.
I'll be using my electric scooter to deliver, and part of my rigged idea is to get a small battery generator and mount it on the rear of the scooter so I can keep the heating element plugged in and hot. I'll only be using the heating element (if that's what I use) at 170f. There's probably a way to calculate how many watts that'll use, but I went to So. Cal public schools- I'll just buy a watt meter and plug the element into it to see how many watts of a generator I'll need. The generator is the least of my worries, as the bag might stay hot enough from residual heat from the pizzas + insulation.
And I'll need some sort of small heat-resistant straps or something so I can secure the element down.
Now I completely understand this is not great at best idea, and far from howq I wantg to do these pizza nights. But I'm ATOT poor, so I'm renting a room and the landlord would send me packing if I had dozens of random people coming over every week to pick up pizzas lol. Once I get everything worked out I plan to do this 3 nights a week. So I'm trying to figure out a way I can make a dozen pizzas a night and deliver then while keeping them nice and hot.
God bless if anyone reads all this crapola, I'm open to suggestions here if anyone can make my idea less terrible.
Thanks and stuff.
Last month I started to make and deliver pizzas on Sundays. I ordered a heated delivery bag/backpack(Vollrath VTBW500) I suspected the heating part wouldn't be awesome but it turns out to be even more lacking than I imagined. The bag itself is awesome and I see the potential but can't quite figure out how to improve it. I haven't had a chance to test how good the insulation is, but I know the heating pad needs to go. My initial idea here was at best, a sorta iffy one. But I think it could work with some ideas. I am making money here, it's not a job for me, but if I apply myself I should be able to make some decent side cash.
Until I got this bag I had no delivery bag, so I'd make 1 pizza, deliver it then come back home and repeat until I was done. I did it like this because I wanted the pizzas to get to the people as hot and fresh as possible. This is stupidly inefficient and takes forever. So my bright idea was to get this delivery bag and use it to deliver 5 pizzas at once and also use it as a makeshift oven to keep the pizzas hot so I could make 5 in a row (6 minutes each) and then deliver them. I tested out the heating pad, it got to 190f, but it's so small and thin that the inside of the bag didn't go past 110f, which isn't gonna work. Now maybe the insulation is so good when I put a molten pizza or 2 in the temps will start rise and stay there for a while. But even if it shoots up a decent amount, I still want to have heat from a powered source so it can be consistent.
My idea is to get a 120v heating element for a grill, Amazon has a bunch that look the same and are probably just rebranded. And replace the heating pad with it, and figure out some way to secure it to the bottom, or top of the bag. I tested the heating pad with an IR gun and it hit 190f. But it's tiny and thin so it can't distribute the heat - The bag's around 18"x18'x22" so it's pretty big. I'm not sure if the dial part of the elements are temp safe, as they normally go on the outside of the grill and not directly in it. But the element will fully be in the bag here, they're only like $40 and I'm thinking it probably will hold up fine at 170f. This wasn't what I had in mind, but I haven't been able to find anything else that even looked like it could work here.
I'll be using my electric scooter to deliver, and part of my rigged idea is to get a small battery generator and mount it on the rear of the scooter so I can keep the heating element plugged in and hot. I'll only be using the heating element (if that's what I use) at 170f. There's probably a way to calculate how many watts that'll use, but I went to So. Cal public schools- I'll just buy a watt meter and plug the element into it to see how many watts of a generator I'll need. The generator is the least of my worries, as the bag might stay hot enough from residual heat from the pizzas + insulation.
And I'll need some sort of small heat-resistant straps or something so I can secure the element down.
Now I completely understand this is not great at best idea, and far from howq I wantg to do these pizza nights. But I'm ATOT poor, so I'm renting a room and the landlord would send me packing if I had dozens of random people coming over every week to pick up pizzas lol. Once I get everything worked out I plan to do this 3 nights a week. So I'm trying to figure out a way I can make a dozen pizzas a night and deliver then while keeping them nice and hot.
God bless if anyone reads all this crapola, I'm open to suggestions here if anyone can make my idea less terrible.
Thanks and stuff.
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