This honest review is provided by Johnson Home NC blog, real backyard chicken growers. We paid for this equipment ourselves; it was not gifted nor are we sponsored by Strombergs. As backyard homesteaders, oftentimes it’s hard to find thorough reviews on the equipment we are looking to purchase for our own backyard chicken processing. Because of this, we like to write our own review, honest and unpaid. Read on to see how our first chicken harvest went using the Strombergs 14.5 gallon poultry scalder for meat chickens.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. Always shop small, local, and/or direct when you can, though!
Are we glad we bought this poultry scalder?
Yes and no.
Yes because:
- No propane tanks to refill. Strombergs is electric.
- if you’re looking for “off grid” solutions, a big ol’ Jackery or keep the camp stove and propane.
- Temperature takes about 45 minutes to get water hot as we need it; not an hour+ like our camp stove set up.
- Not much wait time needed between scalding birds once you figure out the temperature gauge.
No because:
- Our poultry scalder has two leaks.
- The temperature was hotter than the gauge was set to & difficult to keep managed between birds.
- A big purchase (about $400) to have two big issues.
- To return it, per their website, we would have to cover the shipping back costs for an exchange.
Two corners leaking and the water’s temperature vs. what the temperature was set at
An investment(s) into the homestead
We began raising backyard meat chickens in the spring of 2023.
Our goal is to raise a spring and fall set of birds each year. Spring 2026 is our 7th round of meat birds.
We know raising meat chickens and Thanksgiving Day turkeys is something we will continue to do as long as we are physically able. This means we are investing into our homestead and processing day equipment to make the harvest day more efficient.
Our other large and efficient purchases have been a vacuum sealer and plucker (unpaid, honest review post).
This year we invested in, likely, our last big piece of processing equipment: a scalder.
The biggest reason we purchased a poultry scalder
To help your backyard chicken processing day go faster, investing in or renting equipment is very helpful. Extra hands are always welcome and helpful too!
One hold up on chicken harvest day is the scalding process.
Usually we have a large turkey frying pot on a camp stove. This works great but after every other bird, it takes several minutes for the temperature to get back up to our 145-150 degrees needed for the feathers to easily pull away from the chicken’s skin. Or it gets so hot, the water will try to cook the breast meat. Lots of temperature checking and monitoring between each bird ready for scalding while using propane heat.
The Strombergs poultry scalder is meant to hold the water’s temperature at a steady set degrees according to its temperature knob.
Downfall(s) of this scalder
First of all, know that we did not contact the company about this issue before using the scalder on processing day. After reading their return policy + the shipping back for a return costs fall on the customer + the few days we had before processing day, we deduced this first issue is something we can work around.
Also note that we did read one similar complaint on the Stromberg website in a review before purchasing the scalder. Out of the 6 available reviews on their website, only one was about this:
Apparently some poultry scalders, including ours, will leak or drip from one or more corners. Albeit a slow leak, it’s still unsatisfactory given the machine costs around $400.
Secondly, the temperature gauge was hard to manage. It would say it was at 145 degrees but the water was registering over 155 degrees. This meant the first few chickens had light “cooking” on the breast meat.
My husband worked hard to keep a check on the temperature and adjusted the knob as needed throughout our 59 bird harvest.
The problem is clear for a workaround but the disappointment is this…
We made this investment purchase to NOT have to keep monitoring the temperature. To put our trust in this product to reduce the time needed in checking the temp between birds.
Basket design
Inside of the Strombergs 14.5 gallon poultry scalder is a metal basket designed for lifting the bird out of the water to remove it.
We did not use this feature much because the water was hot, and it sloshed water out every time the basket was lifted. It was more of a hassle to lift the entire basket out of the water so another method was used:
My son used a stick to find a chicken leg to grab and pull the bird out of the water. Next time he has requested a large set of tongs.
Best Practices for any scalder
- keep some water hot on a stove top or camp stove for changing the water as needed and more quickly bringing the temperature back up to 145 or the temperature range you prefer.
- start the scalder about 1 hour before you want to begin processing so it’s ready when you are.
- check the temperature using a stick thermometer often, like between every bird.
- note: we used the stick thermometer because our infrared laser thermometer has been known to register incorrect temperatures.
Overall
Are we glad we made the poultry scalder purchase? Yes.
Are we disappointed it doesn’t work the way it is intended and also leaks? Another yes.
Did we receive a faulty product? It’s possible.
Are we going to absorb the cost to ship this product back for a return? No.
Did we email Strombergs to let them know of these issues? Yep.
- One week later (as of May 26, 2026), we have received no response from Strombergs. Once we receive communication back from the company, we will update this post.
Strombergs 14.5 poultry scalder review- what now?
What do you do with this information regarding the Strombergs 14.5 gallon poultry scalder? That’s completely up to you.
We knew we would write this review long before we knew of any issues with the scalder. Simply because there’s a lack of equipment reviews online.
Because this is an investment with a large price tag, we wanted to be able to provide an honest review, unincentivized to the general public. For those who may be researching and trying to decide which brand of poultry scalder they should go with.
Check out more chicken processing day things like this
Honest, Unpaid Review of Chicken Plucker
Honest, Unpaid Review of Presto Digital Pressure Canner (that preserves our chicken meat and chicken broth from chicken processing day!)
Zero Waste Backyard Chicken Uses
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