Heated Soak Tank For Convenience Store Kitchens

Hand opening a freezer door in a grocery store aisle, selecting refrigerated items

Less Labor And Less Water In Every Store

The FOG Tank® is the original heated soak tank for convenience store kitchens, built for the daily cleaning your foodservice program depends on. FOG stands for fats, oils, and grease, and that is exactly what builds up on the metal equipment and heavy-duty plastics in a convenience store kitchen where the fryer, roller grill, pizza oven, and hot case run from open till close.

Just load your dirty cookware and equipment into the lifting basket, lower them under the water, close the lid, and walk away. One fill of water and Tiger Carbon Removal Powder holds full cleaning strength for a month, whether the tank runs a few times a week or around the clock. Remove the items and rinse them, and they are clean and fully sanitized.

A Few Of Our Satisfied Customers

Where The Hours Go In A Convenience Store Kitchen

Foodservice is where the margin is, but it’s also where the most cleaning is. A hot chicken program means dirtying fry baskets, racks, hot case pans, and holding equipment every single night. Pizza means belts, screens, and pans that build up carbon fast. Roller grills and breakfast sandwich equipment pile into the same sink at the same time, tying up staff and space.

Most convenience stores have one three-compartment sink and one person covering the back half of the store. That sink water cools within an hour or two and has to be drained and filled again, so cleaning heavy carbon by hand means hot water going down the drain over and over while the rest of the closing checklist waits. Some operators reach for a heavy-duty pressure washer or sprayer for their hood filters instead, which works, though it still takes labor and a lot of water to get through a rack of them.

The FOG Tank® takes the scrubbing out of that routine. Items go into the tank dirty and come out clean, and the same water and powder are still working tomorrow night, and the night after that, and many more nights still after that. Because the tank is meant for daily use across all of your metal equipment and heavy-duty plastics, not only for stubborn carbon buildup, the savings build every shift your team moves another item out of the sink and into the tank.

What The FOG Tank® Cleans In A Convenience Store Kitchen

One tank handles all the items that are hardest and slowest to clean by hand, plus any daily cleaning for equipment and cookware made of metal or heavy-duty plastic:

Fry baskets and fryer parts
Chicken racks and holding baskets
Hot case pans and inserts
Pizza pans, belts, and screens
Roller grill rollers and drip trays
Sheet trays and donut trays
Vent hood filters
Cambro containers and other heavy-duty plastics

Conveniently, dirty items can nest inside each other in the tank’s lift basket, so a single load holds more than you would expect. Meanwhile, dishes and glassware stay in your three-compartment sink or dish machine, which frees up sink capacity for exactly the items that need it.

As a company we have purchased many fog tanks for our QSR operations as well as our Loves fresh kitchen operations. We use the tanks for everything from pizza pans to oven hot plates. The tank has always done a great job with deep cleaning and taking thick build up from over time back down to the base of the item. Our stainless-steel pans look like they are brand new out of the box. I would highly recommend this item to any food service team that has pans or steel plates that have build up.
Mike GibsonLove's Travel Stops & Country Stores

How Our Soak Tank C-Store Equipment Works

FILL

Use the drain hose that comes with The FOG Tank® or any standard hose to fill the tank with water to the marked fill line, then plug it in and switch it on.

Person pours Tiger Carbon-Removal Powder into a FOG Tank

ADD

Slowly add Tiger Carbon Removal Powder. The amount depends on the size of your tank, and it’s the same amount every month, so there’s nothing to measure or calculate once your team knows the number.

Person adds dirty kitchen equipment to the FOG Tank

LOAD

Scrape or knock off any loose food. Place your dirty items in the lifting basket and lower it under the water.

Shut the lid and let the tank do the work.

REMOVE

While wearing gloves to protect against the heat, lift the basket and take out your items. Rinse off any softened residue.

Day to day, that’s really only three steps: load, unload, rinse. Filling the tank and adding powder happen just once a month.

Cleaning with The FOG Tank® is as simple as using a microwave, which matters in an industry where you’re training new closers regularly. Every soak tank unit ships with wall charts in English and Spanish that show pictures of the daily routine, plus the drain, clean, and fill process for the end of the month.

The FOG Tank® is an insulated 304 stainless steel tank that’s thermostatically controlled and holds water at 185° F. With the lid closed, it retains that heat on its own. When someone opens the lid to load or unload, cold air can temporarily pull the temperature down. The thermostat registers the drop, the heater comes back on, and it shuts off again once the tank is back up to temperature, resulting in significant energy savings.

Convenience Store Hood Filter Cleaning That Holds Up To Inspection

Vent hood filters are where a convenience store typically loses the most time and the most water. CaptiveAire endorses The FOG Tank® as the best method for cleaning hood filters. Filters that come out of the tank are taken back to bare metal, which removes the grease that feeds a hood fire and keeps your exhaust system moving air the way it was designed to. That also keeps you on the right side of NFPA 96 and the fines that follow a failed inspection.

Hood filters cleaned in The FOG Tank® come out so much cleaner they weigh around half a pound lighter than filters cleaned in a three-compartment sink. If you use a hood cleaning company, it’s worth asking what they charge when the store cleans its own filters. Filters are the part of the job that hood cleaners usually like the least, and many will discount their service or issue a credit when the convenience store handles them. Plenty of hood cleaners and filter exchange companies buy heated soak tanks of their own for exactly that reason.

Our C-Store Equipment Doesn’t Have To Live In Your Kitchen

Limited space is the issue we hear most from convenience store operators, and it’s a good one to think about. Here’s the part that often surprises people: because The FOG Tank® is filled with water and powder and emptied of the solution just once a month, it doesn’t need to be located next to a sink or even inside the kitchen.

Our most popular size fits under the drainboard of the three-compartment sink or under a standard counter, using roughly 60% less space than the sink itself, so it takes up no additional footprint at all. If your back of house is genuinely full, then a back room, a storeroom, or a covered shed works fine, as long as the area is not exposed to the elements. We offer a range of sizes to accommodate whatever your store needs, from single-register locations with a small hot case to travel centers running a full kitchen.

One Standard Across Every Convenience Store Location

Multi-location operators have a harder version of the same problem. Cleaning quality drifts from store to store, and chemical usage is almost impossible to forecast. Nobody can tell you what sanitation actually costs per site until the invoices come in.

Portrait of organic food store during daytime The FOG Tank® gives you one process every store follows and one predictable line on the budget. A set amount of powder per month based on tank size means you know your cost before the month starts, with no guessing at how much chemical a heavy week burned through. We’ve had customers report saving over $3,000 a year in energy costs alone, and a single location can save over 340,000 gallons of water a year compared with sink cleaning.

If you’re opening new stores, that’s an ideal time to put a tank in. Cookware and equipment that never accumulates carbon in the first place stays in service longer, and the savings start the day The FOG Tank® arrives rather than years later when someone finally decides the pans are past saving.

We are operating in all 50 states and worldwide, with thousands of customers running The FOG Tank® in kitchens of every size.

I strongly endorse the FOG tank. Since introducing this equipment, we have realized significant labor savings along with enhanced appearance for customer facing product merchandising! Paul is a pleasure to work with as a business partner, with great response times and fast answers to questions!
Dave GrimesHuck’s Convenience Stores

Safe For Your Staff And Your Convenience Store’s Kitchen Equipment

Tiger Carbon Removal Powder is non-caustic, non-toxic, fully biodegradable, aluminum safe, food safe, and safe for the people using it. There’s no harsh chemical smell in the back room. The lifting basket keeps hands out of hot water (though staff should still wear gloves because items coming out of the water will be hot). And because nobody is scrubbing, you avoid the strains and slips that come with wrestling a carbon-caked pan over a sink.

Your convenience store kitchen equipment lasts longer too. Carbon buildup makes pans cook unevenly and shortens the life of anything it coats, so items that get cleaned properly every day stay in rotation instead of heading for the replacement order.

A Heated Soak Tank For Convenience Stores That’s Made To Last

The FOG Tank® is built from 304 stainless steel. It is UL Listed and NSF Approved. We still have tanks in service today that have been running for over 20 years. Hyginix is proud to be a woman-owned, family-run business. We start by finding the right tank size for your kitchen, and we plan on continuing to work with you long after it arrives.

One System For The Whole Convenience Store

Pair The FOG Tank® with GrimeGo®, our non-toxic, non-caustic, all-purpose degreaser. GrimeGo® is used for things that stay outside the tank like floors, mats, oven interiors, and counters, rather than in the tank itself. Together they cover the whole c-store from the fry baskets to the floors.

Frequently Asked Questions

What can you clean in The FOG Tank® at a convenience store?

Fry baskets, chicken racks, hot case pans, pizza pans, pizza belts, pizza screens, roller grill parts, donut trays, sheet trays, hood filters, Cambro containers, and other metal equipment and heavy-duty plastics. Dishes and glassware are the main exception and continue to be cleaned in your three-compartment sink or dish machine.

Does a heated soak tank replace a three-compartment sink?

The FOG Tank® handles nearly everything your sink handles, from daily cleaning of metal cookware to carbon that has been building for years, and it does it without scrubbing and without draining between loads. Dishes and glassware stay in the sink, and the health code requires you to have a three-compartment sink regardless. The more items your team moves into the tank, the more you save on labor and water.

How often do you change the water and powder in The FOG Tank®?

Once a month. One fill of water and a set amount of Tiger Carbon Removal Powder based on your tank size hold full cleaning strength for the entire month. That’s true whether the tank runs a few times a week or 24/7. Between loads the tank stays operational, so nothing gets drained and mixed again for the next batch the way sink water does.

How do I fill The FOG Tank®?

You can fill The FOG Tank® with the drain hose that comes with the unit or with any standard hose. Fill it with water to the marked fill line at the start of the month, then add Tiger Carbon Removal Powder. The amount depends on the size of your tank, and it’s the same amount every month, so there’s nothing to measure or calculate once your closing crew knows the number. Plug the tank in and it comes up to temperature on its own from there.

How do I dispose of the water at the end of the month?

Unplug The FOG Tank® the night before and let the water cool down first, since hot water shouldn’t go down a floor drain. Once the water has cooled, it goes down the drain like any other wastewater. The powder is non-toxic and fully biodegradable, so there’s no hazardous waste pickup and no special permit to keep on file.

The water in the tank looks dirty. How do I know my items are coming out clean?

The water turns dark after the first wash, and it stays that way all month, even though the cleaning power holds steady. What makes items clean and sanitized is the combination of 185° F water and the powder, which keeps working for the full month regardless of color. Items come out of the tank sanitized and free of bacteria, and the final rinse clears any softened residue that’s left.

What happens if someone forgets to scrape off loose food first before putting something in the soak tank?

Nothing is ruined and the item still comes out clean. Scraping is not what keeps the tank working. We recommend scraping because of what happens over the course of the month. Loose food debris settles to the bottom of the tank and sits there until the water is changed, a little like leaving a trash can of stale food in an office for four weeks. Knock off whatever comes away easily before loading items in the tank and it stays pleasant to be around.

Will The FOG Tank® fit in my convenience store?

The FOG Tank® comes in a range of sizes, and the most popular one fits under the drainboard of a three-compartment sink or under a standard counter, using roughly 60% less space than the sink. Because it’s filled and emptied of its water and cleaning agent once a month, it doesn’t have to be in the kitchen at all. A back room or a covered storage area works, as long as it’s not exposed to the elements.

My cookware and kitchen equipment is brand new. Why would I need a heated soak tank now?

In fact, that’s the best time to put a soak tank in. Carbon and grease build in layers, and equipment that gets cleaned in the tank from day one never develops the buildup that becomes a scrubbing problem later. You also start saving on labor, water, energy, and chemicals from the day The FOG Tank® goes into use, so the sooner it arrives, the more those savings add up.

Is it hard to train staff to use The FOG Tank®?

No harder than a microwave. Daily use comes down to loading the basket, unloading it, and rinsing. Every unit ships with wall charts in English and Spanish that walk new hires through the daily steps and the end-of-month reset in both text and pictures.

Can I lease a heated soak tank instead of buying one?

Yes, we offer both purchase and leasing options, and our team can walk you through which one fits your operation. If you purchase a tank and a location stops its operations for a stretch, we can pause chemical shipments for those months. Leasing our soak tank works differently, since the monthly payment continues while the equipment is on site and we are contractually obligated to ship chemicals for every month of the lease term.

Clean Better, Operate Smarter With The FOG Tank®

Whether you run one convenience store or several hundred, our team can help you land on the right heated soak tank size and the right structure for your operation. Most customers see a return on their investment within six to eight months.